Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to the Beṭṭa Kurumbas who accepted me with such warmth and generosity and without whom this book would not have been written. The primary contributors to this book are, of course, the Beṭṭa Kurumba speakers recorded herein, whose names are given under each chapter heading. One of the storytellers, Kirbūji, was also the “slow narrator” who worked with me in the transcription and translation of these texts. She was joined in this work by her daughter-in-law, Baḍsi (a different person from the storyteller of Chapters 3–5, who has the same name). They have my deepest appreciation for their diligence, patience, and able assistance. I wish to also gratefully acknowledge a number of other Beṭṭa Kurumbas who have worked with me over the years in various ways—telling stories, giving me the names of plants and animals as well as narratives about plant use, assisting in slow narration, etc. It has, unfortunately, not been possible to include all their narratives in this volume, but some will, I hope, appear in future publications. I also thank my Tamil-speaking assistants, M. Noor, Kuttappan, Ranjani, Deena, Jalendran, and Yamuna, who assisted me at various stages of my work in my interaction with the Beṭṭa Kurumbas.

A number of organisations in the Nilgiris provided support during my field trips: The Wildlife Warden of the Mudumalai Sanctuary kindly granted me permission to carry out field research on the Beṭṭa Kurumba language. Dr. Raman Sukumar at the Center for Ecological Sciences (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) helped me with accommodation at the institute’s field station in Masinagudy during some of my field trips, and I appreciate the opportunity to interact with researchers at this field station and gather useful information about local flora and fauna. The scientific names for plants in Chapter 8 were supplied by them. Two non-governmental organisations, Accord and the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam, also assisted me by providing accommodation during some of my field trips.

I am very grateful to the two manuscript reviewers of this book for their detailed and very useful feedback. Thanks very much to Sanford Steever, Paul Hockings, and E. Annamalai for kindly reading a draft of the introductory chapter and giving me very helpful suggestions. My thanks goes also to Reverend Philip Mulley, from the Baḍaga community in the Nilgiris, for answering my questions about cultural issues concerning this region. I am especially indebted to Anthony C. Woodbury, who supervised my doctoral dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a great support and guide when I first wrote my description of the Beṭṭa Kurumba language. Sanford Steever, Scott Myers, Rajesh Bhatt, and Nora England, who were on my dissertation committee also gave me very good guidance in my analysis of the language. I am grateful also to all the other excellent teachers who taught me linguistics: Sarah Thomason, Daniel Everett, Terrence Kaufman, Robert DeKeyser, and many others, not least of whom was Biswamohan Pradhan, who first inspired me to become a linguist in my early student years in the University of Mumbai. All the input I have received from these wonderful people over the years has prepared me for the work in this book.

For financial support since I first began working on the Beṭṭa Kurumba language in 1994, I am grateful to (a) the University of Texas at Austin where I did my doctoral studies, (b) the National Science Foundation, USA, for a doctoral dissertation research grant, (b) Rice University, Houston, for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship with funding for fieldwork, (c) the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the School of Oriental and African Studies for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship plus a field trip grant, (d) the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, for a two-year Senior Research Fellowship, and (e) a grant from my current institution, the University of Delhi.

Last but not least, I am forever indebted to my parents, my brother and sisters, various members of my extended joint family, and my friends, for their encouragement and love at various stages of my life.