(1983-86), covering 50 major and minor languages in the country. Originally it had been intended to cover all the written languages except Sanskrit and English, but not enough data were collected for the other 47 languages reviewed. Fields of research Caste dialects Following Bloch's 1910 work on caste dialects, further studies were carried out in the 1960s by (among others) William McCormack, in an attempt to discover the origin and method of transmission of caste dialects, and by A. K. Ramanujan, comparing the kinds of language innovation between Brahmin and non-Brahmin dialects of Tamil. Researchers have studied both the degree of association between caste distinctions and linguistic differences, and the methods and reasons for maintaining these differences. Diglossia and Code switching Ferguson (1959) first used the term "diglossia", whereby languages exhibit two or more distinct styles of speech in different contexts, and a number of studies looked into the phenomenon in more depth. Much of this research was focused on Tamil, but diglossia in Sinhalese and in Telugu was also studied. Shanmugam Pillai attempted to analyse code switching among Kanyakumari fishermen (1968) with regard to the hierarchy of the caste structure. Other research into code switching has studied it in the context of minority-majority interactions, urban and tribal transactions, and other special settings. Language planning With help from the Central Institute of Indian Languages, language planning became a subject in Indian linguistic courses. Institutes in Language Planning were held in 1977, 1980 and 1987, and the New Language Planning Newsletter began in 1985. Others Other social variables have also been studied, such as urbanness and education; informal friendship contacts; and occupation and residence. There has also been pioneering work on the linguistic landscape of India. Important researchers Besides those already mentioned, the following researchers have been instrumental in the development of Indian sociolinguistics: William Bright who, along with A. K. Ramanujan, wrote early work on phonetic and phonemic innovation in Brahman and non-Brahman dialects. Bright also wrote on semantic structural differences among speakers. Murray Barnson Emeneau, who had written the classic paper India as a Linguistic Area, also wrote on ritual language and ritual culture. Prabodh Bechardas Pandit focused on sociolinguistic aspects of convergence and language shift. Contribution of sociolinguistics to Indian society Sociolinguistic research has contributed to language in education, administration, and codification efforts of language standardisation. See also Dravidian studies Languages of India Caste References External links https://web.archive.org/web/20070205033818/http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/