The Linguistic Society of India was founded in 1928 at the fifth Oriental Conference in Lahore and its publication's wing began to function in 1931. The objective of the Linguistic Society of India (LSI) is "the advancement of Indian Linguistics and scientific study of Indian languages". The Society was registered in 1954 under the Act XXI of 1960 in Calcutta and in 1966 under Bombay Public Trust Act (Act Bom. XXIX of 1950). The office of the Society is located at Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute, Pune.
The Linguistic Society of India was founded in Lahore at the fifth Oriental Conference. The inaugural meeting of Linguistic Society of India was held on 1st April 1928 at the residence of Principal A.C. Woolner in Lahore. It was attended by enthusiastic linguists of Punjab. Dr. Taraporewala, Professor of Comparative Philology, Calcutta University presided over the meeting. The inauguration coincided with the bestowal of the Order of Merit (the highest honour by the British Empire) on Sir Gorge Abraham Grierson, who was instrumental in the first Linguistic Survey of India. The preliminary and formal requirements and constitution of the Society were discussed. Dr. Taraporewala, in his presidential address stated the aims and objectives of the Society, stressing the importance of the study of Indian language and furthering the work done by Sir George Grierson. He also mentioned the need for popularizing Linguistics through clearing up the misconceptions related to the subject, so that it would successfully be taken up by the students at the Universities. The society functioned at Lahore from 1928 to 1938, during which six volumes of Indian Linguistics were published. The Society used to conduct its general meetings biannually along with the sessions of the All India Oriental Conference. In 1937 it was decided to shift the office from Lahore to Calcutta, where Professors S.K. Chatterji and Sukumar Sen took the responsibility of its running. Nine issues of Indian Linguistics were published from the Calcutta office. In November 1955 the Indian Philological Association which had been functioning since 1945 at Pune, was merged with the Linguistic Society of India. The effective office and management were transferred to Deccan College, Pune. So far seventy -two volumes of Indian Linguistics have been published from the Pune office. The Society was associated with the Deccan College in conducting the Summer Schools and Winter Seminars which were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Even after the Foundation stopped the funding, the Society co-sponsored the Schools along with various universities and the University Grants Commission. The Society also co-sponsored with the University of Pune a Conference of Vice-Chancellors and Linguists in 1962. On the request of the Conference, the Society appointed a committee to prepare a blue-print of linguistic development in Indian Universities.
In furtherance of the society's objective, LSI publishes a Journal called INDIAN LINGUISTICS The journal is published annually. Starting in 1931, it has published the whole lot of its research work in its 72 volumes up till 2011. All the publications expenditure including large amount of postage and related items for its circulation in this country as well as abroad, used to be met with from the income of the Society. The income of the LSI is in the form of membership fees paid by scholars and some donations. More than seven hundred copies of each volume are dispatched free to its Life Members all over the world. It was proposed that the Society should issue Bulletins typed and cyclo-styled, in the inaugural meeting of the Linguistic society of India in April 1928. About nine of them were issued which contained discussions and observations on several linguistic phenomena. In November 1928 it was decided to replace the Bulletin by a printed journal called INDIAN LINGUISTICS. The first issue appeared in 1931.
To further the society's objective , LSI also holds annual conferences called. All India Conference of Linguists (AICL), started in 1970, and the latest one the 33rd AICL was held in Chandigarh (October 1-3, 2011). The proceedings of the AICL are also published as and when sufficient funds are available. The first All India Conference of Linguistics After the formation of the Linguistic Society of India till 1954 the annual meetings of the Society were held with the Orientalist meet. In 1954 the first separate meeting was held with the Winter School of Linguistics - first in the series of Summer/Autumn/Winter Schools and Seminars held every year. The Society had been holding one or two meetings every year either with the schools or seminars or separately. Then it was decided to hold full-fledged annual conferences under the auspices of the Society, either by itself or with some university or institution. The first such conference was held under the auspices of the Society at the Deccan College for two days - 18th and 19th December 1970. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, former President of the Society, presided over the first conference. Papers related to phonetic, grammatical and semantic analysis, philology, language and society, lexicography and field linguistics were presented.
