Contact Us Site Map Home


Post Graduate Diploma in Translation Studies
 
413.2.7.2.12 : TULU
 
     A missionary head, Mamer, stationed at Mangalore was responsible for compiling the Tulu-English Dictionary and English-Tulu Dictionary. The first work appeared in the year 1886 and the later on in 1888. M. M. Bhat and Shankar Kedilaya compiled a Tulu-English Dictionary and it was published by Madras University in the year 1922. As there is no script for Tulu language, the dictionaries are in the Roman script.
 
413.2.8: TRIBAL LANGUAGES
 

     India is a country with many languages, some of which have a tradition of script and writing, and some others which do not have any script or writing system. For languages where there is no script or writing tradition, the scholars generally adopted the Roman script while compiling the dictionaries. Sometimes the local language script was adopted.

     The following are the dictionaries compiled for different Tribal languages without any tradition of writing (at least, which did not have any tradition until recently). They are arranged in a chronological order to show that the tradition of lexicography extends to tribal languages also, without any interruption or time gap:
 
   
1. Vocabulary of Lushai Language Robert Henry Sweet Hutchinson
(1897), Calcutta.
   
2. Dictionary of the Lepcha George Byres Mainwaring
(1898), Berlin .
   
3.Dictionary of the Central Nicobarese Languages Edward Horace Man(1899),London
   
4. A Santhali-English and English-Santhali dict.
   (in three parts)
 Alexander Campbell (1899-1902)
   
5. A Grammar and Dict. of Kanawarii, the Lg. of
   Kanwar in the Bashaht State 		Joshi Tika Ram, edited by H.A. Rose (1902)
   
6. Khasi-English dict. Nissor Singh (1906), Shillong
   
7. Garo-English dict. A. Macdonald and Madhunath,
G. Momin (1910), Shillong.
   
8. Ao Naga Dictionary Rev. E.W. Clark (1911) Calcutta
   
9. A Dictionary of the Mikir language: Mikir-English
    and English-Mikir		 G.D. Walker (1925), Shilong
   
10. A Vocabulary of the Kui language (Kui-Eng) W.W. Winfield (1929), Calcutta
   
11. A Santhali Dict. Paul Oleff Bodding
(1929-66) Oslo
   
12. Encyclopaedia Mundarica J. Hoffmann and Van Emmelen
(1930-50), Patna
   
13. A Mundari-English Dictionary Mahindra Bhushan Bhaduri (1931)
Calcutta
   
14. English-Sora dict. Gidugu Vekata Ramamurti
(1938), Madras
   
15. Dictionary of the Lushai Language J.H. Lorrain (1940), Calcutta
   
16. The Anglo-Manipuri Dictionary Dwijamani Dev Sharma (1957), Imphal
   
17. Comparative Vocabulary of the Gondi Dialects T. Burrow and S. Bhattacharya (1960)
   
18. Korku-Hindi-English Dict. Beryl. Girard (1965)
   
19. Guto-Verb Lexicon (Mimeographed) Norman Zide and B.P. Dass (1966), Chicago
   
20. Boro Vocabulary D.N.S Bhat (1968)
   
21. Sora Lexicon D.L. Stampe (1979)
   
     Based on the number of Tribal languages that exist in India one cannot say that this number is quite sufficient. This particular area in the field of lexicography is still fertile and young enthusiastic scholars and prospective translators should take up bilingual or trilingual dictionary work involving tribal languages.
 
  Points to Remember  
 
413.2.8: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
 
     In this unit, an overview of the rich tradition of dictionary-making in our country in different ages, was provided so as to impress upon the readers the point that translation has always received a serious attention of scholars - both Indian and foreign- who worked on different Indian languages. In a unit like this, where as many major single languages were to be talked about, it is obviously not possible to discuss any single language tradition extensively. Nor is it possible to claim that the coverage has been exhaustive. You are, therefore, advised to read this unit only as a brief history of our lexicographical heritage.
 
Dr. J.V. Sastry
Osmania University
                                       

Previous

   |  

Next

Top