K. Byrappa, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, said that the dictionary, which was being printed, would probably be released in Kodagu itself.
A minority language unfamiliar to many in the State will finally have a comprehensive dictionary of its own with meanings in Kannada and English.
Kodava vocabulary will be captured in Kodava Arivole, which will be published by Mangalore University in March.
Boverianda C. Uthaiah (77) and wife B.U. Thangamma (66) joined forces and compiled the Kodava-Kodava-Kannada-English, which has about 11,000 words.
Mr. Uthaiah is a former professor of agricultural sciences.
According to the UNESCO, Kodava is a ‘vulnerable’ language, said Lokesh K.M., coordinator, Kodava Samskritika Adhyayana Peetha at Mangalore University.
Those knowing Tulu and Malayalam can grasp Kodava takk (language) better as it has common words with these two languages, as well as Persian.
Though the latest statistics on how many speak Kodava takk is not available, according to the 2001 census, only 92,193 people speak the language, Mr. Uthaiah said.
A handicap he faced was trying to include 2,000 words in the lexicon as no one knew their meanings.
Mr. Lokesh, also a professor of History at Mangalore University, said the lexicon has some rare words such as ‘kaju’ (gold) and ‘aarayu’ (water). It has social and cultural terms, and words relating to folk traditions such as ‘jamma’ (a land tenure system in Kodagu with long-standing hereditary rights held by clans), and ‘okka’ (Kodava clan, all of whom have descended from a common ancestor). The dictionary also has botanical and zoological terms.
Mr. Lokesh said though two Kodava dictionaries have been published earlier, they are not comprehensive. I.M. Muthanna’s Kodava Nudi Artha Kosha, the first dictionary published in 1988, gave the meanings of Kodava words in Kannada. In addition, Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy brought out a handbook Kodava-Kannada-English Kaipudi in 1988.
K. Byrappa, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, said that the dictionary, which was being printed, would probably be released in Kodagu itself.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by RaviPrasad Kamila / February 12th, 2016
