Telugu dictionary for modern day use mooted

Though Telugu has been declared a classical language by the Centre, a lot needs to be done to nurture it and promote its usage particularly to adopt some of the technical terms to enable its relevance in the modern day.

The need for a comprehensive dictionary that not only gives the meaning of a word but also provides meanings it had earlier, was voiced by the Parvastu Padya Peetham, a literary organization working to promote Telugu literature among children. At a meeting of scholars and practitioners from different disciplines at Visakhapatnam the broad scope for a living dictionary was suggested within 3 years.

Creation of a comprehensive dictionary was a mammoth task, said eminent Telugu scholar Vedula Subrahmanyam Sastry who promised to support. The first year would be used to make a copy of all available dictionaries, including some manuscripts in private collections. The second year’s task would be to organize the collected words. The third year would be used for putting together a dictionary that would be updated periodically.

Janapadam or the colloquial is older than the literary version and should be included in the dictionaries,” cartoonist Jayadev said. The language of government procedures should also be included in the dictionaries to enable greater adoption of Telugu in day-to-day government use, said another speaker Mohan Rao. Telugu in day-to-day government use, said another speaker Mohan Rao. While Philanthropist S. Vijay Kumar also promised to support the effort, Phanisayana Suri of Parvastu Padya Peetham suggested a timeline of three years to bring out the dictionary.