For a writer, words are their world. And for a true-blue writer, a dictionary is his most treasured book. With every edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, new words are added from across the world. New words that give expression to our ever-changing lives. The ninth edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary was released, recently and has been all over the news in Indian media, for the inclusion of Indian words such as keema, papad and curry leaf. In all, there are about 240 words from Indian-English.
Patrick White, head of Dictionaries in the English Language Teaching Division at Oxford University Press, was in British Council for the launch of the dictionary. “For a word to be selected, it has to be used enough,” says Patrick, and goes onto explain how Indian-English words are chosen. “We work with professional linguists. Professor Paul Gunashekar, Proctor and Dean at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad advised us on Indian-English words.”
English is among the most spoken language the world over. “English borrows from many sources,” contends Patrick, “It does allow itself to assimilate.”
About 60 per cent of the Indian-English words come from Hindi, while the rest of the words are typical to general Indian-English, such as ‘biodata’ (CV or resume) and ‘gymkhana’ (a public place with sports facilities). “There is a general meaning of the word, like biodata, and then the Indian-English meaning,” says Patrick.
What about words that have been lost over the course of time? “Words come in and out of fashion,” agrees Patrick. “Wireless, for example, meant a piece of equipment to listen to radio. It was dropped out and the word ‘radio’ was used instead. But now wireless has a new meaning in the digital age.”
The rising importance of the internet and social networking sites has had an impact on the English language, too. “We have added seven derivatives from tweet, such as twitterati, tweet-up, tweetable, tweetheart, twitterverse.” There’s also catfish, a person pretending to be someone else on online and troll, a verb, which means to write false or insulting messages in Internet chat rooms, blogs, etc. in order to make other people angry.
It has now become convenient for people to use Google to look up word meanings. But how credible are online sources? “You can get authoritative dictionaries online. A lot of people also like to have a print copy. I think print dictionaries are going to be around for a long time,” says Patrick. “You buy the print book. With it, you get a code and then you go to our website and enter the code and you get a lot of new features. There is also a DVD.”
The other special features include the new iSpeaker and Speaking Tutor, which complement the iWriter and Writing Tutor. Videos on the iSpeaker, online and DVD, will help learners know exactly how English words are pronounced in both American and British English.
