Telugu has been declared a classical language by the Centre, but a lot needs to be done to nurture it and promote its usage. There is a need for the language to adopt some of the technical terms to enable its relevance in the modern day.
For the language to develop and grow, there is a need for a comprehensive dictionary that not only gives the meaning of a word but also provides meanings it had earlier, lest it be misunderstood by scholars.
The dictionary should present the evolving meanings of each word and the changing usages.
Parvastu Padya Peetham, a literary organisation working to promote Telugu literature among children, organised a meeting of scholars and practitioners from different disciplines here on Sunday to draw up the broad scope for a living dictionary.
Phanisayana Suri of the peetham suggested a timeline of three years to bring out the dictionary.
Creation of a comprehensive dictionary was a mammoth task, eminent Telugu scholar Vedula Subrahmanyam Sastry said. Commending the effort, he promised to support it.
Mr. Phanisayana Suri said 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 organise the collected words. The third year would be used for putting together a dictionary that would be updated periodically.
All dictionaries have only included literary forms of the language ( granthikam ) to the exclusion of dialects ( mandalikam ) and colloquial ( janapadam ).
Colloquial forms
“ 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, another speaker Mohan Rao said.
Philanthropist S. Vijay Kumar promised to support the effort.
Phanisayana Suri of Parvastu Padya Peetham suggests a timeline of three years to bring out one
