President of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat R.K. Nallur Prasad has said that a regional dictionary comprising words used in different regions of the State was being complied.
He was speaking at the valedictory of the sixth Udupi District Kannada Sahitya Sammelan here on Sunday.
Dr. Prasad said that 40 experts from different regions would be chosen to work on the proposed dictionary. The list of regional words compiled by them would be forwarded to sub-editors in Bangalore, who would include the words in the regional dictionary.
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This would also help in preserving some dialects of Kannada.
Future plan
“The State unit of the parishat has allocated Rs. 1.45 crore for conducting Kannada sahitya sammelans in districts. All district units had been asked to publish four Kannada books every year”, he said.
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Thus, as many as 120 books would be brought out annually at the district-level.The parishat had set aside Rs. 1 crore for reprinting the Kannada dictionary and another Rs. 1 crore for research in Kannada, Dr. Prasad said.
‘Save Kannada'
Scholar Bannanje Govindacharya said that immediate steps should be taken to protect and promote Kannada. The way the things were going, Kannada might become extinct in the next 50 years. Irrational love for English was proving costly for Kannada. There was nothing wrong in learning English, but having it as a medium of instruction was undesirable. The Government should stop giving permission to start English-medium schools, he said.
Local forms of Kannada such as Kota Kannada and Dharwad Kannada should be promoted. Children were not willing to read Kannada bookseven if they were given to them free of cost. The reading habit among children was dying, Mr. Govindacharya said.
Children's literature
Linguist and president of the sammelan U.P. Upadhyaya said that children's literature in Kannada should be encouraged.
President of the Udupi District Kannada Sahitya Parishat Ambatanaya Mudrady, former president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat Harikrishna Punaroor and president of the Dakshina Kannada District Kannada Sahitya Parishat Pradeep Kalkura were present.