From names of banks, political parties, websites and apps to fast food dishes like pani puri and momos, the third edition of the digital Indian Sign Language dictionary launched on Wednesday included 10,000 terms across six categories.
The dictionary, prepared by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre under the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, included terms of daily use, academic, legal and administrative, medical, technical and agricultural terms, SJE Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said releasing the dictionary virtually.
Available as a Google document and videos on YouTube, the dictionary includes the sign, the English term and pictures wherever relevant, a Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities statement said. The dictionary also includes terms used in different regions, including momos from Dehradun, bandit from Munger, Bihar, and tug of war from Haryana. Arranged marriage, break-up and live-in relationship also find a mention.
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Mr. Gehlot said the project of making education materials accessible for students of Class 1 to 5 by the ISLRTC and the NCERT would be completed by March 31.
Involvement of community
“The dictionary has been made with the full involvement of the deaf community by ensuring that only deaf experts have provided the signs for the dictionary...Since the launch of the first edition in 2018, the ISL dictionary has been utilised by special educators, ISL interpreters, parents of children with hearing disabilities, professionals in the field, organisations working with people with hearing disabilities and by the general public,” the statement said.
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The first edition was launched in March 2018 with 3,000 terms, followed by the second edition in February 2019 that had 6,000 terms.