“For the development of any language, a dictionary is basic, because it contains all the terminologies. There has never before been a dictionary on library science in Konkani, which made it essential for us to build one,” said Milind Mhamal, who, along with Carlos Fernandes, created the dictionary. Mhamal and Fernandes are assistant professors at the university’s DD Kosambi school of social sciences and behavioural studies.
They conceptualised and began work on the project during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
Three years on, the historic dictionary has 4,015 words, 1,000 of which are newly-coined terms introduced to the Konkani lexicon. Some of these are ‘purvamudran’ (pre-print) and ‘suchika’ (catalogue). The new words have been borrowed or inspired by existing words in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Marathi.
In the process of creating the book, Fernandes and Mhamal referred to a variety of resources — the commission for scientific and technical terminology, New Delhi, administrative terminology, directorate of official languages, Goa, the American Library Association glossary of library and information science, Chicago, and the dictionary of library and information science, London.
“To keep up with the ever-growing developments in science and technology, and to document the richness and diversity of a language, a dictionary is indispensable. Librarians can use the Konkani words in library sciences while catering to people in the language. This will also help researchers write new books on library sciences in Konkani,” said Fernandes, who added that the only other such dictionary in India is in Hindi.
Lexicographer Mukesh Thaly wrote the foreword for the dictionary. The release function will also see Jnanpith award winner Damodar Mauzo speak on the dictionary’s significance for the Konkani language.
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