LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 8 : 12 December 2008
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.

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Evaluation of English-Manipuri Bilingual Dictionaries

Leihaorambam Sarbajit Singh, Ph.D.

Abstract

The British made the history of Manipuri dictionary during the colonial period. As a consequence many Manipuri involving dictionaries have been compiled and published: mono-, bi- or trilingual. For bilingual and trilingual dictionaries, in different combinations of Manipuri, English, Hindi, Bengali or other languages have been produced. So far fourteen English-Manipuri dictionaries including glossaries have been published. In fact, the lexicographical art in Manipuri is in its primal stages and Manipuri dictionaries, which can match the high standards of dictionaries available in developed languages, are still a long way off. English-Manipuri dictionaries have mostly been compiled and edited by non-English speaking people as well as un-trained lexicographers. Unfortunately, trained personnel who work on Manipuri lexicography are of very limited in number. The qualitative values of English-Manipuri dictionaries are a little poor however their works on lexicography is highly appreciable. In this paper, the evaluation of available English to Manipuri Dictionaries will be made.

There are fourteen English to Manipuri Dictionaries including glossaries out of which one dictionary “A Manual of Anglo-Manipuri Dictionary of Idioms” (1965) compiled by Ch. Pishak Singh is not available at present. In this paper, only thirteen is evaluated in brief and in a chronological order. The Assessment is done as per information provided in the dictionaries or glossaries. The Manipuri written using Bengali script in this paper is transcribed in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) within forward slashes (//).

1. The Anglo-Manipuri Dictionary

Year of Publication: 1957
Name of Compiler: Dwijamani Dev Sarma
Number of Pages: 471
Number of Entry words 12,000 approximately.

This English-Manipuri dictionary is designed to help the Manipuri speakers who desire to learn English. In this dictionary, English holds the place of source and Manipuri as the target language. This is a dictionary of comprehension.

The body of the dictionary follows the preface to the first edition. The preface provides the introductory notes on pronunciation of English headwords in Bengali script. It says about the accent, length of vowel, consonants, etc. As a guide to dictionary there is a chart of some Manipuri alphabets (in Bengali script) against their English counter parts.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Evaluation of English-Manipuri Bilingual Dictionaries | Internet Projects of Language Learning - A Student-Centered Approach | Skype Voice Chat - A Tool for Teaching Oral Communication | Noun Classification System in Mizo | How Authority and Leadership Evolve - A Study of Leadership Functions and Authority in the New Testament Community | Trends and Spatial Patterns of Crime in India - A Case Study of a District in India | Problems of Visually Challenged With Special Reference to School Children in Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu | Tenor in Electronic Media Political Discourse in BBC News - A Functional Analysis of English-Arabic Translation | Materials Development in English as a Second language in India - A Survey of Issues and Some Developments at the National Level | An Eyewitness Account of the Third Indian National Congress in 1887 at Madras - Excerpts from Dr. Henry Lunn's Book A Friend of Missions in India | HOME PAGE of December 2008 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

Leihaorambam Sarbajit Singh, Ph.D.
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Canchipur, Imphal- 795 003
Manipur India
sarbajit.lei@gmail.com

 
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