About Project ShabdakoshHuman beings are a gifted lot in this Universe. They are gifted with a lot of abilities. The most important of all such abilities is the ability to communicate – communicate in a written and a spoken form. It is truly God’s gift to mankind. And what language one gets to speak depends on so many factors – societal, geographical, physiological. By way of lifestyle in this world, man is exposed to so many languages, languages that are spoken at different parts of the world. At various stage of one’s life, man is fortunate to get exposed to so many languages. It is said that the most rich person is the one who knows many languages. History is replete with information on successful people being familiar with more than one language.
What language one decides to speak is a matter of an individual’s choice. However, one’s own language is aptly called “mother tongue”. Familiarity / expertise with other languages is not a reason why one should let down one’s own language. Richness in several languages never ever substitutes or replaces then need to preserve, practice, foster one’s own language. It is a fact that there are several languages that are on the verge of getting extinct. There are several languages that have vanished. There are several languages that stand the risk of becoming completely dominated and in due course destroyed. It becomes important that the uniqueness, specialty of every language is preserved in its original form. We are fortunate to be a part of a fraternity, a community that does not boast of a big number. We are fortunate to have a language that belongs to a community that has one of the best possible lineage, rich in heritage and culture. There are so many literary contributions that our beautiful language has given to this world. It is also true that this small family is scattered across the globe due to so many reasons – passing of time, by virtue of profession, social compulsions, cultural diversification etc. Added to all this are the several events that have happened in Indian Indian history – events which have posed a serious threat to Indian languages, treasure, temples, customs and traditions – naturally our language is also one of them to be at the receiving end. With all this, and with passage of time, with our community population scattering and settling down all over the country / globe due to professional development and commitments, the beautiful language of ours’ has undergone an influence of the respective regional language where our people have inhabited. As a result of the points indicated above and due to various other reasons, our language has, over a period of time started to get either disappearing, or has developed a mix of various languages. With the result, as stated earlier, our language is under the serious risk of getting almost wiped off in the next few generations – days of which are not far off. If we allow that to happen, it would be a great loss to this world. Hence, an attempt is being made at to revive the vocabulary, words of this language Marathi. Through this initiative DDM, an effort is made to restore something that is fast in the oblivion. This exercise is purely a literary exercise and has no sense of fanaticism, no sense of domination over any other language or belief. The idea is to play a role, however miniature in nature, in restoring the glory of this great language, to have in one place a reasonable collection of words, phrases, idioms and wherever possible sentences. It is the earnest wish and hope of every Marathi person that our language is placed at a very high pedestal, gains utmost respect like any other language, thereby the flag flying high in the centuries to come. |
Objectives of Project Shabdakosh
Live Ongoing DictionaryMDMS members have been maintaining a Google document which has been growing every month with rich new words from our language. Click here to see all the hard work put in by members and if you are trying to learn amcha Marathi then this is the place to go to!
Project "Dakshini Marathi Punaruddharini"The site www.vishnughar.blogspot.com showcases the pioneering work of Shri. Ananda Rao Vasishta, a completely self-taught linguistics researcher who in early 2009 took upon himself, as a passion, the task of formalizing the linguistics framework of Thanjavur Marathi (or, to use his more correct nomenclature, "Dakshini Marathi" or "DM"), a South Indian off-shoot of Standard Marathi ("SM"). The ambitious project involves the creation of what is possibly the very first DM dictionary and drawing up the rules of DM's grammar and syntax, thus facilitating the usage of the language in its refined form and hopefully arresting the steady erosion of DM due to the ever-increasing influence of the regional languages surrounding it. A marvelous effort that is certain to be of interest not only to the South Indian Maharashtrian community but also to linguistics students and researchers inquiring into the evolution of languages.
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