Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)

Mangaluru, Jul 27: In a major step, the Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy will release the first Beary-Kannada-English dictionary, a project that has been in the making for sometime, on July 31 at Town Hall in the city.

Announcing this in a press meet here on Thursday July 27 at the office of Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy, Academy president B A Mohammad Hanif briefed on the dictionary release programme and work done by the Academy over the past three years.

"The dictionary release programme will be held at Dr Wahab Doddamane stage at Town Hall. The same day, we will release the special issue of our magazine 'Belkiri' and will conduct an inter-district 'duff' competition.

"Dr Aravinda Malagathi will inaugurate the half-day programme and district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai will release the dictionary. Former education minister BA Mohiuddin will receive the first copy. Minister of food and civil supplies U T Khader will release the special issue of 'Belkiri' magazine. MLA Shakuntala T Shetty will receive the first copy of the special issue. MLC Ivan D'Souza will felicitate the members of dictionary committee, while J R Lobo will honour the editorial board of the dictionary. MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik, MLA Abhaychandra Jain, Prof B A Vivek Rai, Kannada language and culture deparment president M S Archana and MLA Mohiuddin Bava will grace the programme," he said.

"The first-ever in Beary language, the dictionary contains twenty thousand words and includes meanings in English and pronunciation in Romi script. Prof B M Ichlangod, Prof A V Navada have worked on this dictionary as editors. The dictionary contains 790 pages.

"Besides compiling the dictionary, the Academy organised various programmes during the last three years for the welfare of Beary language and culture. In 2014, we instituted Beary Language Day and now it is continuing every year. First Beary fellowship, Beary documentary, Beary books and albums are the other achievements of our tenure. We also got the state government to announce the establishment of Beary Research Centre in Mangaluru. In our tenure we took the initiative to publish 17 books and gave financial aid to forty duff teams to purchase instruments and uniforms. As part of our regular programmes, the Academy organised poetry sessions, award programmes etc," he said.