CHENNAI: For the first time, a multilingual dictionary of ‘Vaagri boli,’ the language of the Vaagri community known as Narikuravas in Tamil Nadu, will be published soon by the National Folklore Support Centre here.
In an interview to Express, executive trustee and director of National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC), M D Muthukumaraswamy said the dictionary would have meanings for words and usages in Vaagri boli in four languages — Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati and English — for wider understanding.
Asked on the origins of Vaagri boli, he said it was originally a dialect of Gujarati which later assimilated innumerable words and expressions from various languages, including Tamil and Hindi. “Now, it is no longer a dialect of Gujarati and it has flowered into a unique language of its own albeit without letters,” he said adding the International Ethnologue Language Code Index had listed Vaagri as an independent language though it retained its basic Gujarati structure. “The dictionary will be published in a fortnight and it has been authored by eminent linguists, G Srinivasa Varma and A Mubarak Ali.”
Expressing satisfaction over the work, Muthukumaraswamy said NFSC’s digital archives of the Vaagris and the extensive interactions the experts had with the community helped produce the lexicon.