RAJAHMUNDRY:The Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) proposes to bring out a dictionary on Koya language soon, according to Dr PVB Sanjeeva Rao, heading a 30-member CIIL-commissioned research team, which visited several areas of the district.
Disclosing this to Express here on Sunday, he added that multilingual dictionary would give the meanings of words used in the Koya language in English, Hindi and Telugu.
He said that his team had visited Devipatnam, Koyyalagudem, Kannapuram, Buttayigudem, Talalavalasa, Unavaram, Rampachodavaram, etc., of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh last month. The team had interacted with the elders of the Koya community and also the educated among them and collected as 4,500 words for use in the proposed dictionary he said and added that they included words relating to food, flowers, clothes, body organs, religion, relatives, jewellery, diseases and prayers. Stating that that the team had to take the assistance of some tribal teachers in interacting with the Koyas, he added that the team had recorded both the pronunciation of the words and their meanings. Rao said that the team would soon submit a report to the CIIL.
Meanwhile, it may be noted that the Koya language is being taught in the government schools in the Agency areas of the state to the extent of 100 per cent in the first standard from last year through special books.
It is learnt that the government now proposes to teach 80 per cent of the Koya language in the second standard, 60 per cent in the third standard, 40 per cent in the fourth standard and 20 per cent in the fifth standard. From Sixth Class onwards, the students will be taught Telugu. There are about one lakh Koyas in the East Godavari district.
Koya, a tribal community, gives importance to events like birth, marriage and death and they treat palm tree as God.
Incidentally, Sanjeeva Rao is working as a Telugu lecturer at Sri Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu Theistic College in Rajahmundry.