CHENNAI: Sorkuvai Project, a comprehensive word corpus initiative of the Directorate of Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the State government launched in 2019, has uploaded 14 lakh words with their English meanings so far and is marching towards the target of uploading 15 lakh words within a few months.
The principal objective of the initiative is to collect all Tamil words from the Sangam period to the present day and put them in an orderly manner. Through sorkuvai.com website, people can find the meanings of Tamil words by keying in them in the search option available. The meanings are given in English, and etymological notes are given wherever possible, and in which text (book or work) it is used already, The other meanings of the word are also given.
Talking to TNIE, G Vijayaraghavan, Director of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project, said, “Our team collects the new technical terms and newly coined Tamil words used by the people in their day-to-day activities, and place them before the team of experts. Each and every newly coined word will be discussed thoroughly before accepting them as final for uploading in the Sorkuvai Word Corpus.”
He said representatives and enthusiasts from foreign countries regularly take part in the meetings. So far, 144 such meetings have been held online. In these meetings, hundreds of scholars from abroad and other parts of the country took part and provided technical terms. Also, to encourage students to coin new words in Tamil, a special scheme is being implemented for college students.
The new words are coined using five methods: revising and recoining the old words to suit the present purpose and extending the meaning of existing words, through translation and borrowing. In these processes, the origin of the word, whether they can convey the meaning to the common man easily, and whether they are easy to pronounce in day-to-day life etc are deliberated in detail by the experts committee before accepting. “Adding new words suitable for emerging situations, technical innovations, and social changes keeps any language lively. So, it is a constant process that needs to be done forever,” said Vijayaraghavan.
Tamil words on numerous subjects from various dictionaries are being collated for Sorkuvai. The dictionaries include the Tamil Lexicon and English-Tamil Dictionary by the University of Madras, the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, Word Concordance of Tamil Literature by the Tamil University, Dictionaries of Medical Terms and Computer Terms by Manavai Mustafa, Glossary of Administrative Terms, etc.
Some of the new Tamil words coined and added to Sorkuvai include: Selfie (Thaami/Thampadam); Metro Train (Maanagara Thodari); Smartphone (Thiran Pesi), CCTV (Maraikaani); Noodles (Izhaiyunavu), flip flop - purattal, sologamy - thanmanam ; flask (semacheppu); ancient document (thollavanam), headphone (sevi olippaan), Halwa (inkali), Ladoo (innurundai), share auto (pangu thani), silencer (oli adakki), e-currency (enma panam), sponge city (Neerthenga Nagaram), and Internet presence (Inaiya Iruppu).
For example, while coining a Tamil word for ‘selfie’, initially, ‘suyami’ was suggested. Since it has Sanskrit root, it was rejected by experts. Now, the words like ‘thaami’, and ‘thanpadam’, have been accepted as suitable Tamil words for ‘selfie’. Similarly, ‘karutharangu’ is the already established Tamil word for seminar. Now the new facility available is the webinar. It has been translated as ‘valaiyarangu’. The word train has been mentioned as iruppoordhi, thodar vandi, pugai vandi in the past. Now, it has been revised to the latest term ‘thodari’.
Vijayaraghavan said among the Indian languages, a word corpus has been established for the first time for the Tamil language. The Etymological Dictionary Project Directorate was formed in 1974 headed by Tamil scholar Devaneya Pavanar and since then, it has published 31 huge volumes of etymological dictionaries.
In recent years, the concise edition of these 31 volumes and revised editions of the dictionaries in seven volumes have been published. Most of these dictionaries are available online on the Sorkuvai website for the use of the public.