Glossary publication for mother tongue preservation
Mother tongue center Nepal, Katharia society Nepal and SIL. International, published in coordination with Katharia Tharu-Nepali-English Glossary, was jointly released by Khadak Bahadur Rawat, Mayor of Ghodaghodi Municipality, Kailali, Dukhi Ram Kathariya, the chairman of Kathariya Samaaj Nepal and Dr. Netramani Dumi Rai, the consultant and linguist of SIL. The glossary was prepared by the editorial team of Dr. Netramani Dumi Rai, Sushil Subba, Suraj Katharia and Rajendra Katharia. The art, culture, customs, behavior, utensils used, lifestyle, and costumes of the Katharia community have been mentioned in the glossary. At the program, Mayor Rawat said that the dictionary has helped in documenting the language of the Katharia community. The mayor said that the local government has already created the curriculum and that the dictionary will further help in creating the curriculum in the local language. Mr. Raut said:
“There is a problem in language transmission. As language, art, and culture are destroyed, they lose their identity. Therefore, this dictionary will be very useful for the forty-five thousand Katharia community living in Kailali and other districts of Nepal”
Forty-two individuals from both Tharu and non-Tharu communities—representing various professions such as teaching, journalism, and social work—attended the program, hailing from locations in Kailali district including Sukkhad, Pabhera, Ghusari, and Lausa. The keen interest and initiative shown by teachers regarding the development of this dictionary, as part of the language development campaign, suggest that awareness regarding the mother tongue will undoubtedly be fostered among students in the future.
Because of teachers’ attendance in the program the impact of Kathariya Dictionary have tendency to extend the impact in the education system too. The teachers who attended the program will possibly use their impression in their teaching profession in around and beyond Kailali district. It encourages local government to run Multilingual Education so that many more children especially Tharu children will be encouraged to go to School.
The media workers who work in FM, radio stations, local newspapers can spread awareness through using the impressions in the media Radio Kailali, Radio Ghodaghodi, Radio Namaste, Tikapur FM, digital news portals like Paschim Today, Dhangadhi Khabar, Kailali Khabar and also in newspapers like Kailali hotline daily, Tikapur Times and also Hamar Pahura Daily, a unique and socially impactful local newspaper specifically dedicated to publishing content in the Tharu language and preserving local indigenous updates.
(Published in local newspaper of Kalilali called ‘Paschim today’)
While talking about development of Dictionary many phases of procedures took place before it came into public hand. After two and half years of tireless work like appointing glossers who has good knowledge of language and basic computer skills, training of Flex software, word collection and frequent checking with pair, group and with consultant like parts of speech, grammar, repetitive words in linguistic terms and manner.
