A glossary of 3,800 fundamental terms and concepts of political science were translated from English to Maithili language during the recently concluded five-day workshop at the LN Mithila University at Darbhanga in Bihar, a professor at the university said.
“It was the first such exercise in which the glossary of a discipline has been prepared in local language by the department of political science at LNMU,” Jitendra Narayan, head of the department, said.
“Three teams, comprising faculty members of political science department, besides Maithili, English and Hindi experts, strove hard to coin Maithili equivalent words for anarchy, jurisprudence, appellation, dialectic, alienation, jurisprudence, sovereignty…,” Narayan said.
The workshop, held from December 19-23, was coordinated in collaboration with the Commission for Scientific and Technology Terminology (CSTT), Ministry of Education, Government of India (GoI).
Vice-chancellor Surendra Pratap Singh said words have the intent to communicate to another person an item of importance either in a powerful manner or with low intensity. “On an average, a person can draw from a source of only 3000 words for everyday conversations in his lifetime,” he said.
“This important academic exercise will not only benefit the student community in understanding the fundamental concepts of the subject in their native language, but will also enrich and preserve Maithili language,” according to chief academic coordinator at Bharatiya Bhasha Sansthan, Awadesh Kumar Mishra.
“All languages are mother tongues but not all mother tongues are languages. According to 2011 census, there are 270 mother tongues which have more than 10,000 speakers,” he said.
Technically, there are 121 languages in such 270 mother tongues, Mishra added.
To date, CSTT has standardized the terminology for more than eight lakhs technical terms in different subjects and in different languages.
The trilingual glossary of political science (English-Hindi-Maithili) would be published by the CSTT in the form of a dictionary, which would be available offline as well as online, officials familiar with the matter said.
“New Educational Policy 2020, also emphasises on promoting vernacular languages,” said Shahzad Ansari, assistant director (CSTT), who was the official observer at the workshop.
The CSTT, which is mandated to evolve, define, and publish the glossaries of academic and technological subjects, is preparing fundamental glossary in all recognised regional languages.
