Tamil-Malayalam dictionary, a dream come true for her

Thiruvananthapuram: It is indeed a proud moment for T Vijayalakshmi, an associate professor at the department of Tamil under the University of Kerala, as her dream of creating the first-ever comprehensive Tamil-Malayalam dictionary has finally become a reality after years of hard work and dedication. The dictionary was officially released by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan by presenting the first copy to Kerala University vice-chancellor Mohanan Kunnummal at a function held at Raj Bhavan recently.The 1,600-page dictionary contains about 40,000 headwords. Looking back at the long process which spanned eight years, Vijayalakshmi said she juggled the work without compromising her responsibilities as an academician. She said the journey has been testing but enriching. She was able to better understand the cultural contexts behind the two languages since she was born and raised in Palakkad. “My mother tongue is Tamil and my native language is Malayalam. The first-hand experience of handling the two languages and speaking to natives played a major role in making the process easier. The most challenging task of making the dictionary was to create a database of words sourced from everyday life and other mediums. The next difficult phase was to find the exact Malayalam meaning for which I was assisted by N K Subhash who worked as the sub-editor of the Malayalam lexicon at the university,” recalls Vijayalakshmi.Various sections of special words from both the languages are also added in the annexure towards the end of the book. One such section is of words sounding the same, but with entirely different meanings. An example would be ‘avasaram’, which means hurry in Tamil, but opportunity in Malayalam.
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