Gujarati - English Learner's Dictionary Babu Suthar

Gujarati- English Learner’s Dictionary Babu Suthar (Second draft) A Nirman Foundation Project Department of South Asia Studies University of Pennsylvania 820 Williams Hall 36th and Spruce Philadelphia PA 19104  Babu Suthar 2 3 In Memory of Harivallabh Bhayani 4 ↓ We will revise this draft again after we receive comments and suggestions from the scholars and the users. There are still problems with phonetic transcription of some words. We will fix them as soon as we get feedback from the scholars. Meanwhile, we request the users to consult us before using information from this dictionary in their reserach. ↓ Babu Suthar bsuthar@sas.upenn.edu 5 Introduction Gujarati is a poor language of the rich people. This language does not have scientifically written grammar books. Whatever grammar books it has are mainly pedagogic. It does not have well written dictionaries either. There are some, monolingual as well as bilingual, but many of them are impressionistic and outdated. This language is divided into many social and geographical dialects, but very few of them have been explored. Many dialects still await their documentation. It has attracted many linguists, but their impact on the language, speakers, and writers has been negligible. Gujaratis are everywhere, and so is Gujarati; but Gujarati rarely is taught systematically. The children of Gujarati Diaspora learn some Gujarati either from their parents or from Gujarati language classes run mainly by Hindu temples. There is no well written teaching material either. Some individuals have created some material, but much of it lacks professionalism. In addition, it is also faulty either in grammar or in pragmatics or both. This is unfortunate. In order to overcome this situation, partially if not fully, the Department of South Asia Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania has taken a leadership role. They have encouraged designing teaching material under which we have created three textbooks: Gujarati Reader 1, 2 and 3. The Reader 1 is devoted to the writing system, while the Reader 2 is devoted to written conversations. The Reader 3 is a collection of Aesop’s fables rendered in Gujarati. This dictionary is a part of that project but it has been funded by the Nirman Foundation, Washington DC. It is perhaps the first dictionary of the language created for the beginning student who is learning Gujarati language as a second language. It is also the first dictionary in Gujarati which gives phonetic transcription of the head words in International Phonetic Alphabet. Besides, it is also the first one that gives graphemic transcription of each head words. This dictionary will certainly facilitate the learner in learning the differences between spoken and written Gujarati. I am thankful to Nirman Foundation. Without their support this dream would have remained unfulfilled. I am also thankful to Prof. Bhikhu Parekh and Dr. Chandrakant Shrof for taking personal interest in this project. I can not forget Prof. Guy Welbon, former Chairperson of the South Asia Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania, who underlined the need of creating teaching material and supported all the projects. This dictionary is the third project that he supported. I am also thankful to Prof. Michael W. Meister, the Chairperson of the Department of South Asia, for encouraging me in finishing this work. Finally, I am thankful to Prof. Buckley, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Bharti Modi, Ex. Chairperson, Department of Linguistics, The M.S. University of Baroda for ofering me guidance on various issues related to compiling dictionary. Babu Suthar Sunday, June 29, 2003 ... - tailieumienphi.vn