Chamarajanagar: A foreign researcher from Myanmar, who spent a considerable amount of time studying the forests and the life of Tribals in Karnataka, compiled a dictionary for the language of the Soliga community.
The Male Soliga tribal community in Chamarajanagar speaks a dialect of Kannada which is slightly different from the Kannada spoken in the rest of the state. Many words have a different meaning.
Hence, Aung Si, a researcher from Myanmar, decided to compile a Soliga-English dictionary.
Si, who received her Ph.D from an Australian University for "Traditional Environmental Knowledge among Solicitors", spent 11 months between 2008 and 2012 in Biligiri Rangana Betta with the Soligas.
While staying with the tribal community, Si decides to compile the dictionary to help students of the Soliga Community and also to save their language.
From 2008 itself, Si started to learn the language, and subsequently compiled the dictionary by communicating with them through telephone and e-mail.
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The end result was a 450-page dictionary with around 15,000 words, replete with pictures and scientific names of plants.
Si, who also designed the dictionary, gave the entire copyright of the dictionary to the Soliga Community and told them to use the money for helping people from their community.
"Aung Si has provided 150 copies of the dictionary to the tribal community along with the copyright for the sake of our development," said Dr Made Gowda, a member of the community.
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