Chennai: The State government has identified or coined over 4.91 lakh Tamil words, as part of an initiative by the Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture Department, its Minister K. Pandiarajan has said.
The Herculean task of compiling the lexicon in Tamil is progressing apace and new words or terminology were being added by the day, Mr. Pandiarajan informed the Assembly on Tuesday. “We have identified about 4.91 lakh words in Tamil whereas there are only 1.71 lakh words in English. We believe there are four lakh more words in Tamil that needs to be added to the lexicon,” he said.
Tamil scholars who met twice a month, discussed in detail and helped to compile the magnum opus. “These words not only pertain to arts and culture but also to diverse fields including science and technology. Experts from each subject have been roped in to carry forward the work,” the Minister said. He was responding to an issue raised by AIADMK’s former Minister S. Semmalai in the Assembly who wanted to know if new words were being coined in Tamil language. “If so, whether the government will come forward to announce the number of such newly coined or identified Tamil words?” he asked.
When DMK leader Duraimurugan sought to know if the members of the public are aware of such a ‘astounding’ work, Mr. Pandiarajan replied that the department was promoting the words on the digital platform – Sorkuvai - a Tamil word bank that links Tamil words with English words according to their meanings. “But we will soon bring out books,” he added.
The Minister further said that his Ministry has plans to promote Tamil learning in a big way throughout the country and has sought financial assistance from the Centre to establish about 1,000 centres.
