A Latin-Kannada dictionary is brought to life

A rare Latin-Kannada dictionary that a French bishop published 149 years ago to help missioners learn Kannada is now again available for use.

Father Arulappa of the St Mary’s Basilica explains how the resurrection happened: Bishop Etienne Louis Charbonnaux was a French missionary deputed to the then Mysore region, Srirangapatna by the Pope in 18th century.

After he came here, Bishop Charbonnaux learnt the local language (Kannada) and wrote the Latin-Kannada dictionary titled Dictionarium Latino Canarense.

Full report here DNA

Rare Latin-Kannada dictionary reprinted

The early European missionaries who came to India contributed a great deal to the discipline of lexicography in Indian languages. However, as the British gained politically and English became the language of power, most works in other European tongues faded into insignificance.

Rediscovered

Two such forgotten lexicons of historic and linguistic importance — Kannada-to-Latin and Latin-to-Kannada dictionaries — compiled by Catholic priests of The Paris Foreign Mission Society in the mid-19th century have recently been discovered in the archives of St. Mary's Basilica, the oldest church in Bangalore.

The first, Dictionarium Canarense-Latinum, was compiled by Jean-Marie Auguste Bouteloup in 1855, and the second, Dictionarium Latino-Canarense, by Etienne Louis Charbonnaux in 1861.

To this day, these are the only dictionaries that translate directly from Kannada to Latin and vice versa. Both mention ‘Bengalori' as the place where they were printed. The latter has now been reprinted by the Akhila Karnataka Catholic Christara Kannada Sangha, after 149 years, and will be released in August.

Full report here HIndu

International meet on Latin

The Institute of English and the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Kerala, in collaboration with the Department of Latin, St Xaviers College, Thumba, will organise a two-day international conference on ‘Latin language and world cultures’ at Hassan Marikar Hall in the city on March 11 and 12.
Fr. Dasappan S.J., head, Department of Latin, St Xavier’s College, Thumba and P.L. Josey, professor of Latin, told a news conference here on Tuesday that languages in the West European countries were derived from Latin, which was still the official language at Vatican and at the Roman Catholic churches. English language also has been greatly influenced by Latin.
``In India, we are using it in our routine communications and jurisprudence. Despite having such a deep influence on our lives, Latin is a neglected language,’’ they said.
As it has been a great influence on the world cultures, the conference will help shed light on the immense researches carried out in this direction.
The inaugural session will be held at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Minister for Education and Culture M.A. Baby will inaugurate the conference. Metropolitan Archbishop Soosaipakiam will deliver the keynote address.
In the first session at 10 a.m., Dr Maya Dutt, professor, University of Kerala, will deliver a lecture on English Literature in its Latin context. Dr Babu Paul will speak on ‘Translations of the Bible from Greek to Latin to Malayalam - some problems revisited’.
Dr Sali Augustine, Sophia University, Tokyo will chair the third session, ‘Contribution of Latin to scientific language’.
Dr S. Ignacimuthu S.J., former vice-chancellor, Madras University, Kollam Bishop Stanley Roman and Punalur Bishop Dr Sylvester Ponnumuthan also will speak on the first day.
Lida Jacob, Dr G.S. Jayashree, Dr Jacob Prasad and former MP Dr Sebastian Paul are among the speakers who will be attending the conference on Friday.
G. Balamohan Thampy, former vice-chancellor of Kerala University, will deliver the valedictory address.

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