UChicago scholars expand digital dictionaries of South Asia, Middle East

For decades, scholars at the University of Chicago have sought to preserve and share the languages of South Asia and the Middle East-from Assamese to Torwali, Khowar to Pashto. In this work, the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia are invaluable: In addition to definitions and pronunciations, users can learn about the original source of words in languages spoken by nearly a quarter of the world's population. Prof. Gary A. Tubb and James Nye, a former UChicago Library bibliographer, are now spearheading a major expansion of these digital dictionaries-a three-year project that will help scholars, diplomats, journalists, businesspeople and countless others. "The extent to which people are using digital dictionaries for South Asian and Middle Eastern languages is expanding rapidly, and technical advances have made using online dictionaries easier and more powerful," said Tubb, the Anupama and Guru Ramakrishnan Professor, and chair in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations (SALC). "Now with a few flicks of their fingers, users can do research that used to take all afternoon." Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the project will extend language coverage by the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia-launched in 1999-and enhance the online resources for South Asia and the Middle East for deeper exploration and wider dissemination of dictionary and pronunciation content. Additional languages covered include Kashmiri, Panjabi, Persian, Sindhi, Sinhala, Telugu and Urdu.