German linguist Karl Heinz Gruessner browses through his book on Karbi language

March 20: When grandmothers in Karbi villages spin their evening tales, among the audience of children will be a middle-aged scholar scribbling quaint indigenous phrases that have never found a place in any dictionary.

For the next five years, a group of academicians will scour the district in search of words and phrases to compile what they describe as the “most comprehensive” grammar book and trilingual lexicon.

The idea was mooted at the 20th annual session of the Karbi Lammet Amai — the apex body of Karbi literature — in Rongmongve recently.

A five-member committee comprising former Karbi Lamet Amai president Khorsingh Teron, former legislator Dharamsingh Teron, three Karbi scholars, Sikari Tisso, Hangmaji Hanse and Singh Kro, was formed to conduct scientific research on Karbi language and compile the grammar book and the dictionary.

Linguists U.B. Jose and Prof. Karl Heinz Gruessner will monitor the Rs 15-lakh project, a senior functionary of the organisation said.

Apart from old dictionaries, folk tales and folk songs, prayers and mantras will provide fodder for the dictionary.

“There are five dictionaries and two grammar book on Karbi language. These dictionaries have a limited vocabulary. Besides, most of the words used by the forefathers are on the verge of extinction. Again, the first grammar book written by Longkam Teron covers only the basics. Our aim is to give birth to a complete dictionary and a detailed grammar book,” Khorsingh Teron said.

An American missionary, G.D. Walker, wrote the first Karbi dictionary — A Mikir English Dictionary, published in 1925.

Karbi novelist Rongbong Terang’s Karbi Lam Tasam was the second initiative. Bidorsingh Kro, Longkram Teron and Lunse Timung compiled three more dictionaries in the past two decades.

After Longkam Teron’s first compilation, the second grammar book, Sankur Karbi Lamkuru Lapen Lamseng, was written by Khoyasing Hanse in the nineties.

“We hope all these will be pathfinders for us,” Teron said.

Prof. Gruessener, a Germany-based scholar who visited the district sometime in 1968, wrote Arleng Alam Die Sprache Der Mikir, a German book on Karbi vocabulary, in 1969.

He was among the special guests at the Karbi Lammet Amai session. “I will extend all possible help to make the Karbi Lammet Amai’s dream come true,” he said.