Guwahati, Feb. 24: The Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) has embarked upon a mission to compile a multi-lingual dictionary in all the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

The project has been taken up in collaboration with Central Hindi Directorate (CHD) and the dictionary is expected to be published next year.

The directorate will bear the expenditure of publishing the dictionary. It had earlier published a multi-lingual dictionary in 18 languages. In addition to those 18 languages, the new dictionary will have words in Bodo, Maithili, Dogri and Santhali, the four languages included in the Eight Schedule in 2004.

Talking to The Telegraph, the vice-president of the Sabha, Kamalakanta Mushahary, said the second phase of proof-reading the Bodo words is on. "Work on the Dogri and Maithili words is almost at the last stage but only 50 per cent work has been done in the Santhali language," he said.

"The dictionary will be a document to show that Bodo language is as rich as any other language in the country," said Mushahary.

The language has 3.3 million speakers and uses the Devanagari script.

Since the inclusion of Bodo in the Eighth Schedule, the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, the apex literary body of the Bodo community, has been working hard to develop the language, with emphasis on widening its vocabulary base.

"So far, we have published 13 volumes of glossary on various scientific and technical terminologies. Work is on to publish three more such glossaries. Besides, we have a plan to publish 12 more in the future," said Mushahary.

The Sabha has taken up the projects in collaboration with various agencies or departments under the Union ministry of human resource development.

The only project that it had taken up with the state government was publishing a trilingual dictionary in Bodo, Assamese and English. The project has been pending with the Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Assam, for two years now.

The Sabha also has an ambitious project of publishing another multi-lingual dictionary in the major indigenous languages of the state with the help of the Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Language. The proposed 500-page dictionary will be in English, Assamese, Bodo, Mising, Karbi, Rabha, Dimasa, Tiwa, Deuri and Garo.

"This dictionary will have the words that a person commonly uses in his day-to-day life. This will help him learn the languages of the indigenous communities that have become essential considering the linguistic diversity of the state," said Mushahary.

The Sabha, in its recent 56th annual session in Dhemaji district, released the first ( Early India by historian Romila Thapar) of the four books undertaken under the National Translation Mission to translate into Bodo.

The three others in the project are The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation by Granville Austin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis by Walter Rudin and O utlines of Indian Philosophy by M. Hiriyanna.