The digital dictionary

The English language adds to the linguistic diversity of India. It has a rich history of cultural exchange in which new words flowed into the cultural nerves of the people on the subcontinent. Mango from Maangai, jungle from Jangal, bungalow from Bangla and so on. The exchange is continuing in the 21st century.

In this journey of languages, dictionaries form the backbone, especially in developing vocabularies.

As the world observed yet another Dictionary Day on October 16, we are in the age of “auto-correct”. Does this make dictionaries irrelevant? In the digital age, application software predicts what is in our mind and help us to complete the sentence. If able to answer why a sentence is being auto-corrected, we are in the right way of using technology in assisting language.

In the case of printed dictionaries, we make a conscious decision on choosing a word and its placement in a sentence.

I had an Oxford pocket dictionary during my school days. As I studied in a Malayalam-medium school, use of English was confined to the second-language textbooks. It was a herculean task to read even a single sentence without a dictionary. I had to depend on it for each word. But I can proudly say it was a memorable experience flipping through pages searching the words in the alphabetical order. Rather, it was more effective for memorisation of each word and understanding where to use a particular word properly in a sentence.

Was it a boring activity to flip through the pages of dictionary? Yes. But the spelling of each and every word I found on the dictionary is still in my mind. I do not get that benefit when my sentences are decided by technology.

Have you come across the word “tradwife”? Gen Alpha will obviously say yes. It is a term used for women who embrace the traditional gender roles Yet another word is “skibidi”, a slang which originated from the viral YouTube series Skibidi Toilet. These are among the words to be added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year. This is the new normal in the digital age. But, if somebody asks me to write down the word “skibidi” on paper, I am not sure whether I will be able to spell it correctly. Because I found this word on an electronic device.

At the same time, if somebody asks me to write down any word that I had searched and found in the old printed dictionary, I’m confident to do that. For me, this is the gap between the printed and digital versions of the dictionaries.

In an age that requires smart work, we need to be adaptable to the digital version of dictionaries. But we cannot deny the role of a physical dictionary in creating a unique bond with the language.

muhsinm.cmr@gmail.com