Xobdo Newsletter

Editors’ Desk

As Xobdo reaches it third year, its time we did the maths on the last year- the gains

and the gains. As you all know, we have been growing really fast. We dedicate the accomplishments of the second year to our hard working contributors who made the ‘10K in 2007′ goal possible for Xobdo. In fact, our new logo designed by Rajib Kumar Dutta says it all. A beehive selflessly built by the hardworking bees of Xobdo to preserve their own kind, multiple colors representing linguistic diversity of Xobdo and a globe signifying the attempt to bring the languages of the North-East to the world stage through the internet.

The Xobdo journey in the last one year has been exciting and fulfilling by all means- with a new user interface replacing the old, number of contributors crossing the 500 mark and enthusiastic multilingual contributors enriching the diversity of Xobdo.

In the second year the total number of Assamese word contributors have reached 580 from 250 of the first year. More importantly we now have Banlam Warjri, Temsunungsang, Uttam Bathari, Naba Kumar Bodo, Dipak Tumung etc. who are responsible for the increase in the database for Khasi, Ao, Nagamese, Dimasa, Bodo and Karbi.

Figure 1: Increase in the number of Contributors for Assamese

So what made 10K possible for Assamese? Look at the words contributed month by month by our hardworking contributors in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Number of Assamese Words Contributed by Month

Apart from that we have been receiving consistent hits on our website as shown in figure 3 and 4 below.

Figure 3: Number of Visitors since March 2007

(Scattered and shallow thoughts on our association with words and making a new generation dictionary)

Partha Protim Sarmah*

কিযে তোমাৰ সংগপ্ৰিয়া…

Playing with words myself and, more often, eagerly watching how others perform in that game, has been a favourite amusement that I (like many others) have engaged myself in since my childhood. One wonder that kept me captivated for quite sometime during childhood was how do the words ‘enter’ the mind of a child. Once I asked an elder to tell me the ‘secret’ they used to put the words in the mind (read brain)!!! We take food and the body grows. Do we do something similar or have something inside that enables the brain to cultivate and grow words???!!! How do we, as children, manage to learn word meanings and ‘play’ with them successfully and manage many of the secrets related to words which often remain untaught? Otherwise won’t we invite the danger of becoming another Supandi (who appeared in the child magazine Tinkle)? For him most of the problems were created because of his inability to decipher the implied meanings of the words in their right context, i.e. taking them too literally—surely a case of being unable to understand the game of language and play with words.

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বিৰাজ কুমাৰ কাকতি
শব্দৰ বিষয়ে কিবা এটা লিখিব লাগে বুলি গম পাই মোৰ পেটতে হাত ভৰি লুকাল| ভাবিলোঁ এতিয়াহে বলিৰ পঠা এটা হ’ব লাগিব| এই অভাগাৰ শব্দৰ ভঁড়াল ইমানেই তাকৰ যে একেবাৰে পি.পু.সি.শু. কৰিবলৈও যঠেষ্ট নহয় বুলি ক’ব পাৰি| যাহওঁক এবাৰ খোঁচ (আচলতে খোঁচ ঠিক নহয়, ক্লিক্ হে) এটাকে মাৰি চোৱা যাওঁক বুলি ভাবি মোৰ কোলাত ল’ব পৰা সাংগাণনিক যন্ত্ৰটোৰ (Laptop computer – অসমীয়ালৈ অনুবাদ কৰাৰ ব্যৰ্থ প্ৰয়াস) সন্মুখত বহি পৰিলোঁ|

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Anjal Borah*

The Old Testament of the Bible says- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Whenever I open XOBDO in my computer I think “Yes, the power of word has agitated the human conscience, united each other and spread carefulness for our environment. Because the Word is Brahma (God)”. This XOBDO creates a new message to our nation, language, culture and civilization. I feel very proud to be one of its contributors.

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Bikram M. Baruah*

“An open dictionary being created by the people, for the people, of the people” built on Microsoft’s Technology! Why should we be dependent on a corporate giant? It makes more sense, if this dictionary is built on a software also developed by “the people”. So, a decision was made to redesign XOBDO in Open Source technologies.

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Ms. Swapnita Kakati*

August, 2006. A time to remember. In that special month, I came to know about the world’s first Assamese online dictionary in the form of a website. I immediately pasted the website URL in the internet address bar of my PC and clicked….and I was surprised to see the great challenging task of the XOBDO Team …at the same time felt proud to know the commitment towards their mother tongue.

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Prasenjit Khanikar*

‘Mother’ is the person for whom we are able to come to this beautiful world and ‘Mother tongue’ is the way through which we feel and express the sense of happiness, love and sorrows. This effusive attachment compels us to love and respect our mother tongue. But responsibility does not end at this level only.

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T. Temsunungsang*

I have been associated with XOBDO for the last few months as a contributor to Ao and Nagamese. It is heartening to see that more than 11,000 Assamese words have been added in its two years of existence. All this is, no doubt, the result of the great efforts put in by the contributors and those in-charge.

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Hasinus Sultan*

The Online Dictionary made available to the (cyber) world by XOBDO enjoys pride of place not only by virtue of its being the pioneering Online Assamese Dictionary but also for its undying go-ahead spirit through the march of time. With each day passing, it grows and matures to live up to your rising expectations. Abiding quest for more words and/or expressions, more members, and more space in the domain of lexical tradition seem always to breathe more life into it.
I feel great to be associated with the Dictionary.

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Neelotpal Deka*

I was in UK when Xobdo.org was launched over the cyber space. I received an e-mail from Er. Bikram Baruah giving me the link to XOBDO.Org. I was overwhelmed to see an online Assamese Dictionary and surprised to see an engineer taking initiative located in Abu Dhabi. I have been observing the website and new words everyday since then. Back in Guwahati in September, 2006, I started contributing to the online dictionary. Bikram has been a guiding factor for most of my

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Utpal Borpujari* 

I find Xobdo.org one of the most innovative efforts to preserve the languages of North-East India digitally on the cyberspace. This is surely the need of the time, especially when many of our traditional words are slowly going to oblivion because of lack of usage arising from the worrisome trend of many schools not even teaching tiny tots in their mother tongues in a bias towards English, with parents and society somehow convinced that learning English as the first language would make their children some kind of wonderkids (while it is a fact that early learning in mother tongue gives a child the best comprehension).

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Dr(Mrs)Krishna Barua*

Nava Kumar Boro^#

In the early spring of 2006, an M.Tech. student told me of XOBDO. I was quick to access it that very afternoon. I was delighted not only with the very adventurous concept of the first online Assamese /English dictionary but also at the idea that I could submit words and be included in the overall goal of attaining the thousands of words in the compilation.

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Papori Gogoi*

I forgot when I first heard of XOBDO. Most probably in June, 2007. I forgot the date but never forgot the name of the person from whom I came to know about it. He is none but Buljit Boragohain from the Guwahati Team.
I went through the link of XOBDO and contributed two words the first day I became a member of this family. I want to increase my vocabulary (but I have a very limited stock of it) of any language and I found XOBDO very effective for this purpose so far as the languages of the North East are concerned. Now it has become an important part of my life and I wish my journey with XOBDO will continue.

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প্ৰশান্ত বৰা
২০০৭ চনৰ অক্টোবৰ মাহৰ শেষৰফালেই ‘শব্দ’ৰ বিষয়ে গম পাইছিলো যদিও ইয়াৰ সভ্য হোৱাৰ সৌভাগ্য হ’ল নবেম্বৰতহে। এই ক্ষেত্রত ‘শব্দ’ পৰিয়ালৰ পাপৰি গগৈৰ নাম নললে আধৰুৱা হৈ ৰ’ব।প্রথম অৱস্থাত একো আও-ভাও পোৱা নাছিলো যদিও ‘শব্দ’ৰ groupmail, বুলজিত দা আৰু বিক্রম দাৰ পৰা পোৱা পৰামৰ্শই ‘শব্দ’ৰ প্রতি আকৰ্ষণ ক্রমান্বয়ে বঢ়াই তুলিছিল।অলপ সময় লাগিছিল যদিও খুব সোনকালেই ‘শব্দ’লৈ শব্দৰ বৰঙনি আগবঢ়াবলৈ আৰম্ভ কৰিলোঁ।

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Arup Kumar Nath*

It has been great to be a part of such a noble endeavour of an online community making the first ever online Assamese dictionary. In fact, we can say it is the first ever online multilingual dictionary of the languages of the North East. If my memory is not betraying me, it was somewhere in mid June 2007, when I first came to see the URL of Xobdo.org. Like any other day in the office, that day also I had to consult two of the most popular English online dictionaries viz, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and Merriam Webster dictionaryfor my official work. All of a sudden, one idea clicked my mind: ‘Why can’t we have an Assamese online dictionary?’ I started surfing on the net and immediately discovered XOBDO and thus became a member of it.

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