Tulu is a language without script, and is mostly written in Kannada, spoken by around 2 million native speakers in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala. The new initiative is the second mega project in the language after the publication of the six-volume Tulu lexicon (Tulu-Kannada-English dictionary) two decades ago, the sources said. The new mega work in the language, Tulu Jnati Padakosha (Tulu etymological dictionary), would be completed within three years.
The first Tulu lexicon was published by the Udupi-based Rashtrakavi Govinda Pai Research Centre in 1988. The team working on the Tulu etymological dictionary are Ashok Alva, researcher at the Regional Resource Centre for Folk Performing Arts at Udupi, Padmanabha Kekunnaya, one of the assistant editors of Tulu lexicon; Kamalaksha, retired professor of Kannada at Kannur University in Kerala and Saigeetha, lecturer at Nitte University.
Tulu Sahitya Academy president M Janaki Brahmavar said Nitte University would bear the cost of the project for the first year and the Academy would sponsor the project for the next two years.
