The virtual ‘Babel Tower’ of the North-East

How many of you, whose mother tongue is Assamese, have the basic knowledge of the languages of the neighbouring states, like Khasi, Ao, Mizo, Meetelon? Let alone these languages, how many of you know even the basics of few languages of Assam itself? Like Bodo, Mising, Rabha, Karbi? Probably very few of you are, that can be counted on finger-tips. The reverse is also true… there is hardly any genuine effort to learn Assamese by the non-native-speakers residing in the state, let alone those in the neighbouring seven-sister states. Can we break this barrier? Writes Bikram M. Baruah, Coordinator of XOBDO.

This man-made linguistic barrier is probably one of the main causes of the misunderstanding and the related unrest arising today among the different ethno-linguistic groups of the north-east.

Language	Word Count
Assamese	22628
English	12423
Dimasa	2705
Karbi	1370
Meeteilon	930
Tai	915
Bodo	804
Hmar	632
Khasi	405
Mising	364
Kok-Borok	306
Bishnupriya	233
Nagamese	138
Mizo (Lushai)	120
Garo	117
Chakma	87
Apatani	75
Ao	73
Monpa	18
Kaubru (Reang)	0
Table 1: Word Count in XOBDO.ORG as of 20-Sept-2009

Can we break this barrier and create a harmonious society of mutual understanding and respect in the entire north-east?

This is what we are trying to do in XOBDO in a small way! However small, it is an effort started in March 2006 by a number of volunteers hailing from different parts of the north-east speaking different languages, now spread across the globe, to collectively construct a multi-lingual online dictionary of the languages of the north-east. Some compare it with the famous Kon-Tiki Voyage. Few call it the ‘virtual Babel Tower of the north-east’!

Unlike a normal printed dictionary, this web-based (www.xobdo.org) dictionary is unique in the sense that it is a living dictionary. Words are entered and meanings are edited by volunteers like you and me who are interested in any of the listed languages. One can contribute words and challenge the existing ones from anywhere in the world.

When I was asked by Rajen da to write an article on XOBDO for the souvenir, I sat down and attempted to define it as - at first, I jotted down: “XOBDO is an online dictionary of the languages of the North-East India".

Can it be an Assamese “dictionary” with just 20,000 words? Not everybody would agree…. even the most basic Assamese dictionaries have more than 50,000 words. Moreover, in XOBDO, a number of words of very similar meanings are grouped together as synonyms of each other instead of defining them individually. In cases, the definitions are very short. So, ‘XOBDO’ does not qualify to be a proper dictionary.

Furthermore, till the time of writing this article, Dimasa language has only about 3000 words, Karbi has 1370 words; all other languages have less than 1000 words. It has also enlisted languages with less than 100 words or even without a single word added yet (It already has an extensive list of ). Probably, we can not claim it to be a ‘dictionary’ in many of these languages yet.

If you ask somebody in Assam or the North-East, ‘What is XOBDO?’ or ‘Do you know about XOBDO?’ most likely you will get a blank face. In spite of the best efforts by our publicity team and even after publication of so many news articles, it is not gaining enough popularity among the common masses of the North-East. A limited group of people, especially the net-savvy Diasporas are just aware of it.

We have more than 1200 registered members. In reality, less than 10 (ten) of them are continuously active members for long time. Few of the members became active at some point of time than they become dormant. Most of them just registered and became silent well-wishers.

These are the honest and candid reality of XOBDO. However, not everything about XOBDO is negative. Let us the see the positive facets and the milestones in pursuit of its definition.

XOBDO has some encyclopaedic entries specific to the culture and heritage of the region. It also has lots of photographs and the provision to store sound and video files associated with any entry. If you like to know the English or Scientific name of ‘Tengesi Xak’, ‘Dubori Bon’ and many such flora and fauna, just visit XOBDO. It already has an extensive list of flora and fauna found in the North-East with local names in many languages, most likely with a clear photograph.

The English word ‘uncle’ can have 7 different meanings with different words in Assamese. Just discover them in XOBDO!! So, where XOBDO has touched, it has made is as precise and detailed as possible.

If you search the word ‘Durga’, you will get 57 Assamese words that refer to the Goddress Durga! Similarly, it has 63 words that mean Lord Shiva, 36 words meaning Lord Vishnu, 14 words that mean ‘woman’!! These are just few examples. Therefore, XOBDO can also be called a ‘thesaurus’.

The words can be classified as slang, formal, scientic names and dialect (American/British/Indian English; Kamrupia, Borpetia, Darangiya, Baganiya, Sibaxagoria-Jorhotiya Assamese etc). It also has Fokora-Jujonas and Khanda-Bakya (planned). May be it is serving as a ‘phrasebook’.

Search some very basic words like ‘mother’, ‘bamboo’, ‘river’ etc. You will get the corresponding words in almost all the major languages of the North-East – Bodo, Mising, Khasi, Karbi, Meetelon in addition to English and Assamese. Or, search the Dimasa word ‘dilao’ or the Karbi word ‘lut’ and find out what does it mean in Assamese or English or any other language of the North-East. You can actually search a word of any language and find the equivalent words in all the available languages. In other words, XOBDO is multi-directional and multi-lingual. In one article, XOBDO has been described as the ‘virtual Babel Tower of the North-East’.

So, I rephrased my definition – “XOBDO is a precise and detailed online multi-directional multi-lingual multi-media based dictionary-cum-phrasebook-thesaurus-cum-encyclopaedia of the languages of the North-East India!!”

We can say ‘lexical database’ instead of ‘dictionary’ or ‘thesaurus’ to avoid any counter claim.

I was not completely happy with this definition yet. I almost forgot about some other aspects that need to be considered while defining XOBDO - who is creating or compiling it? How is it financed?

As mentioned before, XOBDO is a ‘wiki’, that is, anybody with an internet connection can add words and edit the contents. It is the endless and selfless efforts of many volunteers spread across the globe that is making XOBDO so unique. All the 20+ thousand Assamese words added with properly linked 12000+ English words and the corresponding meaning and uploading of 300+ photos are done by volunteers, spending their personal time and claiming not a single penny in return. It applies to volunteers contributing in Dimasa, Karbi, Bodo, Meetelon, Khasi and so forth. Students/research scholars, teachers and professionals in their respective fields are volunteering selflessly to create something special for their mother-tongue.

There are volunteers contributing in other facets of XOBDO. They are working to give publicity, make people aware of XOBDO. They are asking people to be become members and contribute words. There are also volunteers who are continuously checking the entries; pointing out errors, refining the entries with more details and clearing up the ambiguities, reorganizing the words, adding new additional meaning to the existing words, identifying and linking antonyms, opposite genders, parts of speech by participating in discussion forums, consulting other books and documents.

Significant efforts are also going in concept development, their implementation by developing and maintaining the website and the underlying database. Many man-hours of original thinking, discussions, experimentations and testing are involved in the process. Primarily Priyankoo, Palla Saikia and I are involved here.

Financially speaking, XOBDO needs around Rs. 2000/- per year to maintain the website. This amount is very small and again Priyankoo, Pallav and I share this amount among ourselves. However, the price of personal time that all the volunteers are spending to add words and give meaning to them is priceless. You can not put a price-tag to them.

Why these volunteers are coming forward? Love for their mother-tongue? The urge to do something for their mother-land? To show off their beloved tongue to the world? Is it the urge to preserve the rare words of these languages?

The answer may be all of them or combination thereof. I, personally, don’t know the answer. But, what I know for sure is that, there are volunteers who are eager to give their time and use best of their abilities to contribute into the endeavour called ‘XOBDO’.

So, can I redefine XOBDO once again as “XOBDO is the self-less endeavour of some like-minded people to build a Babel Tower of the North-East India”?

I appeal you to join this endeavour of ours and help construct this Babel Tower so that we can together reach the sky!