From: Jo <ugg-5@spro.net>
Date: 31 January 2014 06:55
Subject: with haste to convey a new production

Dear All,

I just heard from my long-time friend, Ghulam Murshid, formerly on the Bangla Lang. and Lit. faculty at Rajshahi U., now resident in London a few decades already, about his and his team’s new diachronic dictionary. I had to ask for the title and publisher (they are not here). He wrote:

I do not know if you would remember that I was heading a project of 12 people to compile a diachronic dictionary. I worked for 3 years and a month and edited the very last page on Saturday last. I have never worked so hard on anything. It has turned into the largest Bengali dictionary (in 3 volumes, more than 3200 pages) and first ever Bengali dictionary on historical principle.

In this dictionary we gave the origin of each word, and then traced the first use of the word in written texts, with the extract, author and year. Afterwards, we tried to trace the changes of the word in form and meaning throughout centuries (until 1972).

The first volume has come out. The second one is expected to be out in the middle of February, and third in March. A copy of this dictionary will be presented to the PM tomorrow, and I came to Bangladesh on Wednesday to do it, in a ceremony (organised by the Bangla Academy).

This is a prodigious contribution to the history of the Bengali language. I hope it achieves wide notice, here as well as abroad. Here is Murshid’s email contact: ghulammurshid 

Best wishes,

Joanna Kirkpatrick