The
word centenary
70th ANNIVERSARY OF
THE MALALASEKERA’S ENGLISH SINHALA DICTIONARY
Wednesday,
September 12, 2018 - 01:00
70th Anniversary of the
Malalasekara’s English Sinhala Dictionary a publication of M D Gunasena Company
falls on September 15.
The Dictionary emerged
in 1948 and the first preface of Prof Gunapala Malalasekara is dated September
15, 1948, while he was academic of par - excellence and a preeminent scholar at
the University of Ceylon.
The second edition of
the dictionary was published after ten years while Prof. Malalasekara was away
in Moscow as Sri Lanka’s first ambassador on September 10, 1958. Prof.
Malalasekara in his preface to this edition stated: “I was away from Ceylon
while this book was going through the press. It was very fortunate, therefore,
that my erstwhile pupil Lionel Lokuliyana volunteered to undertake the task of
revising the entries and reading the proofs. His suggestions for the
improvement of the work have been very valuable and I am most grateful to him
for his assistance.”
The third edition was
released only after 24 years in 1992, where Nanda Malalasekara of Peradeniya,
GD Wijayawardana of Colombo and D R M Walton of Sussex were instrumental in
releasing same which was facilitated by the then, President R Premadasa. This
edition contained new 5000 words. The new features contained in this edition
were thus: “Other innovation includes the use of slanted Sinhala characters for
the English pronunciation guide, and of the universally popular Helvetica
typeface for main and subheadings. Modern internationally accepted definitions
and associated units (SI system), together with chemical formulae for simple
compounds and the one two-letter codes for the elements have been introduced.
Finally, the abbreviations section has been expanded to cope with the diverse
range of acronyms commonly used, especially for international organizations.”
After an interval of six
years in the year 2000 at the eve of the millennium the Dictionary was
completely revised as the fourth edition, was expanded and updated with a board
comprised of Prof A J Gunawardena, Prof Chandrasiri Palliyaguru, Piyadasa
Hettihewa, Athula Manchanayaka and Percy Jayamanna functioning as the
coordinating editor. This edition of the Malalasekara English-Sinhala
Dictionary was a landmark as it marked the Golden Jubilee year of the
Dictionary which coincided with the birth centenary of Prof G P Malalasekara.
The publisher’s
prefatory note on May 3, 2000, asserted: “The never-ending popularity of this
Dictionary vouched for by the fact that its sales have far reached those of any
other similar publication in Sri Lanka”.
The fifth edition of the
Dictionary the editorial consultants, comprised Professor Chandasiri
Palliyaguru, Dr Edwin Ariyadasa, Prof. R.D. Gunarathne Dr Harischandra
Wijayathunga, Piyadasa Hettihewa, Athula Manchanayake. The editorial team
comprised Thusitha Malalasekara, A S Gunawardana and D D S Jayasundera. The
coordinating editor was Percy Jayamanna.
The introduction to the
fifth edition on September 8, 2007, stated:
“This fifth edition
comes out seven years after the fourth. It is seen from the English
Dictionaries that the English Language has been gradually transformed....”
The sixth edition
emerged to mark the Gunasena centenary in September 2014. The principal editor
was Prof Kusuma Karunarathne. Dr Lakshmi de Silva and Prof Sandagomi Coperahewa
were the members of the editorial board while Buddhini Ramanayake functioned as
the Assistant to the said editorial board. The Dictionary was completely
revised. The publisher’s note for this edition states inter alia:
“A living Language is
subject to change continuously with time. As such, we consider the updating of
the dictionary, a necessity. It is with this in mind as well that the
Malalasekara English Sinhala Dictionary has been presently updated and edited.
The Dictionary is titled: “Most Trusted Dictionary in Sri Lanka - New Edition -
Malalasekara English - Sinhala Dictionary”
Malalasekara English -
Sinhala Dictionary is a towering landmark which is a gift for posterity. This
Dictionary would continue to serve its readers as an epitome of legacy as a
significant intellectual repast.
No comments:
Post a Comment