Foreword

SIL International (Nepal) is dedicated to serving language communities throughout the country, building their capacity for sustainable language development by means of research, translation, training and materials development. In this regard, developing dictionaries is one of the main focuses of our organization. Dictionaries can play a crucial role in the preservation and development of a language. We are very pleased to see the Dhimal dictionary being developed in book form and published both on Webonary, an online dictionary, as well as a print version.

The 2011 Census shows 19,300 Dhimal [dhi] people in Nepal, and the language is classified as 6a (vigorous) in terms of Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS). However, Mother Tongue Centre Nepal (MTCN), the Dhimal community and their organization have put a combined effort into preserving this language. The Dhimal community contributed their valuable time in the dictionary-making workshops, data entry, editing, and proofreading. The thorough tasks completed under the supervision of Dr. Netra Mani Rai, proof-reading of English glosses by Mr. David Rutherfurd and technical support of Ms. Ressa Lhomi are appreciable.

This dictionary-making project in Dhimal is a substantial task in terms of the inclusive data collection method. Native words are collected according to a template customized to suit the minority languages in Nepal. We are hopeful to see this useful method being used in further dictionary-making projects in the future. This dictionary is an outcome of the passion of the Dhimal people to pass on their mother tongue vocabulary and their traditional ethnic knowledge to future generations. As SIL longs to see people flourishing in community using the language they value most, I hope to see further development of the Dhimal language in the future.

Prithvi Chaudhary

Country Director

SIL International (Nepal)