| G. Venkatasubbaiah | |
|---|---|
Prof. Venkatasubbaiah |
|
| Born | August 23, 1913 Mysore |
| Occupation | Writer, Researcher, Teacher |
| Period | 20th Century |
| Subjects | Lexicography |
Prof. G. Venkatasubbaiah (Kannada: ಪ್ರೊ ಜಿ.ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ) (born August 23, 1913) is a Kannada lexicographer who has compiled over 10 dictionaries, edited over 25 books and published several papers. He is regarded as the father of the modern Kannada dictionary.[1]
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Venkatasubbaiah was born on August 23, 1913.[2] He was born and brought up in Mysore. He is the son of renowned Kannada and Sanskrit scholar Ganjam Thimmanniah. He secured his Masters of Arts degree from the Maharaja college in Mysore in the year 1932, ranking first in the university. He took up the teaching profession and taught Kannada language at the Maharaja's College in Mysore and the Vijaya college in Bangalore.He served as Head of department of Kannada in Vijaya College and Prof.V.T.Srinivasan was the Principal of that college from 1951 to 1972.
Venkatasubbaiah has compiled more than 10 dictionaries, including an eight-volume Kannada-Kannada Nighantu (Dictionary). This dictionary has also been translated to the Braille language by the Braille Transcription Centre of the Canara Bank Relief and Welfare Society.[3] He has been writing the popular column, Igo Kannada for over a decade in the major Kannada daily, Prajavani. The articles published in Igo Kannada have been compiled into a book in four volumes.[4] He has also authored a dictionary entitled Klishtapada Kosha (a dictionary of complex Kannada words) which was released to mark the Suvarna Karnataka (Silver Jubilee of the formation of Karnataka).[5] It is the first of its kind in Kannada language which covers different language specifications such as derivation, punctuation, phoneme and morphological patterns of Kannada language as the language has evolved over the centuries.[5]
He has served as the vice president of the Lexicographical Association of India for 17 years.[4] In 1998, he was appointed as an advisor to the multilingual dictionary project of the Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai, which comprises Japanese, Kannada, English and Tamil.[4] He was also appointed as a consultative committee member in the Telugu lexicon project initiated by the Telugu Academy of the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
He was honored with the Presidentship of 77th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana held at Bangalore on 2011
Venkatasubbaiah has been conferred numerous awards, important among which are the Kannada Sahitya Academy award, the Karnataka Rajyotsava award and the Nadoja award, which is honorary degree equivalent to the D.Litt degree. He has also been awarded the Masti Award by the Government of Karnataka. He was President of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat from 1964-69. He has also chaired the annual Kannada literary festival, Alvas Nudisiri in 2007.[6] [7] He was also congratulated at the first international lexicographers meeting held in Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu.[4]