Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan

'Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan' a dictionary of regional dialects of Bangladesh. Edited by Dr muhammad shahidullah, the Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan was first published in 1965. The Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1928) by george abraham grierson was the first serious work on the regional forms of the bangla language. Similar to this survey, a project for surveying local dialects was undertaken by the bangla academy under the general supervision of Dr Muhammad Shahidullah in 1958. Different universities, colleges, high schools, journals and cultural organizations were asked to collect and send words. As many as 453 contributors of Dhaka, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Comilla, Khulna, Pabna, Sylhet, Chittagong, Faridpur, Rangpur, Jessore, Barisal, Bogra, Kushtia, Dinajpur, Noakhali, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Karachi collected 1,66,246 regional words. After scrutiny, about 75,000 words were accepted for inclusion in the dictionary.

The compilation work began in December 1960 under the supervision of a committee of advisors with Professor Syed Ali Ahsan, Director-General of bangla academy, as Chairman and Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, Dr muhammad enamul haq, Professor muhammad abdul Hye, Professor munier chowdhury and Dr Kazi Deen Muhammad as members.

According to the work plan, the first volume was to be a dictionary of different regional dialects of East Bengal, the second volume a dictionary of Bangla words used in bangla literature, and the third volume a glossary of words, idioms and anecdotes used in Bangla literature and biographies of Muslim writers. The first volume of the dictionary, of over 1000 pages, was published in 1965. Its second impression was published in 1973. It was reprinted in 1993. The second and third volumes were, however, never completed. Nevertheless, this dictionary of regional dialects was an extraordinary contribution to Bangla language and literature. [Mahmood Nasir Jahangiri]

See also abhidhan. [Jahangiri, Mahmood Nasir Department of Bangla, Mirpur College, Dhaka]