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
Biography : ( Born : August 23, 1913)
Early
life and education:
Venkatasubbaiah was born on August 23, 1913. 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
inMysore 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.
Literary contributions:
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. 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 two
volumes. 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). 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.
He has served as the vice president of the Lexicographical
Association of India for 17 years. 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. 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.
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
Awards
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.He was also congratulated at the first international lexicographers
meeting held in Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu.
