In the preface to his Japanese-Malayalam dictionary, K.P.P. Nambiar writes about his impressions of the Japanese language which he first encountered in 1965 as a student in Japan.
“I was struck with an inexplicable affinity with Japanese conversation, with its unaccented delivery and melodic intonations that reminded me of Malayalam, my mother tongue.”
On Friday, accepting the first copy of the dictionary from Cultural Affairs Minister A.K. Balan, Hideki Asari, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Japanese Embassy, quoted this observation made by Mr. Nambiar.
Published by the State Institute of Languages, the dictionary was painstakingly created over a 15-year period, said Mr. Nambiar, consultant, UN FAO, and Director, INFOFISH, an inter-governmental organisation.
He was assisted in his endeavour by Jun Takashima and Makoto Minegishi of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, which was responsible for the digitisation of the dictionary. Its launch, Mr. Asari said, marks the beginning of a new era in the relationship between Japan and Kerala.
“The Japanese dictionary will enable translations from Japanese to Malayalam and vice versa. The dictionary will be a vehicle for closer relationship between Japan and Kerala, and India in general,” Mr. Asari said.
It was quite possible, he said, that Japanese and Malayalam had a certain sister connection.
