The present study is an attempt to develop a classification schedule in KANNADA. S.R.Ranganathan’s (SRR) Colon Classification (CC) is a unique contribution from India. In my earlier studies (Sharada 1997)1, I have expressed the dearth of Classification Schedules in Kannada. The CC has been devised with special attention to Indian thought and works the Humanities and social science subjects.
Hence it was thought appropriate to develop the schedule in Kannada based on the CC. This present work in Kannada is not an exact translation of CC. Following are some of the important differences.
- A few descriptors not in currency have been deleted and a few others have been added
- Word to word translation is not made
- Words in day to day use have been adopted giving importance to controlled vocabulary
- An abbreviation list is included in the beginning
- Rules part is minimized
Collecting descriptors from CC discipline wise
For collecting the descriptors in Kannada, though the base is CC schedules, the following are the other sources:
- Subject dictionaries
- Subject Glossaries(English-Kannada)
- Title index of Kannada books
- List of Subject headings for Kannada books
- Kannada corpora
- Granthasuuchi
- Subject Glossaries in Telugu
In the beginning the complete schedules pertaining to a particular discipline was scanned and the Kannada equivalents of isolates were rendered. The Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, Bangalore, provided the digital version of other subject schedules.
Translation and Transliteration to Kannada
Some descriptors do not have equivalent translation in Kannada; these were transliterated. The major problem with transliteration is mainly for the words beginning with Vowels such as E, I and O and consonants – G, J ,C and K. In textual transliterations it may depend upon the context. As we are considering only the concepts, based on the phonetics, equivalent terminology is provided. For the pronunciation, standard dictionary has been to referred (Oxford English Dictionary where pronunciation is provided for each word). In some cases for the concepts that are in phrases in CC, Kannada rendering would be in nominative case singular number.
Methodology
The CC scheme is facet based with five fundamental categories (FC) preceded by an indicator digit namely ‘, Personality ’[P], ‘;Matter’[M], ‘:Energy[E]’,’.Space[S]’ and` ’Time[T]’. Among the FCs, identifying the Personality facet is the crucial factor. In order to solve this problem SRR suggested the residual principle. This principle states that, while indexing a document, consider the last concept, in other words bottom-up. Tag the concepts starting with Time, next Space, next Energy, next Matter and the remaining would be Personality facet. Also it is a fact that majority of the descriptors in Time and Space are common to many subjects. In a similar way we may think of other two Energy and Matter facets also. Hence an attempt is made to list all the concepts related to Energy and Matter facets irrespective of any subject. To be practical the schedules will be given for evaluation to working librarians to get feedback. Two decades earlier, classification was an essential tool for not only shelving the books but also for information retrieval. SRR tried to encapsulate the entire content of the book in the class number. But in the present digital era, there are so many searchable fields in a metadata of a document. The former is useful for placing the books on the shelves. However, in order to sharpen the facets the following five devices are used.
- CD Chronological Device
- GD Geographical Device
- SD Subject Device
- AD Alphabetical Device
- ED Enumerative Device
The Facet formulae could be uniformly used for all the disciplines.
A Relative Index to the schedules has been planned. In the annexure the index terms with their corresponding number are given. In the digital environment, this will be of help in developing online classification scheme and in updating the schedules.
Updating the Schedule
In order to update the descriptors, Dewey Decimal Classification 22nd edition was referred. Subject glossaries and dictionaries were referred for rendering the descriptors in Kannada. The important discipline-oriented terms found in these reference materials and not included in the CC were listed and added in the hierarchy.
Issues in rendering Kannada descriptors:
1. For a single descriptor different meanings are given in different dictionaries. While taking into consideration the context, one has to depend on the entry in CC schedule.
2. Since a few descriptors do not have Kannada equivalents, they have been adopted as it is in English. In such cases, based on the phonetic pronunciation, equivalent terminology has been provided. Example:
For the term Engineering: ಇಂಜಿನಿಯರಿಂಗ್ [Univ.of Mysore English –
Kannada Dictionary] ಎಂಜಿನಿಯರಿಂಗ್ [Vijnaana Kosha]
Both are correct but we have to adopt one. In the transliteration, the letter “e” represents Kannada letter “ಎ” [ex: ಬೋಧನೆ boodhane] and the letter “I” represents “ಇ” [ex: ಇಂಡಿಯ - India]
In a few cases, Hindi equivalents have been adopted in the published subject glossaries.
3. Derivational implications |
For the term “Chemistry” ರಾಸಾಯನಿಕ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ and ರಸಾಯನ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ are the equivalent given in two dictionaries. Both are correct. In Kannada, if “-ಇಕ” (ika) pratyaya is added to the root-word the first syllable of the word will become long. Plenty of examples are there for this.
| ಸಮಾಜ(Society) ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ (Sociological)
ರಸಾಯನ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ (Chemistry) ರಾಸಾಯನಿಕ (Chemical) |
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Sociology Schedule
In preparing a CC schedule in Kannada the first discipline came to is Sociology. As discussed above, the data was collected from CC schedule 7th edition. With the help of subject glossary and English –Kannada dictionary, University of Mysore and a few others, the descriptors were translated. For the convenience of users it is made bilingual. Though it is planned to list Common Energy Isolate separately irrespective of subject, in the present paper, Energy isolates, are also included.
Appendix 1 is the draft Sociology schedule and Appendix 2 is the relative index. These may please be used in practical situations and feed back given to us. sharada@ciil.stpmy.soft.net
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Y - Sociology |
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