Oxford launches compact English – Assamese Dictionary

It will now be easy for the Assamese people to master the English language as the Oxford University Press (OUP) launched the Oxford Compact English-English Assamese Dictionary in Guwahati on Wednesday. It is an addition to OUP’s 23 existing bilingual dictionaries in Indian Languages. The dictionary contains as many as 24,000 words, phrases, idioms, phrasal verbs and derivatives with their translations and over 200 illustrations, 13,000 example sentences and 1,100 synonyms and opposites. While preparing this dictionary, the current usage of the language was taken into account and the Assamese translation was kept very simple. To help users with the pronunciation, a pronunciation guide using the International Phonetic Alphabet is also provided with the dictionary. The OUP said that this dictionary will be helpful not only for students but also for adult learners of English, teachers, translators and also general readers. The launch event was attended by several educators, academicians and representatives of educational institutions. Paras Bansal, Business Head (Higher Education, Trade and Professional Learning) OUP India, said that the launch is a significant milestone as Assam has a large young population eager to improve their proficiency in the English language for both personal and professional development.