The Oxford University Press, which chose “Aadhaar” as its first “Hindi word of the year”, is now hunting for another such word that can be declared Oxford Hindi word of the year 2018. The word has to be one that reflected the “ethos” and “mood” of the nation through the year.
Submissions have been invited from the public who have time till December 9 to submit a word that suits the title. The submissions opened on November 27 and can be made on the Oxford University Press website.
“Following the success of our inaugural Hindi Word of the Year (HWOTY) in 2017, Oxford Dictionaries is now calling on Hindi speakers across the country to help choose a Hindi Word of the Year for 2018. The Hindi Word of the Year will be a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest over the last 12 months. The chosen word should reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the year,” OUP said in a statement.
The Press specified that the word should not be necessarily new but must have strong link to 2018.
Following the public suggestions, the Word of the Year will be chosen by the Hindi Dictionaries team at OUP along with an advisory panel of language experts.
“Last year, we launched the Oxford Hindi Word of the Year and received an excellent response, both in terms of numbers and the vast variety of words that were submitted as entries. We are delighted to invite suggestions for the Hindi Word of the Year 2018 — words that have resonated with Hindi speakers over the course of last 12 months,” Sivaramakrishnan Venkateswaran, Managing Director, OUP India, said in the statement.
READ | Toxic is Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2018
The Oxford Hindi Word of the Year 2018 will be announced at the Jaipur Literary Festival to be held in January 2019.
THE JURY
Ashok Kumar Sharma: Hindi Language Champion, Advisor, Public Relation Society of India
Kritika Agrawal: Hindi Language Champion, Lawyer (Oxford), polyglot, and Indian language expert
Namita Gokhale: Writer, publisher and festival director. She is the author of 16 works of fiction and non-fiction, and co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and Mountain Echoes, the Bhutan Literature Festival
Randhir Thakur: Associate Commissioning Editor – Hindi, Oxford University Press India
Saurabh Dwivedi: Journalist, Editor in Chief of thelallantop.com and former Associate Editor AajTak
Vijay Nandan: Hindi Language Champion, freelancer, writer and translator
In 2017, the Hindi Word of the Year was Aadhaar. OUP says it might also look for a Word of the Year in other Indian languages in future.