London, Dec 07: Words linked to Christianity,
the monarchy and British history have been erased out from a
leading dictionary for children.
Yes, the Oxford University Press has taken out words
like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from
its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with modern words like
"blog", "broadband", "voicemail" and "MP3 player".
Moreover, dozens of words related to the countryside
have been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made
to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural,
multifaith society.
According to Vineeta Gupta, the Head of Children's
Dictionaries at Oxford University Press: "When you look back
at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples
of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived
in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons.
"Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also
much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as
before. Our understanding of religion is in multi-culturalism,
which is why some words such as 'Pentecost' or 'Whitsun' would
have been in 20 years ago but not now."
However, academics said that the changes to the 10,000
word Junior Dictionary could mean that kids lose touch with
Britain's heritage.
"We have a certain Christian narrative which has
given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is
all relative and replaceable is questionable.
"The word selections are a very interesting reflection
of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual
background and the natural world and towards the world that
information technology creates for us," Prof Alan Smithers of
Buckingham University was quoted as saying.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, December 07, 2008, 00:00