Meddelanden: 25
Språk: English
UUano (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 17:09:00
I would like to purchase a physical dictionary to have at home, because I learn better that way. I have been browsing the store at esperanto-usa.org and there are several there. Normally, I would go to a store and browse through different dictionaries to see which one I like best, but obviously that cannot be done in this instance.
Does anyone have any preferences and/or recommendations? For background, I have been using Langenscheidt's dictionaries my whole life and tend to prefer them to others when it comes to foreign language "dictionaries". However, I would also like to have one that defines words in Esperanto rather than merely translating them into English.
What are your thoughts? Thanks.
darkweasel (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 17:20:50
sudanglo (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 17:39:41
If it's beyond your budget, perhaps you might be able to find someone who had the 2002 or 1970 edition of PIV prior to purchasing the latest edition, and who would sell you their old edition at a reasonable price.
UUano (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 17:50:53
In the meantime, are there any others out there that are decent and cost less than $30?
Also, what about an English-Esperanto/Esperanto-English dictionary? I borrowed one by Peter J. Benson from my local library and it seemed decent. I would just purchase that one, but I wanted to see what other people's thoughts were first. Anyone use that one?
T0dd (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 18:32:03
erinja (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 18:35:47
The best bidirectional dictionary is the new edition of J.C. Wells' dictionary. The old edition was the Esperanto dictionary from the "Teach Yourself" series. The new one is called "English-Esperanto-English Dictionary".
Since the PIV is very expensive (and very large and thick), a smaller alternative with fewer words (but still most words that you'll ever need) is the "Plena Vortaro", usually abbreviated as PV. The author of Grosjean-Maupin. It's out of print but you might be able to get a used copy. I have an old-as-the-hills falling apart used copy that I bought online used.
UUano (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 19:19:13
Erinja - I think you're right about the Benson; it was a while ago and I hadn't remembered about that. I would definitely want a bidirectional dictionary.
I guess I will be making a purchase shortly.
Chainy (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 20:19:49
erinja:The best bidirectional dictionary is the new edition of J.C. Wells' dictionary.I've got this dictionary and it's quite handy, but it's also a little disappointing. It's just a word list, there are no examples given of word usage etc. So sometimes you have two or three words to choose from and the only way of finding out which is the best one to use for a particular context is to then go and have a look in ReVo online, or take a look in the pdf copy of NPIV2002.
I don't think a really good bidirectional Esperanto-English dictionary actually exists. It's just a matter of using several dictionaries to try and find the right word!
I haven't tried the Benson dictionary. Maybe it could be interesting to try that out some day.
There's a huge dictionary for German speakers by Erich-Dieter Krause, and it's apparently very good. It's very expensive, though, but I'm tempted to get a copy of this some day as I think it has more detailed examples of word usage. You can find it here
biguglydave (Visa profilen) 9 februari 2011 21:41:00
UUano:It's true that Benson only swings one way. However, don't rule it out in the future. It's not as costly as some other dictionaries. I once THOUGHT I made the mistake of buying Benson's dictionary early in my Esperanto efforts. However, I discovered I just bought it too early. Lately I found it to be very useful to confirm the Esperanto output of my English-language brain.
Erinja - I think you're right about the Benson; it was a while ago and I hadn't remembered about that. I would definitely want a bidirectional dictionary.
RiotNrrd (Visa profilen) 10 februari 2011 06:58:17