Ladino-English, English-Ladino: Concise Encyclopedic Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary)

Rating:
Summary: Not everything I expect in a dictionary
Review: As a Ladino novice (with a good background in Spanish), I hoped this dictionary would help me gain the skills I need to understand and compose messages in an online Ladino e-mail group. I was somewhat disappointed to find that many Ladino words encountered in everyday writing are not included, but I understand that this is a problem inherent in all but the most comprehensive dictionaries. More seriously, the English-Ladino section is only about one third the size of the Ladino-English section. My biggest complaint is the absence of a language synopsis, showing the forms of personal pronouns and the conjugation of irregular (or even regular) verbs. Instead, a few of the verb inflections are included in the body of the dictionary, but this is very hit-and-miss. For example, in the E-L section we see that BE is SER or ESTAR (with no explanation of the difference between those two), but in the L-E section I could find ES (with no explanation that it is part of SER), SOMOS, and SON, but not the other parts of the present indicative active of SER.

Most of the entries have only one- or two-word definitions, but for some of the uniquely Ladino words an extended definition provides a nice window into Sephardic culture. I get the impression that the authors provided such definitions for topics that specifically interested them.

I was particularly delighted by the list of Ladino proverbs. Overall, the dictionary is helpful and well worth the money. Still, if I had been able to find a better Ladino/English dictionary, I probably would have given this one only two stars.

Rating:
Summary: Remembering home
Review: It is amazing to find out that something I thought was so distant (the Sefardic culture) returned so clear and present when going through this Kohen's (Elli and Dahlia) masterpiece. All the words that I looked for, (which are part of my childhood, since it was the language mostly spoken at home), were easily found and explained. Expressions, proverbs and popular sayings are unseparable parts of the Sefardic culture and way of being. The authors have exactly caught the spirit.The book is not only a dictionary, but a very interesting source of research that has given me many hours of enchantement. Mashallah!