Customer Reviews

English - Somali; Somali - English Dictionary;INGRISI SOOMAALI - SOOMAALI INGRISI QAAMUUS

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a great dictionary and I find it very useful. I have had the first edition for about three years and carried it on my frequent trips to Ethiopia and Somalia.
This is a dictionary that fulfills its purposes. I have looked at the others and this one is not only cheaper but better.
The dictionary is not a exact copy but similar to the one by Said Warsame Hirsi and Abdirahman C. Oomar as it has a large number of new words also the text on the definitions have been changed but the look and feel is very similar, but I for one appreciate this as that was a very good dictionary which now is sadly out of print.
This dictionary has also a Somali English section of two hundred new pages which the old dictionary did not have.
One drawback of this dictionary is that its no longer so portable as the first edition was smaller, however since it has thousands of more definitions that the first edition I think compromises had to be made.
Anyway, this is the dictionary you must own if you are in any way serious about learning the Somali language.
Somalia has been without a government for many years and Hats Off! To the scholars at Mogadishu University who have amidst these troubled times brought out a dictionary for the benefit of all the people of Somalia. I believe that the teachers have not been paid for a number of years due to the wars but still continue to teach out of public service.
There are four dictionaries that you may encounter in your battle with the Somali language this one is the best so far.

This is dictionary is the best of the three or four Somali dictionaries probably because it has been prepared by academics at Magadishu University, there is a message from the President of the University in the introductory pages.
My favorite dictionary from which I learned Somali used to be the Af-Garad by Saciid Warsame Xirsi but sadly this went out of print I was quite happy to see that half this dictionary about 250 pages is a revamped version of the Af-Garad
But this dictionary has been revised in that extant that two hundred new pages have been added in a new Somali English section.
As far as I am concerned an old favorite dictionary just got better as I can now do a lookup both ways instead of buying another dictionary. This is what makes it affordable.
This dictionary is not to the high standard of an Oxford dictionary but it is the best of the lot believe me. I have been teaching Somali refugees in New York and this is the one I would recommend for students.

I live in Seattle where there is a large Somali community. I have been learning the Somali language because in my job I interact a lot with people in the Somali community. This dictionary is very rudimentary. I have read through both the newer edition and the older edition and other than the preface, introduction, and front matter, the editions are, from what I can tell, identical. The publication date of the older edition to which I refer is 1994. Star Publishing was the publisher and the author has used the English spelling of his name, Mohamud Korshel, on the cover of this older edition. The cover is either red or blue. This dictionary has a lot of vocabulary, but there is no context for the definitions nor a pronunciation guide. It is nice because it it English-Somali, Somali-English. Some other dictionaries are either Somali-English or English-Somali. I would recommend Fiqi's Somali English Dictionary, First Edition (Fiqi Educational Materials, 1995), by Awil Ali Hashi with Abdirahman A. Hashi as well as Essential English Somali Dictionary, Second Edition (Fiqi Publishers, 2004) by Awil Ali Hashi with Abdirahman A. Hashi. Combined, these two are much better than Korshel's/Qoorsheel's dictionaries.

I'm an English-Somali dictionaries' freak. As such, I can tell you with an absolute certainty that this dictionary is not a new one. It's the exact copy of another dictionary published in Somalia three decades ago. The authors are Said Warsame Hirsi and Abdirahman C. Oomar. The cover of the original dictionary was yellow and it contained allegedly 5000 words, but when I counted was much less than that.

What's more, this new edition doesn't show the pronounciation as it did in a middle column of the original dictionary. There are no new entries and it is an exact copy of the old dictionary. The only difference is that it has a Somali-English section.

In conclusion I was disappointed and I would advise anyone considering of buying this new edition to reconsider their decision.

I don't know who has given this dictionary five stars. As one earlier review said, it is a column of Somali words followed by a column of English words, and then vice-versa. No context, no pronunciation, no synonyms or derivatives or examples of other forms of the word (plurals, feminine and masculine endings, definite articles, etc). I was rather shocked at how useless I found it when I tried to translate some stories. I bought Fiqi's Somali-English dictionary and immediately solved the problems I was having. The one good thing I have to say is that it translates both ways, but a similar vocabulary can be found in the Somali-English, English-Somali Dictionary and Phrasebook by Qadir, Orwin, and Awde. Don't waste your money buying this.

I find the Somali vocabulary very limited.When I tried to find words from a Somali Bible, they were not in this dictionary. At least the type is clear and legible. Other dictionaries(Amharic and Armenian) I bought from Simon Wallenburg were not.

I was pretty dissapointed when I received this dictionary. The pages consist of one column of English words followed by one column of Somali words. I expected a great deal more like pronunciation and grammatical guides.