Customer Reviews

English Slovak Dictionary

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

 

 

For 20 years, Slavic readers had to do without an available, in-print edition of Jan Simko's comprehensive English-Slovak dictionary. Despite its original sell-out of its first 3 editions (in 1967, 1968 and 1971) in Bratislava, the publishers refused to issue reprints until Bolchazy-Carducci publishers picked it up in 1991 and re-released it in its original format. My own copy of this dictionary is from this 4th printing in 1991. Printed in "Czechoslovakia" (Bratislava, to be precise), the book's cover and pages have a different feel to what we Americans may be accustomed to, but it is a high-quality, durable product and compact enough to travel around with you. Like its myriad of fans will attest, this dictionary is indeed comprehensive: the largest English-Slovak dictionary ever. Simko worked on this 1450-word dictionary from 1955 through 1965--a true "labor of love," he attests. A word of caution, however, to novices: the dictionary provides only English-to-Slovak translations and pronunciations and not vice versa. Hence, be forewarned that this is not a typical "look-up-a-Slovak-term" dictionary.

This large dictionary is very useful as it appears to be the best available English to Slovak dictionary. Its draw backs include mediocre paper and a strong orientation to British English. It contains many words (1 or more per page) that are not current in the US. These draw backs are more than compensated for by its comprehensiveness.

I thought the english-slovak dictionary is pretty helpful but I think that it's more of a dictionary for a person speaking slovak and trying to learn english rather than an english person trying to speak slovak. but it is still helpful either way.