Ladino-English/English-Ladino Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) [Paperback]

Elli Kohen (Author), Dahlia Kohen-Gordon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0781806585 | ISBN-13: 978-0781806589 | Publication Date: June 1, 1999

This unique book is the first Ladino dictionary for English speakers! Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, was the language spoken by the Sephardic Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion from Spain in the 15th century. Definitions include word origins, the cultural context of expressions, and usage, making the book an invaluable reference tool for anyone interested in Romance and Oriental languages and/or Jewish culture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elli Kohen and Dahlia Kohen-Gordon

Product Details

• Paperback: 612 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781806585
• ISBN-13: 978-0781806589
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #993,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Yiddish
  • #56 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Yiddish

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not everything I expect in a dictionary, June 5, 2002

By 

Peter R. Chastain "perpetual student" (San José, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ladino-English/English-Ladino Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) (Paperback)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lexicon, maybe . . but not a true dictionary, January 10, 2006

By 

K. D. Jablon (Valley Village, California - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ladino-English/English-Ladino Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) (Paperback)

Buy this book because there isn't much competition for it, but it is one sorry excuse for a dictionary. Compare this to the Weinreich Yiddish dictionary (six stars out of five!) for usefulness

Defects:
* Almost random spelling, no consistent system of orthography is applied e.g. `ch' is used for both 'ch' as in choose and 'sh' as in sheep.
* No guide to pronunciation, neither at the beginning, nor (but more glaringly lacking) with the entries.
* Accentuation is random.
* Random missing entries - terms used in quotations often lack corresponding entries
* No cross referencing of entries, no relationship between variants, whether just spelling e.g. casa / caza / kaza or variation in pronunciation e.g. esfuegra / sfuegra / suegra.
* Zero grammatical information
* No verb conjugation tables
* No entries for unpredictable word forms such as irregular verb forms or plurals

Pluses
* Lots of interesting vocabulary
* The proverbs

I can only hope that these defects may be addressed in a future edition.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remembering home, February 5, 2000

By 

Renato Gueron (Vila Velha, Espirito Santo, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ladino-English/English-Ladino Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) (Paperback)

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!