12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated, poor orthographics, not user-friendly, January 11, 2010
This review is from: Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English / English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition (Paperback)
I have been studying and teaching the Lakota language for 8 years now. Until last year, this dictionary was the only comprehensive one out there, so we used it but there were obvious flaws. The pronunciation was not clearly indicated and the verbs, especially, were missing a great deal of important information.
In addition, this dictionary assumed a certain amount of knowledge from the user and therefore is not very user-friendly or clear, especially to the beginner or early intermediate.
The Buechel dictionary is over 50 years old and it is outdated no matter how many new printings it undergoes. Some of the words in it are obsolete, in fact, and are not used by speakers today.
If you wish to buy a Lakota dictionary with sterling example sentences, user-friendly orthographics for pronunciation and complete, up-to-date information on grammar (especially on verbs, which are arguably the most difficult part of the language), I strongly recommend that you consider the "New Lakota Dictionary" by the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC) instead and not waste your hard-earned money on an obsolete, inferior dictionary like Buechel. I know it was considered good for a long time, but that time has passed.
The "New Lakota Dictionary" is so far superior in every way to Buechel that I and my entire class completely changed over our spelling system to match the NLD and I have not touched my Buechel dictionary since buying this one.
The NLD also has an excellent grammar section in the center with clear, concise explanations of various aspects of the Lakota language so, once you have purchased it, you don't need other textbooks for grammar. This one dictionary has it all.
If you truly wish to buy the best Lakota dictionary currently available, I strongly urge you to buy the New Lakota Dictionary and forgo the outdated, more difficult-to-use Buechel dictionary. Why not get the best for your money?
I should mention that I have no ulterior motives at all in recommending the LLC or their dictionary; this is just the truth as I see it from being a long-time student and teacher of the Lakota language.
You deserve the best, so please buy the "New Lakota Dictionary" and forget Buechel!
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lakota Dictionary, August 13, 2004
This review is from: Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English / English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition (Paperback)
This is a good dictionary with lots of specific detail and sample sentences under each entry. Includes a pronunciation guide, grammar overview, and both Lakota-English and English-Lakota sections. The English-Lakota section can occasionally be difficult to use because words are grouped under headings (if you want to know the number five, for example, you can't look under "five," you have to look under "numbers." Other than that quirk, this is a great dictionary.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
unreliable dictionary, February 24, 2009
This review is from: Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English / English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition (Paperback)
It is hard to believe that the University of Nebraska Press would publish such a bad dictionary. The original edition of Buechel's dictionary had lots of problems of its own. This new edition prepared by Manhart not only does not improve the old problems, but makes them worse and creates new ones.
Manhart ruined the spelling in the original version already, but at least it was possible to read what he typed. In this version the font is so small and the diacritics marking contrasting sounds so similar that it is almost impossible to distinguish them. Plain unaspirated stops (k, p, t) are marked with a superscript dot and aspirated stops (well, some of them) with a superscript diacritic just a tiny bit larger than a dot. No wonder that the editor himself was unable to apply the two diacritics consistently. For instance the p in the word sinkpe 'muskrat' is marked as plain (which is incorrect because it is supposed to be aspirated) while the four derivatives of the word oscillate between plain and aspirated. The "t" in sinte 'tail' is correctly marked as plain but in sintehla 'rattlesnake (rattling tail)' it is unmarked (which in the chosen orthography means aspirated). Such errors are pervasive throughout the dictionary.
The small size of the diacritics and their inconsistent usage make the dictionary completely unreliable because the ability to distinguish plain stops from aspirated is essential to Lakota sound system as they frequently contrast meaning. The spelling is unreliable in other respects as well.
In the original edition most of the example sentences were not translated. This edition provides the translations but they are written in un-idiomatic English and in the most part are incorrect interpretations of the original Lakota sentences. For instance: "Kinyekiyapi wan tima tokel kagapi kin wanyankin na iwacingnuniyan ayuta" - 'He looked upon with wonder and saw how the inside of an airplane was made. (page 132) The better translation should be: "He saw how they were building an airplane inside and marveled at it."
A large percentage of the entries in the original edition of the Buechel dictionary is problematic, words that are incorrectly spelled, inadequately defined or representing words that are not part of the language at all. There was obviously no field work or research done to fix these problems in this new edition. If you want to know more about why the Buechel dictionary is unreliable in many respects, read the introduction to the New Lakota Dictionary where it is all described in much detail. Since the publication of the New Lakota Dictionary the Buechel dictionary can no longer be considered the standard Lakota dictionary or the most comprehensive Lakota dictionary. In fact, it is clear now that it is fundamentally flawed. If you want to have a reliable reference on the language buy the
New Lakota Dictionary It is the first dictionary of the language that uses consistent spelling and in which all words were checked with fluent speakers.
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