Tajik-English/English-Tajik Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) [Paperback]

Joseph Conroy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook | Publication Date: November 1998

This dictionary contains a two-way dictionary, a brief survey of Tajik grammar and a phrasebook section with ready-made sentences for everyday situations. There are also comments on Tajik culture and lifestyle. The language used in this book reflects the Tajik used in Dushanbe, the capital located in the central eastern region of Tajikistan.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph F Conroy

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781806623
• ISBN-13: 978-0781806626
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 3.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,003,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Persian & Farsi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a very useful dictionary, April 2, 2004

By 

Brian Bird (Eugene, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tajik-English/English-Tajik Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) (Paperback)

I purchased this book before leaving for a two year job contract in Tajikistan. I was very excited to find this pocket dictionary. Unfortunately it was never very helpful to me. My new Tajik friends felt that it was inaccurate in many places. It rarely seemed to have the words or phrases that I needed. And finally, the transliteration system didn't seem to correctly reflect the pronunciation used by natives (I was living in the capital, Dushanbe.)

To be fair to the authors there was nothing else available at the time they published this and the situation in Tajikistan was one of violent transition. Tajikistan has become much more stable now and there are now a few more resources available in English. Although there was discussion in Tajikistan at one time aobut making either Persian or Roman script official alphabets, Cyrillic is still the oficiall alphabet and the one used by Tajiks 99% of the time. To be really useful a Tajik-English phrase book should use Cyrillic, which this one does not.

The most effective method I found for learning the Tajik language was making Tajik friends who spoke a little English and learning to speak Tajik from them.

I also got a lot of help from two books published by STAR:
The Official Beginner's Guide to Tajiki, by Azim Baizoyev
Standard Tajik-English Dictionary, by Randall and Rochelle Olsen

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a good guide for Tajik, January 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tajik-English/English-Tajik Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) (Paperback)

Although when I first found out about this book, I was very excited, I was totally disappointed when I got it. I am an ethnic Tajik, and a professional translator, and this book was very poorly done. As another Tajik reader said, this book is full of misspellings, and words that are just completely wrong. Also, many of the words that are given do not reflect the Tajik dialect of Persian. Even the introduction (in English) is factually incorrect, because Tajik is not a separate language, it is a dialect of Persian/Farsi, that, during Soviet times, was written in Cyrillic. A Tajik who speaks English should have assisted in this project, in order to have a more satisfactory outcome.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It is not an accurate representation of the Tajik Language, June 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Tajik-English/English-Tajik Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) (Paperback)

I was very happy to find the book, but after purchasing the book and reviewing the materials, I discovered not one or two but numerous mistakes ranging from misspellings to certain words that do not make sense at all. Now, the reason I know this fact is because I am a native speaker of the Tajik language and yes I do feel that the authors should have done a better job. After all, no one should write any language using the Esperanto language becuase it has many and many problems - the biggest one being the lack of one on one meetings between the two authors of this dictionary. Also, I think the book has failed at representing the actual language (alphabet) of the country of the Republic of Tajikistan. After all, while it maybe helpful to learn a new language using the Roman alphabet, the people of Tajikistan do not write or speak using the Roman alphabet, but rather the Cyrillic. Nonetheless, I do want to thank both authors for the time that it required to complete this project and ask to present an accurate Tajik-English Dictionary. Thank You.