Customer Reviews

Uzbek-English/ English-Uzbek Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) (Uzbek Edition)

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Uzbek dictionaries are hard to find. This claims to be the only one available in North America. Your key to the language and culture, and ideal for travelers. This I find slightly overstated. This is just a list of words & transalations, no information on grammar or Uzbekistan. As a book for travelers, the phonetic pronunciations are inadequate, they need to be included in both sections, Uzbek-English and English-Uzbek for both Uzbek speaking people learning English and English speakers learning Uzbek. A simple list of basic phrases and greetings, please & thank you etc., would go a long way to improving this book. Still, with 8000 entries it does give at least a reasonable list of words for a concise dictionary.

Where to start? First of all, this book is really a lexicon, not a dictionary. Second, many of the given definitions are actually secondary meanings, and sometimes they are just plain wrong. Third, there are so many misspellings that it gets downright distracting.

Some examples: The author says sho'h means 'maughty, mischievous.' What? And the next entry sho'hlik means 'caper, frolic, prauk.' So I guess a sho'h sho'hlik is a maughty prauk, whatever that is! One of my favorites: He says the Uzbek word for 'mistake' is hato. Well, he's mistaken; it's xato (the x being the equivalent of the Russian kh). Another favorite: 'Christmas' is defined as xristyonlar bayrami, which literally means 'the holiday of Christians' and which would be meaningless to the average Uzbek. (Interestingly, Easter is 'the holiday of Christians and Jews.') But my absolute favoite (thus far) is his definition of somsa, which is really a small pie filled with meat and onions. He defines somsa as a 'sinker'!

If you're headed for Uzbekistan, leave this book behind. Use the AudioForum material, though it's somewhat "Turkified." If that's too expensive for you, use hand signals or speak Russian (or Tajik). But if you absolutely have to take this so-called dictionary along, also take along an Uzbek-English dictionary (like Krippes, though it's flawed too) to verify Khakimov's definitions before using them. If you ask me, this book is a sinker!

There are very few Uzbek-English dictionaries out there. There are even fewer good ones, and this sadly is not one of the best. I used this for first-year Uzbek in college, and by the time I was done there were more hand-written corrections in the book than typed definitions. The author has borrowed a lot of Turkish and said that it is Uzbek, so the more advanced the vocabulary, the more likely you are to be better served on the streets of Ankara than those of Bukhara. It's a good pocket dictionary for beginners, but don't think that you will be translating for Islam Karimov.

I had a few embarrassing experiences with this tool in my experience living in Sir-Daria & the Farg'ona Valley. The numerous outright typos and mistaken translations proved interesting. Better than learning the language empty handed. Luckily I had good teachers.

Okay. I was only in Uzbekistan for a short time. But I found this dictionary to be helpful as a back-pocket item when shopping or sitting in cafes. I even used it when talking to and listening to the family with whom I was staying in the town of Qibray. I've heard the complaints about this reference -- that it's more Turkish than Uzbek -- but I was not discussing world politics or moral dilemmas. I was ordering food and inquiring about the prices of bananas in bazaars. And if you need simple vocabulary to function in communicative acts, this book does the job.

Uzbek > English:

I got this for some neighbors who speak broken English and their first language is Uzbek. Seems to work well for them. It has helped them file immigration paperwork as well as with conversational basics. They do know basic English Grammar, though. This is only has the words to use.

English > Uzbek:

My wife and I thumbed through this trying to learn some Uzbek with the guidance of our friends. It is useful if you have someone to help you with the pronunciation of the words or if you have a basic knowledge of pronunciation symbols. Otherwise, an audio English > Uzbek might be more your cup of coffee (I don't drink tea).

BOTTOM LINE: If you're buying for a family like my friends, go for it. Otherwise, perhaps take a class to further your Uzbek...