Customer Reviews

Uzbek-English/English-Uzbek Dictionary and Phrasebook: Romanized (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebooks) (Multilingual Edition)

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

 

 

Finally someone has produced a quality Uzbek dictionary/phrasebook! This one is not plagued by numerous spelling errors and Turkisms, as is Khakimov's lexicon. Neither does it feature literary Uzbek language, such as one finds in Ismatulla's works, but rather conversational Uzbek. If you want to be able to speak with Uzbeks, this is the one book to buy!

The book features a few pages on the history of Uzbekistan and a basic grammar/pronunciation guide at the beginning. The first half of the book is comprised of an Uzbek-English/English-Uzbek dictionary. This is followed by a phrase book organized around 32 different topics, many with helpful cultural notes. All of the Uzbek is transliterated into Latin script.

This book is a must-have for English speakers headed to Uzbekistan or northern Afghanistan. I highly recommend it.

As a phrasebook/dictionary for people who have to interact with Uzbekis, I suppose this publication is satisfactory. It is not, however, sufficient for learning (or learning much about) Uzbek. The phrasebook is actually pretty good, covering a wide range of situations and predicting well what one might need to say. But the dictionary lacks in two regards: 1) Words from the phrasebook are often missing or under a slightly different heading (making it hard to make sure your phrase will have the intended effect). 2)Between the sparseness of the grammar and the shortness of the entries, it can be difficult to figure out what to do with a word once you've found it.

Learning Uzbek or going to Uzbekistan? Buy this and Rudelson's Lonely Planet Central Asia Phrasebook - because they're the only affordable resources you're likely to find. But keep your fingers crossed that something better will come out soon.

This is a perfectly adequate little dictionary/ phrasebook if you just want the basics. Was surprised to find (amid the expected phrases about hotels and trains) a 2 page section with such phrases as 'are there any booby traps nearby?' 'Is the bridge still standing?' etc. Expected the worst but had a WONDERFUL trip to Uzbekistan and didnt need this section once!

Good resource for learning Uzbek. A little limited, in terms of dictionary size, but there aren't many other resources to learn from. Useful phrase book.

My biggest complaint about this phrasebook is how sounds are represented in Latin script. The "OW" sounds are spelled with v's. This may work better for Germanic-language speakers, but for English speakers it is a bit misleading. The "ong" sound is spelled "eng" also. These are just the few I caught from browsing the book; there may be more.

Just be aware that sounds are spelled not exactly as they sound. You would need a tape or native speaker to compare the spelling with. I can use this book mostly because I have already studied Uzbek and know what to expect.

I thought the content was quite useful.

This dictionary&Phrase book is, in my opinion, not enough for studying Uzbek seriously. And there're some spell mistakes even from Uzbek beginners' eyes like me. So as a dictionary, I only feel stress from this book.
Just if you just want to travel broken Uzbek, it's OK.