Customer Reviews

Winslow's English - Tamil Dictionary

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

 

 

If English is your language, and you want to be understood by a Tamil Indian who knows little or no English, this dictionary can make your most complex ideas, emotions, and things you have in your head understood. Perfectly clearly.

This dictionary is over 1,500 pages thick. It is about three inches thick, which makes it about as comprehensive as you need a dictionary to be.

The most endearing attribute is the presence of a ROMANISED pronouncing key to Tamil words. So it you want to convey the English word in Tamil verbally, this is invaluable. If there is still doubt, or mispronunciation, point to the Tamil script in the dictionary, and miscommunication is minimised.

If you are a volunteer working in a disaster hit area inhabited by Tamil speaking refugees, this dictionary should be in your personal kit. Nobody needs to guess what you are trying to say: people will know exactly what you mean.

"Asthma" is one of those medical conditions difficult to translate into any foreign language. Tamil alphabet and script looks as unintelligible as "@#@#@#@#" to me. So I looked up "Asthma" in Winslow and this is what I found:

Asthma, s., @#@#@#, kasam; @#@#@#@#, mantharakasam; @#@#, kabaviyathi, @#@#@#@#, ilai; @#@#@#, suvaskasam.

By the time I say "kasam", everybody is nodding as if they understood what I am saying.

Asthmatic, a., @#@#@# ilaiyulla; @#@#@#@#@#@, mantharakasamulla; @#@#@#@#, izhaiyulla. I do not think I will ever need to use the adjective of the condition "asthma", but it is good to know that this dictionary is comprehensive.

It does not matter if I do not recognise a single Tamil alphabet. I just want to make sure I keep hand gestures to a minimum. This dictionary had its roots in 1844 and has been revised, enlarged and Romanised since. It claims to contain all the "important words" in Webster's Dictionary, and I can believe it. In fact, it is refreshing to have the unimportant words edited out, and it still has lots and lots of entries.

I treat the Tamil script as "Etymology". I will take a sampling of some words from page 28 (omitting the Tamil script, adjectival and derivative words, to show the usefulness of this dictionary).

Aggravation: athikabaram, athikarippu; athikakadinam

Aggregate: thiraju, kildu

Aggression: chandaiyezhuppugai

Aggrieve: mananovppuannu, etc

Aghast: ekkamay, thigaipulla, birmiththa, etc

...and this goes on for 1,500 pages.

There are no examples of usage of words in sentences. It is just (1) English word, (2) tamil word translation in tamil alphabet (3) Romanised pronunciation of the tamil word; (4) variations of the word in different contexts and the Romanised pronunciation of the variations. It is compact and has no frills.

This dictionary is still relevant in the age of Google translation. At present, there is no translation of any language into Tamil, or Tamil into any other language by Google.