Informal survey

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 21st, 2019, 8:54 am

I listened to a chapter last night about dictionaries and am wondering how many bound, real, physical dictionaries you all own.

I have French, German, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, and English dictionaries here shelved nearby. And then there are books of Yiddish, Irish, and English slang. (Only one of each of those, I think.) I suppose we could include one or two interlinears, also.

I imagine this is an uncommon, even weird, collection and even I am using the Internet more and more for definitions and the like.

What about you?

linny · Post by **linny** » December 21st, 2019, 9:11 am

2 English, 2 Spanish but I generally use https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » December 21st, 2019, 9:42 am

English, Latin, French ... and the "Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary".

Peter

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 21st, 2019, 9:59 am

Peter Why wrote: ↑December 21st, 2019, 9:42 am English, Latin, French ... and the "Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary".

Peter

Ah! I have a rhyming dictionary, too! And what is the plural of thesaurus?

Post by **mightyfelix** » December 21st, 2019, 12:52 pm

I couldn't give you a definitive answer without checking all of my shelves (and there are many), but I think I have one or two English dictionaries, a couple for American Sign Language, and maybe a Spanish one somewhere around here.

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 21st, 2019, 1:08 pm

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 21st, 2019, 12:52 pm I couldn't give you a definitive answer without checking all of my shelves (and there are many), but I think I have one or two English dictionaries, a couple for American Sign Language, and maybe a Spanish one somewhere around here.

American Sign Language. That raises a question I have never even thought of. Are there many forms of sign language?

Post by **mightyfelix** » December 21st, 2019, 1:16 pm

Yes, there are. Like spoken languages, signed languages develop and change over time as groups of people interact with one another using the language. Many people are surprised to find that British Sign Language and American Sign Language are almost mutually unintelligible. ASL is much closer to French Sign Language, in fact.

Maddie · Post by **Maddie** » December 22nd, 2019, 9:41 am

I love dictionaries, unfortunately I only have a few. An Oxford English, a Comprehensive International, and a random French one.

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 22nd, 2019, 10:06 am

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 21st, 2019, 1:16 pm Yes, there are. Like spoken languages, signed languages develop and change over time as groups of people interact with one another using the language. Many people are surprised to find that British Sign Language and American Sign Language are almost mutually unintelligible. ASL is much closer to French Sign Language, in fact.

That's fascinating.

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » December 22nd, 2019, 10:07 am

Maddie wrote: ↑December 22nd, 2019, 9:41 am I love dictionaries, unfortunately I only have a few. An Oxford English, a Comprehensive International, and a random French one.

Most of my French is the names of pastries!

Maddie · Post by **Maddie** » December 22nd, 2019, 2:09 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑December 22nd, 2019, 10:07 am
Maddie wrote: ↑December 22nd, 2019, 9:41 am I love dictionaries, unfortunately I only have a few. An Oxford English, a Comprehensive International, and a random French one.
Most of my French is the names of pastries!

Mine too! Which is why I need the dictionary!

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » December 22nd, 2019, 7:00 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑December 21st, 2019, 8:54 am I listened to a chapter last night about dictionaries and am wondering how many bound, real, physical dictionaries you all own.

I have French, German, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, and English dictionaries here shelved nearby. And then there are books of Yiddish, Irish, and English slang. (Only one of each of those, I think.) I suppose we could include one or two interlinears, also.

I imagine this is an uncommon, even weird, collection and even I am using the Internet more and more for definitions and the like.

What about you?

Not weird at all! Don't all Librivoxers love words?

But, like you, I found I was using the Great Reference Library of the World, which didn't need dusting and which I can hold in the palm of my hand.

Best,

Barbara

lymiewithpurpose · December 22nd, 2019, 7:03 pm

barbara2 wrote: ↑December 22nd, 2019, 7:00 pm Don't all Librivoxers love words?

Hmmm... English was my worst school subject, I dreaded taking it, my vocabulary is tiny, my grammar sucks, and the language makes me so mad. Yet I volunteer for LibriVox...

Post by **Kazbek** » January 1st, 2020, 11:01 am

I use online resources for nearly all my word lookup needs these days, but I do keep quite a few physical dictionaries around, some for sentimental reasons, some because I think I just might need them one day, and some on purely whimsical grounds. Some items of note:

A large English-Russian dictionary published in Moscow in 1965, which had been lying around my grandparents' apartment since before I could say a word in either language.

A dictionary of Russian mat (profanities), an impressively thick volume.

An English-Sanskrit dictionary (yes, not the other way around).

A pocket classical-to-modern Chinese dictionary.

A 1945 Turkish-Russian dictionary, which uses the modern Turkish alphabet, but still contains many Ottoman words that have fallen out of use in modern Turkish.

Vocabulaire européen des philosophies : Dictionnaire des intraduisibles (available in English as Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon).

Michael

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » January 1st, 2020, 1:34 pm

subotin,

Could you give me details of the dictionary of profanities, please? I think it would make a nice gift for a friend of mine, who took courses in Russian some years ago.

Peter