Author: Fr. Camil Bulcke
Publisher: S Chand & Company
Year: 2005
Language: multilingual
Pages: 1032
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788190411004
Description
FROM AUTHOR'S PREFACE:
The main purpose of the dictionary is to meet more fully the needs of the ever-growing number of people for whom my previous glossary was compiled. It is hoped that the present volume will prove helpful, not only to students of Hindi in India and abroad, but also to those whose mother tongue is Hindi, especially those engaged in translation work. The needs of Indian students, wishing to improve their knowledge of English have also been kept in mind and it is for them that a simple system has been devised giving the pronunciation of the English words in Nagari script. This system is fully explained on the end-papers, where the reader will also find all the symbols and abbreviations that have been used.
One feature of this dictionary will, I trust, prove useful both to students of Hindi and to translators. The various meanings of the English words are made clear by additional indications in brackets and are immediately followed by the Hindi equivalents; if necessary, different shades of meanings are separated by a semi-colon. This arrangement will enable the reader to pick out the world he needs. The meanings are normally numbered; where this was deemed superfluous the different meanings are separated by a semi-colon.
All Hindi feminine words are marked with an asterisk; a few words are marked with two asterisks to indicate the fact that they are widely used in both genders. In the use of hyphens I have usually followed the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Hyphenated words and compound not entered in the strictly alphabetical order, will easily by found under the headword. Compounds written in two words are entered under the first word e.g. mother tongue under mother.
In the choice of English words and their meanings, I have been guided by the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1964), Webster’s New World Dictionary (College Edition, 1964) and the Penguin English Dictionary (1965). For the Hindi translation of technical terms, I have relied on my Technical English-Hindi Glossary and various other technical dictionaries, among which the excellent Science Glossary I (Central Hindi Directorate, Delhi 1964) takes pride of place.
Only such technical terms have been included as are found in the three general English dictionaries mentioned above. Fauna and flora not found in India have normally not been included. For Indian fauna I have been greatly helped by Mr. Suresh Singh’s (Lucknow, 1958). For Indian flora the published volumes of the Wealth of India (Vol. I-VII; Delhi, 1948-1966) have proved useful and especially the unfailing courtesy of Prof. Dr. and Mrs. R. Mishra (B.H.U., Varanasi).
A COLLABORATOR’S NOTE
Dr. Camille Bulcke’s English-Hindi Dictionary was published some thirty seven years ago. Its popularity has increased with the passage of time and its reputation as an authoritative and very dictionary has been established.
The necessity of the enlargement and updating of the dictionary was felt just after a few years of its publication. Dr. Bulcke himself wished to revise it in 1982, but it could not materialize due to his sudden death on August 17 of the year. As I was his principal collaborator in the compilation of the dictionary, the authorities of the Roman Catholic Mission, Ranchi later on entrusted the task to me.
I have tried to complete the task to the best of my ability. The revision, enlargement and updating of the dictionary has been done along the lines of the Standard English dictionaries, the list of which includes, besides the recent editions of those used by Fr. Bulcke, the Oxford American Desk Dictionary (1998), Needless to say, English is the most developing and receptive language of the world today. Standard English, which even today in India denotes British English, has shed its purism and adopted typically American, South African, Australian and New Zealandish usages.
The recent Indian edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary has appended a list of such words of Indian origin as are now part of contemporary Indian English (I E). I have included such words as I E in the present edition of the dictionary excluding those as I E which are not confines to India, but are part and parcel of the English language itself. I have also expanded the administrative and technical vocabularies of the dictionary to meet the present day needs of its users.
This dictionary, Father Bulcke wrote in his preface to the First Edition, will prove helpful, not only to students of Hindi in India and abroad but also to those whose mother tongue is Hindi, especially engaged in translation work. The needs of Indian students, wishing to improve their knowledge of English, have also been kept in mind and it is for them that a simple system has been devised giving the pronunciation of the English words in Nagari script. ".
REVIEWS:
Dr. Bulcke's dictionary is based on the concise Oxford and Webster dictionaries and gives the exact English pronunciation by printing the accented syllable in bold type. It is handy, and can safely be recommended as the best in the field.
- National Herald
Dr. Bulcke, a well-known Hindi scholar, has produced an excellent dictionary. He includes in it Hindi equivalents of English words both the simple and the more difficult Sankritized versions which should satisfy both the layman and the purist.
-The Statesman