Tschenkéli’s Georgian-German dictionary is in print again!
Great news!
The famed three-volume Georgian-German dictionary by Kita Tschenkéli (???? ????????), “Georgisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch”, which is the best bilingual dictionary of Georgian into any language, including English and Russian, is in print again!
When I studied Georgian in Tbilisi, my dad had to get all 2508 pages photocopied from the university library’s copy and sent to me because it was absolutely essential but impossible to buy anywhere.
The price is €145, which is really quite cheap for this type of work. The only reason I’m not ordering it is because I still have my prized photocopies.
They’re also selling his excellent Einführung in die Georgische Sprache at €75. This is not essential in the same way, but it’s definitely worth having if you’re serious about learning Georgian. I don’t own it, but I’ve spent many happy hours with it in the library of the Department of Linguistics in Aarhus.
Dear Thomas
I know absolutely nobody else than you who would have noticed.
Søren
While we’re on the subject of Georgian, can you shed any light on this? http://snipr.com/georgianscript
Edmund Fry’s “Pantographia: containing accurate copies of all the known alphabets in the world…” (!799).
The second script looks like Armenian (Asomtavruli? Nuskhuri?) but the first is (as it were) all Greek to me. But surely Mkhedruli had been around for centuries? Was it not standard by the 18th century?
@Harry, yes, the first one is definitely Greek. Possibly Greek as written in Georgia?
And yes, Mkhedruli isn’t recent, but I think it only gradually became the dominant alphabet. I’m not sure what proportion of Georgian writing was in Mkhedruli by the 18th century, but especially if his source was an ecclesiastic one, I wouldn’t rule out it would have been seen as less important.
Hello! It would be possible to share the photocopied pages you have with us? ‘Cause I need this dictionary so much! I cannot buy it…
@Claire, I’m not entirely sure how sharing thousands of photocopied sheets of paper is going to work. Your best bet is probably to borrow it at a local research library.
@Thomas, I’m mean, scanning the pages, and putting the scanned pages to download or something. Hard work to scan so many pages… I know. But at least will be acessible. Otherwise there’s no way I could have it. This work is not available anywhere here where I live, the only way I think I could lay my hands on it, it’s crossing the Atlantic, swimming…
Given that the book is still in print, it most likely is still protected by copyright, and making it available online for free would be illegal. Besides, Google are likely to have it on their list of books to scan. I think your best bet is to buy a second-hand copy somewhere.
*I mean.