Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center's Kalima Project for Translation, launched by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Tourism, has released an Arabic translation of "Dictionaries," a book by Lynda Mugglestone. It was translated into Arabic by Bandar al-Harbi, and edited by Mohammed Ziad Kebbe.
The book sheds light on the nature, identity, and history of dictionaries in many languages, along with their authors, their goals and writing styles. It also explores a number of facts related to these types of publications, starting from the phase of manuscripts, the phases that followed, and finally our current phase dominated by digital texts.
The book provides historic and modern evidence that across history, dictionaries weren't just compilations of words, but mirrors that reflected social and cultural ideas at their time.
In the introduction, Mugglestone notes that dictionaries are found in all houses, which emphasizes their familiarity. Yet, dictionaries are often taken for granted because this familiarity makes people care less about their availability and importance.
Mugglestone believes dictionaries are related to real works, not stories, which enhances their identity, and strengthens their link to credibility, reliability and honesty.
Despite focusing on original and unbiased texts, and being a method of regulation and restriction that guides users to the right use of language, dictionaries don't come without their share of cultural ideas and ideological biases, according to the six-chapter book.
The book also discusses the function of dictionaries by studying the history of dictionaries starting from the 11th century, the invention of printing in 1460, and the modern digital age.
Lynda Mugglestone is a professor of history of English at the University of Oxford. She has published many books and works in the fields of language, culture, and dictionaries.
