 Hans Wehr's Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1976 English-language U.S. edition | |
| Author | Hans Wehr |
|---|---|
| Translator | J Milton Cowan |
| Genre | Translation dictionary |
| Published | |
Published in English |
|
A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (originally published in German as Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart 'Arabic dictionary for the contemporary written language'), also published in English as The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, is a translation dictionary of modern written Arabic compiled by Hans Wehr.[1] The original Arabic-German dictionary was first published in 1952, with additional materials published in the Supplement zum arabischen Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart in 1959.[1] The Arabic-English edition edited by J Milton Cowan, based on the German 1952 edition and the 1959 supplement with revisions and improvements, was published in 1961.[1] The dictionary is based on attestations in written Arabic taken from modern literature, newspapers, and state documents. Its lexical entries are organized according to Arabic root.
The work is compiled on descriptive principles: only words and expressions that are attested in context are included.[2] "It was chiefly based on combing modern works of Arabic literature for lexical items, rather than culling them from medieval Arabic dictionaries, which was what Lane had done in the nineteenth century".[3]
Hans Wehr was a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and argued that the Nazi government should ally with the Arabs against England and France. The Arabic-German dictionary project was funded by the Nazi government, which intended to use it to translate Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf into Arabic. Despite this, at least one Jewish scholar, Hedwig Klein, contributed to the dictionary.[4]
The English edition was edited by J Milton Cowan and published in 1961 by Otto Harrassowitz in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was an enlarged and revised version of Wehr's original 1952 German edition and its 1959 supplement. The Arabic-German dictionary was completed in 1945, but not published until 1952.[4] Writing in the 1960s, a critic commented, "Of all the dictionaries of modern written Arabic, the work [in question] ... is the best."[5] It remains the most widely used Arabic-English dictionary.[6] Besides English speakers, the dictionary is also very popular among Arabic language learners in Japan.[7]
- ^ a b c Wehr, Hans; Cowan, J. Milton (1971). A dictionary of modern written Arabic (3rd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y: Spoken Language Services. ISBN 978-3-447-01325-3.
- ^ Wehr, VII; Sa'id, 329
- ^ Irwin, 265
- ^ a b Buchen, Stefan. "Hedwig Klein and "Mein Kampf": The unknown Arabist - Qantara.de". Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World. Archived from the original on 2018-04-29. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
- ^ Sa'id, 328
- ^ Karin C. Ryding (2005). A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge University Press. p. 678.
- ^ "アラビア語学習書～辞書". Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2020-11-28. Retrieved 2021-07-09.