Tuesday, October 24, 2006
CATHOLIC MONK COMPILES ARABIC-ENGLISH DICTIONARY
A brief glance at the Olive Tree Dictionary might put a smile on your face, or even generate a mild giggle.
The book contains an abundance of both useful and obscure Arabic phrases with their English translations, including gems such as “I hunt on dry land, I’m not a fisherman,” “that guy’s a zero on the left (i.e., he doesn’t count for anything), and “show me your embroidery!”
But Yohanan Elihay, who painstakingly compiled the dictionary’s 9,000 entries and 17,000 phrases, and has devoted his life to building bridges with the Arabic-speaking world, does not take language matters lightly.
“Everything in this dictionary is something I heard over the past 30 years. I didn’t make up anything,” Elihay says. “For example, ‘The lady didn’t complain to the police because she was afraid of her husband.’ That’s something I heard. It’s from life.”
The 760-page Olive Tree Dictionary, A Transliterated Dictionary of Conversational Eastern Arabic (Minerva, 2006) provides a wealth of information on colloquial Arabic, and is a loyal guide to the perplexed English speaker in the Middle East.
The dictionary is written in Latin letters, relieving its users of the need to learn Arabic script, and is currently one of the most comprehensive and detailed guides to colloquial Arabic on the market.
As well as the Arabic-English section, the guide also contains a 100-page English index, so it is in fact a two-way dictionary.
Elihay, a sharp-minded but soft-spoken Catholic monk, is not quick to brag about his colorful life story and finds the fascination with his past – rather than his work – somewhat strange.
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