Arabic dictionary?

[Kristin]

Does Accordance offer an Arabic dictionary? 

 

Thanks,

Kristin

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I'm not seeing one in my library. Not sure if the Accordance Exchange has it.

[Kristin]

16 minutes ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

I'm not seeing one in my library. Not sure if the Accordance Exchange has it.

 

Thank you for the idea. I checked the exchange and it isn't there. Please put this in as a feature request if you are able. Accordance offers a lot of Arabic resources, so a reputable dictionary seems to really be needed.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Is there a particular one you'd like to see? 

 

Someone emailed me this one as a potential option we could look into:

 

https://github.com/sabdelmalik/StrongsDictionaryTranslation .
 

[Kristin]

1 hour ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

Is there a particular one you'd like to see?

 

Hi Nathan, 

I'm not familiar enough with Arabic dictionaries to have an opinion. My fundamental goal though is an actual dictionary and not just a gloss. 

[Michel Gilbert]

Many (most?) academics use the Oxford Arabic Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2014);

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199580330

And, Accordance already works with OUP.

[A.D. Riddle]

The two dictionaries (lexicons) we used in my Arabic classes were Hans Wehr and Lane's.

(Edit: I was a student, not the instructor.)

 

A.D.

Edited May 8 by A.D. Riddle

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for all this info! We'll look into it.

[Benjamin Noonan]

In terms of Arabic lexica, what you want will in part depend on what texts you intend to use it with. Both the Oxford Arabic Dictionary and Hans Wehr's Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic are primarily for Modern Standard Arabic. However, to my knowledge, Accordance's Arabic resources are primarily in Classical Arabic; a possible exception is the Smith-Van Dyke Arabic Bible, but even this attempts to mimic Classical Arabic. This isn't to say you wouldn't find overlap, and that the Oxford Arabic Dictionary and Wehr wouldn't be useful with Accordance's Arabic modules, just that they wouldn't be an ideal fit.

 

Lane's An Arabic-English Lexicon, however, encompasses Classical Arabic, and is more comprehensive; it's also the primary lexicon that many Hebraists and Semitists still use for Classical Arabic, because there isn't much that's better (unfortunately, Wörterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache is incomplete). Lane is older and is certainly not without flaws, for sure. However, it seems it would be ideal for the kinds of Arabic modules Accordance offers. And, even better, the text is freely available, meaning Accordance could develop it easily. The competition has it available as a resource.

[Kristin]

Hi @Benjamin Noonan,

Thank you for the clarification and resource ideas. I had run into difficulty since the English translations for the Accordance Qur'an are just wrong, enough to change the meaning of the verse, pretty much requiring me to actually look words up. Yet that is difficult to do without a lexicon in Accordance. 

 

I looked up Lane's to see if there is something online I can use before Accordance adds anything, but I can't find one where I can just paste words. Are you familiar with such a site?

[Michel Gilbert]

Kristin, you can find the links to download Lane’s lexicon at https://github.com/laneslexicon/lexicon/releases

 

You can copy and paste, and search for head word, root, and text. Here is what the Mac version looks like: