This unique book is the first Ladino dictionary for English speakers! Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, was the language spoken by the Sephardic Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion from Spain in the 15th century. Definitions include word origins, the cultural context of expressions, and usage, making the book an invaluable reference tool for anyone interested in Romance and Oriental languages and/or Jewish culture.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Ladino-English Dictionary:
Dictionary is not as complete as I would like. There is no key to some of the symbols used for pronunciation.
A nice curio but not that useful for learners:
This is a fun, enjoyable book to browse through but, as a tool for learners of Ladino, or anyone with more than a bit of passing curiosity, it's likely to prove frustrating and virtually useless.
Ladino is, in fact, in worse shape than Yiddish. Very few Sefardim under the age of 60 now have much knowledge of Cudezmo (also spelt Djudezmo and Judezmo)here in Turkey. As a result, the authors probably assumed that this book would be used more as a toy for the curious- after all, who wants to learn a... more info
Lexicon, maybe . . but not a true dictionary:
Buy this book because there isn't much competition for it, but it is one sorry excuse for a dictionary. Compare this to the Weinreich Yiddish dictionary (six stars out of five!) for usefulness Defects:
* Almost random spelling, no consistent system of orthography is applied e.g. `ch' is used for both 'ch' as in choose and 'sh' as in sheep.
* No guide to pronunciation, neither at the beginning, nor (but more glaringly lacking) with the entries.
* Accentuation is random.
* Random... more info
Not everything I expect in a dictionary:
As a Ladino novice (with a good background in Spanish), I hoped this dictionary would help me gain the skills I need to understand and compose messages in an online Ladino e-mail group. I was somewhat disappointed to find that many Ladino words encountered in everyday writing are not included, but I understand that this is a problem inherent in all but the most comprehensive dictionaries. More seriously, the English-Ladino section is only about one third the size of the Ladino-English section. My biggest... more info
