The Cambridge World History of Lexicography

The first comprehensive and continuous account of all five thousand years of the history of lexicography.

John Considine (Edited by)

9781107178861, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

972 pages
23.5 x 16 x 4.7 cm, 1.67 kg

A dictionary records a language and a cultural world. This global history of lexicography is the first survey of all the dictionaries which humans have made, from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, and the Greco-Roman world, to the contemporary speech communities of every inhabited continent. Their makers included poets and soldiers, saints and courtiers, a scribe in an ancient Egyptian 'house of life' and a Vietnamese queen. Their physical forms include Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts and the dictionary apps which are supporting endangered Australian languages. Through engaging and accessible studies, a diverse team of leading scholars provide fascinating insight into the dictionaries of hundreds of languages, into the imaginative worlds of those who used or observed them, and into a dazzling variety of the literate cultures of humankind.

Part I. The Ancient World: 1. Ancient Mesopotamia Niek Veldhuis
2. Ancient and Coptic Egypt Frank Feder
3. Ancient China Françoise Bottéro
4. Ancient India Lata Mahesh Deokar and Jean-Luc Chevillard
5. The Greco-Roman world Rolando Ferri
Part II. The Pre-Modern World: 6. China c.600–c.1700 Nathan Vedal
7. India and Tibet, c.500–c.1750 Lata Mahesh Deokar and Jean-Luc Chevillard
8. Arabic to c.1800 Ramzi Baalbaki
9. Hebrew to c.1650 Aharon Maman
10. The Chinese periphery to c.1800 Mårten Söderblom Saarela
11. The Turkic languages and Persian to c.1700 Marek Stachowski
12. Byzantine Greek Stefano Valente
13. Medieval Latin Christendom John Considine
14. Early modern Western and Central Europe John Considine
Part III. The Modern World: Continuing Traditions: 15. China from c.1700 Henning Klöter
16. Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese from c.1800 David Lurie, Heokseung Kwon and John D. Phan
17. Turkish and Persian from c.1700 Luciano Rocchi and Arthur Dudney
18. South Asia from c.1750 Walter Hakala and Lisa Mitchell
19. Arabic from c.1800 Jan Hoogland
20. Modern Hebrew Tsvi Sadan
21. The Slavic and Baltic languages Rick Derksen
22. The Germanic languages other than English from c.1700 Ulrike Haß
23. Standard varieties of English from c.1700 Charlotte Brewer
24. Regional varieties of English Michael Adams
25. The Romance languages from c.1700 Pascale Renders
Part IV. The Modern World: Missionary and Subsequent Traditions: 26. Missionary traditions in South America Otto Zwartjes
27. Missionary traditions in Mesoamerica Otto Zwartjes
28. Missionary and subsequent traditions in North America Willem de Reuse
29. Missionary traditions in East Asia Otto Zwartjes
30. European traditions in India and Indonesia Toon Van Hal
31. Missionary and subsequent traditions in Africa Gonçalo Fernandes
32. Missionary and other traditions in Australia William B. McGregor.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Linguistics [CF], Dictionaries [CBD]