Content area
Full Text
96/94
Geiriadur yr Academi/The Welsh Academy English-Welsh Dictionary Edited by Brice Griffiths and Dafydd Glyn Jones Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru/University of Wales Press, Caerdydd/Cardiff, 1995, xxxi + 1710 pp., ISBN 0-7083-1186-5, L40
The twenty-first century may turn out well for the Welsh language after all. The two years of 1994-1995 have certainly been auspicious in their startling lexicographical achievements. Hard on the heels of D. Geraint Lewis' trail-blazing Geiriadur Gomer i'r Ifanc[1], recently reviewed by me (RR 95/242), now comes this blockbuster of a dictionary, quite without precedent in Wales. It is awesome in extent, scholarship, editorial competence - and potential usefulness. It also convincingly substantiates the fact that Welsh has lexical resources and creativity commensurate with those of any other European language. One can only guess at the total number of headwords, but it must be not far short of 100,000.
That we have this impressive new dictionary at all is wholly due to the two editors' original inspiration and advocacy way back in 1974 and to their willingness to devote a large part of their lifetime to accomplishment of an "extremely difficult task". The somewhat unexpected lexicographical model chosen was the English-French component of the Harrap Shorter English and French Dictionary (1975 and subsequent revisions), in two-column format, with necessary adaptions...