Vol.2, No 10, 2003 pp. 437 - 438
THE DICTIONARY THAT WAS MISSING
The English-German-French-Serbian-Russian Dictionary of Electronics was
published by Studentski kulturni centar (Student Cultural Center) in Niš,
in 2001. The authors of Serbian eqivalents are Nadežda Lainović-Stojanović,
Ph.D., and Viktorija Džunić, both long time lecturers of Russian and English
language at the Faculty of Electronics in Niš. Nadežda Lainović-Stojanović
is now the head of the Department of Russian language and literature at
the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, and Viktorija Džunić has, after thirty-five
years of work, retired.
The authors had spent over twenty years working together at the Faculty
of Electronics. The lasting evidence of their cooperation can be found
in numerous articles and publications. Direct involvement into translation
of scientific texts had made them put great effort to compile this dictionary
and thus enrich the field of knowledge otherwise not so rich in reference
books.
The idea for this kind of dictionary was concieved in the encyclopedic
publishing house Russky Yazyk from Moscow, in which the material was prepared
for publishing. The project was not realised due to the well-known deterioration
of economic and political situation. Concequently, the publisher ceded
the right of publishing to Yugoslavia. It took nine years for the specialist
and translator teams in Russia, and three years for the authors of Serbian
equivalents to complete this dictionary. The reviewers of this edition
are: P.K. Gorohov, M.S., A.A. Kolosov, Ph.D., N.I. Čistjakov, Ph.D. The
reviewers of the Serbian equivalents are Živko Tošić, Ph.D., and Bogoljub
Stanković, Ph.D.
In accordance with the exisiting international agreement the term electronics
covers several fields under different names: electronics proper, radio-engineering,
communication,... Understandably, the focus was on currently most advanced
areas of Electronics: quantum electronics, fiber optics, optoelectronics,
integrated circuit technology, radiolocation and radionavigation, pulse
technique, holography, etc. It is estimated that the number of terms used
in Electronics exceeds 50,000. This multilingual dictionary had to be restricted
to approximately 9000 entries.
The compilers used encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries and periodicals
published in the Soviet Union, The United States, Great Britain, Germany,
France, Yugoslavia. In preparing Serbian equivalents professors and specialists
in relevant fields were consulted.
This dictionary is highly specific. One need not be a linguist to see
that it does not have the usual organisation of a dictionary. For instance,
there are no lexical paradigms, no phonemic transcription, examples of
use in different contexts. In this case, all that would be unnecessary.
This dictionary is not a source book for learning languages. Rather, its
purpose is to enable a wide range of specialists, students, translators,
and all others interested in modern Electronics, to find language equivalents
of principal and new terms in this field. Appropriately, this dictionary
is supplied with alphabetical indexes of German, French, Serbian, and Russian
terms which largely facilitates its use.
Today, English language and Electronics are of utmost importance due
to the global dimensions of their presence. An illustration of that is
the fact that the Oxford University Press has specialised, elaborate textbooks
for language learning only in the fields of Management and Electronics.
However, there is a striking paradox. Oxford University Press, probably
the highest authority in publishing dictionaries, offers a single dictionary
of Electronics – Oxford Dictionary of Computing with somewhat more than
4000 terms. It is primarily a general purpose dictionary. Being a lingua
franca of today's world, English has naturally become the main language
of communication in Electronics as well. Therefore, scientists and specialists
in that field know it far better than the level of the already mentioned
Oxford dictionary of Electronics has to offer.
A very special value of this dictionary lies in the relationship between
Serbian and English language. Serbian language is today endangered for
various reasons. The expansion of science is just one of them. Though reasons
may be numerous, we tend to use English words without any justification,
out of laziness or irresponsibility. This dictionary has appropriate equivalents
precise in meaning, yet in the spirit of Serbian language. As such, it
is of great help not only in translating specialized scientific texts but
also in translation classes.
It is a challenge when linguists set out to compile a dictionary in
an area they are not experts of. Because of that, this kind of a project
always requires the cooperation of specialists and translators. Its result
is one higher dimension which overcomes its practical use, namely, it is
an example of the permanent ties among all kinds of knowledge.
The Faculty of Electronics keeps the pace with the latest scientific
and pedagogical tendencies. Developed in such a surrounding, this dictionary
has yet another outstanding quality. It proves that in some respect we
may be ahead of the world to which we (too) often tend to look up.
Nadežda Stojković, M.A.
