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When the Dictionary is Wrong
ناشر الموضوع: the Train
the Train
the Train  Identity Verified
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Arabic Mar 31, 2007

Hi Alaa,

First, what you listed from monolingual dictionaries is not disputable. In Arabic, in medical reports written by doctors from Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and UAE, there is such a thing as شرخ which UMD, Feedo, etc. dropped totally.
I was not disputing the meanings of fracture in English. I was disputing the way Arabic dictionaries are a mess in listing the wrong/incomplete/outdated meanings of words. Perhaps the choice of fracture and كسر in my initial message
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Hi Alaa,

First, what you listed from monolingual dictionaries is not disputable. In Arabic, in medical reports written by doctors from Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and UAE, there is such a thing as شرخ which UMD, Feedo, etc. dropped totally.
I was not disputing the meanings of fracture in English. I was disputing the way Arabic dictionaries are a mess in listing the wrong/incomplete/outdated meanings of words. Perhaps the choice of fracture and كسر in my initial message did not help my point.

Everybody -as you said- did not pick up on it, because the point was neither Feedo nor شرخ.

The relevance of الأسيوطي -the commercial and accounting dictionary commanding the most respect- .... Have you used it for a translation that was going to be checked by an accountant?

Where can I find a translation for شرخ?
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Fuad Yahya
Fuad Yahya  Identity Verified
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assumptions and presumptions Mar 31, 2007

the Train wrote:

Perhaps the choice of fracture and كسر in my initial message did not help my point.



That is exactly right.

You read medical reports in Arabic using the term شرخ and you assumed that:

1. It meant "fracture;" and

2. that, therefore, كسر is a faulty translation of "fracture."

Both of these assumptions are incorrect.

There are many types of fractures. You can read about them all over the Internet. Here is one typcial analysis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_fracture

A fracture, no matter what kind, is called كسر

Al-Haririr/Al-Khatib dictionary gives a whole list of them. And if you want to do medical translation, this dictionary will come in handy.

The type that is called شرخ is a kind of fractue that is popularly called a "crack," where the bone, despite the fracture, is not broken. We call the bone "broken" when it is completely severed.

To sum up:

1. Every broken bone is a fractured, but not every fractured bone is broken.

2. Every cracked bone is fractured, but not every fractured bone is (merely) cracked.

So, in English, we have (at least) three intersecting terms: breakage, fracture, and crack.

In Arabic, there are two terms in popular usage:

Fracture is translated كسر (just as the dictionary said).

A breakage (which is a complete fracture) is called كسر كامل

A crack is called شرخ

If you refer to the above-mentioned dictionary, you will see other Arabic terms that are not used in common parlance.

Notice that the above is not a systematic calssification of fractures. That would be beyond the scope of this discussion.


 
the Train
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Thanks Mar 31, 2007

Thank you very much for this explanation. I have been obviously totally wrong about my assumption of Feedo's listing of the word.

This does not undermine the issue that there are more unreliable links/dictionaries on the web/market than there are reliable ones.

Thank you once more.


 
Ahmad Batiran
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Mistakes might occur ... but not with the given example Apr 25, 2007

assalaamu 'alaikum

I agree that such a mistake might take place especially if the dictionary is based on an effort of an individual who is not even a lexicon (not the case with Ibn Manzour I assume).

However, 'fracture' is not such a good example. Objecting the translation in Feedo is not in its place because it, i.e. the translation, is correct. Please check the followin
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assalaamu 'alaikum

I agree that such a mistake might take place especially if the dictionary is based on an effort of an individual who is not even a lexicon (not the case with Ibn Manzour I assume).

However, 'fracture' is not such a good example. Objecting the translation in Feedo is not in its place because it, i.e. the translation, is correct. Please check the following URL:
http://www.emro.who.int/umd/Viewword.asp?Code=EMT-F001059

Feedo needs our help: http://www.feedo.net/arabic.htm since Arabic is in their mission.

Still 'greenstick fracture' is a type of fracture that might, again _might_, give the meaning of شرخ, I am not that sure. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/8856.htm It may not be named as such in Arabic but rather it might be called شُعب, well at least in a Yemeni dialect.

More words:
rift, crack الشرخ الإنشائي (البناء) يُدعى
طبياً الشروخ تكون في الأسنان أو في الشرج و لم أتوصل إلى ما يُقابلها في الإنجليزية

Regards,

Arabic Tongue
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When the Dictionary is Wrong






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