Day of dictionaries and encyclopedias was celebrated at KBSU

November 23–24, 2022 at the Scientific and Educational Center of the Russian Language and Culture of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov held a scientific seminar dedicated to the Day of dictionaries and encyclopedias. This holiday is traditionally celebrated on November 22 — the birthday of the outstanding lexicographer, ethnologist, author of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl.

“A dictionary is not just a book, it completes and at the same time anticipates many books, it sums up the development of the language and paves the way for it to the future. Dictionaries deserve their holiday, and in Russia there is no more suitable date for this than Dahl’s birthda,” — said the author of the idea of ​​celebrating the Day of Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, philologist, philosopher, culturologist, professor of Russian literature at Emory University (USA), member of the Russian PEN Club and the Academy of Russian Modern Literature Mikhail Naumovich Epshtein.

Large academic dictionaries have been published before, but Dahl created a unique dictionary. This dictionary presents both the actual composition of the language and the ways of its lexical enrichment. None of the academic dictionaries reveals the word-formation possibilities of the Russian language, as V. Dahl’s dictionary does. It is no coincidence that such different writers as A. Bely and V. Khlebnikov, S. Yesenin and A. Solzhenitsyn used it and were inspired by it», — said Nadezhda Chaika, director of the REC of the Russian Language and Culture of the KBSU, speaking about the history of the holiday.

The 1st year students of the direction of study «Native Philology (Russian Language and Literature)» and foreign students of KBSU took part in the work of the two-day seminar. Diana Misostishkhova spoke about the life and fate of Vladimir Dal, emphasizing the role of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in the creation of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. It was he who advised Vladimir Dahl to make a dictionary of the living spoken language when Dahl told him about his long-term passion for collecting words. As the historian Bartenev testified, the poet «actively supported Dahl, rereading his collection with him and supplementing his messages.» Continuing the topic, Samira Urusbiyeva added that the well-known dictionary was published in 1863-1866, having absorbed almost 200 thousand words, and still enjoys great authority. This is an excellent collection of not only lexical, but also ethnographic material, dictionary entries contain a wide variety of information about the life of the people ─ it is called the encyclopedia of folk life in the 19th century. Darina Shidukova told about what a dictionary is, when the first dictionaries appeared, what dictionaries exist. The students learned that the first vocabulary experiments in Rus’ have been known since the 13th century. These are small lists of words with interpretations, explanations and translations that translators and scribes supplied to ancient manuscripts. The first Russian dictionary is considered to be the Alphabet, placed in the list of Pilots of the book of 1282 and containing 174 words. What is the difference between an encyclopedia and a dictionary, explained Amelia Rassokha. The second part of the seminar, in which foreign students took an active part, was devoted to practical work with dictionaries, familiarization with the principles of constructing dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference manuals. With the help of Nadezhda Chaika, the guys concluded that the time of dictionaries is not a thing of the past. Dictionaries are always needed. They help people not only to write and pronounce words correctly, but also broaden their horizons, introduce them to culture.

«A person who, by virtue of his profession, is associated with the word: a writer, journalist, linguist, radio announcer, teacher of literature, a modern schoolboy, student of a philological direction, etc., cannot do without a dictionary. For most people, a dictionary is a reference book in which, if necessary, one can find certain information: how a word is spelled, what it means, how it is used», — Nadezhda Chaika summed up.