FW: Online Oxford Russian Dictionary

[Andrew Jameson]

The following email has been circulated in UK today:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
1. The Online Oxford Russian Dictionary was launched at either the very end
of May or the very beginning of June 2008. 
2. The e-mail reproduced below was sent on 10.06.2008.
3. The current Publishing Manager, Bilingual Dictionaries at OUP is Patrick
Gillard, whose e-mail address is: patrick.gillard at oup.com
The following is the text of an email sent to OUP last week:

[To: Juliet Evans, Publicity, Oxford Language Dictionaries Online]
Dear Juliet

Please see below the text of an e-mail originally sent late last week to the
now-defunct e-mail address of Vivian Marr, erstwhile Publishing Manager,
Bilingual Dictionaries, OUP. Very shortly after our conversation yesterday I
sent a copy to her successor in the post. In view of the egregiousness of
the errors, and not having had a reply as yet, I thought it prudent to let
you have a copy without further delay. As you will see, it provides a more
detailed description of what I described to you in only the merest outline.
Another reason for not wishing to delay is that, aIthough I have been able
to view only a handful of entries, it is clear that the errors to which I
have drawn your attention are not isolated cases.

I can only guess how a text with errors of this magnitude was allowed to be
inflicted on the buying public. Was there not even an elementary internal
check of the product by a lexicographically competent Russian speaker prior
to launch? Since in my professional judgement the product is wholly unfit
for either use or sale in its present form, please let me know if it is to
be withdrawn pending correction and, if so, by what date subscribers can
expect errors of the type pointed out to have been rectified.

Having the link below will presumably also help you to figure out how,
although not a subscriber, I was able to view this entry, along with a
number of others.
Best wishes
Colin Howlett
PS In case you are curious, my amazon.co.uk review ('Flawed flagship') of
the work on which the online text is based is available via the link
supplied below. As you will see, even without the addition of online errors
such as those identified, this text - the 'pride' of the Russian range - is
seriously substandard.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Russian-Dictionary/dp/0198614209/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213014188&sr=1-1 -----------------


[ONLINE FLAGSHIP FAILS INSPECTION]

Dear Vivian

I hope that this e-mail finds you well and as refreshingly open to informed
criticism as I have always found you to be. Let me add in passing that,
despite many past disappointments with the Press, I have not altogether
abandoned hope that in time your openness will give way to responsiveness.
Such a development would, I can assure you, prompt a mighty cheer in circles
beyond the Press's current hearing.

My very low opinion of the print edition of ORD 4 is, of course, well known
to you - both from previous contacts and, in particular, my May 2007
amazon.co.uk review of the work. It will therefore come as no surprise to
learn that I was dismayed to discover that it forms the basis of the
just-launched online version of The Oxford Russian Dictionary (OORD?). A
personal subscription to this addition to OUP's range of "the world's most
trusted dictionaries" will, I believe, set the user back a not
inconsiderable £40+VAT per annum.

In all honesty, however, my opinion of the online version is lower still: I
have just put the product through a few of its paces and found it to be even
more seriously substandard than its fellows in the current Russian
dictionary range. In fact, it is so poorly conceived and ineptly executed as
to be utterly unfit for sale. As ever, there is a very great deal I could
say on the subject, but I will confine myself instead to drawing your
attention to just a couple of particularly revealing blunders in, believe it
or not, the very first entry looked at - the Russian word 'ruka', the link
for which is supplied below. Especially from the point of view of trusting
end-users, the implications of these blunders for the reliability
- or should I say 'trustworthiness'? - of the rest of the work are truly
horrendous.

http://www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com/view/EntryPage.html?direction=b-r
u-en&sp=/oldo/b-ru-en/u11d1def534ea1be0.-7929802d.113f91a3033.2a0e&p=wotdAu
tTydCyE3.rA&d=u11d1def534ea1be0.-7929802d.113f91a3033.2a0e

I suggest that you discuss what you see with both Della Thompson and your
Web Product Development Manager, Jola Ziaja-Donaldson (whose breathtaking
unconcern for Russian lexicographical 'detail' we experienced when tagging
ORD 2 a decade or so ago). With or without prompting on your part, or
reference to the print edition of ORD 4, they should be able to confirm the
following:

1.      The headword, or one or other of its inflected forms, is incorrectly
rendered in more than 30 places, the first instances occurring in the very
first line of text. In contrast to Polish (for example), an acute accent
over a consonant is a nonsense in Russian. Correctly used (in Russian), it
marks the VOWEL in the syllable on which the stress falls. In the case of
'ruka' it should therefore be above the 'y' in the first syllable of both
the accusative singular and the nominative plural forms. At present it
stands above the Russian consonant 'k' (which, unlike its English
counterpart, has no ascender). The genitive plural form shown (which is, in
fact, the word's nominative singular!) is wholly incorrect. The correct form
is a three-letter monosyllable.

2.      The disyllabic headword is mispronounced (it should be stressed on
the SECOND syllable). The same was true of a disconcertingly high percentage
of other headword pronunciations that I randomly selected.
Best wishes
Colin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------