A collection of essays about the theory and practice of Native American lexicography, and more specifically the making of dictionaries, by some of the top scholars working in Native American language studies.

In 1495, the Spanish humanist Antonio de Nebrija published a Spanish-to-Latin dictionary that became a best seller. Over the next century it was revised dozens of times, in nine European cities. As these dictionaries made their way around the globe in this age of encounters, their lists of Spanish words became frameworks for dictionaries of non-Latin languages. What began as Spanish to Latin became Spanish to Arabic, French, English, Tuscan, Nahuatl, Mayan, Quechua, Aymara, Tagalog, and more. Tracing the global influence of Nebrija's dictionary, Byron Ellsworth Hamann, in this interdisciplinary, deeply researched book, connects pagan Rome, Muslim Spain, Aztec Tenochtitlan, Elizabethan England, the Spanish Philippines, and beyond, revealing new connections in world history. The Translations of Nebrija re-creates the travels of people, books, and ideas throughout the early modern world and reveals the adaptability of Nebrija's text, tracing the ways heirs and pirate printers altered the dictionary in the decades after its first publication. It reveals how entries in various editions were expanded to accommodate new concepts, such as for indigenous languages in the Americas -- a process with profound implications for understanding pre-Hispanic art, architecture, and writing. It shows how words written in the margins of surviving dictionaries from the Americas shed light on the writing and researching of dictionaries across the early modern world. Exploring words and the dictionaries that made sense of them, this book charts new global connections and challenges many assumptions about the early modern world.

Gurindji is a traditional language of the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory (Australia). Gurindji people became well known in the 1960-70s due to their influence on Australian politics and the Indigenous land rights movement. They were instrumental in gaining equal wages for Aboriginal cattle station employees and they were also the first Aboriginal group to recover control of their traditional lands.The Gurindji to English Dictionary contains Gurindji words with English translations, illustrations, and detailed encyclopaedic information about plants, animals and cultural practices. Also included is a guide to Gurindji grammar and an English index.This volume is ideal for both beginners and advanced speakers of Gurindji, for translators and interpreters, and for anyone interested in learning more about Gurindji language and culture.

This easy-to-use Navajo dictionary is intended primarily for Navajo children learning to read and write the language in bilingual classrooms, but it is also useful for anyone wanting to learn Navajo.

Is the bilingual dictionary really the translator’s best friend? Or is it the case that all translators hate all dictionaries? The truth probably lies half-way. It is difficult to verify anyway, as the literature on the subject(s) is limited, not helped by the fact that Lexicography and Translation have stood apart for decades despite their commonality of purpose. Here is a volume, based on the proceedings of a successful conference at Hong Kong, that may at last provide some answers.