Andrea Hamburg

Dreisprachiges Wörterbuch für Tourismus

Deutsch-Rumänisch-Ungarisch

Rezension


Among other works, Andrea Hamburg published two more dictionaries with the University of Oradea Publishing House "(SmaIl dictionary of tourism, Romanian - German, German - Romanian"; original title: "Mic dictionar de turism. Romän german, German-romän", in 2015, as single author and "Dictionary of Business - English, German, French, Intalian, Hungarian; original title: Dictionar de afaceri - englezä, germanä, ftancezä, italianä, maghiarä", in 2004, as a coordinator and coauthor). Her constant didactic preoccupation as an academic, teaching German and related disciplines at the Faculty of Economic Sciences University of Oradea, materialised in several course books published with ISBN, i.e. courses of German language (five works between 2002 and 2011), courses of German for Business (2 works in 2014), and speciality books such as "Deutsche Grammatik mal anders - 100 Übungen mit Spaß" (2003), "Wirtschaftliche Wortfamilien" (2004) and "Interkulturelle Kommunikation". "Deutschkurs für das Magisterstudium" (2010). Her doctoral thesis, defended in 2006 at the University Lucian Blaga, in Sibiu, entitled "Zwischen Verriss und Bestsellertum. Die Rezeption von Johannes Mario Simmel" was published by Peter Lang Publishing House, in Frankfurt am Main, in 2012. Among the many studies that shape Andrea Hamburg's research work published in various journals, fourteen articles are in journals indexed in international databases.

The writer's vast expertise in the field of German for business and economics, received in almost twenty years of teaching at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, backed up by the correlated research undertaken all along, is put to good use in the exhaustive endeavour of producing a trilingual dictionary of touristic terminology.

Andrea Hamburg's trilingual dictionary, besides being quite unique in this very concept of correlating three languages, is wisely structured in three large sections of dictionaries of terms from the broad field of tourism (first German - Romanian - Hungarian, second Romanian - German - Hungarian and third Hungarian - German - Romanian). The dictionaries proper are preceded by forewords, written in all three languages, in which the authoress explains the undertaking of producing this trilingual dictionary, its usefulness, to whom it is addressed and how it is structured. A final section consists of glossaries of terms representing names of countries, cities, mountains, waters in all three languages, selected by relevance for each country in particular, and tables depicting the nationalities and languages for several countries, again in each of the three languages. One may argue why it is precisely these three languages that this dictionary tackles. The reason is quite transparent: The writer is a specialist in German, with an experience of neariy two decades of teaching this language and related topics at the University of Oradea. Her national language is Romanian and her mother tongue Hungarian, like with many people in her geographical area (Transylvania). Hence, it is only natural that the trilingual dictionary is constructed on these three languages. The uniqueness of this approach in conceiving a dictionary reinforces its usefulness.

As the authoress mentions in the foreword, the trilingual dictionary for tourism addresses to all lay readers interested or in need to find various terms, such as tourists, and at the same time to those who specialise in the field of tourism, i.e. students at various levels in this economic field. We would add that the dictionary will also constitute a quite useful tool for educators, teachers, academics working in the field of tourism, for language instructors in this field and not only, and for translators as well. The foreword also presents details on how the dictionary is conceived - for didactic and informative purposes as well - and hence instructions on how it shouid be used and read. For instance, clarifications are given concerning the symbols standing for terms that are singularia tantum or defective of plural, explanations are offered on how concepts are completed, words being followed by suffixes for genitive singular and nominative plural or by a hyphen if the particular word does not have such a suffix. The authoress herself stresses the innovative nature of the final sections of her work, containing the lists of proper names of a geographical and administrative character specific to each of the three countries. lndeed we consider that these give originality, added value and fairly increased usefulness to the trilingual dictionary. Remarks on the content of the tables at the end, with reference to the number and gender shown on the columns with names of nations, depending on the specificities of the three languages are also presented in the same foreword. All these explanations provided from the very beginning make the dictionary a straightforward work of much use for didactic purposes and as an informational tool.

The first part, the German - Romanian - Hungarian dictionary, ranging between pages 13 and 123, prove from the start the comprehensive nature of the material. We encounter not only an alphabetical list of terms and notions carefully selected as relevant for the domains of tourism and travelling, with their Romanian (ro.) and then Hungarian (magh.) versions underneath, as expected from the title, but also the most common phrases or structures that can be formed with some of the terms, where the case, or an entire word family when germane to the field. Thus, for instance, we are provided with terminology and translation for a series of Conventions and Agreements concerning tourism and transportation, under the word "Abkommen" (such as, among others: "Hilfs - für Saharareisen, internationales - im Tourismus, Luftverkehrs -, das - von Brüssel)". As another example, for the word "Kultur" (meaning culture, cultural), the reader immediatelly finds several derived notions, such as "Kulturstadt, Kulturhauptstadt, Kulturmonat" or "Kulturerbe" for which some standard constructions are presented as well: "Rettung des -erbes and "Welt-erbe". Or, for "Urlaub", it is not only several types of vacations and holidays, or related expressions, that we are presented with, such as: "Abenteuer-, Langzeit-, Sonder-, Traum-, Winter-", but also the pertinent word family: "Urlauber Urlaubsort, Urlaubssplitting, Urlaubszeit". Of doubtless usefulness for students, learners, professional trainees and teachers or other stakeholders in didactics and research, this section is of great use also for travellers and tourists familiar with German language that find themselves in need to get the Romanian or the Hungarian version of a term or a structure, as visiting these countries or the neighbouring regions or elsewhere encountering speakers of these languages.

A similar number of pages (from 127 to 232) is allocated to the section comprising the Romanian - German - Hungarian dictionary. Vast and accurate representation of touristic terminology and corresponding or related notions welcome the reader, as in the first section. Again expressions, collocations, linguistic structures and word families are included, when appropriate. To consider only one example, we find that the specifications for each term in the word family "ofen - ofertant - ofertä" are followed by numerous structures that can be formed with the last term, such as: "- avantajoasä, - excesivä, - fermä, - specialä, - turisticä incluzand doar cazarea sau transportul". Quite amusingly, the last phrase, for instance, though quite long in Romanian, is represented in German (ge.) by a single word "(Teilpauschalreise)" not even excessively long - as relatively common for this language. Derived forms, important constructions or phrases accompany most words and happily complete the basic terms. Accurate and thorough understanding is thus granted and it can be said that even a sort of reinforcement is assured, besides the direct goal which is the provision of the proper communicational elements and structures. Where only ready-made phrases - and not the constituent words - represent structures of interest for the field, it is of course just these that are included (at the right alphabetical place, but without discussing the first word which is of no significance, as such, in the context of tourism). So, we find plenty of phrases such as: "Bine ati venit!, centurä de sigurantä, de efect, Iuminä polarä, stergere din registru, lucrat manual, mic dejun, mijloc de platä", etc. Where adequate, more complex expressions will follow, which are formed from the initial ones (like various types of breakfast or of payment methods for the last two examples given above). Moreover, the particularities of the language are weIl spotted and carefully considered, all semantic aspects being taken into account. For example, the equivocal Romanian verb a "inchiria" and the derived noun "inchiriere" are thoughtfully provided with bracketed disambiguation: "a da" respectively "dare in chirie" - lend, lending - and a "Iua" respectively "luare in chirie" - borrow, borrowing. The polysemantic "serviciu" (service) represents another example where, first, clarifications are offered ("oficiu" - office, "prestare" - service offering, "servire" - serving) and then a whole set of phrases are given (almost two columns), among which: telephonic assistance service, dry-cleaning service, room-service, German Air Traffic service a.s.o.

In part three (pp. 234-340), the Hungarian - German - Romanian dictionary, the structural concept is, naturally, preserved, this rendering a unitary character to the trilingual dictionary, and the endeavour to provide an exhaustive range of concepts yet of relevance to tourism is again successful. Same pattern is noticed: words are selected by criteria of relevance and appropriateness, an initial constituent word is omitted from the alphabetical list if not particularly important while significant compounds and collocations are Iisted and carefully tackled. To give an example, we note that though the word "leg" (air) is not present, we find "leghajö" (aircraft) and then a series of structures formed with "legi" and compounds of "leg" - spreading on a column and a half - among which: "Iegi betegseg, legiforgalom, legi szemelyzet, legkondicionälö berendezes, Iegter hasznälata".

Peculiar or unexpected structures met at times can make the reading into a delightful one, not boring at all - which would be rare for a dictionary. lt is pleasantly surprising for instance to find a phrase such as "Autömentes Svajci TeIepülesek Egyesülete" which refers to "Car-free villages in Switzerland" but sounds quite funny in a direct translation (Association of Swiss localities free of car traffic) especially as it is very likely that many readers have not heard of the existence of such a thing as yet. A feature of the Hungarian language and cultural style, the kind, advising tone and the close relation to the collocutor, may seem excesivelly explanatory when out of the context of the discourse, i.e. unless in the regular speech register. Such is here, for instance, the dictionary entry "autöpälya, mely a valamikori Jugoszlävian äthaladva összeköti Ausztriät Görögorszäggal" which to non-natives can sound somewhat too explicit or over-detailed (for a dictionary 'term') and can be felt as a little farfetched. The English version is a quite specific one, Brotherhood and Unity Highway, while the Hungarian entry looks like a rather long rephrasal used in the absence of a synthetical structure (a direct translation being as follows: the highway crossing the former Yugoslavia and connecting Austria to Greece). In our opinion, such structures are evidently introduced for the reason of closely following a simple organising rule, that of mirroring the entries in the three languages. Obviously the leading language in this conceptual parallel is German, where these - otherwise complex lexical constructions - are simple terms ("der Autoput", for the example above), or synthetical but still very natural structures. Such a parallel construction is not at all easy to manage and accomplish and the production of this trilingual dictionary is, in the light of these considerations, even more appreciable and worthy, a sign of hard work and dilligence, a measure of consistence and a proof of competence.

The auxiliary section, of 42 pages that bring up vocabulary denoting geographical elements, administrative divisions and related data, is both a wise choice, for reasons of usefulness, and also a mark of novelty and a sign of originality. The annex begins with the states of the world in German, then in Romanian and finally in Hungarian - all translated, as the words in the dictionaries before, in the two other languages, a pattern which is preserved all along this final section, as well. Then comes a selection ot most important Romanian and then Hungarian cities and towns, which are followed by the most relevant cities in the world, then mountains, rivers, lakes and seas/oceans. These all are first introduced in German, then comes the Romanian subsection and then the Hungarian one. The selection is made not only on the criterion of importance but also considering the existence of lexical variations between the versions. Thus, in the German subsection, tor instance, there are numerous names of Hungarian cities that are very distinct from the original while in the Romanian subsection there are just a few names of Hungarian cities presented, because their original, Hungarian language name is preserved. That is why there are differences in entries from one language subsection to another.

The three large tables in the end of this final, auxiliary section - one extensive table for each of the three languages - bring selections of countries, with their corresponding nations and languages, appearing as previously mentioned - according to the writer's specifications in the foreword. Thus, the tables for German and Romanian contain gender and number variants in the column for people (nation) while in the table for the Hungarian subsection there is only number specification, the language being defective of gender.

The trilingual dictionary ends in two pages of bibliography, arranged on two categories, printed works first and then online resources, all being recent or very recent.

A perfectionist nature, a calculated person and a very weil prepared and organised professional, the writer does not aliow any shortcomings, flaws or compromises to her work. Extensive comprehension and sharp ingenuity are the two dimensions that best denote the manifestation of Andrea Hamburg's professionalism in this complex and yet straightforward piece of work

loana Claudia Horea


Copyright © 2016 by Verlag Traugott Bautz