Dictionary in Verse: A Poetic and Lexicographic Work

Abstract

The practice of writing dictionaries in verse was cherished in Ottoman cul- ture as a continuation of the tradition existing earlier in Anatolia. These dictionaries were primarily manuals for learning Arabic and Persian by memorizingmemorizing verses including a certain vocabulary of one of the two languages (or both) with Turkish semantic equivalents. In the first half of the 17th century, Muhammed Hevâî Uskufî Bosnevî compiled a dictionary in verse of Turkish and Bosnian and called it Makbûl-i Ârif. A large number of preserved hand-written copies of the dictionary tell us that for several centuries it was used by the Bosnians for learning Turkish lexis. Through analysis of the couplets, this paper reveals some poetic and lexicographic features of that work. On the one hand, it shows the author’s understanding of lan- guage and bilingual dictionaries; on the other hand, it shows the author’s poetic skills which made it easier for the user to memorise vocabulary.