Abstract

In the Driftway

The article presents information on the oldest dictionary in the world. The dictionary was recently discovered in southern Syria. It is believed to be the oldest dictionary in the world. According to researchers, the seacoast city of Zapouna in Syria between 3000 and 2000 B.C. was an important commercial center peopled by prosperous merchants whose ships sailed many seas. A princely family who lived in a palace befitting their state ruled it. In this palace was found a great library where apparently a school of scribes labored. Six languages were spoken in the busy city of Zapouna and it was the task of scribes to inter-translate these languages, in order, presumably, that a business man of Zapouna, speaking the native dialect, could not be hindered by linguistic difficulties in striking a good bargain with one of the numerous merchants from Asia Minor or Egypt.