First Albanian-Persian dictionary promoted

TIRANA, April 10 – An Albanian-Persian dictionary was promoted last Sunday by the Toena publishing house. The 18,000 word dictionary was compiled by Iranian and Albanian linguists. The compilation of the publication containing entries, phraseological units and proverbs was led by Seyed Amir Hossein Asghari, the director of Saadi college and Rumi Foundation in Tirana. The dictionary will be of help to Albanian students, researchers and translators interested in the Persian publications and culture, its authors say.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, academics described the dictionary as a communication and cultural bridge in the strengthening of cultural and scientific relations between the two languages. The communication between the two cultures started at the beginning of 20th century with the translation into Persian of some creations by the Albanian national poet Naim Frasheri.
Several renowned Persian authors including Saadi, Khayy⭠and Rumi have also been present in Albanian since the early 20th century.
“It was not easy selecting these words and finding their equivalent translations, especially for phraseological units and proverbs. We have tried our best,” write the authors in the preface to the dictionary.