Nguyen Quyet Tien (R), one of the authors of the Czech-Vietnamese dictionary, presents the complete collection. Photo: VNA

The set, compiled by late Czech linguistic professor Ivo Vasiljev and co-author Nguyen Quyet Tien, was completed after 12 years.

It comprises six volumes targeting Vietnamese expatriates and Czech people who want to learn Vietnamese. Considered a bilingual encyclopaedia, it covers a wide range of subjects, including society, culture, history, biography and geography.

At the launching event, Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan spoke highly of efforts made by the authors to complete the dictionary.

For his part, Tien expressed gratitude for support from organisations and people of Vietnam and the Czech Republic. He also voiced his hope to compile a Vietnamese-Czech dictionary in the future.

In May 2016, the project won the second prize of the Dictionary of the Year award by the Union of Interpreters and Translators of the Czech Republic despite only three volumes having been released at the time.

Vasiljev died on October 23, 2016 at the age of 81 when he just started to write the fifth volume.

Vasiljev interpreted for President Ho Chi Minh when a Czechoslovakian delegation visited Vietnam in 1966. He was the first Czech to translate President Ho Chi Minh’s Nhat Ky Trong Tu (Diary in Prison) into Czech and also researched Vietnamese ancient heritage and old scripts./.

VNF/VNA