It is the first academic dictionary in the country that registers the words and meanings of the usual vocabulary in Dominican Spanish that do not have a common use in Spanish.

The Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (MINERD) received from the Dominican Academy of Language and the Guzmán Ariza Foundation the donation of 1,250 copies of the Dictionary of Dominican Spanish to be distributed in the same number of educational centers.

The Minister of Education, Ángel Hernández, expressed his gratitude for the delivery, while saying that all those who can do something for the school are welcome, and that it is important for the country's educational centers to have a dictionary of Dominican Spanish because it is what society needs.

''It is an invaluable contribution of great value to put this dictionary in the hands of our students, teachers and parents; that is why I want to congratulate the Academy that was behind this project and the Guzmán Ariza Foundation", said the minister.

Hernández assured that the dictionaries will be distributed in schools, while he explained to the academics the initiatives implemented by the MINERD to strengthen teacher training in the field of language and the teaching of the Spanish language so that the country can have a good level of reading comprehension.

Bruno Rosario, president of the Academia de la Lengua, thanked the MINERD for inviting them to be part of the creation of textbooks, for what it means to Dominican education, as it is essential to have good school textbooks, which, he believes, is the first step to raise the level of education.

In addition, Fabio Guzmán Ariza, president of the Guzmán Ariza Foundation, which was in charge of the creation of the volumes, said that the purpose of the dictionary is to disseminate this knowledge to the national students so that they can know and value our vocabulary, which is what defines us as a people and as a nation.

Present at the ceremony on behalf of MINERD were Oscar Amargós, Vice-Minister of Evaluation and Quality Control of Education, and Leónidas Germán, Director General of Curriculum, while Rubén García, María José Rincón, Rita Díaz and Ruth Ruiz also participated on behalf of the Academy.

About the Dictionary

This is the first academic dictionary in the Dominican Republic that records the words and meanings of the usual vocabulary in Dominican Spanish that are not commonly used in Spanish.

This dictionary provides readers with a work that includes the Dominican Spanish lexicon of the 20th and 21st centuries up to the present day, the current and frequent in the present and also that which has disappeared or is disappearing for generational reasons or due to changes in the culture or way of life of Dominican society.

Words and meanings, in addition to their definition and grammatical information, provide data on their social and stylistic value or on the connotation they have for the speaker.

Its pages describe more than 11,000 words, with more than 14,000 meanings, 4,250 locutions and 8,000 examples.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.