Textbooks

Natalya Baranskaya, Edited by Lora Paperno, Natalie Roklina, and Richard Leed

$19.95
978-0-89357-202-0
92
1989

This is a novelistic first-person account of a typical week in the life of a Soviet woman and her efforts to hold down two full-time jobs: one as a scientist in a laboratory, the other as a mother and wife. The general problem is a familiar one in the West, too, but the story is full of intimate details of Soviet daily life. The style is straight-forward and lively -- an excellent text for student reading, since it contains a great deal of very useful, every-day vocabulary. The language of the original has not been simplified, although it has been very slightly abridged. The purpose of the edition is to provide interesting accented, glossed, and annotated reading material for students who have had two or more years of Russian. Notes at the bottom of the page provide information on idioms and difficult passages. The glossary at the end contains all of the words in the text except for those which are commonly used and assumed to be known to the student (including numerals, pronouns, special adjectives, common prepositions, etc.). Accent marks are placed over all syllables which bear stress, including monosyllabic words; thus, the distinction between words such as chto `that' vs. chto`what' is indicated by the accent mark.

 

"Paperno, Roklina, and Leed have added another excellent classroom aid to an already distinguished series. The editors have reprinted an important short novel as a classroom reader. The format is well suited for student use -- clear print, numbered lines, useful and appropriate footnotes, and a generally well prepared glossary." (SEEJ)

$44.95
0-89357-207-1
526
1990

Professor Aronson's book, originally published in 1982, was the first grammar of Georgian for beginners to be published in English. The goal of the book is to enable a student to read Georgian literature (primarily scholarly) with the aid of a dictionary. The course consists of fifteen lessons, the first of which is devoted to the sound and writing systems of Georgian. The remaining fourteen lessons cover grammatical information, with exercises for translation from Georgian into English (lessons 2-13) and reading passages taken unedited from modern Georgian sources (lessons 5-15). Reading passages deal with history, geography, linguistics, philology, art history, music history, anthropology, plus a long selection from a contemporary Georgian popular novel.

"This textbook is an exemplary product of the reading-knowledge approach..." (MLJ)

"...the best Georgian grammar in English and the best reading-knowledge grammar in any language." (MLJ)

"The publication of Aronson's textbook represents a major advance in the study and accessibility of Georgian..." (SEEJ)

"This grammar is destined to be the standard work, and our debt to Aronson is enormous..." (SEER)

Accompanying audio files are available here https://celt.indiana.edu/portal/Georgian/readingrammar.html

Patricia M. Arant

OUT_OF_PRINT
$32.95
0-89357-086-9
214
1981

A concise, economical way of learning to read Russian, without wasting time on extraneous matters. Careful attention to grammar.

"Arant has provided a clear, concise description of the essentials of Russian grammar. ...this valuable and practical guide to developing reading skills in Russian." (MLJ)

Genevra Gerhart, with Eloise M. Boyle

$54.95
978-0-89357-380-5
xxx + 513
2012

This book is an attempt at the impossible: to describe for non-Russians what Russian common knowledge might be. It is the Russian obvious—that is ob+via, in the road, in the way: what you might trip over if you ignore it or don’t see it. It is the information one Russian assumes another has when they are talking together. It is the background against which words take on meaning. If one knew all of common knowledge, then all humor would be comprehensible. The book was written because the Russian equivalent for Thomas, “Foma”, might share origin in language but certainly doesn’t share place in society. It was written because in translation the obvious often isn’t; and sometimes it’s hard to answer when you don’t know what your friend has in mind. The book was written for the traveler who might be happier or even healthier knowing what to expect; it was written for those in business who want to avoid pratfalls as much as they want to see possibilities; and it was written for those studying the language who are blessed with curiosity and (temporarily) tired of verb forms. The assumption is not that the readers know Russian, but that they do want to know about Russians and their language. (There are also a few hints on what to expect for Russians new to America.) This 4th edition is more than a revision: we are adding material on computer language and are returning Abbreviations to the fold; we are adding a brief section on where to go for more details. In many small and large ways we have brought the information up to date. “… one of those rare books that are both so original in concept that they seem to create their own genre and so remarkably useful that it soon becomes difficult to imagine how one ever got along without them.” — Barry P. Scherr, Mandel Family Professor of Russian, Dartmouth College For more about the Author or the book please visit: here

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