An Introduction to Persian.

• Author: Perry, John R.

Wheeler Thackston's elementary Persian textbook was first published in 1978, revised and reissued in 1983 by the Near Eastern Department at Harvard, and is now available (with, optionally, an audio cassette of its Persian sections) in clear type-faces and a bright, sturdy binding, in time for the Fall market. Succinct and systematic, it comprises a twenty-page introduction to the phonology and script, seventy-seven paragraphs of grammar in twenty-five lessons, separate supplements on classical usages and modern colloquial Persian, two appendixes (on the uses of ta, and on time and dates), separate reading selections of contemporary and classical prose (twenty-four pages in all), English-Persian and Persian-English vocabularies (ca. 1500 entries in toto), and a grammatical index. Each lesson is followed by a vocabulary list and three or more translation and transformation or substitution exercises, and there are additional review drills after every five lessons. There are ten additional lists of specialized vocabulary for passive acquisition.

In revising his work, the author has compressed the former thirty lessons by reshuffling material, modified the supplementary vocabularies and cut out two appendixes (on arithmetical operations, and Arabic orthography). It seems a pity not to have redistributed appendix A among the lessons, since three of the uses of ta are anticipated (pp. 162-63, 181-82). The handwritten forms of letters are particularly well presented, though rather small; that of the lam-alef ligature is missing (p. xxix), and he-jimi on p. xxi is called he-hotti on p. xxxi. The useful intonation patterns (p. 1) are never used again, even where intonation is mentioned (pp. 85-86). Roman transcription is maintained throughout; some teachers (myself included) prefer it to be phased out, which not only forces the student to read without a crutch but instills a sense for phonotactics and morphology. Like most elementary Persian grammars, Thackston's tends to concentrate on the noun phrase before the verb phrase (-ra is introduced in lesson 6, the present indicative not until lesson 10), but so unobtrusively that complete Persian sentences can be formed from lesson 2 on.

Within this eminently usable framework, each instructor will of course identify his own pet peeves. The quite strict ordering of adverbials (time, manner, place) does not seem to be mentioned, though it is evidently assumed by at least lesson 16. The presentation of the...