A Grammar of Contemporary Persian.

• Author: Perry, John R.

Lazard's Grammaire du persan contemporain has been out since 1957, and has never been surpassed. This translation, with revisions by the author, will at last provide English-speaking students of literary and spoken Persian with a comprehensive reference grammar. Clear distinctions are drawn between literary and vernacular usage; the observations on vowel quality and quantity (pp. 17-19) are particularly helpful, as indeed is the whole section on phonology (pp. 7-48). Under morphology, the treatment of the enclitic -es in its diverse functions (pp. 81, 114-16) goes further toward a scientific articulation of one of the fuzzier aspects of Persian idiom than I have seen elsewhere. Another point neglected in most other grammars is the use of the prefix mi- with dastan and budan (pp. 139-41). Under the rubric of syntax, Lazard's detailed exemplification and subtle interpretation of the uses of the elusive suffix -ra (pp. 183-94), and of the particle ke (pp. 254-57), call for special mention.

There is no index, other than the detailed, three-page table of contents; this and the generous cross-referencing in the text suffice to find most topics. An index of Persian words and forms, however, would have been helpful in matters of detail. Among minor omissions, one might cite the following. To the note that a [is greater than] e in the penult of barakat and harakat (p. 21) should be added the similar shift in most nouns of the pattern mofaale/mofa alat (a class of more than 100); and to that on the representation of the ezafe after "silent h" by a hamza (p. 52; actually a miniature ye in origin) should be added that in this position ezafe is increasingly being written with a full independent ye (esp. in modern poetry and children's books). It is not sufficiently emphasized (pp. 116-17) that the possessive pronoun xod refers strictly to the subject of its own sentence; in fact the domains of u, xod and -es are nowhere clearly contrasted. Similarly, further explanation or exemplification is needed for candom (p. 122; also candomin, not mentioned on p. 101), and for magar (p. 212). The adverbs baz (pp. 95, 293) and ham (pp. 95, 215) are done less than justice in view of their varied idiomatic repertoire. The reduplicated gerund of the type xandan xandan (p. 168) does not necessarily indicate "vepetition" (or even intensity of action), but combines with an appropriate verb to specify Aktionsart: langan langan az u joda misod 'he limped away from her' (to...