Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 1 (The Basque Series) [Hardcover]

Linda White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008 | ISBN-10: 087417726X | ISBN-13: 978-0874177268 | Edition: Bilingual

A beginning-level text in the Basque language <br>

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Linda White is emerita professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Center for Basque Studies, where she taught Basque for many years. She is the coauthor of the Basque-English, English-Basque Dictionary and the English-Basque Dictionary, both published by the University of Nevada Press, and has translated numerous works from Basque and Spanish. <br>

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press; Bilingual edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087417726X
• ISBN-13: 978-0874177268
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Basque

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun format to learn, April 9, 2011

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 1 (The Basque Series) (Hardcover)

I enjoy the lighthearted dialogues. It's great having the audio portions on-line so I can download them and listen to Basque speakers.

It has been a long time since I studied a foreign language, so I appreciate being able to study one verb at a time.

And it's a huge help to have the answers to the exercises in the book.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bad choice of vocabulary, March 9, 2011

By 

A Customer (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 1 (The Basque Series) (Hardcover)

This book is a fine textbook in many regards. It offers a lot of explanations, sample sentences, exercises, activities, and solutions to many activities.

If you do not know how to pronounce Basque, you will not find any explanation in vol. 1. (But you can buy "Beginner's Basque" by Wim Jansen, it comes with two CDs, with recordings both in natural speech and also with slower pace for listening and practice. Jansen's book is short and very introductory. White's textbooks are much more comprehensive.)

This book is described as if it were a textbook addressed to anyone wishing to study Basque. On the dust cover it is stated that "This is a good solid introduction to Basque." Unfortunately, the books seem to be addressed to younger students because the dialogues, sample sentences, and activities are strongly centered on Xurga, Goxo and some other characters who are vampires, werewolves, and witches. Therefore, if you do not mind studying with this kind of fiction and fantasy, consider these textbooks, vol. 1 and 2, as fine books that deserve five stars. But I find it annoying to have no choice but to practice with this kind of characters and vocabulary. I have studies many languages, ancient and modern, and I never came across such a textbook. A more general vocabulary would make these textbooks open to a larger group of people. I assume that this choice of vocabulary and topics was dictated by the age of students whom the author has been teaching Basque in Nevada.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unless you know how to pronounce Basque, the description is misleading, June 25, 2009

By 

Ceallaigh "40 year linguist" (Everett, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 1 (The Basque Series) (Hardcover)

(Update to my previous review below this review)
After learning that there is a pronuncation guide and audio material available for this book through a couple websites, I repurchased the book.

Again, I was disappointed:
-The pronunciation guide is quite simplistic and doesn't capture the pronunciation nuances of the dialect in the audio.
-The audio covers the dialogs only and it does so at normal conversational speed, making it hard to follow. It also doesn't allow for the learner to hear the sounds clearly and slowly enough to mimic.

I will keep this book and continue searching the web for more helpful information on the pronunciation of Basque. I wish Teach Yourself would release a Basque title with a clear guide to pronunciation as well as more useful audio. They do a better job than the Routlege Colloquial series does.

--original review--
Just received this title and was very disappointed that there is nothing about pronunciation or intonation and stress. It is a nice course otherwise, but given the description of the book, I would have thought it would have been comprehensive in all aspects. Alan King's book is still the best on the market. Colloquial Basque at least gives you pronunciation, but is not a very good course otherwise.