Customer Reviews

Let's Speak Mohawk (Book/Cassette Course)

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Actually, Mohawk pronunciation is quite complex, this book is a language textbook not a dictionary, and Mohawk is a living language with a pre-existing writing system (even we real linguists are not so arrogant as to force would-be learners of other languages to use phonetic transcription instead of the writing system actually used by its speakers).

David Maracle is a native speaker and educator of the Mohawk language, the tapes are clear and comprehensible, and this is a valuable language learning tool. It is rather pricy, however. It's possible to buy the textbook without the tapes (just search for the author's name) for a fraction of the price, though you'll miss out on the chance to hear this sonorous and little-spoken language in action.

The author is supposedly a native teacher of Mohawk, but this set is bad because:
1. Mohawk pronunciation is really simple and the tapes are expensive
2. The book gives very few words, its basically a grammar, not a full one either
3. Perhaps to justify the tapes the author creates a writing system which requires transcription (a real linguist would ship phonemic sounds)
Better go directly to 1000 Words of Mohawk, that book has a grammar intro too