11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
very helpful, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)
It is great to have a handbook written by a native speaker and including modern idiom and usage as well as warnings about which mispronunciations could be a problem. The sections are very well organized
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
compact, helpful, but a bit confusing on pronunciation, August 7, 2009
This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)
It's well organized, and starts off with a series of helpful short phrases that would help a traveler anywhere: hello, goodbye, thank you, please, where are the toilets, that sort of thing. It then introduces information how to use the negative ('I will be' becomes 'I will not be'), and it provides for English-Turkish or Turkish-English. And it includes a transliteration for every Turkish phrase. But I'm still a bit mystified by some examples, such as the ending of 'mu' or 'musiniz' (should be the turkish 'i' without the dot) in a sentence, and when to use them?
But the main issue I had was with the transliteration and not knowing if the g was hard (get) or soft (gentle), or the o was oh or more like uh as in other, if the e was ee or eh, etc. I don't think I'll find out until I get to Turkey and hear a native speaker.
A companion website with pronunciations would be a great addition. One other plus - it gives advice on Turkish life in small blurbs here and there.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent little book, February 15, 2009
This review is from: Lonely Planet Turkish Phrasebook (Paperback)
I am traveling to Turkey this summer and did not want to spend a lot of money for language studies. I speak French, Spanish, and Mandarin. I have been working with a basic Pimsleur course and was having trouble with their inconsistent pronunciation. One example was the word for HELLO,
"Merhaba." It was first pronounced (after listening to the word numerous times) "MEER-hah-bah"...the vowell in the first syllable as a long "i" as in American dictionaries or "i" according to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Later on, on another CD I heard the word pronounded as "mehr-hah-bah." I continue to find inconsistancies and contrary to what Pimsleur says and its 5-star rating, I found this little book to be a treasure trove of insights into the Turkish Language and an excellent supplement to the Pimsleur course. This book was designed for those individuals who wish to learn basic Turkish and not long term study of the language. Lonley Planet has done a great job with this little book. Larry Tomaw
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
