A Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language: As Spoken and Written [Paperback]

Charles Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2005

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1880 edition by Bernard Quatritch, London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Adamant Media Corporation (August 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 054384952X
• ISBN-13: 978-0543849526
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,425,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware! This is reprint of a VERY old book., December 6, 2008

By 

Tom Trueman "language scholar" (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language: As Spoken and Written (Paperback)

The listing information needs to make it much clearer that this is certainly NOT Turkish "as spoken and written", which the blurb on the cover claims, and which the listed publication date of 2005 appears to confirm.

If you miss the single line in the description, you need to know that this volume is actually a reprint of a book from 1880, and which describes a much earlier version of Turkish from the Ottoman period, when Turkish was still written using the Arabic alphabet, which hasn't been used for it since 1928. Turkish has undergone very extensive linguistic reforms since then, and the language used today is vastly different from what is described here.

This quaint and antiquated version of Turkish will get you a lot of quizzical and perplexed looks if you try to use it today. (Imagine trying to speak Elizabethan English to a taxi driver in London, and you'll get the idea.)

I ordered this book thinking I'd add it to my library -- but when I received it and discovered how archaic it was, I sent it back. The listing information on this page should have made it much clearer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good intro to Ottoman Turkish, March 22, 2009

By 

X. Wang (Seattle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language: As Spoken and Written (Paperback)

Rating this book really low by previous reviewers based on the mere fact that the book illustrates Turkish as spoken in the nineteenth century is not well founded. This book is one of the very few books written in English on pre-republic Turkish grammar available in the market. It can well serve as an introduction to Ottoman Turkish for people with some knowledge of Turkish or other Turkish languages. Modern Turkish reformed under Ataturk is different from Ottoman Turkish premarily in the writing system and lexical items. Namely, much Perso-Arabic influence was removed. This book, however, illustrates Perso-Arabic elements well, and it even has some reading passages. It can be indeed a fun read for those who are not satisfied with only knowing contemporary Turkish but also interested in probing into the past of the Turkish language.

3.0 out of 5 stars learning turkish, December 25, 2007

By 

Ângela P. T. Fernandes "Mi Casa Su Casa" (Portugal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language: As Spoken and Written (Paperback)

Very good turkish grammar. Probably is not the best for people that have the first contact with the language. It makes several comparisons with the old arabic/persian forms and modern turkish. Sometimes difficult to interpretate. Good for someone that already knows turkish.