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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Structuralist lessons of Armenian, world-class, January 31, 2008
This is a textbook of Eastern Armenian, i.e. the variety that is spoken in the Republic of Armenia (part of the ancient homeland of the Armenians) and which differs somewhat in pronunciation, some grammar points, and above all in vocabulary from the other main variety, called Western Armenian which is spoken by most of the emigrant communities, such as in Beirut, France, or the USA. The book was originally published in 1958, but is amazing in its offer of helpful features for learners of a language which is so different from any of the other more wellknown Indo-European languages. An initial very long section describes in detail all the phonemes, their pronunciation and examples of words in which they appear. Then follow the lessons, which contain three columns on each page: to the left an English text, with glosses of each new word directly under each sentence; center, a transliteration into IPA phonetic symbols of the Armenian version of this sentence; right, the same Armenian sentence but in the real alphabet of that language. While this makes the pages kind of wide, it is very helpful. You are never in doubt about the meaning of a sentence, and the transliteration gives you support in deciphering the "true" Armenian-alphabet text which you will badly need for as long as it takes to master that alphabet.
A few negatives: there are many misprints in the Armenian text column (none in the English part!) but if you have gone through the lessons carefully you have the knowledge to see through these misprints, for instance Arm. "s" is often turned upside down so you think erroneously that there is an "o" there. Again, the transliterated center column helps you out since it will in that case display the correct "s". The textbook may also be viewed as somewhat dull in that it sticks exclusively to explaining the language and its grammar, no flavour of the country is provided so it is typical of the dullness of mainstream 20th century American structuralism.
The accompanying set of cassettes is a must for anyone following this course. A voice in broad American dialect says a word, then a very clear Armenian voice speaks the Armenian translation of that word, twice, with a short pause in between. When all new words of a particular sentence have been exposed in that way, the English voice utters the complete sentence, and then the Armenian correspondence of that sentence is spoken, again twice. At least 3 different Armenians speak, so you get used to different registers, all are very distinct and easy to listen in to. I bought my set about 15 years ago but the sound is still perfect, the noise level is virtually zero. Thus, the quality of both the textbook and the tapes are amazing. The pedagogical method of mid-20th century structuralism may be regarded as oldfashioned today by mainstream teachers, but I myself love it. I highly recommend this course.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Foundation, Though Dated, December 6, 2009
As the previous reviewer stated this book is very good at teaching Eastern Armenian to anyone. The Lessons are good, and introduce new vocabulary when ever it is encountered in the dialogue. The grammar in each lesson is short and easy to understand. And later lessons include readings in Armenian, and the Armenian script is used throughout, though, as already stated in the last review, it does have errors, but as long as you learn the script from lessons 7-8, and keep track of the transcription of the Armenian it shouldn't cause much hassle. The transcription of the Armenian into roman letters is helpful for the pesky 'schwa' vowel which is not always written in Armenian script.
Overall this book is great for learning Armenian, there are only two things I would warn the prospective buyer. First, the audio may not be a must, but I highly recommend it due to Armenian having sounds that are not in English. Second, the text is out-dated. It was first made in the 1950's and then Spoken Language started printing it in the 1980's based upon the 1975 version of the text (I believe). The only last thing I will say is that this is one of the more readily available books for learning Armenian that is not too expensive (the book alone), as most of the other available (more updated) books are directly from Armenian and can cost some good money.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing quality of the recordings!, January 31, 2008
This review is from: Spoken (East) Armenian (Armenian Edition) (Audio Cassette)
This accompanying set of cassettes is a must for anyone studying the textbook "Spoken Armenian" by Gordon Fairbanks (see my review of that). A voice in broad American dialect says a word, then a very clear Armenian voice speaks the Armenian translation of that word, twice, with a short pause in between. When all new words of a particular sentence have been exposed in that way, the English voice utters the complete sentence, and then the Armenian correspondence of that sentence is spoken, again twice. At least 3 different Armenians speak, so you get used to different registers, all are very distinct and easy to listen in to. I bought my set about 15 years ago but the sound is still perfect, the noise level is virtually zero. Thus, the quality of both the textbook and the tapes are amazing. The pedagogical method of mid-20th century structuralism may be regarded as oldfashioned today by mainstream teachers, but I myself love it. I highly recommend this course.
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