Persian Grammar

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but consider other titles too.
Review: Ann Lambton's grammar is the standard in English, and its status is well deserved. However, it was written for scholars of Persian language and literature. The second half covers Arabic grammar as it is used in literary Persian, and there is a companion volume of vocabulary for the exercises. If the student wants to do research in Persian, this is the book to use.

Those who want to learn modern spoken and written Persian but do not plan a life of scholarly research should look at the book by Wheeler Thackston or at the second-best "Spoken Persian" (one of the Spoken Language Series). Both have sound recordings for pronunciation and both will prepare the student for conversation, newspapers and modern literature.

Rating:
Summary: For someone wanting an introduction to Persian don't bother.
Review: For a scholarly detailed and obscure grammar look no further. If you want a guide to how Persian was written in the 10th century your on to a winner. For those who know Arabic, this work is comparable to Wright's grammar with little excercises and unbearably long vocabulary lists at the end of every section, followed by a collection of largely unannotated prose passages at the end of the book. The last half of the book is dedicated exclusively to explaining Arabic grammar that the student of the modern language scarcely needs. Alas I have never got that far. Every time I've picked up this tome, I've put it down again before completing Chapter 10. This book is for the advanced student only, and the more pedantic one at that. Beginners use Thackston, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: This book is so, so
Review: Take it from a fluent speaker (who wanted to work on reading/writing), Lambton's book is probably NOT what you should be looking for if you want to start learning the language. The book is a little hard to follow, and here's why:

- The author presents the alphabet very well (i thought) providing a full transliteration for each letter. The problem, though, is that a *non-native* speaker would probably not know how to pronounce the letters too well with just an example of how the words sound in english.... but wait! alas, lambton has a solution for this, filling her explanations with words like "voiced bilabial pronunciation," "voiceless velar uvular with scrape," and "voiced alveolar frictative" (trust me there's one of these for each letter). so the lack of audio, i'm sure, would be pretty frustrating for a foreigner (or, at least, one who wants to pronounce things correctly). Furthermore, Lambton puts the alphabet AFTER the introduction of the book even though she decides to include important concepts--WITH WORDS IN FARSI--in the introduction.

- Her explanation of "the" vs. "a" is not too great in the beginning of the book. Only in a brief footnote does Lambton mention that the "a" article she writes about is only used to mean "a particular [noun]" "some [noun] or other"--which actually makes a HUGE difference in the way you speak. for example, to say "I saw a book" (a simple statement of fact) in Farsi, is not the same as saying "I saw some book" or "a particular book"--but Lambton presents the way you would say "I saw some book" (man (ye) ketabi didam) as the same way you would say "I saw a book" (man ketab didam)--with only a footnote to tell you of the difference.

- Lambton doesn't really mention that the way people speak is very distinct from the way they write. A simple example of this is verb conjugation. To say "I am saying" in Farsi, you would *SAY* "man migam" but when you write it, you write "man miguyam". Conversationally, people rarely speak words the way they are written if the two forms are different (you would pronounce words the way they are written if you're reading off of something though). She also goes into explanations and conjugations of the future tense (using the verb xastan) without actually telling the reader that this tense is replaced by the present (progressive) tense in colloquial Persian--which if you plan to actually talk to people--you might like to know.

-Some of the things Lambton includes are questionable. I've asked fluent speakers (who were educated in Iran) about some of the little points the author makes only to have them say "Huh? where'd you hear that?". For example, the plural of bacce (child) is NOT baccegan (no one i've spoken to has heard of this), but rather bacceha. (I don't know where she got that one from)

-Lack of practice-two little reviews and a huge-assed vocab list at the end of each chapter does not a review make. She needs to incorporate something more than just an example or two for each concept as the lesson goes along--not simply a big conglomeration of things at the end. this books serves more as a text, than as a "learn farsi"--you'll need to be creative with how you practice, b/c lambton certainly isn't

-Moot points get emphasized. a lot of times, it seems like Lambton is just throwing in extraneous info to say "look at me--i know this really unimportant fact". i've had multiple times reading where i'm like "yea? so what? that has little--if anything--to do with the subject".

-pronunciation is sometimes off--i had a problem with the way she did the transliteration of a lot of the "silent" vowels--if you speak the way she wrote the words in english to native speakers, they're going to think you were raised on a farm or something (that you're from dahat). again, the lack of audio will bother you if you're not familiar with the language.

-I haven't come close to finishing the book yet, and already these things stick out for me.

You might be thinking, why did you give the book 4 stars if you keep bashing it? Here's why. For all her shortcomings, Lambton does a lot to redeem herself. I do like how she presented verb conjugation (for the most part), pointed out important subtleties that i had always wondered about, and remained consistent every time she wrote something in farsi--she maintained a "first in farsi, then in farsi with roman letters, then english translation" - system that I found pretty helpful (it let's you know you're reading things correctly i think). Plus, i still have a way to go (she packs a lot in one lesson) so i am probably just bored (and somewhat frustrated) with a lot of the stuff that i already know and just anxious to learn new stuff (don't get me wrong though--the lessons are by no means slow--they're just really long). she has time to continue showing off those redeeming qualities:)

Bottom line: it's ok if you're a fluent speaker and want to learn how to read and write--but will probably be frustrating and sometimes inaccurate if you're not fluent and this is your only source--i don't know though--i haven't finished the book, so maybe my opinion will change when i do--but right now, these were the things i wish someone would change about it.