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An Introduction to the Script
One of four volumes in the complete language course, this textbook enables students to become competent in reading and writing Burmese script. Most students find it helpful to begin learning the script at the same time as they start on the spoken language, but this volume can be used independently if preferred. In addition to lists of words for reading and writing practice, presented in a series of short graduated lessons, Okell includes sample texts from Burmese materials such as product labels, newspaper headlines, and maps. Appendices on handwriting and cursive forms, display fonts, the Burmese names of the characters, Burmese alphabetical order, and common abbreviations round out the book.
Attempting to learn the unfamiliar sounds and symbols of a non-roman language from a written description only is an uncertain and frustrating enterprise. To avoid this danger, this volume is accompanied by extensive downloadable audio files that allow the learner to hear and produce the sounds corresponding to the symbols. Language professors and their students or those learning Burmese on their own will appreciate the accessible approach and manageable size of the lessons in this very practical textbook series.
John Okell, now retired, was for many years Lecturer in Burmese at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is the author of First Steps in Burmese and A Reference Grammar of Colloquial Burmese and coauthor of Burmese/Myanmar: A Dictionary of Grammatical Forms, and he continues to teach short courses in Thailand, Burma, the USA, and elsewhere, and assists in language teaching at SOAS.
(2010) 454 pp.
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