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2. Linguistique
2.2. Langues vivantes et dialectes
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Mahmood Alam. Learn Persian – Grammar and Workbook for Elementary and Intermediate Levels

Bernard Christophe
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Mahmood Alam. Learn Persian – Grammar and Workbook for Elementary and Intermediate Levels. London/New York: Routledge, 2023, 354 p.

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1The present volume is the reedition of a work originally published in India, the author being a professor of Persian at the University of Hyderabad. It consists of twelve chapters; each chapter is further divided into units, which cover a particular topic of grammar each. The introduction sketches the history of the Persian language and includes an interesting section about the influence of Persian on Bengali and Urdu. Some of the explanations about the Arabic element in Persian require prior knowledge, though (for example, p. 19: “The Arabic vocabulary is very frequently used in Persian, and they have their own plural form, however, these words can be used through Persian formation of plural as well.”). The relation between Old Persian and Avestan is likewise explained in rather unclear terms (“Old Persian is referred to the later recovered Avestan language, mostly used in northeast of Iran”, p.17). The author explains in the beginning that Persian belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family but does not provide any explanation about the Iranian languages, to which both Old Persian and Avestan belong. This would have been an interesting point for the learners.

2Chapter 1 (“Alphabet and vowels”), which includes four units, is devoted to the writing system. The student is encouraged to assimilate not only the Persian script, but also the transliteration in Latin letters, which is essential for learners acquiring the correct pronunciation. There are even exercises in which the learner is asked to transliterate a Persian text written in Latin letters into Persian, before translating it into English. I do not recall having seen exercises of this kind in any other Persian language primer. This is indeed a very useful exercise for all learners.

3Chapter 2 (“Construction of Sentences and Conjugations”, four units) introduces the reader to the fundamentals of the conjugation (personal endings), the use of pronouns and existential constructions (such as “there is”, “I have”). Chapters 3 (four units), 4 (five units) and 9 (three units) provide basic vocabulary, essential for everyday communication, such as greetings, numbers, time words, names of colours, kinship terms, weather etc. The other chapters cover grammar topics in more detail, treating e.g. the use of the direct object marker, the ezafe construction, the formation of tenses etc. There are numerous exercises, but these are of a rather conventional nature and consist basically of translation exercises and filling blanks. A key to all exercises is provided, but there is no audio supplement. The texts are rather short, except for the excerpts from classical literature included in the final chapter.

4The present work is undoubtedly very useful for students wishing to assimilate the fundamentals of Persian grammar, or as review material. However, for beginners of Persian I would prefer works with more extensive text material and more detailed coverage of the vocabulary.

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Bernard Christophe, « Mahmood Alam. Learn Persian – Grammar and Workbook for Elementary and Intermediate Levels »Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 45 | 2023, document 22, mis en ligne le 30 décembre 2025, consulté le 16 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/57606 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15h3p

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