Foreign Language Reference

This is the first genuine etymological dictionary of Old Chinese written in any language. As such, it constitutes a milestone in research on the evolution of the Sinitic language group. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the structure of the Chinese characters, this pathbreaking dictionary places primary emphasis on the sounds and meanings of Sinitic roots. Based on more than three decades of intensive investigation in primary and secondary sources, this completely new dictionary places Old Chinese squarely within the Sino-Tibetan language family (including close consideration of numerous Tiberto-Burman languages), while paying due regard to other language families such as Austroasiatic, Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien), and Kam-Tai.

Designed for use by nonspecialists and specialists alike, the dictionary is highly accessible, being arranged in alphabetical order and possessed of numerous innovative lexicographical features. Each entry offers one or more possible etymologies as well as reconstructed pronunciations and other relevant data. Words that are morphologically related are grouped together into "word families" that attempt to make explicit the derivational or other etymological processes that relate them. The dictionary is preceded by a substantive and significant introduction that outlines the author's views on the linguistic position of Chinese within Asia and details the phonological and morphological properties, to the degree they are known, of the earliest stages of the Chinese language and its ancestor. This introduction, because it both summarizes and synthesizes earlier work and makes several original contributions, functions as a useful reference work all on its own.

A concise and accessible introduction to the topic, this book traces the history of cuneiform from its beginnings in the fourth millennium BC to its eventual demise in the face of the ever expanding use of alphabetic Aramaic in the first millennium BC. The authors explain how this pre-alphabetic system worked and how it was possible to use it to record so many different languages. Drawing on examples from the British Museum, which has the largest and most venerable cuneiform collection in the world, this lively volume includes elementary school exercises, revealing private letters, and beautiful calligraphic literature for royal libraries.

A complete handbook for learning to read and write Japanese hiragana, the syllabary that is the first of Japan's three writing systems introduced to all beginning students. Using real-world examples, illustrations, quizzes, and practice squares, this book teaches correct stroke order as well as examples of how hiragana are used for question words, adverbs, special words, and pronunciation of difficult characters.

How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context is an introduction to the golden age of Chinese poetry, spanning the earliest times through the Tang dynasty (618-907). It aims to break down barriers--between language and culture, poetry and history--that have stood in the way of teaching and learning Chinese poetry. Not only a primer in early Chinese poetry, the volume demonstrates the unique and central role of poetry in the making of Chinese culture.

Each chapter focuses on a specific theme to show the interplay between poetry and the world. Readers discover the key role that poetry played in Chinese diplomacy, court politics, empire building, and institutionalized learning; as well as how poems shed light on gender and women's status, war and knight-errantry, Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and more. The chapters also show how people of different social classes used poetry as a means of gaining entry into officialdom, creating self-identity, fostering friendship, and airing grievances. The volume includes historical vignettes and anecdotes that contextualize individual poems, investigating how some featured texts subvert and challenge the grand narratives of Chinese history. Presenting poems in Chinese along with English translations and commentary, How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context unites teaching poetry with the social circumstances surrounding its creation, making it a pioneering and versatile text for the study of Chinese language, literature, history, and culture.

This book offers a guided introduction to Chinese nonfictional prose and its literary and cultural significance. It features more than one hundred major texts from antiquity through the Qing dynasty that exemplify major genres, styles, and forms of traditional Chinese prose. For each work, the book presents an English translation, the Chinese original, and accessible critical commentary by leading scholars.

How to Read Chinese Prose teaches readers to appreciate the literary merits, stylistic devices, rhetorical choices, and argumentative techniques of a wide range of nonfictional writing. It emphasizes the interconnections among individual texts and across eras, helping readers understand the development of the literary tradition and what makes particular texts formative or distinctive within it. Organized by dynastic period and genre, the book identifies and examines four broad categories of prose--narrative, expository, descriptive, and communicative.

How to Read Chinese Prose is suitable for a range of courses in Chinese literature, history, religion, and philosophy, as well as for scholars and interested readers seeking to deepen their knowledge of the Chinese prose tradition. A companion book, How to Read Chinese Prose in Chinese, is designed for Chinese-language learners and features many of the same texts.

Kanji come to life with over 250 graphically illustrated mnemonics for learning essential Japanese characters. Colorful pages are filled with horses and tigers, palaces and pulpits, kings and lunatics, samurai and wizards. A world of soldiers, swords, spies, demons, fire, smoke, gushing blood, and dragons with claws and fangs.

While the format looks and feels more like a colorful story book than a textbook, KanjiPictoGraphix Dragon Book taps powerful learning methods derived from Rowley's career as an educational therapist and professor of information design.

The book begins with an 'Elements' chart of the building blocks of Japanese written language. Pages are organized into clusters of characters with common elements and meanings. The result is a semantic, meaningful narrative that makes learning the complex written forms easy to understand and remember. The hundreds of visual mnemonics draw upon a combination of visuals with genuine etymological roots along with contemporary visual interpretations to help you learn to read Japanese kanji quickly and joyfully.

Kanji are over 2,000 years old, so you will see some non-PC imagery that reflects ancient ideas about religion, women, men, children, animals, and old people. Rather than whitewash this, the book illustrates the meanings and ideas of an ancient, beautiful, and, at times, provocative language.

Michael Rowley is the founder and creative director at VizCab.com, a family-run print and mobile media design and branding business in Silicon Valley, California. He is the author of KanjiPictoGraphix for iPhone and iPad. His Twitter feed @KanjPicto distills and dissects the meanings of Japanese kanji vocabulary words. Early in his career Michael worked as an educational therapist at the Dannen School at La Cañada, taught English at Chaminade University Tokyo, digital imaging at The American Film Institute in Hollywood, and information design at Art Center Pasadena. He lives with his sweetheart, Kiki, and their four dogs and is a volunteer at ProjectRescueMe.com, an organization to rescue animals and end petlessness.

Learn to Read Latin

A comprehensive introduction to modern Israeli Hebrew, Lessons in Modern Hebrew: Level I and Level II provide English-speaking students and well-motivated individuals with all the basic classroom tools necessary for mastery of the language. The lessons introduce the student to the core vocabulary which is then included in reading passages, conversational text, and written communication. All grammatical features of modern Hebrew are thoroughly explained and reinforced by drills and exercises. The books have been classroom-tested at the University of Michigan. Both audio-lingual and cognitive approaches are used.

Cassettes are available from the University of Michigan Language Resource Center: Phone: (734) 764-0424; Email: lrc.contact@umich.edu.