The languages spoken by the people in the India and Pakistan region are plentiful and diverse, just like their speakers. 'Teach yourself' gives you the opportunity to one of these major southeastern Asian languages. 'Teach yourself Bengali complete course' allows you to study in the comfort of your own home, at your own pace. It introduces you to practical themes, such as making travel arrangements, meeting someone new, shopping, and other every day activities. Includes two audio CDs with listening and speaking exercises.

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It seems that we don't have anything on Marathi yet, so here is a grammar. I'll post a reader shortly.

As in most scans of that provenance (you know what i mean) the Devanagari is a little hard to read and some pages are messed up to the point of causing offense (e.g. 140), but the grammar itself is comprehensive.

The image is of course the Maratha hero Shivaji, depicted in fashionable Mughal attire (he was their retainer before the tiger claw incident, after all. What tiger claw, you ask. What? You've missed the best part!).

After the grammar, here are some Marathi readings.

They consist mostly of dialogues and it's a bilingual (Marathi-English) edition, so there is very little strain.

You'll realize you might need it when you take a bus to the Maharashtran countryside and encounter a text or a newspaper which seems to be in Hindi, but isn't.

Just don't turn into a follower of B.K. Thackerey!

Here is an old-school dictionary which is still often seen in bookstores in Egypt. It was probably the best of its kind for some 70 years, until Badawy and Hinds produced their dictionary of the Egyptian colloquial.

I won't be harsh on dear ol' Spiro, because it's still a decent dictionary and it's good to have it. It includes a lot of vocabulary which you need if you're interested in Ottoman Egyptian history or Egyptian material culture (clothing, traditional kitchen utensils, etc). The scan which I found is actually decent (but not great) once you get past the few first pages.

Here are the problems: I like dictionaries with s ... Читать дальше »

Another one of those fabulous phrasebooks of yore, this time fortunately written by an Indian.

This one I like a lot because in addition to Hindustani, it also gives you the colloquial Bengali/Bangla equivalents.

So, how do you say: "As the road was very muddy, he slipped and cut his knees" in good Hindi or Bengali?

(Trust me, you might need that sentence at certain times of the year in Kolkata, before or after encountering the Goddess herself!)

Очерк языка панджаби.

'Colloquial Urdu' offers you a step by step approach to written and spoken Urdu. No prior knowledge of the language is required. It features - lots of exercises for regular practice; concise grammar notes; useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide; including answer key and special reference section. By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Urdu in a broad range of everyday situations.

Samputa Tantra Edition and Translation
Author: G.Elder
Publisher: Columbia
Publication date: 1978
Number of pages: 207
Format / Quality: pdf
Size: 5,5 MB

Now, friends, here is a treat.

As so often in Buddhist (and Hindu) Tantric literature, the Sanskrit is not pristine, but that's part of the charm, as far as I'm concerned.

This dissertation includes an introduction, the Sanskrit edition (just a portion of the original but that's fine) plus Tibetan and English translations of the edited section. Enjoy!

Hindustani stumbling-blocks
Author: D. C. Phillott
Publisher: Crosby Lockwood
Publication date: 1907
Number of pages: 160
Format / Quality: djvu
Size: 4 MB

See the previous post for my all and sundry comments on colonialism, language and religion.

This one is even better than the previous one. Or, did you know you are supposed to use "jana" when you say you're going to someone's house, but you should write "ana"? See, I got you there!

The Discourse Functions of Subordinate Constructions in Classical Sanskrit Narrative Texts
Author: S.Y. Tsiang-Starcevic
Publisher: Illinois
Publication date: 1991
Number of pages: 172
Format / Quality: pdf
Size: 10 MB

Questions of discourse and syntax tend to attract me the most in any language, so I am happy to present this interesting (but short) dissertation.

"Title says it all" as someone else often succinctly puts it.

BTW, her name is just a name, I can't remember detecting any Slavic or southern Chinese language comparisons in the text.

It's easy to roar with laughter about some features of this colonial work, intended to prepare Britisher officers for the advanced Hindustani (ie standard spoken Hindi minus much of the tatsama vocab) test.

For instance, "All my horses have bushy tales." I'll let you find the page for that one.

But, many of those guys also knew their languages really well, and even their "simplified" works would now be considered advanced. Then again, tourists in India don't really need Hindi, and Indian elites are not known to cultivate their own languages these days (with the possible exception of Bengalis and Tamils). Time for the real bhaktas to ... Читать дальше »

Encyclopedia of India, - 4 Volume Set
Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
Publication date: 2005
ISBN: 0684313499
Number of pages: 2000
Format / Quality: Pdf
Size: 38 Mb
Language:English

Цитата:
As stated in the preface, there are "at least as many reasons for wanting to learn more about India as there are articles, nearly 600, and pages, some 1,400, in this new encyclopedia." A welcome contribution to Southeast Asian studies, Encyclopedia of India provides a comprehensive overview of the country's history, geography, ethnography, art, religion, language, economics, law, education, science, politics, medicine, and more. Editor-in-chief Wolpert is a distinguished professor emeritus of history at UCLA; under his leadership, a team of board members and 200 experts have written ar ... Читать дальше »

Panjabi--the main language of Panjab, is also the most widely spoken language of Pakistan. Includes conversations based on common daily situations.Mangat Rai Bhardwaj The Panjabi script is one of the simplest and most consistent writing systems. This course uses a phonetic transcription to make the study of both Panjabi pronunciation and script as easy as possible. You will also learn why it is impossible to speak Panjabi while smoking a pipe!

Colloquial Panjabi is easy to use and completely claer. Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course ... Читать дальше »

Nepali - THami - English Dictionary

A Sindhi-English dictionary in Devanagari script