This primer presents a systematic introduction to the structure of Modern Standard Hindi. It is intended to provide the student with a thorough foundation in the grammatical structure of that variety of Hindi that is commonly taught in Indian schools and that is the common vehicle of publication in Hindi. Although much emphasis is placed on the written language, discussion is also provided of aspects of conversational Hindi.
The core of the work contains thirty on chapters. The first four offer discussions of the linguistic status of Hindi as well as comprehensive descriptions of Hindi phonetics and the Devanagari syllabary in which Hindi is written. Chapters 5 through 31 each contains descriptions of fundamental aspects of Hindi grammar. These chapters have extensive translation and grammatical exercises appended to them. The work as a whole introduces a core vocabulary of approximately fifteen hundred entries, incorporating lexical items found on most standard elementary word lists for the language.
Supplemental materials in this book include graded reading passages, a guide to further study in Hindi, and Hindi English glossary. Although the Devanagari syllabary is used throughout the book, Roman transliteration is also provided through Chapter 15. A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi can be used in several different ways. It can be used as part of a university-level course as a text for Hindi grammar and writing. As such it will nicely supplement other materials addressing more conversational aspects of the language. It can also be used for self-study purposes by the student who does not have access to a formal instructional program.
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About the Author(s)
Michael C. Shapiro is Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington (Scattle, USA). He is the author of Language and Society in South Asia (with Harold F. Schiffman, MLBD Studies in linguistics, Vol. 1), Current Trends in Hindi Syntax: A Bibliographic Survey (Studien zur Indologie and Iranistik, Monographic 5), and many studies in Hindi language, linguistics, and literature.
