Book Description
I teach in two schools.
One is in the city.
The other is in the jungle.
Some of my students have hands.
Others have trunks.
Elephants live in Asia. They eat three hundred pounds of food a day. They spray water out of their trunks. Even so, they are a lot like you. They like to eat cookies and hang out with their friends. They even like to paint pictures.
In this true story you'll learn about an amazing class of elephants that are taught to become artists by an amazing teacher.
Customer Reviews:
inspiring.......2006-04-25
inspiring book that illustrates the beauty within all, hope for an endangered species, connection between humans, animals, and our planet. Proceeds of the book benefit this innovation collaboration- I plan to purchase gift copies for birthdays, holidays.. really wonderful book for all ages.
Book Description
The language of Ancient Egypt has been the object of careful investigation since its decipherment in the nineteenth century, but this is the first accessible account that uses the insight of modern linguistics. Antonio Loprieno discusses the hieroglyphic system and its cursive varieties, and the phonology, morphology and syntax of Ancient Egyptian, as well as looking at its genetic ties with other languages of the Near East. This book will be indispensable for both linguists and Egyptologists.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent introduction to the Egyptian language.......2006-12-22
This work is probably the best exposition on the Egyptian language available to the general public currently. The chapter on phonology is highly commendable for the presentation of believable reconstructions of original pronunciations of Egyptian words, including inflections, which one sorely misses in most other works. However, without sound grounding in linguistics, the contents are often difficult to comprehend, especially the sections on grammar. Nevertheless, the book is certainly an indispensable and authoritative reference on this subject matter for every serious student of Egyptology and/or Egyptian language.
*not* to learn hieroglyphs - a serious linguistic book.......2000-08-17
This is the first time that the insight of modern linguistics has been applied to the long and careful investigations into the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphic system and its different varieties (with its phonology, morphology and syntax) are explained. It is an excellent book but hard to follow if a person has little or no knowledge of linguistics. Otherwise, it is perfect for learning about the language - not for translating hieroglyphs. Lots of examples have been taken from actual Egyptian texts (ie, The Tale of Sinuhe, The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, etc.). As the back cover says, it is "essential reading for linguists and Egyptologists alike."
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS THAT I READ!.......2000-04-09
THIS GREAT BOOK IS IDEAL FOR AVANCED STUDY ABOUT EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE...ITS CONTENS ARE VERY USEFUL, MORPHOLOGY, SINTAX, A GREAT GRAMMAR...WITH A LOT OF EXAMPLES. A ANCIENT LANGUAGE HISTORY: EARLY, LATER EGYPTIAN, AND COTIC. VERY...VERY...GOOD... EXCELENT....
Average customer rating:
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Zen Arts: An Anthropological Study of the Culture of Aesthetic Form in Japan (Royal Asiatic Society Books)
Rupert Cox
Manufacturer: RoutledgeCurzon
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0700714758 |
Book Description
Combines anthropological descriptions with historical criticism, situates the Zen arts firmly within contemporary critical discourses about cultural representations, and suggests that the Zen arts are best understood in terms of a dynamic relationship between an aesthetic discourse on art and culture, and the social and embodied experiences of those who participate in them.
Book Description
This new phrasebook is your key to travelling the famed Silk Road, with essential words and phrases for getting around and getting to know the tools. From western Xinjiang to the Karakoram Highway you'll be able to haggle in the bazaars and order your favorite kebabs with ease.
- covers all essential language and more, in an easy-to-use format
- includes comprehensive sections on Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Tajik, Tashkorghani, Turkmen, Uyghur and Uzbek.
- also includes essential words and phrases in other languages of the region
- pocket-sized and organized by subject; the perfect language companion
Customer Reviews:
The only one - unfortunately.......2005-02-03
As other reviewers have pointed out, this is the only guide that contains a number of Central Asian languages. This monopoly is quite unfortunate, since this book cannot really be recommended. There are good courses in many Central Asian languages, - "Modern Literary Uzbek" and "Beginner's Guide to Tajiki" - so if you're going to visit just one country you'll be far better of with one of them. The author of this book is a specialist on the Uyghur language and it shows. As far as I can tell, the Uyghyr chapter is very good. Unfortunately, some other chapters are really bad. My main points are:
1. The languages presented
The authors have decided to focus mainly on six languages: Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Tajik, Uyghur and Uzbek. These languages get about 30 pages each, while the remaining eight languages get an average of 5 pages each. For some reason, the Dari language isn't even mentioned in this book. In terms of speakers, it is the second largest language of Afghanistan after Pashto - however, it is the general lingua franca of the country and the language of most major cities, including the capital Kabul. While it is true that Dari and Tajik are extremely close, there are still a number of differences. Travellers to Afghanistan should definitely look for another phrase book than this one.
2. The maps
The six main languages are all introduced together with a map showing where they are spoken. I'm sorry to say that the maps are spectacularly wrong. The fact that many languages are shown as the spoken language in a certain area or city is no problem, many areas of Central Asia are bilingual or even trilingual.
a. Uyghur. As far as I can say, this map is correct, just as the chapter on Uyghur.
b. Uzbek. The Uzbek map is not as silly as some other maps, but it's still wrong. That the mainly Tajik cities of Samarkand and Bukhara are included in the Uzbek language area is absolutely correct, both have significant Uzbek minorities. Some areas of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are definitely Uzbek speaking, but this map would have us believe that the Uzbek areas cover more than 50% of the two republics respectively. That is not the case.
c. Kyrgyz. This map is just incredible. Cities such as the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, the former Kazakh capital Almaty, the two Tajik speaking cities Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan and the Uzbek Ferghana valley are all shown as Kyrgyz speaking... Of course there might be some Kyrgyz speakers living in each of these cities, but so are there in London and New York. None of these cities have even a mentionable Kyrgyz minority, not to speak of a majority.
d. Kazakh. This map is even worse. It correctly covers all of Kazakhstan but it also covers ALL of Uzbekistan and about 80% of Tajikistan. The Kazakh population in these countries are 3% and 2% respectively.
e. Pashto. Also a map made at random, and the one most likely to cause offence. All of Afghanistan is shown to be Pashto speaking. In reality, it's about 50% of the area of Afghanistan and 40% of the people. The major cities of Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat are all populated by Dari speaking Tajiks, yet at this map they are all shown to be Pashtuns. Even the Panjshir valley, the heartland of the Tajiks, is shown to be Pashto speaking. Apart from that, the Baluchi speaking areas are also shown to be Pashto speaking.
f. Tajik. Another confusing map. Tajikistan is of course shown to be Tajik speaking, as are the Uzbek area around Samarkand and Bukhara. More incredibly, even the Uzbek capital of Tashkent (in which Russian dominates and Uzbek comes in second) is shown to be Tajik speaking. What really makes one laugh is that even the south of Kazakhstan and the Kyrzyz(!) capital are shown to be Tajik speaking. In stark contrast to the "gains" by the Tajik language, the vast areas of Afghanistan, including Kabul, that are Tajik speaking are blank on this map.
3. The language descriptions
I'll start with a confession: I don't speak many of these languages and I cannot say how correct the descriptions are. I do speak Russian and have to say that I have never seen a more faulty description. The pronunciation this book uses is so far from the actual pronunciation that you won't stand the remotest chance of being understood. I get by in Tajik and the pronunciation table given here is beyond belief. Out of a total of six vowels, five(!) are given a pronunciation that is just wrong. According to this book, the Tajik "o" is pronounced as in English "go". It's not, it's pronounced as the "a" in "all" or the "aw" in "law". The word Tajik "ston" rhymes with English "lawn", not with "stone". In the Mandarin section, all the four tones of the language are ignored!! As even a beginner could have told the authors, the tones are absolutely crucial for speaking Chinese.
I agree with the reviewer who called for grammar descriptions of the main languages in this book. If such descriptions were introduced, if the maps were corrected, if the pronunciation guidelines were written from scrach, if Dari was included and if the sections on Russian and Mandarin were more substantial, this would be a rather good book.
A useful introduction to Central Asian languages.......2004-09-23
Rudelson's guide is the best - but only - guide to Central Asian languages that I've come across. For languages like Uighur and Turkmen, it's about all that's available, which makes it a must-have for visitors to Central Asia.
The greatest feature of Rudelson's effort is also its biggest drawback: a common adaptation of our alphabet to represent all the languages covered. This allows for ease of pronunciation and helps the reader see the differences in pronunciation and similarities in vocabulary among the different Turkic languages. However, this makes it difficult to use with (the few) other resources without first drawing up one's own tables of spelling conventions. Still, it's worth the trouble.
The only other drawback is the lack of a good grammar section. It's not necessary to give all the details but more information on how Turkic languages agglutinate, how Iranian languages express "to be," and such would be helpful.
A useful, easy to use book!.......2001-09-03
I strongly recommend that anyone going to Central Asia get this book. It is full of necessary phrases that will help you get where you need to go. It is very compact and can fit easily into a pocket. It is also very comprehensive, containing large sections of phrases in Uyghur, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Pashto, and Tajik, plus smaller sections on ten other regional languages. Also, it has a section outlining the history of Central Asian languages and certain grammatical/linguistic essentials.
Again, if you are going to Central Asia, invest in this book!
It has lots info with 16 different central asian languages.......1999-03-17
It has good information about meeting people, riding trains, booking hotels, and even seeing a doctor. It has lots of facts about greetings and the countries too. I recomend this book.
A reasonabley good effort.......1998-12-29
I thought that the structure of the guide is such that it makes it rather difficult for a person to begin to construct his own phrases with what has already been given. There should be more information about the basic grammer of turkic languages.
Book Description
This popular and useful book describes the 24-lett er alphabet and 700 signs in the Hieroglyphics system.
Customer Reviews:
ancient egyptian written by GEORGE HART.......2001-04-11
I think this book has a lot of information on ancient egypt and i think that it was laid out very well!This is a must read book and i would reckamend it to anyone in need of a little info this knows his stuff.I have been a great fan of egypt and i was very impressed with this book.It has made me get into reading hieroglyphic's which i am very proud of as i am only 12!I am a egypt expert!This book is one of my favorites and i think this is a very cool book,you would too if you read as well!I was very interested with the pictures in this book they were very interesting to look at!
Book Description
A complete handbook revealing the secrets of the hieroglyphic writing of the Nile Valley, which provides a still-vivid snapshot of the gods, the people, and the everyday life of the Ancient Egyptians.
Both literal and highly lyrical, hieroglyphics bring alive a distant world, with descriptions of the natural environment, the art, the society, the religious beliefs, and even the philosophical basis of a culture that flourished 5,000 years ago. Presenting and explaining almost 600 of the figures used in the classic phase of Egypt's "sacred writing," this fascinating volume traces the origins and the meaning of each sign, as well as its graphic stylization. An opening essay reveals the secrets of the hieroglyphic system, including its development and its structural characteristics, and emphasizes the sacred, evocative, even magical power of the form, which-unlike our own abstract alphabet-is immediate and expressive. Concluding the book are a complete glossary, a bibliography, and an index, designed to make this book invaluable to the casual reader as well as the student and specialist.
Customer Reviews:
Good view of determinatives.......2004-11-07
This book, while not covering the actual text of the language, covers a very important component of Middle Egyptian: The Determinatives. A lot of words in Middle Egyptian were spelled the same, and the only thing that told them apart was the picture that said what they were. This was also important for showing if something was a statement or a proper name. Very good addition to any hieroglyph book collection!
A handbook to the hieroglyphic writing of the Nile Valley.......2001-07-06
Maria Carmela Betro's Hieroglyphics provides a handbook to the hieroglyphic writing of the Nile Valley, using an organization by symbol to lend to a dictionary of history and explanation. An amazing guide to a written language that blends phonic symbols with pictograms.
more like "The Individual Glyphs of Ancient Egypt".......1999-01-10
I am torn regarding this book. While it is an exellent study of the individual signs, covering several stages in the evolution of the particular glyph in hieroglyph, hieratic, and demotic characters, it lacks grammer and even word structure aside from a fraction of a page in the introduction. If you are a student of hieroglyphics in the history of the Egyptian culture this could be a most useful book. It is also entertaining and informative to the casual reader, but a student of Egyptian grammer would do better to look elsewhere. Perhaps to Gardiner's "Egyptian Grammar." Betro's book is not, in my opinion, the "complete handbook" it claims to be.
A very interesting book!.......1998-08-06
This is a very interesting book if you are interested in the background and history of each individual hieroglyphic sign. It's a great supplement to introductory books about the ancient Egyptian language - most books only arrange the signs into families or types and don't tell you much about individual signs. If other books about hieroglyphs leave you hungry for more, then this may be the book for you.
Book Description
Designed for use in the classroom, but equally suitable for self-study, Media Arabic provides the basic skills required for comprehension and news gathering from Arabic radio, TV, and newspapers. Based on recent news material from newspapers and the spoken media, the course assumes knowledge of no more than the basic grammar and a restricted vocabulary, and can be used by undergraduate students, businessmen, and journalists.
Customer Reviews:
Very disappointing.......2004-10-10
Other reviewers indicated that this book was best used with a teacher and I will go further and say: Don't bother with it unless your teacher requires it.
It has no vocabulary lists (and brags about this missing feature) and makes no attempt to help one who doesn't have enough vocabulary to read the Arabic excerpts.
If you can use this book, you likely don't need it but would be better served by listening to Al Jazeera, BBC Arabic, or reading online Arabic news sites using your Hans Wehr.
If like me, you are at the stage where you understand about half of the words in an Arabic news broadcast or that your read in a news site but don't can't quite get the jist, this book will just be something else to frustrate you and waste your time.
Even you will likely spend your time more profitably watching the news and reading the "crawl" line or the headlines of a news site.
Point of reference: I actually enjoy and find useful the book "Connectors in Modern Arabic" even though it is also slightly beyond my skill level -- as I learn more, this book becomes more valuable.
A helpful book.......2004-01-02
I agree with the comments of the previous reviewer. A useful little book, given that press usage is so often our main exposure to contemporary written Arabic when we start to use the language. It's certainly not a book for beginners, though. It's also intended for class use; when I used, I used it solo but feel I might have got a lot more out of it with a teacher.
There is an audio cassette available through Edinburgh University Press to accompany this book. Unfortunately it is tied to the latter part of the book, and is less of an aid than one might hope. I used the book - the cassette remained unlistened to.
Excellent work within its intended scope.......1998-09-19
Media Arabic identifies media specific ideomatic expressions and common useage found in modern arabic media. Ashtiany divides the work into topic such as political, business, etc., and then delves into the more common vocabulary and useage tricks. This greatly eases the transition from academic study to practical, intermediate use. Government and defense users will find this very useful in increasing proficiency and comprehension.
Book Description
For centuries not a person alive could decipher the famed ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Then a few experts began to understand how a single figure could be a picture, a symbol, and a sound all at once. You can join the ranks of those who can read hieroglyphs, and even create sentences of your own, with this ingeniously simple guide. It's the most complete introduction available, yet it's amazingly easy to understand. With best-selling author Christian Jacq as your guide, uncover the mystery that baffled the greatest minds of the ages--how the Egyptians first invented hieroglyphics, why it became a forgotten language, and how linguists and other detectives stumbled onto a remarkable code-breaking carving. Best of all you'll learn to read secret messages and inscriptions taken from royal tombs that reveal the profound ideas of these highly evolved cultures. If you can follow a book or tape on a foreign language, you can master the principles of reading hieroglyphics--and reward yourself with valuable insights into a totally different way to communicate with other human beings. 224 pages, 39 b/w illus., 6 x 9. NEW IN PAPERBACK
Customer Reviews:
Neat little book.......2002-01-19
Sure this isn't an in-depth textbook on hieroglyphics, but it is a neat little book that's is probably one of the finest introductions for someone who doesn't want to study for years, but just wants a good general overview of how the Egyptian language works. I recommend it.
Accessible and intrigueing.......2000-08-17
Despite other reviews of this book, I have read it and believe that Jacq achieves all of his basic aims. Does he not state on the first page that you will NOT be able to read hieroglyphs with ease by reading the book? Rather, you would gain a basic understanding of the language, complexity and history involved. Jacq uses accessible language and the odd touch of humour to make his book both entertaining and informative. The naive expectations that others have entered a book such as this with have resulted in it not being properly represented. Therefore, I am setting the record straight by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it most beneficial!
Diffculty Decoding.......2000-02-07
I recently completed the above named book and am still in the dark on decoding the Hieroglyphics. However,I did come away with how complex the ancient Egyptians were. I will once again tackle the book and probably walk away with the basic fundamentals of Hieroglyphics. I recently visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and they had an exhibit on Ancient Egypt, and to my surprise, I was able to decipher a small portion of the hieroglyphics.
Non-essential.......2000-02-06
Fascinating Hieroglyphics is an inferior work. Despite the claims to "teach the reader how to read hierogliphics", the book's author merely throws more and more symbols at you, seemingly without any organization or concept, rather than through any useful system, and later refers the reader to one of the more respectable works in the field. The "alphabet" in the beginning barely begins to cover a small portion of the Egyptian monophonics, and the hieroglyphs that ARE shown are merely noted for one or two of their multi-faceted meanings, rather than revealing the leading concept of the symbol. If you want to gain some basic grounding in reading hieroglyphs, choose some other work. I would refer you to Rossini's Hieroglyphs, unfortunately out of print, which actually tackles the subject head on rather than weaves its way out of the obligations it puts up.
Book Description
Still regarded as a monumental survey of Eastern art, this comprehensive volume was intended for art collectors and general readers as well as travelers and scholars. It covers China and Korea in addition to Japan, and places a special emphasis on Buddhist influences.
Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853–1908) was an educator who helped introduce Westerners to traditional Japanese art forms.
Book Description
This book, originally published in 1913, is still regarded as the essential and definitive survey of eastern art. It explains the genre's progress over almost 5,000 years, with classifications of time and style periods.
Books:
- Exploring Color
- Family Tree
- Faux Surfaces in Polymer Clay: 30 Techniques & Projects That Imitate Precious Stones, Metals, Wood & More
- Feng Shui Your Life
- Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book)
- Framing America: A Social History of American Art
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Gitanjali
- Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field
- Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books)
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