Book Review of Sommerschuh's Einführung in die tibetische Schriftsprache

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kirtu
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Book Review of Sommerschuh's Einführung in die tibetische Schriftsprache

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A book review of Christine Sommerschuh's Einführung in die tibetische Schriftsprache: Lehrbuch für den Unterricht und das vertiefende Selbststudium (Introduction to the Written Tibetan Language: A Textbook for Teaching and In-Depth Self-Study) by Nathan Hill, published in Indo-Iranian Journal 53 (2010) 251-296
Indologists count on a steady stream of monographs with exciting titles such as Untersuchung der Partikel iva (Schrapel 1970) or Das Intensivum im Vedischen (Schaefer 1994). For Tibetan similar studies do not exist. A lack of research into Tibetan grammar does not, however, excuse Tibetologists from the need to teach first year students. Consequently, despite the paucity of studies in Tibetan grammar, and the complete lack of pedagogical material beyond the first year, an array of first year Tibetan textbooks does exist; the work under review is the newest addition to this genre.

The lack of more specialized works leaves Tibetan textbooks torn between serving pedagogical purposes and providing grammatical comprehensiveness. Although this tension persists in Sommerschuh’s volume, one sees signs of improvement. In particular, Sommerschuh refers to Peter Schwieger’s recent Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache (Handbook of Grammar of the Classic Tibetan Written Language) (2006) to avoid delving into all of the nooks and crannies of Tibetan grammar. It is convenient to consider separately the merits of Sommerschuh’s work as a textbook for classroom use and its merits as an accurate description of Tibetan grammar.

Merits as a Textbook
Sommerschuh writes with a clear and precise style which neither befuddles the neophyte nor talks down to the old hand. A good example is the
description of articulatory phonetics, which opens the work (pp. 7-11).

The decision to structure the work from minimal units up (letters, syllables, words, affixes, sentences) is excellent. Generations of students have been confounded by the treatment of finite verb affixes before noun declension or even an overview of the verbal system in Hahn (1994) and Hodge (1990). Nonetheless, Sommerschuh’s work is not without some questionable organizational decisions of its own.
...
Conclusion
I do not hesitate to say that Sommerschuh has written the best textbook yet available for Classical Tibetan. Unfortunately, this is not as much of
a compliment as it may sound. Although this review has pointed out a number of areas where Sommerschuh’s manual might be improved both in
fact and in presentation, I would like to emphasize that the bulk of these criticisms could be made of all Tibetan textbooks. Sommerschuh’s work
represents a certain step in the right direction.
...
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