Complete Babylonian: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Babylonian, with Original Texts (Teach Yourself)

For two decades and more I had wanted to learn Akkadian, the umbrella-term for Babylonian and Assyrian. I tried three books:- David Marcus 'A Manual of Akkadian' - this uses a kind of direct method, teaching grammatical points as they arise, so that the student ends up with a pointillistic impression of the grammar, with no clear overview. The explanation of the verbal system is desperately and perversely unhelpful. Furthermore you are forced to learn the cuneiform script, which involves memorising hundreds of signs, many of them polyvalent. I found the book unusable.- Richard Caplice 'Introduction to Akkadian' - thorough, but so compressed as to be horribly indigestible. Here too you are forced to learn the cuneiform script. This book too, whilst maybe useful as a reference grammar, is unusable as a textbook for learning the language.- John Huehnergard 'Grammar of Akkadian' - a very very thorough introduction to the language, introducing new grammatical points bit by bit, and introducing the cuneiform script gradually too. A beginner may find it overwhelming, and the grammatical explanations are written in a curiously convoluted way. The sentences for translation in the early chapters are mind-numbingly dull. It's an excellent book, but it's not fun. If you buy it, make sure you also buy the extra volume with the key to the exercises, otherwise you will struggle.And now here is the second edition, revised and expanded, of Martin Worthington's 'Teach Yourself Complete Babylonian'. It's a very intelligent, lucid, practical textbook.The language is taught entirely in transliteration, so that you can learn it thoroughly without having to do battle with the cuneiform script (though in this new edition it is also possible - NB optionally - to learn the script). It is in my view better to learn the language in transliteration at first, and optionally add knowledge of cuneiform later, because deciphering a cuneiform text is far easier when you already know well what lies 'behind' it.Grammatical points are introduced in a rational, sensible, easy-to-understand way, there are plenty of normalisation+reading exercises with often highly amusing practice sentences, all of them taken from real Babylonian sources, and including such gems as 'Buy donkeys!','I spent the night in my dung, like an ox', 'He must not pester the palace', 'I'm the one with the nanny-goat'.Dr Worthington has a light touch and sprinkles the book with delightful nuggets of information.If you work through this wonderful book you will quickly and easily acquire a really excellent working knowledge of Babylonian from every era of its development. A short chapter towards the end of the book includes the main features of Assyrian in so far as it diverges from Babylonian, so that you will be able to read both dialects of Akkadian.I recommend this book wholeheartedly, and if I could give it six stars, or seven stars, I would do so without hesitation. I have spent three extremely happy months working through it in detail, and have fulfilled an ambition I had harboured for many years: to acquire a good, working knowledge of Akkadian, and - a lovely bonus - I've had a lot of fun on the way, all thanks to Dr Worthington.

Bought as a gift. I'm not qualified to judge but it certainly looks good - nice layout, very attractive, etc., The recipient was delighted. She had been using the earlier edition which was in "Teach Yourself" format, but this later edition is seemingly much better. I'm told it's the best primer on the market.

this is really good

From the experience of being an absolute beginner, this beautifully presented grammar book ably satisfies the challenge of what it is to study alone, independently of a class or a tutor. It is an intuitive piece of craftsmanship that, uniquely, grasps what it is for just about anyone to pick up a grammar and start from scratch at something intriguing, complex, and then make surprising progress with it. You will follow what you read here, the magician who wrote it has worked magic. The publishers who have made it beautiful to look at, have used a very clear typeface and emboldened the important parts to help you take note of them just by looking.The explanations are consistantly clear & precise. They swiftly get to the point without the distractions of superfluous words of waffle. Yet there are also sufficiently detailed to demonstrate the point of grammar being taught, with useful examples. These examples are all from real cuneiform texts that you should recognise when you progress so far into the book so as to begin learning the sign lists towards the end. The structure is so systematic and well thought out that you hardly realise how well you are doing.The helpful key at the back of the book made it quick and easy to see if I had understood the exercises. If not, I could use the key to work backwards to see why. Just after the section on the, 'Stative', I realised that I didn't need to write out the set exercises anymore, but began racing ahead reading through the pages and understanding the information in my head without needing to practice or test myself in writing.The notable aids to my learning and my being able to work things out in my head must include the helpful tables and charts of suffixes and prefixes throughout. Of particular note, the section on the construct was utterly brilliant (Types 1-6 ) and remains one of the most memorable parts.I also rather liked the glossary at the back of the grammar, which as any linguist will tell you, is where you should be looking until you have remembered the vocabulary. Having the words in a glossary at the back encourages you to actively search for the words, which develops better dictionary skills, than having them all given in a smaller gloss at the end of each section without any need to hunt them down. The learner has to learn how to use a good dictionary like an astronomer has to learn how to use a telescope and this is the first step to good research and finding out what you need. Dictionary skills are woefully lacking in other grammars. Therefore, this glossary is a part of what makes this grammar more scholarly than others. Add to which, you can look up logograms, signs from Old Babylonian, and Neo-Assyrian. The beautiful thing of these lists and the glossary is that the author makes everything clear as crystal so that ordinary people, who are not academics, can actually acquire some of the skills of academe without realising they have done so until they have acquired them. I think this is a very clever structure from an insightful writer. He has you inside the grammar and hooked before you know it. It is consistently absorbing. Compelled to further walk down the road that I have travelled with this grammar, I am daring myself to go one more step every time I pick up the book. Right now, I'm learning OB signs. Then I'll be able to read the Gilgamesh Epic and much else in the original cuneiform. When I get there, I shall have been well prepared.I discovered the first edition of the book by recommendation of someone who had studied the Ancient Near East formally at University. I recommended it to a friend who was interested in Akkadian, and who, like me, has bought it.There was a gap in the market for this grammar. The author who wrote it had imagination and a sixth sense for what learners need to succeed.Once I've mastered enough of the Old Babylonian signs, I might even consider learning Sumerian. Who knows towards where this book might lead you? It has led me to considerable satisfaction and no small aspiration.