Slavic phrasebook

[Margaret Mikulska]

> Date:    Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:29:00 -0600
> From:    Michael Burianyk <buri at phys.ualberta.ca>
> Subject: Re: Slavic Phrasebooks?
>
> On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, John J. Ronald wrote:
>
> > I own a pharsebook entitled _Just Enough Scandinavian_, which
> > has standard phrases for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all
> > under one cover.  I was wondering if there is a similar type
> > of phrasebook with several slavic languages together (Polish,
> > Czech & Slovak, for example) available for not too much money?
>
> The closest I've ever seen is a (Berlitz?) European Phrase Book.
> It covers, besides French, German, etc., Polish,Czech (and
> Slovak?),Russian,Serbo-Croation. For sure no Ukrainian or
> Belorus'ian. The copy I have is several years old (13 at least)
> and I can't say I've seen it around much since then. But I
> imagine it (or something similar) is still available. Cost?
> Whatever the going rate is for Berlitz style pocket phrase
> books.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:45:19 -0700
> From:    Mohandas K Vemulapalli <mohandas at U.Arizona.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Slavic Phrasebooks?
>
> There are several such books put out Lonely Planet publishers. There
> phrasebooks concentrate on geographical area and not linguistic grouping.
> [...]
> ------------------------------

I have the Berlitz "European Phrase Book" and while it has Polish,
Russian, and Serbo-Croatian, it most certainly does not have Czech or
Slovak.  The (C) date is 1985, 1974, and my copy is a 1990 reprint.
I have a vague impression of having seen an Eastern European phrasebook
from Berlitz, too, but I'm not sure.  You can always call information
and ask for their toll-free number, if they have one.

As for the Lonely Planet publications, they have such phrasebooks as:

        "Eastern Europe", covering Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish,
        Romanian, and Slovak, and

        "Central Europe", covering Czech, French, German, Hungarian,
        Italian, and Slovak.

        "Mediterranean Europe", covering Albanian, Greek, Italian,
        Macedonian, Maltese, Serbian & Croatian, and Slovene.

        "Russian" - self-explanatory

        "Ukrainian" - forthcoming (as of 1995).

These are all I know of that include Slavic languages.

I can't comment on any of them, as I don't have them, but judging from
their "Baltic States" phrasebook (Lith, Latv, Est), which I do have, they
contain a bare minimum of vocabulary and expressions, and practically
no grammar.  The Baltic one is US $5.95.  You can contact "Lonely Planet
Publications" at (510) 893-8555, 155 Filbert St, Suite 251, Oakland, CA
94607.

-Margaret Mikulska
mikulska at princeton.edu