This comprehensive course in modern Romanian is intended for English-speaking university students and others interested in learning this Eastern Romance language. Its purpose is to provide English speakers interested in Romania with a comprehensive course in the language, something greatly lacking at present. Designed by a leading American linguist, in consultation with several Romanian experts, this textbook will be of great use at universities throughout the English- speaking world where Romanian is taught. It goes far beyond the basic tourist language courses presently available and provides a serious training program for anyone interested in learning the Romanian language.

The course is divided into two parts. Part One (Chapters 1-16) is intended to develop oral proficiency, each lesson containing a preparatory section in which the student is simultaneously introduced to pronunciation, intonation, and new semantic and syntactic structures. This portion is the cornerstone for entire lesson. It is followed by a memorizable dialogue; a section with grammatical notes, drills and exercises, and a homework assignment. The texts are couched in cultivated colloquial speech. In Part Two (Chapters 17-31) grammatical explanations become more thorough and formal and the texts become more erudite as emphasis shifts to the written language. At the same time, Part Two shifts emphasis from conversation to vocabulary acquisition by means of extensive reading selections, preceded by shorter texts which anticipate new vocabulary, and difficult constructions that appear in the main text. The manual also includes useful appendixes treating pronunciation and inflection and a comprehensive Romanian-English glossary.

The author, James E. Augerot, was professor of East European languages at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. A noted specialist in the Romanian language, he was also a Fulbright lecturer at Babes -Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.