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Lonely Planet Phrasebooks
Baltic Phrasebook
Includes Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian, with handy information on communication across the Baltics; beyond the essential: language for social interaction and making friends; and the key to easy travel with tips on dealing with bureaucracy, transport and eateries.
- GenresNonfictionLanguage
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 20, 2007
Lonely Planet's BALTIC PHRASEBOOK covers the languages of the so-called Baltic republics, Estonian, Latvia, and Lithuanian.
In terms of phrases, all three chapters cover the same ground. General matters like asking directions and shopping are included, as are more specialised things like visiting the doctor. The menu decoders are very helpful. Oddly enough, when a phrase contains a different word-form depending on what gender is spoken of, the order is "feminine/masculine" instead of the "masculine/feminine" of most phrasebooks and dictionaries.
In their coverage of grammar, however, each chapter differs. That on Lithuanian includes a discussion of noun morphology, although it only shows four out of the language's seven cases. This may enable the traveller with some prior experience with inflected languages, such as Latin or Russian, to construct sentences not found in the book. However, the chapter on Latvian doesn't give any information like that.
The book contains some general tourist information and maps for the Baltic republics, which makes it larger than it might be and somewhat redundant, as many travellers will already have a specialized guidebook for the region.
This phrasebook may not be an essential purchase for someone spending only a few days in the region. Most young people in these three countries speak admirable English, and older shopkeepers can be addressed in Russian without problems (the guidebook line that shopkeepers here take offense at being addressed in Russian seems to be a myth).
In terms of phrases, all three chapters cover the same ground. General matters like asking directions and shopping are included, as are more specialised things like visiting the doctor. The menu decoders are very helpful. Oddly enough, when a phrase contains a different word-form depending on what gender is spoken of, the order is "feminine/masculine" instead of the "masculine/feminine" of most phrasebooks and dictionaries.
In their coverage of grammar, however, each chapter differs. That on Lithuanian includes a discussion of noun morphology, although it only shows four out of the language's seven cases. This may enable the traveller with some prior experience with inflected languages, such as Latin or Russian, to construct sentences not found in the book. However, the chapter on Latvian doesn't give any information like that.
The book contains some general tourist information and maps for the Baltic republics, which makes it larger than it might be and somewhat redundant, as many travellers will already have a specialized guidebook for the region.
This phrasebook may not be an essential purchase for someone spending only a few days in the region. Most young people in these three countries speak admirable English, and older shopkeepers can be addressed in Russian without problems (the guidebook line that shopkeepers here take offense at being addressed in Russian seems to be a myth).
March 20, 2007
YOu really don't need a phrase book here...most people speak English or Russian...so learn some Russian.
June 22, 2010
had languages from all 3 nations, that was useful
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews