Practical Course in Verdurian
Intro
Contents
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Glossary
Emai!
The Practical Course is designed to provide a working knowledge of Verdurian-- the language of 70 million people in the Cadhinorian Plain of Almea, a widely used lingua franca outside the Plain, and the most important and rewarding language in Almean studies.
The idea throughout is to provide a growing core of competence in real Verdurian. By contrast with the Reference Grammar, the Practical Course
- is ordered progressively, from the easiest and most important to the harder and more obscure features of the language.
- doesn't assume any grammatical or linguistic knowledge.
- contains readings and exercises to assist in learning.
- is not exhaustive!
Each of the ten lessons contains:
- a reading, drawn from everyday Verdurian life
- vocabulary (new words introduced in the lesson)
- notes on pronunciation (and, in the later lessons, the Verdurian alphabet)
- cultural notes-- to assist in providing a context for the language
- grammatical explanations
- exercises-- generally open-ended, rather than relying on rote translation.
The glossary lists all the words used in the book, and contains both English-Verdurian and Verdurian-English sections.
The key to language learning is to relax and enjoy it. Use the language-- don't worry about making mistakes; the University grammarians are not going to track you down and punish you. Try it out as much as you can: recall words as you walk down the street; make notes to yourself; translate headlines in the paper. Use it to read about things that interest you, whether it's fiction, or news, or comics. Study with a friend if you can. By all means speak to any Verdurians you meet, or correspond with other Verdurian speakers by e-mail.
When you've worked through the lessons, you'll be ready to look through the Reference Grammar for further details, and at the Verdurian-English English-Verdurian Dictionary or the Thematic Dictionary to expand your vocabulary. The Grammar contains suggestions for further reading. I've also posted a set of graded short texts, and an introduction to Verdurian poetics.
--Mark Rosenfelder
Introduction
1 Ke ei? 
Who are you?
Sentence order. Articles. Questions and negatives. To be. Possessive pronouns.
2 So malsfaom The barbarian
Pronouns. Gender. Verbs. Double negatives.
3 Ne mershán At the market
Declension II adjectives. Plurals. Numbers 1 to 10. The accusative.
4 Piro er medh Father and son
Verbs in -n. Past tense. Pronoun objects.
5 Maris zhanmei Susane Susana's future husband
Declension I adjectives. The imperative. Reflexive verbs. The genitive.
6 Veturea Vyatán A voyage to Vyat
The dative. Prepositions. Adverbs. Aspect markers. Comparatives. Verbs in -c.
7 Im prusin In the bar
Verbs in -r. Sentence complements. Impersonal expressions. 'There are.' Nouns in -e and -i.
8 Prosizel Errukán An expedition to Erruk
Future tense. Dénuo. Ne, im, u. Nouns in -u and -ë. Impersonal tu. Formal 'you'.
9 Kiel colir culanulei? How do you get some cake?
More on questions. The conditional. The partitive. Preposition + verb.
10 E lenge racont It's a long story
Nouns in -y and -ia. Masculines in -a. 'No longer', 'only'. Word formation.
Glossary
Lesson
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10
Glossary
