General Linguaphone Discussion

[Seneca]

I thought it might be useful to have a general thread to discuss everything there is to know about Linguaphone. I have seen the modern versions, and own the 50-lesson Spanish course on vinyl and 30-lesson Spanish course on cassette. I would be happy to answer any questions about these that I can.

I started perusing ebay just to see what was out there, and came across this Danish course. It says Linguaphone, but also "extracts from teach yourself Danish" written on that book, which I thought was a wholly unrelated course.



The same thing is happening in this Cantonese course:



Anyone know what that is all about?

Anyway, from the dust-jacket of my older Spanish course (50-lessons on records), I copied the following:

Full courses published by Linguaphone so far are as follows:
German
Algerian Arabic
Egyptian Arab
Chinese
Castilian Spanish
Spanish Latin American
French
Modern Greek
Dutch
Afrikaans
English
English for foreign students
Irish
Icelandic
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Swedish
Urdu

Other series have been published in:
Bengali
Czech
Danish
Efik
Welsh
GREEK
Hausa
Latin
Luganda
Malay
Swahili
Zulu

The only example from the latter list I found on ebay was this Welsh course. Now, it is on cassette, and thus may be different from the original course, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there was not a huge push for an updated Welsh course in the mid-1970's, so I think maybe it is safe to assume this course was the same whether on record or cassette? If so, it looks like it only had 25 lessons. Though, I am a bit confused since my google-fu told me "gwersi" means "lessons" and this has three tapes saying gwersi 1-15, 10-14, and 20-25. So one is left to wonder about gwersi 15-19!



Then there are the courses missing the handy carrying case, like this Russian one. It just is a shame it is impossible to tell if this actually includes all the parts!



On the topic of the complete courses, does anyone have a complete list of the later 30-lesson courses? Sadly, though my 30-lesson Spanish had the dust jacket intact, it didn't offer any insights into that generation. Also, does anyone know if the 30-Lesson courses are the same across all languages in the same way the 50-lesson ones were? Or are they all unique/distinct?

Anyway, though I am only a bit into my Spanish studies, I find myself quite charmed by these older Linguaphone courses and will probably look to study any future languages with them as the base as well.

[Elexi]

Here are some answers:

I have those Danish records - they are produced by Linguaphone but they go with the old Blue/Yellow book Teach Yourself Danish course (the original grammar translation course). They have the dialogues and most of the readings read out by native speakers.

The Cantonese course is the other TY/Linguaphone collaboration - but there is a newer Linguaphone Chinese course.

There are 'other series' courses that do not follow the standardized format of the second generation 50 lesson or third generation 30 lesson courese - Welsh and Danish (a different course to the TY/Linguaphone collaboration version) are among them - as is Dutch, Afrikaans and the Latin American Spanish. I've looked at my copy of the Welsh course - it does have 30 lessons - you cannot see gwersi 15-19 because it is printed on the other side of one of the cassettes.

The Latin course from the 1930s followed the early direct method of W.H.D. Rouse at the Perse School, Cambridge.

The photo of the grey coloured books with 10 cassettes (9 containing material - and 1 a pep talk) are a later generation of the 1970s 'third generation' 30 lesson courses, with FSI like substitution drills added. The 30 lesson courses are not uniform like the 50 lesson courses - they cover the roughly the same formula (a family travelling in the country) but each has a different story.

[Seneca]

Here are some answers:

I have those Danish records - they are produced by Linguaphone but they go with the old Blue/Yellow book Teach Yourself Danish course (the original grammar translation course). They have the dialogues and most of the readings read out by native speakers.

The Cantonese course is the other TY/Linguaphone collaboration - but there is a newer Linguaphone Chinese course.

There are 'other series' courses that do not follow the standardized format of the second generation 50 lesson or third generation 30 lesson courese - Welsh and Danish (a different course to the TY/Linguaphone collaboration version) are among them - as is Dutch, Afrikaans and the Latin American Spanish. I've looked at my copy of the Welsh course - it does have 30 lessons - you cannot see gwersi 15-19 because it is printed on the other side of one of the cassettes.

The Latin course from the 1930s followed the early direct method of W.H.D. Rouse at the Perse School, Cambridge.

The photo of the grey coloured books with 10 cassettes (9 containing material - and 1 a pep talk) are a later generation of the 1970s 'third generation' 30 lesson courses, with FSI like substitution drills added. The 30 lesson courses are not uniform like the 50 lesson courses - they cover the roughly the same formula (a family travelling in the country) but each has a different story.

Are you referring to the bottom picture I posted with the picture with Lenin there? If so, sounds like that course is complete. Very nice and seems like a reasonable price since it comes with a cassette player even. Though, when trying to figure out on my own if this was complete, I found this thread on the old site where the first post makes it seem like this course may be unchanged?

Ironically, the latest Russian course seems to be older than the Indonesian course. The audio material and associated books are from 1971. They've added an additional guidance CD in 1989. I've seen the 1961 course and it does use different material. I was initially concerned about the audio length, but the 8 CD's are each about an hour. My other concern was the audio quality, but my initial impression is that it's fine.

While the books are glue bound and look brand new, the print quality inside seems to be a scan of the 1971 course. I was surprised how little English is used in the course books, with only the handbook containing any English text.

Any idea if this ebay Russian course is the same as the current Linguaphone one being sold, just on cassette? If so, it might be a good investment for someone interesting in Russian since it is quite a bit cheaper than the "new" Russian course being sold refurbished on the Linguaphone Languages site.

Also, I found myself bidding on that Welsh course. If one of you was the one looking to get it, I apologize for driving up the price Ebay bidding can be fun.

[Seneca]

Wow, this Greek course has 90 lessons. I never knew any went that high!



Does anyone know anything about Greek? I came across some references to dimotiki vs. katharevousa and a ~1985 reform. If some courses are just reprints of older stuff, I'd be curious if anyone who can read Greek can say if this course is post-reform?

If not that one, how about this one (which could be the same course as above):

[jeff_lindqvist]

If so, it looks like it only had 25 lessons. Though, I am a bit confused since my google-fu told me "gwersi" means "lessons" and this has three tapes saying gwersi 1-15, 10-14, and 20-25. So one is left to wonder about gwersi 15-19!

You see that only the A sides are shown, right?

1A: 1-4
1B: ? (likely 5-9)
2A: 10-14
2B: ? (likely 15-19)
3A: 20-25
3B: ? (26-30?)
4A: 1-15 *
4B: ? (16-?)

* Maybe there's something else on tape 4 (or on another of the B sides). My Irish course also has four tapes, and one of them has a section on pronunciation (or is it listening comprehension?).

[Daristani]

Seneca:

I've got a copy of the 90-lesson Greek course, and it's copyrighted 1983 (if I've read my Roman numerals correctly!); based on an extremely detailed Wikipedia article, the final reform in the language dates from 1976:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_lan ... _diglossia

Looking at the book, all the accents seem to be of the single type, and thus post-reform.

There was an older Greek course with 50 lessons, similar to the other 50-lesson courses.

Note that the 90-lesson course doesn't appear, at least superficially, to be any more comprehensive than the other newer 30-lesson courses; I think they may just have divided up the Greek course into more components than in the courses for French, Spanish, etc.

[Seneca]

If so, it looks like it only had 25 lessons. Though, I am a bit confused since my google-fu told me "gwersi" means "lessons" and this has three tapes saying gwersi 1-15, 10-14, and 20-25. So one is left to wonder about gwersi 15-19!

You see that only the A sides are shown, right?

1A: 1-4
1B: ? (likely 5-9)
2A: 10-14
2B: ? (likely 15-19)
3A: 20-25
3B: ? (26-30?)
4A: 1-15 *
4B: ? (16-?)

Maybe there's something else on tape 4 (or on another of the B sides). My Irish course also has four tapes, and one of them has a section on pronunciation (or is it listening comprehension?).

I have never actually used a cassette in my life

I actually work with a guy who was the one who offered to digitize both the records and cassettes I got in exchange for me sharing the courses with him.

[Seneca]

Seneca:

I've got a copy of the 90-lesson Greek course, and it's copyrighted 1983 (if I've read my Roman numerals correctly!); based on an extremely detailed Wikipedia article, the final reform in the language dates from 1976:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_lan ... _diglossia

Looking at the book, all the accents seem to be of the single type, and thus post-reform.

There was an older Greek course with 50 lessons, similar to the other 50-lesson courses.

Note that the 90-lesson course doesn't appear, at least superficially, to be any more comprehensive than the other newer 30-lesson courses; I think they may just have divided up the Greek course into more components than in the courses for French, Spanish, etc.

Perhaps this 90-lesson course is just the same 90 chunks that the 30 lesson course is since the latter has 3 parts in every lesson? Either way, sounds like I'd be safe purchasing the 1991 impression I linked above. I suppose I should sleep on it since my usage of it is at least a year away

[Expugnator]

I only have the 1967 edition with polytonic orthography, and I wonder how different is the actual content (apart from the orthography itself), or, if the content is entirely different, how the language usage diverges in itself.

[Elexi]

I have both - they are totally different courses.