This book takes contrast, an issue that has been central to phonological theory since Saussure, as its central theme, making explicit its importance to phonological theory, perception, and acquisition. The volume brings together a number of different contemporary approaches to the theory of contrast, including chapters set within more abstract representation-based theories, as well as chapters that focus on functional phonetic theories and perceptual constraints. This book will be of interest to phonologists, phoneticians, psycholinguists, researchers in first and second language acquisition, and cognitive scientists interested in current thinking on this exciting topic.

Peter Avery's late friend, the great Iranian scholar Parviz Natil Khanlari edited what to date should be accepted as the most reliable Divan-i Hafiz. It is the lyrics, Ghazaliyyat, in this Divan that Avery has attempted to translate; there are 486 of them. A primary aim has been to render them as literally as is possible in the English, with extensive footnotes. Avery has also wished to produce them in colloquial English, but of couse, poems of this kind are susceptible to several levels of interpretation. Avery hopes that he has at least succeeded in conveying some sense of this poetry to the reader who lacks knowledge of Persian - they without doubt represent some of mankind's greatest literary achievements. Iranians call their great poet the Lisanu'l-Ghaib, 'The Tongue of the Invisible'. Thus are his poems' divinity recognised. They are even used to this day, as was Virgil, for the purposes of divination. Almost every contemporary Persian household still keeps a copy of the work for this purpose.

'Mantiqu't-Tair' is one of the masterpieces of Persian literature of which a complete and annotated translation into English is here presented for the first time as 'The Speech of the Birds'. The text revolves around the decision of the birds of the world to seek out a king. Their debilitating doubts and fears, the knowing counsel of their leader Hoopoe, and their choice of the Simurgh as a king, is in reality an allegory of the spiritual path of Sufism with its demands, its hazards and its infinite rewards. The poem contains many admonitory anecdotes and exemplary stories, including numerous references to some of the early Muslim mystics such as Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khair, Mansur al-Hallaj and Shibli, among others. In 'The Speech of the Birds', Peter Avery has not only given us a precise and moving translation, but also ample annotation providing much information to fill in what Attar would have expected his readers to know. The result is a fascinating insight into a remarkable aspect of Islam: the world of ecstatic love of the Persian mystics. 'The Speech of the Birds' will be of interest to everyone who values great literature, as well as to all students of Persian and Sufism.

This contemporary edition of Khayyam has been selected and translated by Persian scholar Peter Avery and poet John Heath-Stubbs.

After finishing his religious education and returning to his hometown of Muhajiran Haj Sayyah realizes that his family's plans for him to marry his cousin. Partly wanderlust and partly wanting to escaped this, he sets off for what would be an eighteen year trip through Europe, America and the Orient.

Haj Sayyah's diaries are unique. While hundreds of Europeans travelled to Persia and wrote travel diaries, few Iranians travelled to Europe and even fewer with such limited means. He travels through practically every country in Europe, where he gives detailed reports. Later, in separate trips he also visits America and the Far East.

In the Caucasus he learned Armenian, Turkish and Russian. He also learns French, English, Arabic and German. He was astonished to see how much the Europe had progressed and concluded that education was the basis for their advancement.

In spite of his Muslim religious training, Sayyah had a positive attitude towards modern European customs. He mingled with people from all social classes and developed a fair understanding of their ideas; he saw that they were free to openly criticize their governments and religious authorities. He visited museums, schools, libraries, churches, factories, parks, zoos and botanical gardens, even prisons, and met some of the famous personalities of the time such as King George of Greece, Czar Alexander II of Russia, and Belgium's King Leopold I.

This is a comprehensive introduction to teaching the pronunciation of North American English. It includes an illustrated description of the sound system of English, ideas for overcoming pronunciation problems specific to fifteen different languages, and a variety of approaches and techniques for use in the classroom.