A Critique on the Book “Iranians and History of Phonetics”

It seems that ‘Iranians and History of Phonetics’ written by Seyyed Mehdi Samaei is the only book whose primary purpose is to give a short history of Iranian scientists’ phonetic studies and to introduce their achievements. Phonetic studies from the sixth BC to the fifteenth century AD in Greek, Rome, India, and Islamic states are the topics covered in this book. In this article, an attempt has been made to introduce and review the mentioned work in detail. After introducing the chapters and sections of this book, the formal aspects have been discussed; issues such as the author's style, references, bibliographic information, and phonetic transcription. In the detailed content analysis and criticism of this work, each chapter has been discussed separately according to its subject and purpose. it is concluded that this work should be considered just as some references to the history of linguistics sources and a collection and summary of some old sources in the field of phonetic studies in Islamic states, which critically need to be described and elaborated in current linguistic terms.
Keywords: Phonetics, Phonology, Persian, Linguistics History, Samaei.
It seems that ‘Iranians and History of Phonetics’ written by Seyyed Mehdi Samaei is the only book whose primary purpose is to give a short history of Iranian scientists’ phonetic studies and to introduce their achievements. Phonetic studies from the sixth BC to the fifteenth century AD in Greek, Rome, India, and Islamic states are the topics covered in this book. In this article, an attempt has been made to introduce and review the mentioned work in detail. After introducing the chapters and sections of this book, the formal aspects have been discussed; issues such as the author's style, references, bibliographic information, and phonetic transcription. In the detailed content analysis and criticism of this work, each chapter has been discussed separately according to its subject and purpose. it is concluded that this work should be considered just as some references to the history of linguistics sources and a collection and summary of some old sources in the field of phonetic studies in Islamic states, which critically need to be described and elaborated in current linguistic terms.