This is a thoroughly modern and accessible course in Hindi. The author is a highly respected scholar and teacher of the Indic languages. Hindi script and Romanized script is taught.
My edition actually is copyright 2003. This book is good, I guess..learning on my own as I am, it moves too fast. I've used other books, and I watch a lot of films, and over time it's becoming less intimidating. I like the conversational aspect of it. The information on the Indian Swastika was very useful. The different sections in the back are nice, the handwritten part, etc.. the dictionary section is very pithy of course. And, of course, I wish everyone used the same transliteration scheme. The Baraha software uses a different system from any of the books: it's all a bit exhausting, as I'm more visual than hearing- based. But I'll just keep going..
Been working through this one. I like it because it actually includes diagrams of how to make some of the sounds (e.g., a profile "cut away" view of what your tongue does in making an American 't' vs. the different 't' sounds in Hindi. This was EXTREMELY helpful. Downside: no Devanagari, and Romanization of Hindi words is always inconsistent across texts, which causes confusion. Why don't they all use IPA?