THIS MANUAL IS DESIGNED AS TEACHING MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF YAKUT, A TURKIC LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY ABOUT 250,000 YAKUTS IN EASTERN SIBERIA (YAKUTIA). THE TEXT IS ALSO ARRANGED TO BE USED FOR SELF INSTRUCTION BY A STUDENT WITH SOME KNOWLEDGE OF ANOTHER TURKIC LANGUAGE. WHILE SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS NOT ESSENTIAL, A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF LINGUISTICS IS ASSUMED ON THE PART OF THE READER. PART ONE, AREA HANDBOOK, CONTAINS PERTINENT GEOGRAPHICAL AND CULTURAL INFORMATION TO PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDENT. PART TWO, GRAMMAR, IS PREFACED BY A DESCRIPTION OF THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ALTAIC LANGUAGES, A CLASSIFICATION OF THE TURKIC LANGUAGES, AND THE CHARACTERISTICS AND POSITIONS OF YAKUT TURKISH. THIS INTRODUCTION IS FOLLOWED BY SECTIONS ON PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY, WHICH ARE PRESENTED IN ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY. PART THREE, GRADED READER, CONTAINS 80 SELECTIONS FROM YAKUT TEXTS WRITTEN IN 1948. SEVERAL SHORT POEMS AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES ARE INCLUDED ALSO. PART FOUR CONTAINS A YAKUT-ENGLISH GLOSSARY AND A TRANSLATION KEY TO THE READING SELECTIONS. STRAHLENBERG'S YAKUT VOCABULARY (1730), A GAZETEER OF YAKUT PLACE NAMES, AND A COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY ARE APPENDED. THE READING SELECTIONS AND GLOSSARY APPEAR IN CYRILLIC SCRIPT. THIS TEXT IS PUBLISHED BY INDIANA UNIVERSITY AND MAY BE OBTAINED FOR $4.00 FROM THE EDITOR, URALIC AND ALTAIC SERIES, RAYL HOUSE, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA 47401. (AMM)