THIS MANUAL IS INTENDED TO SERVE AS A REFERENCE RATHER THAN A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR FOR ANYONE WISHING TO LEARN TO READ MODERN KIRGHIZ. A TURKIC LANGUAGE, KIRGHIZ IS SPOKEN MAINLY IN THE KIRGHIZ SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, AND TO A LESSER EXTENT IN THE SINKIANG-UIGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC, THE KAZAKH, UZBEK, AND THE TAJIK SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, AND THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN. LESSON ONE OF THE MANUAL PRESENTS THE CONTEMPORARY KIRGHIZ ALPHABET (MODIFIED CYRILLIC SCRIPT), WITH PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION AND PHONETIC EXPLANATIONS. LESSONS TWO TO FIFTEEN PRESENT THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF KIRGHIZ IN CYRILLIC SCRIPT, PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION, AND ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS. THE 20 GRADED READING SELECTIONS THAT FOLLOW ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF LITERATURE PUBLISHED SINCE THE SOVIET REVOLUTION, AND APPEAR IN CYRILLIC SCRIPT ONLY. A KIRGHIZ-ENGLISH GLOSSARY IS APPENDED. THIS TEXT IS PUBLISHED BY INDIANA UNIVERSITY, AND MAY BE ORDERED FROM THE EDITOR, URALIC AND ALTAIC SERIES, RAYL HOUSE, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA 47401 FOR $3.00. (AMM)