THE INTRODUCTION TO THIS PRIMER-READER CONTAINS A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF BURIAT (A MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE BURIAT AUTONOMOUS SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC) AND A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE BURIAT CULTURE AND HISTORY. THE BURIAT ORTHOGRAPHY (CYRILLIC-BASED), THE TRANSCRIPTION USED IN THE TEXT, AND VOWEL HARMONY, LENGTH, AND STRESS ARE ALSO TREATED IN THE INTRODUCTION. LESSONS IN THE FIRST PART OF THE BOOK PRESENT THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE GRAMMAR, WITH GRADED READING SELECTIONS WRITTEN IN BOTH CYRILLIC ORTHOGRAPHY AND ITS TRANSLITERATION. LATER LESSONS CONSIST OF MORE DIFFICULT PASSAGES WHICH APPEAR IN CYRILLIC SCRIPT ONLY. A BURIAT-ENGLISH GLOSSARY AND AN INDEXED LIST OF SUFFIXES AND PARTICLES ARE APPENDED. ALTHOUGH A KNOWLEDGE OF MONGOLIAN IS HELPFUL, IT IS NOT A PREREQUISITE TO USE OF THIS READER. A KNOWLEDGE OF LINGUISTICS ON THE PART OF THE STUDENT, HOWEVER, IS ESSENTIAL. THIS TEXT, PREPARED AS A COMPANION VOLUME TO "BURIAT GRAMMAR," (NICHOLAS POPPE, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, 1960), MAY BE ORDERED FOR $2.00 FROM THE EDITOR, URALIC AND ALTAIC SERIES, RAYL HOUSE, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA 47401. (AM)