An Old English Grammar (Classic Reprint)

Series of Brief Grammars of the Germanic Dialects invited me to prepare theO ld English member of the series. At that time the pressure of other duties did not justify me in promising him more than a revision of an earlier set of lectures onO ld English grammar, adapted to conform to the general plan. The brief sketch which follows, therefore, makes no pretension to be anything more than such a revision, although much has been added in the process of re-copying which was foreign to the original draft. Hitherto, Old English grammars have virtually been founded Upon the language of the poetical texts. This is to be deplored, especially when we consider that the manuscripts in which they are contained are uniformly late ;that the texts themselves were composed at an earlier period, and frequently in another dialect; and that in our present versions ancient forms are almost hopelessly jumbled with more, modern ones, and specimens of the most widely separated dialects are occasionally united in the same composition. .I nthe present treatise, on the other hand, the language of the older prose writings has, to a greater extent than heretofore, been chosen as the basis of grammatical investigation, since it is safe to assume that they represent in some measure a single dialect. Besides the characterization of theW estS axon, which is everywhere made the most prominent, an attempt has also been made to give, though in the most concise terms, the chief variations of the other dialects.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accura