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Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book, with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary
Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. This means that we have checked every single page in every title, making it highly unlikely that any material imperfections – such as poor picture quality, blurred or missing text - remain. When our staff observed such imperfections in the original work, these have either been repaired, or the title has been excluded from the Leopold Classic Library catalogue. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, within the book we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience. If you would like to learn more about the Leopold Classic Library collection please visit our website at www.leopoldclassiclibrary.com
212 pages, Paperback
Published December 19, 2017
21 people are currently reading
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About the author
C. Alphonso Smith
83 booksCharles Alphonso Smith, better known as C. Alphonso Smith, was an American Professor of English, college dean, philologist, and folklorist.
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October 4, 2014
This was the first book that I had used when I began my studies of Old English, and I would recommend it to any beginner. One particularly beneficial aspect is that the book is quite dated, and therefore is able to be read and downloaded from book services like Google Books. I would recommend to anybody, after they finish reading this review, to search for this book in Google Books and do a thorough previewing of the book to back up my claims. Then I wuld highly recommend the book be bought in physical copy, though, if one has a tablet, reading on Google Books is a fine alternative.
What I enjoy about this book's methodology is its gradual approach to grammar. Each of the earlier chapters introduce a noun declension, a new grammatical concept (usually an article, verb, or pronoun) followed by a list of vocabulary and a series of translation exercises from Old English to Modern English and vice versa. The book has very brief but satisfactory explanations on i-mutation, verb contractions, various sound changes, etc that make such advanced concepts easy to grasp for a beginner. The later chapters, with the simple grammar having been explained, are no-nonsense explanations on syntax. There is a drastic difficulty curve, with the translations becoming harder to complete and the chapters growing longer in length. But this is a good aspect, and makes the student challenge themselves.
The book then contains various reading exercises. Though the grammar will be understood by the student who has diligently worked hard throughout the exercises, I will say that the vocabulary is simply too complex. Many words were not taught in the lessons, and this results in the student heavily switching back and forth between the glossary and the readings. About the glossary: it is very large and thorough. One complaint I have is that though it gives the words and their translations, it doesn't say much about the properties of the words. It would be helpful if the nouns would say what gender they are, or if the verbs would say to which class they belong.
One severe drawback is that the book does not contain an answer key. This makes learning rather difficult. The student will not have any way to check their answers.
But all in all, this is an excellent book and I would recommend it to anybody as their first old english book.
What I enjoy about this book's methodology is its gradual approach to grammar. Each of the earlier chapters introduce a noun declension, a new grammatical concept (usually an article, verb, or pronoun) followed by a list of vocabulary and a series of translation exercises from Old English to Modern English and vice versa. The book has very brief but satisfactory explanations on i-mutation, verb contractions, various sound changes, etc that make such advanced concepts easy to grasp for a beginner. The later chapters, with the simple grammar having been explained, are no-nonsense explanations on syntax. There is a drastic difficulty curve, with the translations becoming harder to complete and the chapters growing longer in length. But this is a good aspect, and makes the student challenge themselves.
The book then contains various reading exercises. Though the grammar will be understood by the student who has diligently worked hard throughout the exercises, I will say that the vocabulary is simply too complex. Many words were not taught in the lessons, and this results in the student heavily switching back and forth between the glossary and the readings. About the glossary: it is very large and thorough. One complaint I have is that though it gives the words and their translations, it doesn't say much about the properties of the words. It would be helpful if the nouns would say what gender they are, or if the verbs would say to which class they belong.
One severe drawback is that the book does not contain an answer key. This makes learning rather difficult. The student will not have any way to check their answers.
But all in all, this is an excellent book and I would recommend it to anybody as their first old english book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review