Grammar book

A grammar book is a book or treatise describing the grammar of one or more languages. In linguistics, such a book is itself frequently referred to as a grammar.

Etymology

Ancient Greek had the term τέκνή γραμματική (téchnē grammatikḗ, 'skill in the use of letters'), which was adapted into Latin as ars grammatica. This term was used in the title of works about writing and language, which came to be known in English as grammar-books or grammars.^[1]: 72

Definition

Although the style and content of grammar-books varies enormously, they generally aim for a fairly systematic and comprehensive survey of one language's phonetics, morphology, syntax and word-formation. Since languages vary across time, space, social groups, genres, and so forth, grammars inevitably cannot represent every single aspect of a language, but usually select a particular variety with a view to a particular readership.^{[1]: 73–74}

The readerships of grammars and their needs vary widely. Grammars may be intended for native-speakers of a language or for learners. Many grammars are written for use by children learning a language in a school environment. Many grammars are reference grammars, intended not to be read from beginning to end like a textbook, but to enable readers to check particular details as the need arises. Some grammars are prescriptive, aiming to tell readers how they ought to use language; others are descriptive, aiming to tell readers how language is used in reality. In either case, popular grammars can be enormously influential on language-use.^{[1]: 73–74}

History

Further information: History of English grammars

The earliest known descriptive linguistic writing, leading to early grammar-books, took place in a Sanskrit community in northern India; the best known scholar of that linguistic tradition was Pāṇini, whose works are commonly dated to around the 5th century BCE.^[2] The earliest known grammar of a Western language is the second-century BCE Art of Grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax, a grammar of Greek.

Key stages in the history of English grammars include Ælfric of Eynsham's composition around 995 CE of a grammar in Old English based on a compilation of two Latin grammars, Aelius Donatus's Ars maior and Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae. This was intended for use by English-speaking students of Latin, and is the first known grammar of Latin written in a vernacular language, but was arguably also intended to use Latin as a basis for explaining English grammar.^[3] A key step in the development of English grammars was the 1586 publication of William Bullokar's published his Pamphlet for Grammar, which used a framework derived from Latin grammars to show how English too had grammatical structures and rules.^[1]: 74 Numerous grammars aimed at foreign learners of English, sometimes written in Latin, were published in the seventeenth century, while the eighteenth saw the emergence of English-language grammars aiming to instruct their Anglophone audiences in what the authors viewed as correct grammar, including an increasingly literate audience of women and children; this trend continued into the early twentieth century.^{[1]: 74–78} A key shift in grammar-writing is represented by Charles Carpenter Fries' 1952 The Structure of English, which aimed to give up-to-date, descriptive rather than prescriptive, information on English grammar, and drew on recordings of live speech to inform its claims.^[1]: 74

List of first printed grammars (1450–1800)

Year	Language	Author	Notes
1451	Latin	Aelius Donatus	Donatus' Ars Minor was the first printed book by Johannes Gutenberg.[4]
1471	Ancient Greek	Manuel Chrysoloras	Chrysoloras' Erotemata was the first printed book in greek language.[5]
1489	Hebrew	Moses Kimhi	[6]
1492	Spanish	Antonio de Nebrija	Nebrija's Gramática de la lengua castellana is the first printed grammar of a vernacular language.[7]
1505	Andalusi Arabic	Pedro de Alcalá	[8]
1516	Italian	Giovanni Francesco Fortunio	[7]
1527	Biblical Aramaic	Sebastian Münster	[9]
1530	French	John Palsgrave	[10]
1533	Czech	Beneš Optát	[11]
1534	German	Valentin Ickelsamer	[7]
1536	Portuguese	Fernão de Oliveira	[12]
1539	Hungarian	János Sylvester	[13]
1539	Classical Arabic	Guillaume Postel	[14]
1539	Syriac	Teseo Ambrogio	written in collaboration with the Maronite monk Elias ibn Ibrahim.[15]
1543	Sicilian	Claudio Mario d'Arezzo	[16]
1552	Geʽez	Mariano Vittorio	written in collaboration with the ethiopian monk Täsfa Ṣǝyon.[17]
1558	Purépecha	Maturino Gilberti	Gilberti's Arte de la lengua de Michoacán is first printed grammar of an American indigenous language.[18]
1560	Quechua	Domingo de Santo Tomás	[19]
1567	Welsh	Gruffydd Robert	[7]
1568	Polish	Pierre Statorius	[20]
1571	Nahuatl	Alonso de Molina	[18]
1578	Zapotec	Juan de Córdova	[18]
1584	Dutch	Hendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel	[7]
1584	Slovene	Adam Bohorič	[21]
1586	Church Slavonic	anonymous	[7]
1586	English	William Bullokar	[7]
1593	Mixtec	Antonio de los Reyes	[18]
1595	Tupi	José de Anchieta	known by the title Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil[19]
1603	Aymara	Ludovico Bertonio	[19]
1604	Japanese	João Rodrigues Tçuzu	known by the title Arte da Lingoa de Iapam[22]
1604	Croatian	Bartol Kašić	[23]
1606	Mapuche	Luis de Valdivia	Valdivia also published in 1607 two other grammars for Allentiac and Millcayac languages.[19]
1610	Tagalog	Francisco Blancas de San José	[24]
1612	Malay	Albert Cornelius Ruyl	[25]
1612	Turkish	Hieronymus Megiser	based on manuscript written by Hector von Ernau.[26]
1614	Timucua	Francisco Pareja	[27]
1618	Hiligaynon	Alonso de Méntrida	[24]
1619	Chibcha	Bernardo de Lugo	[19]
1620	Yucatec Maya	Juan Coronel	[18]
1622	Modern Greek	Girolamo Germano	[7]
1624	Armenian	Francesco Rivola	[28]
1627	Ilocano	Francisco Lopez	[24]
1636	Coptic	Athanasius Kircher	Kircher's Prodromus Coptus was based on manuscript written by Yuhanna al-Samannudi.[29]
1637	Estonian	Heinrich Stahl	[7]
1637	Mazahua	Diego de Nágera Yanguas	[18]
1638	Basque	Arnauld de Oihenart	[30]
1639	Persian	Louis de Dieu	[31]
1640	Guarani	Antonio Ruiz de Montoya	[19]
1640	Konkani	Thomas Stephens	Stephens' Arte da Lingoa Canarim is the first printed grammar of any Indian language.[32]
1643	Georgian	Francesco Maria Maggio	[7]
1643	Old English	Abraham Wheelocke	A summary of the Old English grammar was included in Wheelocke's edition of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [33]
1644	Mam	Diego de Reynoso	[18]
1644	Mochica	Fernando de la Carrera	[19]
1644	Latvian	Johans Georgs Rēhehūzens	[34]
1647	Bikol	Andrés de San Agustin	[35]
1649	Finnish	Eskil Petraeus	[7]
1651	Vietnamese	Alexandre de Rhodes	[36]
1651	Icelandic	Runolf Jonsson	[37]
1653	Lithuanian	Daniel Klein	[38]
1659	Kongo	Giacinto Brusciotto	[39]
1659	Breton	Julien Maunoir	[7]
1663	Waray	Domingo Ezguerra	[40]
1666	Massachusett	John Eliot	[27]
1667	Kalinago	Raymond Breton	[41]
1668	Danish	Erik Pontoppidan	[42]
1672	Tamil	Philippus Baldaeus	[43]
1677	Irish	Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh	[7]
1679	Sorbian	Xaver Jakub Ticin	[44]
1680	Cumanagoto	Francisco de Tauste	[19]
1681	Frisian	Simon Abbes Gabbema	A grammar of Frisian was included in the Gabbema's edition of Gysbert Japiks's Friesche Rymlerye[45]
1683	Tarahumara	Tomas de Guadalajara	[18]
1686	Manchu	Ferdinand Verbiest	[46]
1689	Gothic	George Hickes	[47]
1690	Pangasinan	Andrés Lopez	[48]
1696	Swedish	Nils Tiällmann	[49]
1696	Russian	Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf	[50]
1696	Chinese	Martino Martini	published by Melchisédech Thévenot in his Relations de divers voyages curieux[51]
1697	Kimbundu	Pedro Dias	[39]
1698	Amharic	Hiob Ludolf	written in collaboration with Abba Gorgoryos.[52]
1699	Kipeá	Luigi Vincenzo Mamiani	Mamiani published the only grammar of a non-Tupí language from colonial Brazil[53]
1702	Opata	Natal Lombardo	[18]
1707	Cornish	Edward Lhuyd	A grammar of cornish language was included in Lhuyd's Archæologia Britannica.[54]
1707	Sinhala	Johannes Ruell	[55]
1716	Albanian	Francesco Maria da Lecce	[7]
1729	Romansh	Flaminio da Sale	[56]
1729	Kapampangan	Diego Bergaño	[57]
1729	Mixe	Agustín de Quintana	[18]
1731	Otomi	Francisco Haedo	[18]
1732	Lule	Antonio Maccioni	[19]
1738	Sámi	Pehr Fjellström	[58]
1743	Hindi	David Mills	based on manuscript written by Joan Josua Kettler.[59]
1743	Bengali	Manuel da Assumpção	[60]
1743	Tepehuan	Benito Rinaldini	[18]
1747	Huastec	Carlos de Tapia Zenteno	[18]
1750	Maltese	Agius de Soldanis	[7]
1752	Totonac	José Zambrano Bonilla	[18]
1753	Kaqchikel	Ildefonso Joseph Flores	[18]
1760	Greenlandic	Paul Egede	[61]
1769	Chuvash	anonymous	[62]
1770	Negerhollands	Joachim Melchior Magens	[63]
1775	Mari	anonymous	[62]
1775	Udmurt	anonymous	[62]
1778	Scottish Gaelic	William Shaw	[64]
1778	Marathi	anonymous	[65]
1779	Neapolitan	Ferdinando Galiani	[66]
1780	Romanian	Samuil Micu-Klein	[67]
1782	Sardinian	Matteo Madao	[66]
1783	Piedmontese	Maurizio Pipino	[66]
1787	Kurdish	Maurizio Garzoni	[68]
1790	Sanskrit	Paulinus of St. Bartholomew	based on manuscript written by Johann Ernst Hanxleden.[69]
1790	Slovak	Anton Bernolák	[70]
1794	Slavo-Serbian	Avram Mrazović	[71]
1799	Malayalam	Robert Drummond	[72]

See also

• Dictionaries
• Glossaries
• Language documentation
• List of Croatian grammar books

Further reading

• Burke, Peter (2004). Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press.
• Considine, John P. (2017). Small Dictionaries and Curiosity: Lexicography and Fieldwork in Post-medieval Europe. Oxford University Press.
• Görlach, M. (1998), An annotated bibliography of nineteenth-century grammars of English (Amsterdam: Benjamins)
• Graustein, G. and Leitner, G. (eds.) (1989), Reference grammars and modern linguistic theory, Linguistische Arbeiten, 226 (Tübingen: Niemeyer)
• Hymes, Dell H. (1974). Studies in the history of linguistics: traditions and paradigms. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 361–379.
• Law, Vivien (2003). The History of Linguistics in Europe: From Plato to 1600. Cambridge University Press. pp. 234–235.
• Leitner, G. (1984), 'English grammaticology', International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 23, 199–215.
• Leitner, G. (ed.) (1986), The English reference grammar: language and linguistics, writers and readers (Tübingen: Niemeyer)
• Leitner, G. (ed.) (1991), English traditional grammars: an international perspective (Amsterdam: Benjamins)
• Stankiewicz, E. (1984). Grammars and Dictionaries of the Slavic Languages from the Middle Ages up to 1850: An Annotated Bibliography. De Gruyter Mouton.
• Zwartjes, Otto (2011). Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550-1800. John Benjamins Publishing.