Grammar book explained

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]

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.

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.

History

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 .^[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. 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. 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.

List of first printed grammars

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	^[7]
1505	Arabic	Pedro de Alcalá
1516	Italian	Giovanni Francesco Fortunio
1527	Aramaic	Sebastian Münster
1530	French	John Palsgrave
1533	Czech	Beneš Optát
1534	German	Valentin Ickelsamer
1536	Portuguese	Fernão de Oliveira
1539	Hungarian	János Sylvester
1552	Geʽez	Mariano Vittorio	written in collaboration with the ethiopian monk Täsfa Ṣǝyon.^[8]
1558	Tarascan	Maturino Gilberti
1560	Quechua	Domingo de Santo Tomás
1568	Polish	Pierre Statorius	^[9]
1571	Nahuatl	Alonso de Molina
1578	Zapotec	Juan de Córdova
1584	Dutch	Hendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel
1584	Slovene	Adam Bohorič
1586	Church Slavonic	anonymous
1586	English	William Bullokar
1592	Welsh	Siôn Dafydd Rhys
1593	Mixtec	Antonio de los Reyes
1595	Tupi	José de Anchieta
1603	Aymara
1604	Japanese	João Rodrigues Tçuzu
1604	Croatian	Bartol Kašić
1606	Mapuche	Luis de Valdivia
1610	Tagalog	Francisco Blancas de San José
1612	Malay	Albert Cornelius Ruyl
1612	Turkish	Hieronymus Megiser	based on manuscript written by Hector von Ernau.^[10]
1614	Timucua	Francisco Pareja
1617	Ilocano	Francisco Lopez
1619	Chibcha	Bernardo de Lugo
1620	Maya	Juan Coronel	^[11]
1624	Armenian	Francesco Rivola	^[12]
1636	Coptic	Athanasius Kircher	based on manuscript written by Yuhanna al-Samannudi.^[13]
1637	Estonian	Heinrich Stahl
1638	Modern Greek	Simone Porzio
1639	Persian	Louis de Dieu
1640	Guarani
1640	Konkani	Thomas Stephens
1643	Georgian	Francesco Maria Maggio
1643	Old English	Abraham Wheelocke	^[14]
1644	Mam	Diego de Reynoso
1644	Mochica	Fernando de la Carrera
1644	Latvian	Johans Georgs Rēhehūzens
1649	Finnish	Eskil Petraeus
1651	Vietnamese	Alexandre de Rhodes	^[15]
1651	Icelandic	Runolf Jonsson	^[16]
1653	Lithuanian	Daniel Klein
1659	Kongo	Giacinto Brusciotto
1659	Breton	Julien Maunoir
1666	Massachusett	John Eliot
1668	Danish	Erik Pontoppidan
1677	Irish	Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh
1679	Sorbian	Xaver Jakub Ticin
1680	Cumanagoto	Francisco de Tauste
1681	Frisian	Simon Abbes Gabbema	^[17]
1683	Tarahumara	Tomas de Guadalajara
1684	Swedish	Erik Aurivillius
1686	Manchu	Ferdinand Verbiest	^[18]
1689	Gothic	George Hickes
1696	Russian	Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf
1696	Chinese	Martino Martini	^[19]
1697	Kimbundu	Pedro Dias
1698	Amharic	Hiob Ludolf	written in collaboration with Abba Gorgoryos.
1699	Cariri	Luiz Vincencio Mamiani
1707	Cornish	Edward Lhuyd
1707	Sinhala	Johannes Ruell	^[20]
1716	Tamil	Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg	^[21]
1716	Albanian	Francesco Maria da Lecce
1729	Romansh	Flaminio da Sale	^[22]
1729	Basque	Manuel Larramendi	^[23]
1731	Otomi	Francisco Haedo
1743	Hindi	David Mills	based on manuscript written by Joan Josua Kettler.^[24]
1743	Bengali	Manuel da Assumpção
1747	Huastec	Carlos de Tapia Zenteno
1750	Maltese	Agius de Soldanis
1752	Totonac	José Zambrano Bonilla
1753	Kaqchikel	Ildefonso Joseph Flores
1778	Scottish Gaelic	William Shaw
1778	Marathi	anonymous	^[25]
1780	Romanian	Samuil Micu-Klein	^[26]
1783	Piedmontese	Maurizio Pipino
1787	Kurdish	Maurizio Garzoni	^[27]
1790	Sanskrit	Paulinus of St. Bartholomew	based on manuscript written by Johann Ernst Hanxleden.^[28]
1790	Slovak	Anton Bernolák	^[29]
1799	Malayalam	Robert Drummond	^[30]
1814	Serbian	Vuk Stefanović Karadžić

See also

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

Further reading

• 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)
• 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)

Notes and References

1. Andrew Linn, 'English Grammar Writing', in The Handbook of English Linguistics, ed. by Bas Aarts and April McMahon (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 72–92.
2. [Linguistic description#FPencyclo|François & Ponsonnet (2013)]
3. Melinda J. Menzer, 'Ælfric's English Grammar', The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 103 (2004), 106-24.
4. Book: Ingelhart . Louis E. . Press and Speech Freedoms in the World, from Antiquity until 1998: A Chronology . 1998 . Greenwood . 978-0-313-30851-2 . 12 . English.
5. Book: Dondi . Cristina . Printing R-evolution and Society 1450-1500: Fifty Years that Changed Europe . 2020 . Edizioni Ca' Foscari - Digital Publishing . 978-88-6969-333-5 . 279-297 . en.
6. Book: Waltke . Bruce K. . O'Connor . Michael Patrick . An introduction to biblical Hebrew syntax . 1990 . Eisenbrauns . Winona Lake, Ind . 0931464315 . 39.
7. Book: Hymes . Dell H. . Studies in the history of linguistics: traditions and paradigms . 1974 . Indiana University Press . Bloomington . 0253355591 . 361-379.
8. Book: Kelly . Samantha . Translating faith: Ethiopian pilgrims in Renaissance Rome . 2024 . Harvard University Press . 9780674294172 . 243.
9. Web site: Old orthographies, grammars and handbooks of Polish language . gramatyki.uw.edu.pl . en.
10. Book: Palabıyık . Nil Ö . Silent teachers: Turkish books and oriental learning in early modern Europe, 1544-1669 . 2023 . Routledge . 0367359782 . 205 . en.
11. Book: McQuown . Norman A. . Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 5: Linguistics . 1968 . University of Texas Press . 978-1-4773-0663-5 . 203 . en.
12. Book: Considine . John P. . Small Dictionaries and Curiosity: Lexicography and Fieldwork in Post-medieval Europe . 2017 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-878501-9 . 244 . en.
13. Book: Hamilton . Alastair . The Copts and the West, 1439-1822: The European Discovery of the Egyptian Church . 2006 . OUP Oxford . 978-0-19-928877-9 . 199-206.
14. Book: Auroux . Sylvain . Koerner . E. F. K. . Niederehe . Hans-Josef . Versteegh . Kees . History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire des sciences du langage. 2. Teilband . 2008 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-019421-0 . 1132 . en.
15. Book: Zwartjes . Otto . Troia . Paolo De . Missionary Linguistics VI: Missionary Linguistics in Asia. Selected papers from the Tenth International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Rome, 21–24 March 2018 . 2021 . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 978-90-272-5843-4 . 202 . en.
16. Book: Koerner . E. F. K. . Asher . R. E. . Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists . 28 June 2014 . Elsevier . 978-1-4832-9754-5 . 181.
17. Book: Ahlqvist . Anders . Diversions of Galway: Papers on the History of Linguistics from ICHoLS V, Galway, Ireland, 1-6 September 1990 . 1992 . John Benjamins Publishing . 978-90-272-4555-7 . 59 . en.
18. Book: Saarela . Marten Soderblom . The Early Modern Travels of Manchu: A Script and Its Study in East Asia and Europe . 2020 . University of Pennsylvania Press . 978-0-8122-5207-1 . 175 . en.
19. Book: Knight . Sarah . Tilg . Stefan . The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin . 2015 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-994818-5 . 567 . en.
20. Book: Wickremasuriya . Sarathchandra . Senarat Paranavitana Commemoration Volume . 1978 . Brill . 978-90-04-64647-6 . 283–300 . en . The beginnings of the Sinhalese Printing Press.
21. Book: Sharma . Ghanshyam . Lowe . John J. . Trends in South Asian Linguistics . 8 November 2021 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG . 978-3-11-075306-6 . 273 . en.
22. Book: Miodunka . Władysław . Language and Nation: Material from a Symposium . 1987 . Jagiellonian University . 978-83-01-07840-9 . 41 . en.
23. Book: Hualde . José Ignacio . Urbina . Jon Ortiz de . A Grammar of Basque . 2011 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-089528-5 . 10 . en.
24. Book: Zwartjes . Otto . Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550-1800 . 2011 . John Benjamins Publishing . 978-90-272-4608-0 . 75 . en.
25. Book: Offredi . Mariola . The Banyan Tree: Essays in Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages . 2000 . Manohar . 978-81-7304-277-5 . 324 . en.
26. Book: Lebsanft . Franz . Tacke . Felix . Manual of Standardization in the Romance Languages . 2020 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG . 978-3-11-045606-6 . 276.
27. Book: Bajalan . Djene Rhys . Karimi . Sara Zandi . Studies in Kurdish History: Empire, Ethnicity and Identity . 2017 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-317-50216-6 . 34.
28. Book: Kochhar . Rajesh . Sanskrit and the British Empire . 2021 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-000-43553-5 . 13-14 .
29. Book: Lepschy . Giulio C. . History of Linguistics Vol III: Renaissance and Early Modern Linguistics . 2014 . Routledge . 978-1-317-89524-4 . 122.
30. Book: Andronov . Mikhail Sergeevich . A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment . 1996 . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag . 978-3-447-03811-9 . 18.