A GRAMMAR OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE – (Two Volumes) W. Wright The ancient Semitic languages— Arabic and IEthiopic, Assyrian, Canaanitic (Phoenician and Hebrew), and Aramaic— are as closely connected with each other as the Romance languages. In some points the north Semitic tongues, particularly the Hebrew, may bear the greatest resemblance to this parent speech; but, on the whole, the south Semitic dialects, Arabic and IEthiopic— but especially the former— have, preserved a higher degree of likeness to the original Semitic language. Dr. Wright’s translation of Gaspari’s Arabic Grammar from the German, edited with numerous additions and corrections, first appeared in 1859. Since that time, it has been thoroughly reNised and enlarged, and has become the standard authority. Volume-I contains sections on orthography and pronunciation, on the verb, the noun and adjective, on numerals, prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions. Volume-II deals with syntax and prosody. In revising the book he has availed of the labours of Arab Grammarians, both ancient and modem, in particular the Alfiiyah of Ibn Malik, with the Commentary of Ibn Al-Mufassal of Zamakhshari, Lcimiyatu of Ibn Malik and among the later works, Bahth al-Matciab of Gabriel Farhat, Bistarg’s smaller Grammar, founded upon the above, entitled MOtih al-Misbdh and Yazigi’s Faslu ‘I-lade-lb. Among European Grammarians he made constant use of the works of S. de Sacy (Grammaire Arab), Ewald (Grammatica °idea Lingure Arabicre, 1831-33), and Lumsden (A Grammar of the Arabic Language) and also consulted the grammar of Professor Lagus of Helsingfors (Larokurs i Arabiska). The present re-issue of Wright’s Arabic Grammar incorporates only a few changes, mostly corrections of misprints, in the body of the work.
