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.^: 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.^: 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.^: 73–74

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 5th century BCE. 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. 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.^: 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.^: 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.^: 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.
1471	Ancient Greek	Manuel Chrysoloras	Chrysoloras' Erotemata was the first printed book in greek language.
1489	Hebrew	Moses Kimhi
1492	Spanish	Antonio de Nebrija	Nebrija's Gramática de la lengua castellana is the first printed grammar of a vernacular language.
1505	Andalusi Arabic	Pedro de Alcalá
1516	Italian	Giovanni Francesco Fortunio
1527	Biblical Aramaic	Sebastian Münster
1530	French	John Palsgrave
1533	Czech	Beneš Optát
1534	German	Valentin Ickelsamer
1536	Portuguese	Fernão de Oliveira
1539	Hungarian	János Sylvester
1539	Classical Arabic	Guillaume Postel
1539	Syriac	Teseo Ambrogio	written in collaboration with the Maronite monk Elias ibn Ibrahim.
1543	Sicilian	Claudio Mario d'Arezzo
1552	Geʽez	Mariano Vittorio	written in collaboration with the ethiopian monk Täsfa Ṣǝyon.
1558	Purépecha	Maturino Gilberti	Gilberti's Arte de la lengua de Michoacán is first printed grammar of an American indigenous language.
1560	Quechua	Domingo de Santo Tomás
1567	Welsh	Gruffydd Robert
1568	Polish	Pierre Statorius
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
1593	Mixtec	Antonio de los Reyes
1595	Tupi	José de Anchieta	known by the title Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil
1603	Aymara	Ludovico Bertonio
1604	Japanese	João Rodrigues Tçuzu	known by the title Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
1604	Croatian	Bartol Kašić
1606	Mapuche	Luis de Valdivia	Valdivia also published in 1607 two other grammars for Allentiac and Millcayac languages.
1610	Tagalog	Francisco Blancas de San José
1612	Malay	Albert Cornelius Ruyl
1612	Turkish	Hieronymus Megiser	based on manuscript written by Hector von Ernau.
1614	Timucua	Francisco Pareja
1618	Hiligaynon	Alonso de Méntrida
1619	Chibcha	Bernardo de Lugo
1620	Yucatec Maya	Juan Coronel
1622	Modern Greek	Girolamo Germano
1624	Armenian	Francesco Rivola
1627	Ilocano	Francisco Lopez
1636	Coptic	Athanasius Kircher	Kircher's Prodromus Coptus was based on manuscript written by Yuhanna al-Samannudi.
1637	Estonian	Heinrich Stahl
1637	Mazahua	Diego de Nágera Yanguas
1638	Basque	Arnauld de Oihenart
1639	Persian	Louis de Dieu
1640	Guarani	Antonio Ruiz de Montoya
1640	Konkani	Thomas Stephens	Stephens' Arte da Lingoa Canarim is the first printed grammar of any Indian language.
1643	Georgian	Francesco Maria Maggio
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
1644	Mam	Diego de Reynoso
1644	Mochica	Fernando de la Carrera
1644	Latvian	Johans Georgs Rēhehūzens
1647	Bikol	Andrés de San Agustin
1649	Finnish	Eskil Petraeus
1651	Vietnamese	Alexandre de Rhodes
1651	Icelandic	Runolf Jonsson
1653	Lithuanian	Daniel Klein
1659	Kongo	Giacinto Brusciotto
1659	Breton	Julien Maunoir
1663	Waray	Domingo Ezguerra
1666	Massachusett	John Eliot
1667	Kalinago	Raymond Breton
1668	Danish	Erik Pontoppidan
1672	Tamil	Philippus Baldaeus
1677	Irish	Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh
1679	Sorbian	Xaver Jakub Ticin
1680	Cumanagoto	Francisco de Tauste
1681	Frisian	Simon Abbes Gabbema	A grammar of Frisian was included in the Gabbema's edition of Gysbert Japiks's Friesche Rymlerye
1683	Tarahumara	Tomas de Guadalajara
1686	Manchu	Ferdinand Verbiest
1689	Gothic	George Hickes
1690	Pangasinan	Andrés Lopez
1696	Swedish	Nils Tiällmann
1696	Russian	Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf
1696	Chinese	Martino Martini	published by Melchisédech Thévenot in his Relations de divers voyages curieux
1697	Kimbundu	Pedro Dias
1698	Amharic	Hiob Ludolf	written in collaboration with Abba Gorgoryos.
1699	Kipeá	Luigi Vincenzo Mamiani	Mamiani published the only grammar of a non-Tupi language from colonial Brazil; see Arte de grammatica da lingua brasilica da naçam kiriri
1699	Morocosi	anonymous
1702	Opata	Natal Lombardo
1707	Cornish	Edward Lhuyd	A grammar of cornish language was included in Lhuyd's Archæologia Britannica.
1707	Sinhala	Johannes Ruell
1716	Albanian	Francesco Maria da Lecce
1729	Romansh	Flaminio da Sale
1729	Kapampangan	Diego Bergaño
1729	Mixe	Agustín de Quintana
1731	Otomi	Francisco Haedo
1732	Lule	Antonio Machoni
1737	Cahita	Tomás Basilio
1738	Sámi	Pehr Fjellström
1743	Hindi	David Mills	based on manuscript written by Joan Josua Kettler.
1743	Bengali	Manuel da Assumpção
1743	Tepehuan	Benito Rinaldini
1747	Huastec	Carlos de Tapia Zenteno
1750	Maltese	Agius de Soldanis
1752	Totonac	José Zambrano Bonilla
1753	Kaqchikel	Ildefonso Joseph Flores
1760	Greenlandic	Paul Egede
1769	Chuvash	anonymous
1770	Negerhollands	Joachim Melchior Magens
1775	Mari	anonymous
1775	Udmurt	anonymous
1778	Scottish Gaelic	William Shaw
1778	Marathi	anonymous
1779	Neapolitan	Ferdinando Galiani
1780	Romanian	Samuil Micu-Klein
1782	Sardinian	Matteo Madao
1783	Piedmontese	Maurizio Pipino
1787	Kurdish	Maurizio Garzoni
1790	Sanskrit	Paulinus of St. Bartholomew	based on manuscript written by Johann Ernst Hanxleden.
1790	Slovak	Anton Bernolák
1794	Slavo-Serbian	Avram Mrazović
1799	Malayalam	Robert Drummond

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Books about grammar.

• 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.