MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

•future,ivPREFACEmeet this deinand as soon as 1 could.The present volumeredeems that pledge.When planning the book I resolved, after much reflection,to make itcorrespond paragraph by paragnxph to theSansJcrit Grammar' this being the best way to enable studentsto comijare and contrast every phenomenon of the earlierand the later language. To this extent the present bookThe exjierience of many years' teaching, however,presupposes the other ;but it can quite well be used independently.leads me to dissuade beginners from starting the study ofSanskrit by means of the present grammar. Studentsshould, in my opinion, always commence with classicalSanskrit, wliich is more regular and definite, as well asmuch more restricted in the number of its inflexional forms.A good working knowledge of the later language shouldtherefore be acquired before taking up Vedic grammar,which can then be rapidly learned.In carrying out the parallelism of this grammar withthe other I have experienced a good deal of difficulty innumbering the corresponding paragraphs satisfactorily,because certain groups of matter are found exclusively inthe Vedic language, as the numerous subjunctive forms,much more fully, as the dozen types of infinitive comparedwith only one in Sanskrit ;while some Sanskrit formations,as the periphrasticorare non-exi-jtent in the earlierlanguage. Nevertheless, I have, I think, succeeded inarranging the figures in such a way that the correspondingparagraphs of the two grammars can always be easilycompared. The only exception is the first chapter, consistingof fifteen paragra^^hs, which in the Sanslirit Grammardeals with the Nagarl alphabet. As the present workthroughout uses transliteration only, itto repeat the description of the letters givenseemed superfluousin the earlierwork. I have accordingly substituted a general phonetic