OF LANGUAGES A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS AND LEARNERS BY HENRY SWEET, M.A., PH.D., LL.D. CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MUNICH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES J. M. DENT & CO. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1899 PREFACE THIS book is intended as a guide to the practical study of languages. Its object is, first, to determine the general principles on which a rational method of learning foreign languages should be based, and then to consider the various modifications these general principles undergo in their application to different circumstances and different classes of learners. The want of such a guide has long been felt. All the works on the subject that have hitherto appeared have either been short sketches, or else have only dealt with portions of the subject, such as the teaching of classical or modern languages in schools. I have given careful attention to these questions, but have by no means confined myself to this branch of the subject. I have rather endeavoured to give a comprehensive general view of the whole field of the practical study of languages, as far as lay in my power. I have not only given special sections on the learning of dead languages and of Oriental languages, but have also added a chapter on the methods of deciphering writings in unknown languages and of dealing with unwritten forms of speech; for although such investigations have not |