Böcker i Cambridge Library Collection - Linguistics-serien

Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) was a British Australian biologist and anthropologist, best known for his work amongst the indigenous Aboriginal tribes of Australia. After graduating from Exeter College, Oxford in 1884 Spencer was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford in 1886 before being appointed the Professor of Biology at the University of Melbourne. In 1911 Spencer was appointed Special Commissioner for Aborigines and undertook fieldwork in the Northern Territories between 1911-1912. This volume, first published in 1914, is the result of his fieldwork. Spencer describes in detail the social customs, kinship structures, marriage ceremonies and religious beliefs of thirteen tribes he encountered in the Northern Territories. Spencer also compares differences and similarities in the religious and social structures of different tribes and includes copious illustrations of religious and political monuments. This volume was the first ethnography of these tribes and provides valuable insights into these societies.

Sir Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) was a British/Australian biologist and anthropologist, best known for his work amongst the indigenous Aboriginal tribes of Australia. After graduating from Exeter College, Oxford in 1884, Spencer was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, before being appointed the Professor of Biology at the University of Melbourne. In 1896 Spencer joined his friend and co-author Francis James Gillen (1855-1912) to undertake fieldwork during the Aboriginal tribal gathering known as the Engwura. This pioneering volume, first published in 1899, is the result of this fieldwork. Spencer and Gillen were initiated as members of the Arunta tribe and became the first Europeans to witness many tribal customs and social structures. The kinship structures, marriage and burial ceremonies and religious beliefs of several tribes are described. This fascinating volume influenced contemporary ideas concerning palaeolithic society and the origins of art and religion.

Coptic was the language spoken in Egypt from late ancient times to the seventeenth century, when it was overtaken by Arabic as the national language. Derived from ancient Egyptian, the language of the hieroglyphs, it was written in an adapted form of Greek script. This dictionary lists about 2,000 Coptic words whose etymology has been established from ancient Egyptian and Greek sources, covering two-thirds of the known Coptic vocabulary and complementing W. E. Crum's 1939 Coptic Dictionary, still the standard in the field. The Egyptian forms are quoted in hieroglyphic and/or demotic forms. An appendix lists the etymologies of Coptic place-names. The final work of Czech Egyptologist Jaroslav Cerny (1898-1970), Professor of Egyptology at Oxford, the Dictionary was brought through to publication by colleagues after his death.

John Mathew was a Presbyterian minister who developed an interest in Aboriginal ethnography after migrating from Scotland to work on his uncle's farm in Queensland in 1864. From 1879 he published influential studies of Aboriginal culture. Although Mathew's speculative argument for the tri-hybrid origins of the Australian Aborigines has long been disproved, his discussion of Aboriginal language and social behaviour was pioneering in the field of anthropology and is still well-regarded today. Two Representative Tribes of Queensland (1910) is the result of the extensive time Mathew spent visiting the Kabi and Wakka people living in the Barambah Government Aboriginal Station. This direct experience is emphasised in the preface to the book: 'For Mr Mathew Australian origins ... have been a life study, and the knowledge bearing upon these questions, which most others have gleaned from the library shelves, he has acquired at first-hand in the native camping grounds.'

William MartinLeake (1777-1860) first published Researches in Greece in 1814. The book is a survey of the languages and dialects spoken in modern Greece and the Southern Balkans during the early nineteenth century. It was a pioneering work of linguistics that created great interest among Western European scholars. Chapter 1 deals with modern Greek, with sections on grammar, orthography, and phonetics; modern literature, including a catalogue of modern Greek authors; the Tzakonic dialect; and pronunciation and regional variation. Chapter 2 covers Albanian and includes sections on phonetics, grammar and vocabulary and Albanian history and geography. Chapter 3 gives a brief account of the Wallachian and Bulgarian languages. The volume includes useful comparative vocabulary lists in English, Greek, Albanian, Wallachian and Bulgarian. This key work of nineteenth-century scholarship was highly influential in generating scholarly interest in the study of modern Greek.

First published in 1903, Antoine Meillet's Introduction a l'Etude comparative des langues Indo-Europeennes exemplifies the key methodologies and insights of early twentieth-century comparative linguistics. Its primary aim, as Meillet states, was 'tres limite': to provide a brief but comprehensive overview of the Indo-European languages and their shared linguistic structures. He accomplished this object and more in his Introduction, outlining a theory of language change that would influence a generation of linguists, including his students Emile Benveniste and Andre Martinet. Meillet's debt to his own mentor, Ferdinand de Saussure, is evident in his conception of language as simultaneously social and structural, a lived reality and a constantly evolving grammatical system. This second edition (1908) includes Meillet's extensive revisions and a new chapter on the development of Indo-European dialects. It remains a valuable introduction to the phonology, morphology, and grammar of the Indo-European language family.

A Slovenian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Miklosich (1813-91) extended the comparative method of analysis across the whole Slavonic language family. This four-volume comparative grammar of the Slavonic languages (1852-74) ranks among his most influential works. Volume 1 is reissued here in the 1879 second edition.

The work of Henry Sweet (1845-1912), the renowned philologist and phonetician, revolutionised the study of linguistics in Britain and Europe. This two-volume work, published 1892-8, was the first scientific grammar of English. Volume 1 contains the first study of English phonology alongside accidence and the history of English.

A respected folklorist and medievalist, Thomas Wright (1810-77) wrote prolifically on a wide range of subjects. This two-volume dictionary, published in 1857, aimed to help readers to navigate unfamiliar vocabulary in historical literature and gives definitions, etymologies and illustrative examples. Volume 1 covers letters A-F.

This three-volume work by Hugo Schuchardt (1842-1927), first published between 1866 and 1868, explores the development of Vulgar Latin, the language of the general population, as opposed to the classical, literary variety. The work focuses on the distinctive vowel changes that took place in Romance vernaculars over many centuries.

In this two-volume work of 1880, Sayce attempts to give 'a systematic account of the Science of Language, its nature, its progress and its aims'. Volume 1 outlines the history of theories of language, and considers the causes of language change, phonology, morphology and comparative syntax.

First published in 1872, this three-volume comparative grammar of the Indo-Aryan languages was written by the British civil servant John Beames (1837-1902). Volume 1 focuses on phonetics and phonology, exploring the languages' vowel and consonant systems, and how their phonology has changed over time.

Hermann Osthoff (1847-1909) and Karl Brugmann (1849-1919) were prominent members of the Neogrammarian school of linguistics. This six-volume work, published between 1878 and 1910, develops the theory that European languages, together with certain languages of central and southern Asia, have a common origin in a prehistoric Indo-European language.

This monumental work by the German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), published posthumously in 1836-9, analyses the classical literary language of Java. Volume 1 includes Humboldt's 1836 essay on language and a preface by his brother Alexander, and discusses Sanskrit and Buddhist influences on Javan language and society.

British-born biologist Sir Baldwin Spencer, and his fieldwork partner, F. J. Gillen, an advocate of Aboriginal rights, carried out innovative in-depth studies on the native tribes of Central Australia. Volume 1 describes the region's topography, and the customs and beliefs of the Arunta Aborigines.

The first English dictionary of Hausa, the lingua franca of West and Central Africa, was originally published in 1899, and this expanded fourth edition dates from 1925. The work of Charles Henry Robinson (1861-1925) contributed greatly to Western knowledge of the language. Volume 1 contains a Hausa-English dictionary.

C. H. Armbruster (1874-1957) was a civil servant in the Anglo-Sudan government and a linguist specialising in African languages. Published between 1908 and 1920, his three-volume guide to Amharic grammar and vocabulary was based on the spoken language. Volume 2, published in 1910, is an English-Amharic vocabulary.

Resulting from the great explorer Henri Coudreau's travels in French Guyana during the 1880s, this first of two volumes is an informative survey of the region, enlivened by personal experience and opinion. It provided the French government with an up to date account of the state of the colony.

The distinguished German philologist Hermann Hirt (1865-1936) wrote this seven-volume grammar soon after the discovery of Tocharian and the decipherment of Hittite. Volume 1 (1927) introduces the Indo-European language family, considers etymology and semantic shift, and provides a detailed analysis of the Indo-European consonant system.

Beitrage zur Ethnographie (1867) is the German scientist Carl von Martius' colourful and personal memoir of his early travels to Brazil in the years 1817-1820. He focuses on the indigenous peoples of America and in particular of Brazil, and addresses a wide range of ethnographic and linguistic topics.

Theodor Koch-Grunberg (1872-1924) was director of Berlin's Ethnographical Museum. This two-volume work documents his expedition to North-West Brazil in 1903-1905. Though aimed at a lay readership, his account provides a wealth of information on the area and its indigenous tribes, their languages and customs.

Volume 1 of the monumental comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages by Karl Brugmann (1849-1919) is devoted to phonology. It focuses in turn on each Proto-Indo-European sound and its reflexes in the earliest attested languages of each language family, and also discusses Ablaut and sound changes.

Berthold Delbruck's three volumes on Indo-European syntax were written to complete Karl Brugmann's monumental comparative grammar. They were first published between 1893 and 1900, and remain the fullest treatment of the subject. This, the second volume, discusses the verb, providing thorough coverage of tense, mood, infinitives and participles.

The interest of John Rhys (1840-1915) in linguistics was fired by attending the lectures of German philologists while studying abroad. In this 1877 work, which established his reputation, he emphasised that comparative philology of the Celtic languages was a young discipline, but this pioneering work still repays study today.

In 1873 Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) arrived in Japan, where he taught English. A brilliant linguist, he quickly learned Japanese, and in 1886 he became professor of Japanese and philology at the Imperial University, Tokyo. This 1888 book gives both theoretical and practical instruction for the learner.

Henry Sweet's work on the sounds of English was first published in 1874, and in this revised version in 1888. Originally intended as a monograph on two sounds only, it ended up as a much broader book, including an investigation of dialects and medieval and modern English sounds.

A Slovenian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Miklosich (1813-91) extended the comparative method of analysis across the whole Slavonic language family. This four-volume comparative grammar of the Slavonic languages (1852-74) ranks among his most influential works. Volume 4 is reissued in the 1868-74 edition.

A Slovenian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Miklosich (1813-91) extended the comparative method of linguistic analysis across the whole Slavonic language family. This etymological dictionary of the Slavonic languages was published in 1886, encompassing Old Slavonic as well as modern forms.

The philologist and orientalist Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) had studied Middle Eastern languages and scripts since adolescence. This 1875 teaching grammar/reader, aimed at helping students to grasp Assyrian cuneiform, includes a full syllabary as well as texts, transliterations and translations.

The philologist Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) had studied Middle Eastern languages and scripts since adolescence. In this 1872 grammar, using transliteration rather than cuneiform, Sayce first considers the place of Assyrian in the Semitic language family and its development over time, then presents its phonology, morphology, syntax and prosody.