VI PREFACE.
its erly forms, and that other verbs had a reduplication like the Greek. Tn all these respects Gothic is among the Teutonic tungs what Sanskrit is among1 the Indo-European.
In the general study of the language the manageabl bulk of the remains is an advantage for the beginner in comparativ study, ther is enuf to giv the grammatical forms, the copulativ verbs, the parlicls of relation, and the most familiar nouns and verbs. "But-only about three thousand nojliv words ar preservd, and the hole literature makes one book of moderate size. The student can make an exhaustiv examination of all the places in which a word or form occurs \\ithin reasonabl time; and the fewness of the words leads him to coneeiitrale his attention and make thuro work.
Such a student is greatly helpt in his thuro work by the kind of matter, the Bible. It is easily red and understood, and easily compared with other languages. No other book is anything like as tlmroly prepared for comparativ studj'. The most accurate translations a r mo,de in many languages, the most complete grammars and vocabularies, and. concordances, by which you can find anything, can gather exampls of every kind of grammatical construction, every etymological form, and pursue them from language to language. For Gothic we hav also handbooks for comparativ study, in which Gothic, Greek and Latin1), and Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Wycliffe and Tyndale2> ar printed in parallel columns; furthermore, a, critically arranged text with critico-exegetical notes and supplemented by the original Greek texts>.
Prof. Skeat who stands foremost among university professors in "England in his perception of the needs of students of English and his skil and promptness in supplying them, has prepared sum excellent text-books for Gothic, a glossary in 1868, and in 1882 an edition of the Gospel of St. Mark in Gothic (39 pages), with a grammatical introduction and glossary, and notes — a very convenient primer. This is about all that has been done in English to promote the study of Gothic among common students, tho Professor Max Miiller, Professor "vThil ney and others hav emfasized its importance. "An Introduction, phonological, morphological, syntactic, to the Gothic of Ulfilas" a wel grounded and suggestiv book for more advanced students, has been prepared by T. LeMarchant Bouse, London, 1886.
1) Ulfilas: by H. F. Masbmann, Stuttgart, 1857.
2) The Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Wyclilie and Tyndale Gospels, by the liev. J. Bosworth,
D. D,, and George Waring, M. A., London, 1865.
8) Ynlfila oder die gotische Bibcl, by E,,Bernhardt, Halle, 187fi.