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First published in 1900, this was the first of two volumes of the magnum opus from pioneer assyriologist and linguist Rev. Archibald Sayce and provided an introduction to theories on the nature, behaviour and development of languages along with the morphology and physiology of speech. In it, Sayce was the first to emphasize the principle of partial assimilation and the linguistic principle of analogy. This 4th edition, ten years after the first, reflected on the limitations of science revealed since 1890, in an era when languages, like other humanities subjects, still idealised scientific approaches. Archibald Henry Sayce was one of the greatest comparative linguists of the time, being proficient in Accadian, Arabic, Cuneiform, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Japanese, Latin, Persian, Phoenician, Sanscrit and Sumerian. He had a good knowledge of every Semitic and Indo-European language and could write good prose in at least twenty languages. Sayce's first major contribution to scholarship was a highly significant translation of an Accadian seal, a 'bilingual text' from which to translate cuneiform, similar to the Rosetta Stone. Here then, no doubt, the reader learns from a master of comparative linguistics.

First published in 1900, this is the second of two volumes of the magnum opus from pioneer assyriologist and linguist Rev. Archibald Sayce and continues directly from the first, providing an introduction to linguistic roots, inflectional families of speech, agglutinative, incorporating, polysynthetic and isolating languages, comparative mythology, the science of religion, the origin of language and the relation of language to ethnology, logic and education. In it, Sayce was the first to emphasize the principle of partial assimilation and the linguistic principle of analogy. This 4th edition, ten years after the first, reflected on the limitations of science revealed since 1890, in an era when languages, like other humanities subjects, still idealised scientific approaches. Archibald Henry Sayce was one of the greatest comparative linguists of the time, being proficient in Accadian, Arabic, Cuneiform, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Japanese, Latin, Persian, Phoenician, Sanscrit and Sumerian. He had a good knowledge of every Semitic and Indo-European language and could write good prose in at least twenty languages. Sayce's first major contribution to scholarship was a highly significant translation of an Accadian seal, a 'bilingual text' from which to translate cuneiform, similar to the Rosetta Stone. Here then, no doubt, the reader learns from a master of comparative linguistics.

First published in 1900, this was the first of two volumes of the magnum opus from pioneer assyriologist and linguist Rev. Archibald Sayce and provided an introduction to theories on the nature, behaviour and development of languages along with the morphology and physiology of speech. In it, Sayce was the first to emphasize the principle of partial assimilation and the linguistic principle of analogy. This 4th edition, ten years after the first, reflected on the limitations of science revealed since 1890, in an era when languages, like other humanities subjects, still idealised scientific approaches. Archibald Henry Sayce was one of the greatest comparative linguists of the time, being proficient in Accadian, Arabic, Cuneiform, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Japanese, Latin, Persian, Phoenician, Sanscrit and Sumerian. He had a good knowledge of every Semitic and Indo-European language and could write good prose in at least twenty languages. Sayce's first major contribution to scholarship was a highly significant translation of an Accadian seal, a 'bilingual text' from which to translate cuneiform, similar to the Rosetta Stone. Here then, no doubt, the reader learns from a master of comparative linguistics.

First published in 1900, this is the second of two volumes of the magnum opus from pioneer assyriologist and linguist Rev. Archibald Sayce and continues directly from the first, providing an introduction to linguistic roots, inflectional families of speech, agglutinative, incorporating, polysynthetic and isolating languages, comparative mythology, the science of religion, the origin of language and the relation of language to ethnology, logic and education. In it, Sayce was the first to emphasize the principle of partial assimilation and the linguistic principle of analogy. This 4th edition, ten years after the first, reflected on the limitations of science revealed since 1890, in an era when languages, like other humanities subjects, still idealised scientific approaches. Archibald Henry Sayce was one of the greatest comparative linguists of the time, being proficient in Accadian, Arabic, Cuneiform, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Japanese, Latin, Persian, Phoenician, Sanscrit and Sumerian. He had a good knowledge of every Semitic and Indo-European language and could write good prose in at least twenty languages. Sayce's first major contribution to scholarship was a highly significant translation of an Accadian seal, a 'bilingual text' from which to translate cuneiform, similar to the Rosetta Stone. Here then, no doubt, the reader learns from a master of comparative linguistics.

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. 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'. As he explains, the methods and theories which underlie the work were set out in his 1874 Principles of Comparative Philology (also reissued in this series). In Volume 1, Sayce outlines the history of theories of language, and the development of a science of language, and considers the causes of language change, phonology, morphology and comparative syntax. Chapter appendices examine topics such as the vocal organs of animals and the various phonetic alphabets then in use.

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. 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'. As he explains, the methods and theories which underlie the work were set out in his 1874 Principles of Comparative Philology (also reissued in this series). Volume 2 deals with language groups (both ancient and modern), examining separately the inflexional families with their root/inflection system, and the systems of agglutinative languages, before discussing comparative mythology, the origins of language, and the place of the science of language in the wider social sciences. Sayce also provides a bibliography for students.