In this Revised Edition many changes and corrections in details have
been introduced throughout the book, but no alterations have been made
in the treatment of broad general principles, except in the chapter on
Sound (§§ 16-179). This has been very largely rewritten and extended
from nineteen to thirty-one pages by my friend, Professor Hanns Oertel,
of Yale University, who has also been kind enough to make the changes in
the chapters on Formation and Inflection rendered necessary by his
rewriting of the sections on Sound. In this rewriting Mr. Oertel has
proceeded upon the ideas that in a school grammar, even an advanced one,
phonology should play a subordinate part; that nothing should be
introduced that cannot be illustrated from such Latin and Greek as are
available to the student; and that those points should be emphasized
which assist in the analyzing of compounds and in the understanding of
word-formation and inflection. With these ideas, which necessarily
prevent the introduction of some important topics treated in works on
phonetics, I am in entire sympathy.
My thanks are due to not a few scholars and reviewers who have pointed
out passages in the first edition which in their opinion called for
changes. Some of their suggestions I have adopted; with others I have
found myself unable to agree.