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Old-school lang-learning on Google Books | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5504 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 1 of 4 16 October 2010 at 8:27pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not sure if anyone else here shares my fondness for very old language books (grammars and the like), almost more as charming historical novelties than practical resources. I find them to be a wonderful peek into the past of language education, and while due to their age they are often no longer very helpful to language students, it can be awfully fun to look through them and get a glimpse of the way language education used to be. With that disclaimer in mind, I thought I would share my (very incomplete) list of some out-of-copyright language books – most pre-1900 – that I've found on Google Books. If you want to go searching for them yourself, just go to http://books.google.com, select "Advanced Search," make sure the "Full preview only" box is checked, and in the search box just type in the name of the language you're looking for. I'm sure there are plenty of historical treasures there which I haven't yet dug up!
For those interested in my partial list of books on a few different languages, here it is (note the charmingly involved old-fashioned titles! I love 'em): FRENCH French dialogues: a systematic introduction to the grammar and idiom of spoken French (1892) by Johan Storm (http://books.google.com/books?id=rWpOAAAAYAAJ) French course; or, theoretical and practical system of the French language, to which are added elegant extracts from the most approved French poets (1848) by George Gérard (http://books.google.com/books?id=4xUBAAAAYAAJ) The modern French method: a natural, attractive, and certain mode of acquiring the art of thinking, speaking, and composing in the French language (1884) by J.D. Gaillard (http://books.google.com/books?id=cw8tAAAAYAAJ) French exercises for advanced pupils: containing the principal rules of French syntax, numerous French and English exercises on rules and idioms, and a dictionary of nearly four thousand idiomatical verbs and sentences, familiar phrases, and proverbs (1870) by C.A. Chardenal (http://books.google.com/books?id=tW27_E9lxUAC) A classical French reader: selected from the best writers of that language in prose and poetry; preceded by an introduction, designed to facilitate the study of the rudiments of the French, and attended with notes, explanatory of idioms, etc. throughout the work (1833) by N.M. Hentz (http://books.google.com/books?id=Jo0XAAAAYAAJ) Oral method with French, part 1 (1869) by Jean Gustave Keetels (http://books.google.com/books?id=IwctAAAAYAAJ) Elements of French grammar (1840) by C.F. L'Homond (http://books.google.com/books?id=cgMTAAAAIAAJ) French phrases and questions: a manual of conversation (1920) by Moritz Levi (http://books.google.com/books?id=UjcBAAAAYAAJ) GERMAN German science reader: an introduction to scientific German, for students for physics, chemistry and engineering (1907) by Charles F. Kroeh (http://books.google.com/books?id=nmo3AAAAYAAJ) GREEK Greek grammar (1822) by Philipp Karl Buttman (http://books.google.com/books?id=-TMQAAAAYAAJ) A grammar of New Testament Greek, volume 1 (1906) by James Hope Moulton (http://books.google.com/books?id=Be4NAAAAIAAJ) ITALIAN Italian grammar (1896) by C.H. Grandgent (http://books.google.com/books?id=p24BAAAAYAAJ) LATIN Rudiments of the Latin tongue: a plain and easy introduction to Latin grammar, wherein the principles of the language are methodically digested, both in English and Latin, with useful notes and observations, explaining the terms of grammar, and further improving its rules (1838) by Thomas Ruddiman and William Mann (http://books.google.com/books?id=UohOAAAAYAAJ) A first Latin reading book, containing an epitome of Caesar's Gallic wars, and Lhomond's lives of distinguished Romans, with a short introduction to Roman antiquities, notes and a dictionary (1833) by Sir William Smith and Henry Drisler (http://books.google.com/books?id=T6sAAAAAYAAJ) Easy Latin stories for beginners, with vocabulary and notes (1876) by George L. Bennett (http://books.google.com/books?id=PpACAAAAQAAJ) Latin lessons: being an easy introduction to the Latin language on the basis of Bullions & Morris's Latin Grammar (1869) by Charles D. Morris (http://books.google.com/books?id=KTQZAAAAYAAJ) MANDARIN A course of Mandarin lessons, based on idiom (1906) by C.W. Mateer (http://books.google.com/books?id=SvRWAAAAMAAJ) Mandarin primer: prepared for the use of junior members of the China Inland Mission (1894) by F.W. Baller (http://books.google.com/books?id=fK9DAAAAIAAJ) A primer in the Mandarin dialect, containing lessons and vocabularies, and notes on Chinese constructions and idioms; also a dialogue on Christianity; translations of passports, leases, boat agreements, etc. (1887) by China Inland Mission (http://books.google.com/books?id=EHkuAAAAYAAJ) PORTUGUESE A Portuguese grammar: with the Portuguese words properly accented (1827) by Anthony Vieyra (http://books.google.com/books?id=ClZDAAAAYAAJ) SPANISH The Cortina Method: intended for self-study and for use in schools: Spanish in twenty lessons, with a system of articulation based on English equivalents, for assuring a correct pronunciation (1898) by R.D. de la Cortina (http://books.google.com/books?id=ecIXAAAAYAAJ) 11 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6514 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 4 17 October 2010 at 10:15pm | IP Logged |
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I have a number of very old textbooks and dictionaries, mostly for dead languages like Latin, Old French, Old Occitan and Old Norse. For instance I have Latin-German-Latin and Latin-Danish dictionaries printed with 'gothic' letters - but I hardly ever use them, except to check that I still can read that kind of typeface.
I would probably put the golden age of textbooks somewhat later than Jinx does, maybe the fifties and early sixties, because the balance between texts and grammar lessons was better then, and there weren't as many stupid games. Unfortunately audio came late - LP's were not really practical, old 'freerunning' tapes even less, and cassette tapes only came when the quality of the books already had started to spiral downwards. On the other hand paperbased dictionaries have generally become better, not least because of more readable printing. And the same applies to grammars, but here it also plays a role that good old scholarship was still valued back then, but there had been a lot of progress in structural linguistics (in both the European and the American sense of the word). This fruitful cooperation between authors of pedagogical grammars and theoretical linguists was broken when Chomsky et al. turned their back on practical grammar teaching and broad polyglot knowledge. Edited by Iversen on 18 October 2010 at 1:22pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5258 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 3 of 4 18 October 2010 at 6:51am | IP Logged |
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I like older language books too. Even if they're not current, it's fun to see how things used to be taught - and how they used to be said, if you know the language. That said, the books for Latin and Greek are about as current now as they were at the date of publication, so still eminently useful!
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| Cyborg Ninja Newbie United States Joined 5156 days ago 17 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 4 06 December 2010 at 1:07am | IP Logged |
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I am always surprised by how advanced knowledge was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now only were people then knowledgeable in studying languages, but even neurology back then was pretty similar to today. Interesting to see how students learned to pronounce Mandarin without the pinyin system. Thank you for posting these links.
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