PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The rapidity with which a large first edition of this Grammar has been exhausted would seem to indicate that there was a real need for such a book among beginners of the subject at our universities.
In preparing this new Edition for press we have adhered strictly to our original plan, viz. that of furnishing students with a concise account of the phonology and inflexions of the Middle English period. From our long experience as teachers of the subject, we are convinced that this is the only satisfactory method. To have overburdened the book with a large number of details would only confuse the student and render him unable 'to see the wood for the trees'. Although we have preserved the original number of paragraphs, many of these have been enlarged, and others have been entirely re-written, especially in the phonology of the vowels of accented syllables and in the chapter on verbs.
In conclusion, we beg to express our heartiest thanks to the reviewers of the first edition for their useful suggestions, especially to Professor E. Ekwall in Beiblatt zur Anglia, vol. xxxv, pp. 226-8, Professor F. Holthausen in Literaturblatt für germanische und romanische Philologie, Jahrgang xlv, Nr. 10-12 (cols. 302-5), Professor E. Kruisinga in English Studies, vol. vi, pp. 162-3, and Professor F. Wild in Englische Studies, vol. vi, pp. 96-9. And lastly, we gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness
