GRAMMAR. 114 GRAMMAR. comparatively and historically. The few attempts made along those lines before had all proved aborti'e for lack of material and method, and grammarians contented themselves with recording linguistic phenomena of given periods. In the Orient grammatical study began in India with the Nirukta of Yaska (fiftli century B.C.), although the first formal grammar of which we have any knowledge was that of Panini (q.v. ), probably about B.C. 300. In some three thousand sections comprised in eight books he summarized and fixed the rules for classical Sanskrit. He enumer- ates sixty-four predecessors, and was himself the forerunner of a long line of grammarians. His lules, which are couched in formulas almost, algebraic in type and abounding in arbitrary designations (e.g. at =: the group of vowels, semi- vowels, and h; am = the same group together with the nasals; 7a/7. =: imperfect tense; /at = aorist tense: h/ = perfect tense; /».f = peri- phrastic future, etc., where I denotes all personal endings, t a primary tense, h a secondary tense, etc.), formed the basis of many commentaries such as the Varttikas of Katyayana (probably third century B.C.). and Patanjali's ilahnhhushi/a (probably a half -century later). About the mid- dle of the seventh century ..d. the first complete commentary on Panini was composed, entitled KSsikn ^'rtfi, or Beiuiies Coinntentai-ii. by Jaya- ditya and Vamana. Of the nou-Paninean school of ' Sanskrit grammar the most important is Hemacandra of the twelfth century, the eighth book of whose Siddhahemacandra is the main source for native Prakrit grammar. The oldest grammarian in Prakrit (q.v.) is Vararuci, said by native tradition to have been a contemporary of Ivalidasa ( q.v. ) . Here, too, there is a long series of grammarians of minor importance. The Sanskrit term for grammar, viidkarana, analysis, is indicative of the Indian method. Systematic and exact with their passion for minute division and subdivision, the Avork of the Hindus in this branch of learning reached its acme in the wonder- fully exhaustive work of Panini, with which no grammar can be compared till modern times. The grammar of India was of indigenous origin. It dis- cussed phonology, etymology, and inflection, but there is almost no mention of syntax. Of the other Oriental peoples only the Arabs and the Jews developed grammatical works. Arabic grammar was founded shortly after the Hejira. Abu '1 as-Wad ad-Duil (died a.d. 688) is con- sidered the first Arabic grammarian, and he classified the parts of speech as nouns, verbs, and particles. This branch of literature in Arabic is an enormous one, no less than 2500 writers on grammar, lexicography, and philology being enu- merated. The earlier grammarians are the most important, such as al-Farahidi. and his pupil, Abu "1 Hasan al-Basri, more usually known as as-Sibawaih (latter part of the eighth century). The source of Arabic grammar is involved in obscurity. It is, however, a significant fact that many of the Arabic grammarians, like more than one of their greatest historians, were Persians by birth. Through the medium of the Syrians Greek culture penetrated Persia, and doubtless some knowledge of Greek grammar came through the same channel, so that it does not seem un- warranted to suppose that Arabic grammar, which is treated with exactness and comprehen- siveness, was ultimately influenced by Greek. It is at least certain that Sj'riac grammars, of which that of Elia of Sobha (eleventh century) is an excellent example, were based on Greek models. The Jewish grammarians had originally the same purpose as those of Arabia, the preser- vation of their sacred books. In a certain sense their grammar commences with the Massorites, although it was not until the Jews came under the influence of fully developed Arabic culture that they wi'ote formal grammars. The oldest extant Hebrew grammatical work is a lexicon by David ben Abraham (tenth century), but the greatest is that of Yona ben Gannach, of the be- ginning of the eleventh century. His work, di- vided into forty-six chapters, leaves scarcely a problem of Hebrew grammar untouched, and though after him there were many native Hebrew grammarians, none attained to his standard. There was Init one people of the ancient world except India which evolved an independent sys- tem of grammar. This was Greece. The contrast between the two beginnings is significant of the trend of thought of the two nations. In India the impulse was given by religion, in Greece bj' philosophy, especially by the Sophists (q.v.), such as Protagoras and Antisthenes. Many of the technical terms still used in grammar were coined by jjhilosophers before formal grammar was known. On the other hand, there is a certain analogue between the two peoples, for the In- dians applied grammar first to the Rig-Teda as the Greeks to the text of the Homeric poems. It was therefore the critics of Alexandria and Pergamum who were the first Greek granunarians. Of these the pioneer was Dionysius Thrax, who taught at Rome in the first century B.C., although the Craifjlus of Plato, which is of great historic interest in grammar (see Etymology), contains some general statements on grammatical topics. Following Plato, Aristotle in the course of his philosophical works distinguished between nouns, verbs, and 'connectives' (Gk. dvifiara, names, pillinTa, sayings, a-ivSeirfioC. bonds, including pro- nouns), and he also recognized the category of case (Gk. irTu)<r(s, fall ) . The Stoic philosophers made important contributions to grammatical knowledge. Thus Posidonius of Rhodes ( first century B.C.) gave to the five cases of the Greek noun the names which they still have. The work of Bionysius Thrax, to which allu- sion has been made, was. however, the most important from a formal point of view. Sum- ming up the work of his predecessors, he set forth a grammar so complete that it formed a model for all succeeding Greek and Latin works on the subject, was the standard moreover for grammars of other languages, as for instance, of an Armenian gi'ammar said by tradition to have been composed in the fifth century, and com- mented upon by Yohan Erznkachi in the four- teenth century, and still influences in form even the most modern and scientific grammars. While the Sanskrit grammarians, as we have seen, neglected syntax almost entirely, the Greeks paid special attention to this branch of grammar. This is the new contribution in the works of Apollo- nius Dyscolus ( second century a.d. ) , one of the greatest grammarians who has ever lived. The grammatical work of the P>omans was but an imitation of their Greek models. The two names deserving special mention are those of Varro (B.C. 116-C.28), whose work on the Latin language is of great value, and has some sections on ety- mology, the weakest side of Gr<Tco-Roman gram-
