This manual provides an introduction to comparative philology, which is the study of the similarities and differences between languages. The focus of the manual is on using the principles of comparative philology to better understand the inflections (changes in form) of Greek and Latin words. The manual was first published in 1879 and was intended for use by students of classics and ancient history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from A Manual of Comparative Philology as Applied to the Illustration of Greek and Latin Inflections This book contains the substance of lectures delivered at Oxford in 1874 and 1875 to candidates for Honours in Classics at the First Public Examination, upon the prescribed subject Of 'the Elements of Comparative Philology as applied to the illustration of Greek and Latin In ections, ' and therefore does not profess to deal with more than a very limited portion of the wide field covered by the Science of Language. In the course of my lectures I was often met by the difficulty of recommending to pupils any English text-book that would give them in a compact and accessible form the means of preparing the subject for themselves 1; and I had hoped that the want thus felt might have been supplied for our students by the Oxford Professor of Comparative Philology. So long as there was any prospect of help from that quarter, it would have been pre sumptuous in me to come forward. But Professor Max Muller was unable to spare time from more important labours; and the preparation of this Manual was perforce entrusted to very inferior hands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."