Excerpt from An Elementary Grammar: With Full Syllabary and Progressive Reading Book, of the Assyrian Language, in the Cuneiform Type The following pages have been written in connection with my lectures upon Assyrian philology, which were commenced in the early part Of 1875 under the auspices of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and through the_exertions of Mr. W. R. Cooper, the Secretary of the Society. An endeavour has been made for the first time to smooth over the difficulties which beset the entrance to the study of the Assyrian inscriptions, and so attract students to this new and important branch of research. When my Assyrian Grammar was published, three years ago, a knowledge of the language was still confined to the few, and there seemed little prospect that the small band of Assyriologues would be much increased for a long while to come. My work was therefore addressed to two classes of readers; to those who were already able to read the inscriptions, and could appreciate a grammar which entered into details and points of scholarship, and to those who were acquainted with the better-known Semitic languages, but wished to learn something of the new dialect which had been so unexpectedly revealed, and promised to throw such a ood of light on Semitic philology in general. The prospect, however, that three years ago seemed so distant has been more than realised. Assyrian has become a popular subject. 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."