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Critical Researches in Philology and Geography
Critical Researches in Philology and Geography Author:John Bell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: An ARABIC VOCABULARY, And INDEX For RICHARDSON'S ARABIC GRAMMAR; in which the words are explained according to the parts of speech, and the derivatives are trace... more »d to their originals in the Hehrew, Chaldee, and Syriac languages, with Tables of Oriental Alphabets, points and affixes; by James Noble, Teacher of Languages in Edinburgh. 4to. Edinburgh, 1820. pp. xvii. 118. In learning a language, a great deal must necessarily depend upon the execution of the word-book made use of by the student. If the arrangement be simple, the explanations accurate, the derivations correct, and the citations from authors be judiciously selected and plainly translated, its pages will be consulted with profit, and its decisions carry conviction to the mind. If, super- added to these indispensable requisites in all works of the kind which lay claim to the character of being well digested, anomalies be marked, synonymes be distinguished, peculiarities of idiom be noted, and no omissions be made—nothing else, beyond a good grammar - and diligent study, will be required to master the intricacies of any system of speech. If, on the contrary, the arrangement be complicated, or more or less loosely observed, if meanings be confounded, the quotations be inappropriate, the derivations be fanciful, and omissions numerous, the progress of the learner will be crippled, his labour will become irksome to him, and will, in all probability, turn out unfruitful. The abandonment of his design will be the almost unavoidable result of his want of confidence in his guide, if no other can befound more competently skilled to direct him in his difficulties; whereas, in the former case, the pleasurable feeling of successful industry will prove a powerful incentive to the continuance of exertion; for, in the acquirement of a...« less