A

GRAM MAR

OF THE

HEBREW LANGUAGE.

BY

GEORGE BUSH,

"

PROF. OF HEB. AND ORIENT. LIT. IN THE NEW-YORK CITY UNIVERSITY.

PUBLISHED BY GOULD, NEWMAN & SAXTON,,

CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSĂU STREETS.

PJ

4566

.B86 1833 313713

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1839,

BY GEORGE BUSH,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.

J. F. TROW, Printer.

GIFT

P R E F A СЕ.

It is not without considerable hesitation that I have concluded to insert the words 'Second Edition' in the title-page of this Grammar. It is in all essential points a new and independent work, written with little reference to its predecessor, and retaining but few of its distinguishing features. The simple fact that it is a work on the same subject, and by the same author, is all that I can adduce to justify the appellation.

The reasons which have prompted so entire a re-modelling of the original work are of a multifarious character, some of which are more easily felt than described. A desire to avail myself of the friendly hints of many eminent scholars and teachers of Hebrew led me, in the first instance, to endeavor, without making any material alteration in the plan, simply to correct what was erroneous, to supply what was defective, and to elucidate what was obscure, in the former edition. But it struck me, as I proceeded, that in the present state of Hebrew learning in our country, the attempt might be safely made to incorporate in my work some of the results of the recent labors of German philologists in this department. As a marked advance has been made of late years in explaining the reasons of many of the facts of the language, it seemed desirable to unite with the purposed simplicity of the former treatise, such a scientific view of the interior principles and structure of the Hebrew, as should satisfy the inquiries of the intelligent learner. But as this could not be done without losing sight, in great measure, of the previous work, I soon resolved upon rewriting the whole.

In the execution of this plan I lay claim to no merit but that of having attempted to make a judicious use of the materials furnished by those who have gone before me in the same field. From these I have selected and arranged, with my best judgment, whatever seemed adapted to the design of a sound practical system of Hebrew Grammar. Without an intentional adherence to any particular school, I must perhaps acknowledge myself most largely indebted to the labors of Ewald, of whose grammatical works a fuller account is given in the Introduction. To him I wish particularly to assign the credit of two among the most valuable and interesting features of my work: I allude to the doctrine of the Floating Sheva and the Fore-tone; which under his plastic hand are made to solve very happily some of the leading problems of the punctuation. In addition to Ewald, the Grammars of Gesenius, Jahn, Lee, Schroeder, Roorda, Hurwitz, and Stuart, have been constantly before me, as well as those of the older school of Buxtorf and Opitius, all which, by various suggestions, have contributed more or less to give form and character to my own. To Gesenius especially I am indebted for the illustration (p. 42) of the mutual vocal relations of a, e, i, o, u, by means of the triangular diagram.