The Sanskrit language (The Great languages)

by Thomas Burrow

1955 first edition, Faber and Faber (London), 5 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches tall blue cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, index, vii, 426 pp. Very slight soiling and edgewear to covers. Otherwise, a near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a very slightly soiled, creased and edgeworn dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. 

The Sanskrit Language presents a systematic and comprehensive historical account of the developments in phonology and morphology. This is the only book in English which treats the structure of the Sanskrit language in its relation to the other Indo-European languages and throws light on the significance of the discovery of Sanskrit. It is this discovery that contributed to the study of the comparative philology of the Indo-European languages and eventually the whole science of modern linguistics. 

Besides drawing on the works of Brugmann and Wackernagel, Professor Burrow incorporates in this book material from Hittite and taking into account various verbal constructions as found in Hittite, he relates the perfect form of Sanskrit to it. The profound influence that the Dravidian languages had on the structure of the Sanskrit language has also been presented lucidly and with a balanced perspective. In a nutshell, the present work can be called, without exaggeration, a pioneering endeavor in the field of linguistics and Indology.