(Ebook) Old Khmer Grammar by Paul Sidwell ISBN 9780858836136, 0858836130

(Ebook) Old Khmer Grammar by Paul Sidwell ISBN 9780858836136, 0858836130

This little volume has been brewed from a mass of memoranda and citations accumulated over long years of teaching Old Khmer 10 a succession of able graduate students. Their questions, comments and challenges led to many fruitful discussions on how this language works. The volume is theirs as much as mine.
My description is meant to serve the immediate needs of readers embarking on the study of the inscriptions, and assumes that they have some acquaintance with modem Khmer. Designed for easy reference, it addresses the main points of grammar and style in the great majority of the texts. A few matters of special interest not previously brought to public notice are discussed in fair detail. It has been my endeavor to reduce all that might
be said of Old Khmer to the narrowest possible compass in order to show how this language achieves its suppleness and grace with a small number of structures.
The reader will find that, after necessary preliminaries, the grammar proper is presented from 5 (on wordclasses) and runs on to 8 (on clauses and sentences). There follows a battery of passages which may be used for review and exercise, while the last section gives an excerpt from the Vat Samron Stone. The table of contents makes an index superfluous. Suggestions for improvement of the volume will be gratefully received and may be channeled through the publisher.