Page:A Danish and Dano-Norwegian grammar.djvu/9

 PREFACE

S a teacher of the Danish or Norwegian language to English speaking students I had very often felt the lack of a reliable grammar of the language, and finally I made up my mind to try to supply the want. Special conditions of which I have not been master have caused the time intervening between the writing of this book and its appearance in print to be a good deal longer than it ought to have been, i. e. about two years, and meanwhile there have appeared a couple of Danish or Norwegian grammars that may deserve this name.

The reason why I have given my book the somewhat cumbersome title of a "Danish and Dano-Norwegian Grammar" will be apparent from the "Introduction." As regards the use of the book I would advise the student first to make up his mind, whether he wants to study the pure Danish language or the Dano-Norwegian language. This must to a large extent depend upon personal and practical considerations. The tourist, the commercial traveller, the merchant may need to study one branch of the language or the other; the literary student may wish to acquaint himself with genuine Danish, or he may wish to study the vernacular of Bjørnson and Ibsen. As a general rule I would say that the Danish pronunciation offers, with its "glottal catch" and other peculiarities, more difficulties to the English speaking student than the Norwegian pronunciation.