| Aelfric’s Grammar |
| Definition:
Written by Aelfric of Eynsham (circa 955–1010) and first appearing around 1000 AD, the Excerptiones de arte grammatica anglice (Excerpts from a grammar textbook rendered into English) was the first Latin textbook to be written in English. It is important because, though he was solely concerned with teaching Latin, to accomplish this Aelfric was forced to invent the English language's first grammatical terminology. For example, he translated the Latin terms declination and pronomen into the Old English declinung and naman speliend. For additional information, see Aelfric's Grammatical Terminology by Edna Rees Williams in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA), Volume 73, No. 5, Part 1 (Dec., 1958), pp. 453-462 |