Certainly everyone on this list can read the Nāgarī; our idea was to retypeset in a readable, modern format to make the book more appealing to graduate students (who generally don't use it, at least in the U.S.).  A clean and beautiful edition, print-on-demand, or available as a pdf for free, with improved index, updated IAST, and other new features.

If the members of Indology pulled this off all by themselves, collaboratively, what a proof of concept it would be for a new era of academic publishing!

We are discussing this off-list, please email myself or Dominik to be part of the discussion.

best, 
Chris Wallis
U.C. Berkeley


On 25 May 2013 09:01, Patrick Olivelle <jpo@uts.cc.utexas.edu> wrote:
Let me also -- since we are in the admiring mood -- add my own voice to this. And to think that it was done in 1886!! I am privileged to have the original edition of 1886 published in Leyden (so spelled) by E.J. Brill. It once belonged to Shackleton Bailey and is still in perfect condition, and I really don't have any problems reading the Devanagari, although it is in an old, but beautiful, font.

Patrick



On May 25, 2013, at 5:07 AM, dermot@GREVATT.FORCE9.CO.UK wrote:

> I'm another admirer. I have a beautifully printed, sturdily bound and much used
> Japanese reprint (Rinshen-Shoten Bookstore, Kyoto, 1968). Speyer is so methodical
> that his statements still make sense despite changes in linguistic theory, so long as
> you understand his dated, Latin-based terminology; and he balances Paninian
> prescriptions with observations of actual texts.
>
> Dermot Killingley
> Newcastle
>
> On 23 May 2013 at 15:43, Whitney Cox wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm a huge admirer of Speyer's book--I honestly feel like I learn
>> something new and interesting every single time I open it-- but I do
>> agree with Chris that it would benefit from re-setting.  The font in
>> which the Nāgarī text is set can make for hard reading for those who
>> aren't used to it: there are many times that I've strongly recommended
>> it to intermediate students who have found it difficult to make sense
>> of.  Also, Speyer doesn't always translate his examples: this isn't a
>> problem for those with more experience in the language, but the target
>> audience of language learners are sometimes at a disadvantage, which
>> is a real shame.
>>
>>
>> On 23 May 2013 15:16, Paul Hackett <ph2046@columbia.edu> wrote:
>>    Dear Chris and others,
>>      I do not know if Speier/Speyer/Speijer's _Sanskrit Syntax_ has
>>    been re-typeset or not, but there are publications for sale that
>>    give the impression of a new edition.  I discovered this when
>>    attempting to purchase a copy a couple of years ago only to
>>    discover that some "enterprising" individuals have been data
>>    mining Google books (and/or possibly the DLI) and selling
>>    exceptionally poor copies (missing pages, underlining, margin
>>    notes, etc.) of many books (including Speijer's) through a
>>    print-on-demand service as "new books". Just a warning to beware.
>>
>>   I can say that the 2009 paperback from Motilal is very clean and
>> readable. best, Paul HackettColumbia University
>>
>>
>> On May 23, 2013, at 3:03 PM, Christopher Wallis wrote:
>>    Dear Peter and fellow Indologists,
>>    Does anyone know whether Speier's original Sanskrit Syntax has
>>    been re-typeset or if there are any plans to do this?  It seems
>>    quite worthwhile.
>>
>> best,
>> Chris Wallis
>>
>>
>>
>> On 20 May 2013 10:52, Peter Scharf <scharfpm7@gmail.com> wrote:
>>    Dear colleagues,The History of Linguistic Theory lab. at the
>>    University of Paris 7, Denis Diderot, will host a seminar on
>>    Sanskrit syntax 13-15 June. The program begins with a keynote
>>    address by Professor Emeritus Hans Hock who in 1986 edited the
>>    volume on Sanskrit syntax in honor of the centennial of Speier's
>>    Sanskrit Syntax.  The second day of the program begins with a
>>    special lecture by George Cardona concerned with contributions of
>>    Paninian grammar to Sanskrit syntax.  The afternoon of the 15th
>>    will include several presentations on the state of image-text
>>    alignment for Sanskrit manuscripts.  Please see
>>    the announcement of the seminar and the full program under
>>    Events on the Sanskrit Library website.
>> Scholars are invited to attend.  Please register at no cost on the
>> seminar website. The seminar is sponsored by the Chaire
>> Internationale de Recherche Blaise Pascal financée par l’Etat et la
>> Région d'Ile-de-France, gérée par la Fondation de l’Ecole Normale
>> Supérieure. Yours sincerely,Peter
>>
>> Peter M. Scharf, President
>> The Sanskrit Library
>> scharf@sanskritlibrary.org
>>
>>
>> *************************************************
>> Peter M. Scharf, Ph.D.
>> Université Paris Diderot
>> Laboratoire d'Histoire des Théories Linguistiques
>> 5 rue Thomas Mann, Case 7034
>> Cedex 13
>> 75205 Paris
>> France
>> 33-1-5727-5742 (phone)
>> peter.scharf@univ-paris-diderot.fr
>> *************************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> peter.scharf@inria.fr
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Dr. Whitney Cox
>> Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
>> Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia,
>> SOAS, University of London
>> Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
>> London WC1H 0XG
>
>
>
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