Although it has no modern descendants, Gothic is a language of considerable importance in the study of the Germanic languages, including English. The surviving texts consist mostly of the New Testament translations commissioned by the fourth-century Bishop Wulfi la (Ulfi las). This classic grammar contains extracts from these texts. Joseph Wright (1855-1930) started work at the age of six as a donkey-boy in the local stone quarry. The next year he went to work in a woolen mill. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Wright tired of relying on his literate workmates for news and taught himself to read. Soon he was attending night school, and he later started his own night school, the money from which supported his study of Mathematics and German at the University of Heidelberg. After further studies at London, Heidelberg and Leipzig, he became a lecturer at Oxford, and eventually Professor of Comparative Philology. Among his many books was the English Dialect Dictionary.