شکرستان

در نحوي زبان پارسي

A

ᏀᎡᎪ Ꮇ ᎷᎪᎡ

OF THE

PERSIAN LANGUAGE.

OF LETTERS.

THE learner is fuppofed to be acquainted with the common terms

of grammar, and to know that the Perfians write their characters from the right hand to the left.

حمد

The second and fourth columns of these letters from the right hand are used only when they are connected with a preceding letter; as Mohammed. Every letter should be connected with that which follows it, except these seven; | alif, No dal, ¿ zal, ra, j za, j zha, and vau, which are never joined to the following letter, as will appear from the words berk a leaf, l daveri a dominion.

Though the perfect pronounciation of these letters can be learned only from the mouth of a Perfian or an Indian, yet it will be proper to add a few observations upon the most remarkable of them.

OF CONSONANTS.

ت پب

It will be needless to say much of the three first consonants since their found is exactly the fame as our b, p, and t, in the words bar, peer, and too, which would be written in Perfian and.

پیر بار

س

This letter, which the Arabs pronounce like a th, has in Persian the fame found with a wors, as Abu Leis, a proper name. It might, therefore, have been rejected from the Perfian alphabet without any inconvenience; but it is useful in showing the origin of words, as it is seldom, or never, used in any that are not Arabick. The fame may be observed of the following letters, て

rarely occur in words originally Perfian.

which ق غ ع ظ ط ض ص

VOL. II.

T

19

ج

would write

or to our j in jar: the fecond of them で exactly like our ch in the words cherry, cheek; as

The first of these letters answers to our foft g in gem, which a Persian

چم

founds

Chirkes چرکس

Circaffia.

て

is a very strong aspirate, and may be expreffed in our characters by 乙

a double h, as Ja hhál a condition.

خ

is formed in the throat, and has a found like the German ch; but the Perfians pronounce it lefs harshly than the Arabs, and give it the found of c before a, o, or u in the Tuscan dialect, as chan a lord, which a Florentine would pronounce like can: This is the word fo variously and so erroneously written by the Europeans. The fovereign lord of Tartary is neither the cham, as our travellers call him, nor the ban, as Voltaire will have it, but the khán, or cán, with an afpirate on the first letter.

This letter, which the Arabs pronounce dh, has in Perfian the found

of j≈, and is often confounded with it; thus they write

and

گزشتن

guzeshten to pass: It is feldom used but in Arabick words;

though it sometimes occurs in words purely Persian, as Azarbiján the province of Media, so called from jól azar, an old word for fire, because the adorers of fire, if we believe the Afiatick hiftorians, first built their temples in that province.

j has the found of our z, as jja lalehzár a bed of tulips.

This letter has the found of our/in the words pleasure, treasure; and correfponds precisely with the soft g of the French in gens, or their j in jour. It may be expressed in our characters by zb, as allj zháleh dew; for it has the fame relation to 2 which

has to s.

~ and are our s and s, as Selim sháh king Selim.

س

ظ ط ض ص

These four letters are pronounced by the Arabs in a manner peculiar to themselves; but in Perfian they are confounded with other letters.

3