Bedem gufti va khurfendem afák alla neku gufti غزل گفتي و در سفتی بیا و خوش بخوان حافظ که بر نظم تو افشاند فلك عقد ثريارا Gazel gufti va durr fufti beá va khosh bukhán Hafiz In this fpecimen of Perfian writing the learner will obferve a few combinations of letters, which he must by no means forget; as lamelif, compounded of Jl and I a, in the word, mofella: but the most usual combinations are formed with which have the fingular pro perty of caufing all the preceding letters to rife above the line, as nakchéer, nakhára, tas-héeh. The letters that precede m are alfo fometimes raised. The Arabick characters, like thofe of the Europeans, are written in a variety of different hands; but the most common of them are the تصحيح -She شکسته Talik, or banging, and the تعليق Nifkhi, the نسخي kesteh, or broken. Our books are printed in the Niskhi hand, and all Arabick manufcripts, as well as most Persian and Turkish hiftories, are written in it; but the Perfians write their poetical works in the Tâlik, which answers to the most elegant of our Italick hands. As to the Shekefteh, it is very irregular and inelegant, and is chiefly used by the idle Indians, who will not take time to form their letters perfectly, or even to infert the diacritical points; but this hand, however difficult and VOL. II. U and barbarous, must be learned by all men of business in India, as the letters from the princes of the country are feldom written in any other manner. A specimen of these different forms of writing is engraved, and inferted at the end of this Grammar. OF NOUNS; AND FIRST, OF GENDERS. THE reader will foon perceive with pleasure a great resemblance between the Perfian and English languages, in the facility and simplicity of their form and conftruction: the former, as well as the latter, has no difference of termination to mark the gender, either in substantives or adjectives: all inanimate things are neuter, and animals of different fexes either have different names, as pufer پسر نر شیر ماده ,fheeri ner a lion شیر نر a boy, ¿¿ keneez a girl, or are distinguished by the words ner male, and madé female; as fheeri madé a lioness. Sometimes, indeed, a word is made feminine, after the manner of the Arabians, by having added to it, as amicus, a mashúka a mistress, amica, as in this verse: Flowers are in my to my defire. ,malhuk a friend معشوق کل در برومي بر کف و معشوقه بکامست bofom, wine in my hand; and my mistress yields But in general, when the Perfians adopt an Arabick noun of the feminine gender, they make it neuter, and change the final ୪ into ; نت نعة thus nimet nimet a benefit is written : and almoft all the Perfian nouns ending in, which are very numerous, are borrowed from the Arabs. OF CASES. The Perfian fubftantives, like ours, have but one variation of cafe, which is formed by adding the fyllable, to the nominative in both numbers; and answers often to the dative, but generally to the accufative cafe in other languages; as, pufer a child. Nominative, puferra to a child or the child. When the accufative is ufed indefinitely, the fyllable is omitted, as gul chíden to gather a flower, that is, any flower; but when the noun is definite or limited, that fyllable is added to it, as gulra chíd be gathered the flower, that is, the particular flower. There is no genitive cafe in Perfian, but when two fubftantives of different meanings come together, a kefra or fhort e () is added in reading to the former of them, and the latter remains unaltered, the musk of Tartary, which must be read mufhke Khoten. The fame rule must be obferved before a pronoun poffeffive; as pufere men my child: and before an adjective; as چید پسر fhire tabnak a bright fcymitar. If the first word ends in پسر من or hem pafhai پاشای موصل ,paha a bafa پاشا is affixed to it ; as ي letter -mi ميوهاي شيرين,mivaha fruits ميوه .Moufel the baba of Moufel vaháï fhireen Sweet fruits: if nouns ending in come before other nouns or adjectives, the mark Hamza is added to them, as chefhméï heyvan the fountain of life. d The The other cafes are expreffed for the most part, as in our language, by particles placed before the nominative, as .ai pufer O child اي پسر,Vocative Ablative, az puser from a child. The poets, indeed, often form a vocative cafe by adding to the nominative, as öl fakia O cup-bearer, shaha O king; thus Sadi ufes bulbula as the vocative of bulbul a nightingale. بلبلا مژده بهار بیار خبر بد ببوم باز بگذار Bring, O nightingale, the tidings of spring; leave all unpleasant news to the owl. mer is prefixed to the accu In some old compofitions the particle mer ora deedem I jaw him; but this is either obfolete or inelegant, and is seldom used by the moderns. The reader, who has been used to the inflexions of European languages, will, perhaps, be pleased to see an example of Perfian nouns, as they answer to the cafes in Latin: اورا دیدم fative cafe ; as ނ Nogul a rofe, rofa. Singular. Nom. a rose, rofa. Plural. 4” roses, rolæ. Gen. |