Bedem gufti va khursendem afák alla neku gufti غزل گفتی و در سفتی بیا و خوش بخوان حافظ که بر نظم تو افشاند فلک عقد ثریارا Gazel gufti va durr fufti beá va khosh bukhán Hafiz Ke ber názmi to affháned felek ikdi furiára. In this fpecimen of Perfian writing the learner will obferve a few combinations of letters, which he must by no means forget; as lamelif, com pounded of and I a, in the word combinations are formed with mofella: but the most usual which have the fingular pro perty of caufing all the preceding letters to rise above the line, as The Arabick characters, like those of the Europeans, are written in a variety of different hands; but the most common of them are the -She شکسته Talik, or banging, and the تعليق Nikhi, the نسخي kesteh, or broken. Our books are printed in the Niskhi hand, and all Arabick manuscripts, as well as most Persian and Turkish histories, 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 Shekesteh, 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 VOL. II. U and 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 fpecimen 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 fimplicity 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 a boy, keneez a girl, or are distinguished by the words ner pufer پسر نر شیر ماده heeriner a lion شیر نر made females as ماده male, and fheeri madé a lioness. Sometimes, indeed, a word is made feminine, after the manner of the Arabians, by having added to it, as amicus, ,mahuk a friend معشوق mashúka a mistress, amica, as in this verse: کل در برومي برکف و معشوقه بكاسست Flowers are in my bofom, wine in my hand; and my mistress yields to my defire. But in general, when the Perfians adopt an Arabick noun of the feminine gender, they make it neuter, and change the final ୪ into ; نعمة thus nimet a benefit is written : and almost 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 anfwers often to the dative, but generally to the accufative cafe in other languages; as, چیدن 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 short e () is added in reading to the former of them, and the latter remains unaltered, The پسر من the musk of Tartary, which must be read mushke Khoten. same rule must be obferved before a pronoun poffeffive; as pufere men my child: and before an adjective; as fhire tabnak a bright Scymitar. If the first word ends in or the letter is affixed to it; as L shem pasha a baska, Jogo Slil pasháï و پاشاي موصل ي mi میوهای شیرین , miraha fruits موها Moufel the baba of Moufel vaháï shireen sweet fruits: if nouns ending in or adjectives, the mark Hamza is added to cheshméï heyván the fountain of life. ୪ 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 l fakia O cup-bearer, shaha O king; thus Sadi ufes bulbula as the vocative of bulbul a nightingale. بلباد مژده بهار بیار خبر بد ببوم باز بگذار Bring, O nightingale, the tidings of fpring; leave all unpleasant news to the owl. In fome old compofitions the particle او را دیدم مسر mer is prefixed to the accufative cafe; as mer ora deedem I jaw him; but this is either obsolete or inelegant, and is feldom 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 Persian nouns, as they answer to the cafes in Latin: |