Nasihet gófhi kuh jána ke az ján doftiter darendi بدم گفتي و خرسندم عفاك الله نكو گفتي جواب تلخ میزیبد لب لعل شكر خوارا Bedem gufti va khursendem afák alla neku gufti غزل گفتي و در سفتي بيا وخوش بخوان حافظ بر نظم تو افشاند فلك عقد ثريارا Gazel gufti vadurr fufti beá vakhosh bukhán Hafiz In this specimen of Persian writing the learner will obferve a few combinations of letters, which he must by no means forget; as lamelif, compounded of J and in the word mofella: but the most usual comwhich have the fin 1 a, w binations are formed with خ ج چ ح gular property of caufing all the preceding letters to rife The Arabick characters, like thofe of the Europeans, are written in a variety of different hands; but the most com mon of them are theNifkhi, the hanging, and the a Tâlik or Shekefteh, or broken. Our books are printed in the Nifkhi hand, and all Arabick manufcripts, as well as moft Perfian and Turkish hiftories, are written in it; but the Perfians write their poetical works in the Tâlík, which anfwers to the most elegant of our Italick hands. As to the Shekefteh, it is very irregular and inelegant, and is chiefly ufed 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 barbarous, must be learned by all men of business in India, as the letters from the princes of the country are feldom writ in any other manner. A fpecimen of thefe different forms of writing are engraved, and inferted at the end of this Grammar. OF AUDZA The reader will foon perceive with pleasure a great refemblance 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 sexes either have different names, as pufer a boy, ju keneez a keneez a girl, or are girl, or are diftinguished by the کنیز,a wordsner, male, and so, madé female, as sheeri ner a lion, sheeri madé a lioness. - شیر نر Sometimes, indeed, a word is made feminine, after the manner of the Arabians, by having added to it, as miftrefs, amica, as in this verfe: mathika a معشوقه,mafhuk a friend, amicus معشوق کل در بر ومي برکف و معشوقه بکامست Flowers are in my bofom, wine in my hand; and my mistress yields to my defire. but but in general, when the Perfians adopt an Arabick noun of the feminine gender, they make it neuter, and change the final into ; thus & nimet a benefit is written and almoft all the Perfian nouns ending in : نعمت which are very numerous, are borrowed from the Arabs. O F CASE S. 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, Nominative, پسر pufer a child. puferra to a child or the child. When the accufative is used indefinitely, the fyllable is omitted, as gul chiden 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 he 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 Nasihet g6thi kuh jana ke az jan doftiter darend كفتي و خرسندم عفاك الله نكو شفتي بدم جواب تلخ میزیبد لب لعل شكر خوارا Bedem gufti va khurfendem afák alla neku gufti غزل گفتي و در سفتي بيا وخوش بخوان حافظ بر نظم تو افشاند فلك عقد ثریارا که Gazel gufti vadurr fufti beá vakhofh bukhán Hafiz In this specimen of Perfian writing the learner will obferve a few combinations of letters, which he must by no means forget; as lamelif, compounded of J and 1 a, in the word mofella: but the most usual com لا binations are formed with خ ج چ ح I which have the fin gular property of caufing all the preceding letters to rife ,nakchéer نخچیر,bokhara بخارا above the line, as |