Page:A Grammar of the Persian Language.djvu/53

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22
Of the Nouns, &c.

as neuter, and change the final ة‎ into ت‎, and drop the  ٌ‎ tanwīn; as نِعْمةٌ‎ niﻉmaṭun, a benefit, written نِعْمت‎: and, indeed, nouns ending in ت‎, are, for the most part, borrowed from the Arabs.


Of Case, (Symbol missingPersian characters) 58. Persian nouns have no variety of termination corresponding with the " cases " of European Grammars ; but, when it is necessary so to construe them as to give a sense equivalent to these cases, we may either use a particle, or add the vowel kesrah to the preceding word. This k͏̤es͏̤rah is generally termed (Symbol missingPersian characters), the k͏̤es͏̤rah of description.

59. An equivalent to a nominative will stand in need of no such ad- dition. A genitive will be obtained, either by adding the k͏̤es͏̤rah, as above, or by using a particle, as (Symbol missingPersian characters) marday khudā, a man of God ; or (Symbol missingPersian characters) khātamay az zar, a seal of gold ; where (Symbol missingPersian characters) is equivalent to of or out of: or (Symbol missingPersian characters) asprā k͏̈īn, the horse's saddle; where (Symbol missingPersian characters) is equivalent to to, or for.

60. But if the preceding word end in silent s, ( Art. 29 ) k͏̤es͏̤rah, when added, must receive the soft h͏̤amz͏̈ah ( Art. 33 ) as ā chashmaăy ḥaiwāṅ, the fountain of life. If, however, such word terminate in the aspirated s ( Art. 29 ), then the k͏̤es͏̤rah will be added, as before : e. g. (Symbol missingPersian characters) rahăy bāghbāṅ, the path of the gardener.

61. If the preceding word end in either (Symbol missingPersian characters) or (Symbol missingPersian characters), quiescing in its homogeneous vowel, respectively (Art. 30), the soft h͏̤amz͏̈ah will also be