Page:Simplified grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic.pdf/45

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32
persian grammar

no gender. Of such words as پدرpader, "father," مادرmāder, "mother," the gender is self-evident; and in cases where it is necessary to make the distinction other additional words are used, such as مادهmāda, "female," نرnar, "male;" thus, گاونرgāv i nar, "a bull," گاومادهgāv i māda, "a cow." For human beings, مردmard, "man," زنzan, "woman," are added; as پیر مردpīr i mard, "an old man," پیر زنpīr i zan, "an old woman."

Sometimes different words are employed, as in English, to distinguish the sexes; as قوچghūch, "a ram," میشmīsh, "a ewe" (but in literary Persian (Symbol missingPersian characters) signifies "a ram"); اسبasp, "a horse," مادیانmādiyān "a mare;" خروسkhurūs, "a cock," ماکیانmākiyān, "a hen."

PRONOUNS.

The Personal Pronouns are:

مَن man, I, pl. ما ma, we.
تو tu, thou, شُما shumā, you.
او ū, he اوشان ūshān, they (those).
این īn, this, ایشان‎ īshān, they (these).

The only thing to notice in مَنman and توtu is that in the objective cse they become مراměrā (for man+rā), تو راturā (for tū+rā), the nasal ن‎ and the long vowel both becoming absorbed.

In اینīn and اوū, and their plurals, we notice the same