A Grammar of the Hindústání Language in the Oriental And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
qi- GRAMMAR OF THE HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE, IN THE ORIENTAL AND ROMAN CHARACTER, WITH NUMEROUS COPPER-rLATK ILI.USTIIATIONS OF THE PERSIAN AND DEVANaGAR! SYSTEJIS OF ALPHABEl'lC WRITING; TO WHICH IS ADDED, A COPIOUS SELECTION OF EASY EXTRACTS FOR READING. IN THE PERSI-ARABIO AND DEVANAGARf CHAKACTEUS, FORMING A COMPLETE INTRODUCTION TO THE TOTA-KAuIni AND BAGH-O-BAHAR, TOGETHEB WITH A VOCABULAEY OF ALL THE WORDS, AND VARIOUS EXPLANATOEY NOTES By DUNCAN FORBES, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE IN KING's OOLLEGF,, LONDON; MEMBER OF THE ROTi^L ASIATIC SOCIETT OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRZLAND, ETC. "HB THAT TRATELLETH INTO A COUNTRY BEFORE HE HATH AN ENTRANCE INTO THE LAIfGFACft, GOETH TO SCHOOL, AND NOT TO TRAVEL."—BACON. LONDON CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON 7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL i 1983 F8 I SS't" LONDON: PRINTF.D BV <;n.BERT AND RIVINGTON, t.D. ST. John's HoubE, clerkenwell, e.g. i^RAf^ JAN 1 3 1969 l^h £^. t^lTY OF TO^ i) TO ELLIOT MACNAGIITEN, Esq., Chaikm.yn. COL. WILLIAM IIEXRY SYKES, DEruxY-CirAiRMAN. AND THE DIEECTOES OF THE HONORABLE THE EAST-INDIA COMrANY. THE FOLLOWING WORK, INTENDED ro FACILITATE THE AC(iTJISITION OF THE lilNuvaTANI LANQUAGB, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY THEIR MOST OBEDIENT AKD FAITHFUL SEllVAHT, DUNCAN FORBES Loruion. V)th Julv, l&/)& PEEFACE. The following work has been compiled with a view to enable every one proceeding to India to acquire a fair know- ledge of the most useful and most extensively spoken language of that country. Of late years, a new sera may be said to have commenced with regard to the study of the Hindustani it now on officer language ; being imperative every junior in the Company's service to pass an examination in that language before he can be deemed qualified to command a troop, or to hold any staff appointment. Such being the case, it is desirable that every facility should be afforded to young men destined for India to acquire at least an elementary knowledge of Hindustani in this country, so as to be able to prosecute the study during the voyage. A large impression of this work having been exhausted, I have availed myself of the opportunity, in this new Edition, of adopting such improvements as have been naturally The suggested by several years' experience in teaching. plan as and and arrangement of the work remain the same before ; so do the numbers of the sections and the paragraphs. The first section treats very fully of the Persi-Arabic alphabet, and of the elementary sounds of the language. In this section I have been enabled to introduce several improvements, and, (.hat a if I mistake not, the subject is now so simphfied no in learner of ordinary capacity will have difficulty making even if he should not some progress in this elementary part, have the aid of a teacher. The next three sections treat of and of which the parts of speech, to the defining explaining I have avoided I have strictly confined myself. carefully with th.s^t of the mixing up the syntax of the language part The work which ie and ought to be purely etymological. VI PREFACE. mode of confounding the syntax with the etymology, -which prevails in most grammars, I have always looked upon as highly preposterous. It is utterly absurd to embarrass the student with a rule of syntax, at a stage of his progress where he probably does not know a dozen words of the language. In the first four sections (up to p. 91), I have generally accompaniea every Hindustani word and phrase with the pronunciation in Homan characters, in order that the learner might not be delayed too long in acqviiring the essential rudiments of the grammar, and also to guard against his contracting a vicious mode of pronunciation. When he has made himself with what is called the — acquainted technically accidence that is, the declension of the nouns and pronouns, and the conjugation of the verbs—he may, after a few verbal instructions respecting the arrangement of words, proceed to read and translate a few pages of the Selections, by the aid of the Vocabulary. This done, he may read over the Grammar from the in the carefully beginning ; for, fact, Grammar and Selections mutually assist each other. Section V. (from p. 92 to 135) treats of the Syntax of the language. This is a portion of the work, in which, if I do not greatly mistake, I have made many improvements. I have been particularly careful in explaining those peculiarities of the language in the use of which I have observed learners most apt to err, when trying to translate English into Hindu- stani. I have also, in several instances, ventured to differ from all my predecessors on certain important points, which of course I have justified by an appeal to the language itself. In the sixth and last section, I have given a concise account of the Devanagari alphabet, together with the mode of trans- ferring the same into the corresponding Persian character, and vice versa. To this I have added an explanation of the various plates accompanying the work, together with a brief account of the Musalman and Hindu calendars. The perusal of the plates will initiate the student into the mysteries of the manuscript character, which is much used in India, both io PREFACE. Vli lithographed and printed works, to say nothing of numerous productions which still remain in manuscript. When the learner is well grounded in the Naskhi, or printed character, he should, as an exercise, endeavour to write out the same in the Ta'lik, or written character. When he has attained some facility in writing the latter, he Avill find it a very profitable exercise to transcribe the various phrases, etc., in my Hindustani Manual, from the Roman character into the TaHik, and at the same time commit them to memory, as directed in the preface to that small work. An elementary grammar of a language is incomplete without a certain portion of easy extracts, accompanied by a suitable vocabulary, and occasional notes explanatory of any obscure or idiomatic phrases that may occur in the text. This is the more essential in a grammar of the Hindustani, or of any other Asiatic language, because the characters and words, being totally difle rent from our own, it is necessary, though it may sound strange, to learn the language to a certain extent, before the grammar can be perused to any advantage. As to the use of translation* and other fallacious aids, such as giving the English of each word as it occurs at the bottom of the page or elsewhere, it is a method deservedly scouted by all good teachers. On the other hand, to put a large dictionary in the hands of a beginner is useless it is of him to a difficult equally ; asking perform work, with an instrument so unwieldy as to be beyond his strength. In order, therefore, to render this work as complete as possible, I have appended to the Grammar a selection of easy compositions for reading, commencing -with short and simple sentences. All the words occurring in the extracts will be found in the Vocabulary, at the end of which I have added a few notes explanatory of difficult passages or peculiarities of the language, with references to the page and paragraph of the Grammar where further information may be obtained. ' In the extracts from the Khirad Afroz,' a work which is considered to be the easiest and most graceful specimen of the Jrdu dialect, I have left ofi' the use of the jazm -^, except in VIU PREFACE. very rare instances, in order that the student may gradually learn to read without it. In like manner the virdma~ is omitted in the last five or six stories of the Hindi extracts. I have been careful, throughout, to give the essential short vowels, convinced that without them the most attentive learner will he apt to com- mit mistakes in pronunciation. I have also adopted a rigid system of punctuation, the same as I should have done in the editing of a Latin Classic. There may be a few individuals so thoroughly wedded to what is foolish or defective, merely because it is old, as to feel shocked at this innovation. They will complacently ask, What is the use of punctuation, when the natives have none in their manuscripts ? I answer—The use is simply to facilitate, for beginners, the acquisition of a knowledge of the language. When that is once attained, they will find no difficulty in reading native works, though utterly void, not only of punctuation but of vowel-points and other diacritical marks. The use of is a of four stops merely question time ; hundred years ago we had no such things for our books in Europe, and the excellent monks who had the management of these matters went on comfortably enough without them. But, after all, it was found that stops were an improvement; and so they are admitted to be even in the East. Almost all the books printed in India since the beginning of the present century have those punctuation ; and who would make beginners attempt to translate from a strange language, in a strange character, without the least clue to the beginning or end of the sentences, seem to have a marvellous love for the absurd. All Oriental as well as to have the is a European books ought stops ; omission sure indication either of extreme idleness or culpable apathy on the part of the editor.