Persian Conversation-Grammar, Modern
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'HOD GA8PEY-OTTO-8AOER. MODERN PERSIAN CONVERSATION-GRAMMAR WITH READING LESSONS, ENGLISH-PERSIAN VOCABULARY AND PERSIAN LETTERS BY THE REV. W. ST. M. A. CLAIR-TISDALL,i C. M. S. MISSIONARY AT ISFAHAN, PERSIA: AUTHOR OF GRAMMARS OF THE PANJABI AND GUJARATl LANGUAGES. LONDON. DAVID NUTT, 57-59 Long Acre. DULAU & Co., 37 Soho Square. SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & Co., St. Dunstan's Hoxise, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street. NEW YORK. BRENTANO'S, F. W. CHRISTERN, E. STEIGER & Co., 31 Union Square. 254 Fifth Avenne. 25 Park Place. BOSTON. C. A. KOEHLER & Co., 149A Tremont Street. HEIDELBERG. JULIUS GROOS. 1902. The method of Craapey-Otto-Sanar is my own private property, having been acquired by purchase from the authors. The text-books made after this method are incessantly improved. All rights, espe- cially the right of making new editions, and the right of translation for all languages, are reserved. Imitations and fraudulent impres- sions will be prosecuted according to law. I am thankful for com- munications relating to these matters. Heidelberg. Julius Orroos. Preface. Persian, the Italian of the East, has long been recognised as one of the most euphonious, expressive and important of Oriental languages. Unfortunately, however, to most Englishmen who have spent any time in India, Persian is known only in its antique form and pronunciation, which are still in large measure retained on the Afghan frontier and in other parts of India. This prevents the student from being for intelligible to the natives of Persia, should he any reason find it desirable to visit that country. The writer's own experience enables him to speak with some little authority on this subject. Having studied and learnt to speak Persian in the Panjab, he found, on endeavouring to enter into conversation with Shir- azts in Bombay, that he was almost if not quite unintelligible to them, since many of the words, phrases and idioms he had learnt from the pages of Sa'di and other classical Persian authors have become obsolete and have been superseded by others in the modern language as spoken in Persia itself. It was as if a foreigner, having discovered some corner of the world in which English was still spoken by the learned, just as it occurs in the Elizabethan writers and with the pronunciation of that distant day, had learnt the language from them and then tried to con- verse with the English people of to-day. His conver- sation would seem at once stilted and vulgar, and it would amuse everyone with whom he came in contact. The Civil and Military authorities in England and India now, however, seem to have begun to grasp the fact that Indian Persian is somewhat like what the French of 'Stratford atte Bowe' was in olden times, and to feel the desirability of favouring the study of the language as actually spoken in Persia itself. In IV order, possibly, to assist in the attainment of this object, the Publisher of this Series of Conversation Grammars (the 'Gaspey-Otto-Sauer Method') has done me the honour to entrust me with the preparation of the present volume, which I trust will prove useful to students and will not be found unworthy of a place among the many excellent Handbooks on other lan- guages which have rendered the Series so well known in many lands. The aim of this Volume is to provide the Student with a thoroughly practical and up-to-date Introduction to the study of the Modern Persian Language. There- fore everything obsolete has, whenever it could not be profitably omitted, been admitted only in such a manner as to shew clearly the changes which have occurred in the language in process of time, and to warn the student against using too antiquated words not and employing modes (') of expression which are now used, or are used in a different sense. A residence of more than seven years in Persia itself (in addition to many years' previous study of the language) and conversation with all classes of the people have, I trust, in some slight degree, fitted me for the task which I have been invited to undertake. I am much indebted to Aqa Mirza Asadu'llah of Is- fahan, who has carefully revised the Persian Text of the Stories contained in this Grammar, and has also been consulted about every matter of importance. My sincere thanks are due to the Rev. C. H. Stileman M. A., the Secretary of the C. M. S. Persia Mission, for his great kindness in going carefully through the MS. of this Grammar with me, and for the many 1 The danger of this is well illustrated by the narrative of what actually occurred to a learned Orientalist who had studied Persian in the Panjab and then happened to be tra- velling in Persia. Handing his horse's bridle to a native servant he said, 'Asp i mdra hidftyat kun.' He doubtless meant to say 'Lead my horse' in Modern Persian 'Asbamrtt jildu bikun' : but what he actually did say denoted 'Guide my horse in the way of salvation'. The Persian's surprise at the commission with which he was entrusted is more easily imagined than described. valuable suggestions he has made. Coming from such a careful and accurate student of the language as he is, these have been of great service to me. The Reading Lessons subjoined at the end of this book are taken in part from the Sad Hikaydt, and in part from the Journal of the late Shah's Third Visit to Europe. The former book is well known, in India especially; but its style is somewhat antiquated, and not a few of the words used in it are now ob- solete. I have therefore had it rewritten by Mirza Asadu'llah, with the object of bringing its style and phraseology into complete accord with the best mo- dern standard. The first sixteen Stories are given as Exercises in the Grammar itself, in the usual print- ing type; and the rest, to the end of Story 34, are lithographed in the Naskh charakter in the Read- ing lessons. The style in which the Shah's Journal is composed, at once free and elegant, may be said to have now become the model for such compositions in Persian. The extracts from it are given in the Nasta'liq character. Until the Student can read these Extracts freely, he should not attempt to read the Persian Letters contained in Appendix F. The Shikas- teh hand in which they are for the most part written is somewhat difficult to decipher, and the Key should here be carefully consulted by the Learner, in order to test his success in solving the enigmas which will plentifully present themselves in this part of his course of study. These Letters are a selection from those actually received from various Persian friends. The variety of the handwriting has been carefully reproduced, but the necessity of obliterating certain proper names etc. has produced some erasures here and there in them, for which the reader's indulgence is requested. It will be noticed that the Reading Les- sons are paged as is usual in Persian books, and begin at the end of the Volume. It is unnecessary to add to the bulk of this volume by appending a Persian-English Vocabulary, as Palmer's Smaller Persian-English Dictionary will supply all that the beginner will require. The ad- VI vanced student will find Steingass' Persian Dictionary needful. It remains for me to acknowledge my obligations to Ibrahim's, Forbes' and Dr. Rosen's Persian Gram- mars, from which I have borrowed useful suggestions, though I have ventured to differ from them whenever accuracy required. The system of transliteration adopted is an exact one, and this will enable the student, without any sacrifice of accuracy, to dispense with the Persian character in the first few Exercises and thus to learn something of the language before beginning to read the Persian type, a method which experience has shewn to be very useful and profitable. The Persian of character is, however, used in the reproduction these Lessons in the Key. The English of the passages for translation into Persian has, it will be observed, an Oriental colouring, as it is a translation from the Persian original given in the Key. Many of the histor- ical passages are taken (with a few slight alterations and simplifications) from Mirza Hairat's Persian Ver- sion of Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia. Bedford. W> St. Clair-Tisdall. Index. Page Preface Ill Persian Paradigms IX Introduction: Letters, Pronunciation, Consonants, Vowels; other orthographical signs: Letters not found in pure Persian words, 128 1 Beading Exercise 13 First Part. Elements of Persian Grammar. First Lesson: Nouns and Adjectives 14 Second Lesson: Nouns and adjectives continued; Ifafeh . 18 Third Lesson: Use of -ru, -i etc 24 Fourth Lesson: Personal Pronouns 29 Fifth Lesson : Numerals 34 Sixth Lesson: Relative and Interrogative Pronouns ... 41 Seventh Lesson: The Reflexive Pronoun 47 Eighth Lesson: Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections . 53 Ninth Lesson : Language of the Common People .... 60 Tenth Lesson : The Verb in General : Active Voice : Tenses from the Infinitive 66 Eleventh Lesson: The Verb, Active Voice continued] Tenses from the Root (Imperative) 73 Twelfth Lesson: The Verb continued: Auxilaries: Tenses of Rare Occurrence 81 Thirteenth Lesson: Passive Voice: Order of Words in a Sentence; Oratio Recta and Oratio Obliqua 94 th Appendix to the 13 Lesson: Irregular Verbs 103 Fourteenth Lesson: The Causative Verb: Compound and Prepositional Verbs 108 Fifteenth Lesson: Defective, Impersonal and Contracted Verbs 116 Sixteenth Lesson: Use of Tenses of the Verb .