Modern Persian conversation-grammar : with reading lessons, English-Persian vocabulary and Persian letters

'HOD GA8PEY-OTTO-8AOER. PERSIANMODERN CONVERSATION-GRAMMAR WITH READING ENGLISH-PERSIAN VOCABULARYLESSONS, AND PERSIAN LETTERS BY THE REV. W. M. A.ST. CLAIR-TISDALL, i PERSIA:C. M. S. MISSIONARYAT AUTHOROFGRAMMARSISFAHAN, OF THE PANJABI AND GUJARATl LANGUAGES. LONDON. DAVID 57-59 Acre. & 37 SohoLong DULAU Square.NUTT, Co., St.SAMPSON MARSTON & Co., Dunstan's FetterLOW, Hoxise, Fleet Street.Lane, NEW YORK. F. W. E. STEIGER &BRENTANO'S, CHRISTERN, Co., 31 Union 254 Fifth Avenne. 25 Park Place.Square. C. A.BOSTON. KOEHLER & 149A Tremont Street.Co., HEIDELBERG. JULIUS GROOS. 1902.The method of is ownCraapey-Otto-Sanar my private property, been from the authors. The text-bookshaving acquired by purchase made after this method are Allincessantly improved. rights, espe- the of new and the of translationcially right making editions, right all are reserved. andfor Imitations fraudulentlanguages, impres- sions will be to law. I am thankful for com-prosecuted according these matters.munications torelating Julius Orroos.Heidelberg.Preface. of the has beenthe Italian East, longPersian, the mostas one of expressiveeuphonious,recognised of Orientaland languages. Unfortunately,important to most who haveEnglishmen spent anyhowever, in itstime in Persian is known antiqueIndia, only which are still inform and largepronunciation, frontier and in othermeasure retained on the Afghan This the student fromof India. beingparts prevents he forthe natives of shouldto Persia, anyintelligible reason find it desirable to visit that Thecountry. withwriter's own enables him toexperience speak studiedsome little on thisauthority subject. Having Persian in the heand learnt to found,speak Panjab, to enter into conversation with Shir-on endeavouring azts in that he was almost if notBombay, quite to since of thethem, words,unintelligible many and idioms he had learnt from the ofphrases pages Sa'di and other classical Persian authors have become theobsolete and have been others insuperseded by in Persia itself. Itmodern as waslanguage spoken discovered some corner ofas if a foreigner, having the world in which was still theEnglish spoken by as it occurs in the Elizabethan writerslearned, just and with the of that distant hadpronunciation day, learnt the from them and then tried to con-language verse with the of His conver-English people to-day. sation would seem at once stilted and and itvulgar, would amuse with whom he came in contact.everyone The Civil and authorities inMilitary England and India seem to have tonow, however, begun grasp the fact that Indian isPersian somewhat like what the French of 'Stratford atte Bowe' inwas olden times, and to feel the of the of desirability favouring study the as in Persia itself. Inlanguage actually spokenIV to assist in the attainment of thisorder, possibly, the Publisher of this Series of Conversationobject, Grammars has done me(the Method')'Gaspey-Otto-Sauer the honour to entrust me with the of thepreparation which I trust will useful topresent volume, prove students and will not be found of aunworthy place the excellent Handbooks on other lan-among many which have rendered the Series so well knownguages in lands.many The aim of this is the StudentVolume to provide with a and Introductionthoroughly practical up-to-date to the of the Modern Persian There-study Language. notfore obsolete whenever it couldeverything has, be been admitted in such aomitted,profitably only manner as to shew the which haveclearly changes in tooccurred the in of andlanguage time,process warn the student wordstooagainst using antiquated and modes of which are notemploying (') expression now or are used in a different sense.used, A residence of more than seven in Persiayears itself to ofaddition(in many years' previous study the and with all classes of theconversationlanguage) I in some fitted mepeople have, trust, slight degree, for the task which I have been invited to undertake. I am much of Is-indebted to Mirza Asadu'llahAqa who has Persian Text ofrevised thefahan, carefully the Stories contained in this and has alsoGrammar, been consulted about matter of importance. Myevery H. Stilemansincere thanks are due to the Rev. C. M. the of the C. M. S. PersiaA., Mission,Secretary thefor his kindness ingreat carefully throughgoing MS. theof this Grammar with and for manyme, 1 The of this is well illustrated the narrativedanger by of what occurred to a learned Orientalist who had actually to be tra-studied Persian in the and thenPanjab happened in Persia. his horse's bridle to a native servantvelling Handing he i mdra kun.' He doubtless meant to saysaid, 'Asp hidftyat in bikun' :'Lead horse' Modern Persian 'Asbamrtt jildumy in thebut what he did denoted 'Guide horseactually say my of the commissionsalvation'. The Persian's atway surprise with which he was entrusted is more thaneasily imagined described.he has made. from suchvaluable suggestions Coming a careful and accurate student of the as helanguage these have been of service to me.is, great at the end ofThe LessonsReading subjoined in from the Sadthis book are taken Hikaydt,part and in from the Journal of the late Shah's Thirdpart inVisit to The former book is well known,Europe. India but its is somewhatstyle antiquated,especially; ob-and not a few of the words used in it are now I Mirzasolete. have therefore had it rewritten by the of its andwithAsadu'llah, object bringing style into accord with the best mo-phraseology complete dern standard. The first sixteen Stories are asgiven Exercises in the Grammar in the usualitself, print- and the to the end of 34,ing type; rest, Story are in in Read-the Naskh charakter thelithographed lessons. The in the Shah's Journalwhiching style is at once free and be saidcomposed, elegant, may to have now become the model for such compositions in Persian. The extracts from it are in thegiven character. Until the Student can read theseNasta'liq Extracts he should not to read thefreely, attempt Persian Letters contained in F. The Shikas-Appendix teh hand in which are for the most writtenthey part is somewhat difficult to and the shoulddecipher, Key here be consulted the in orderLearner,carefully by to test his success in the which willsolving enigmas themselves in this of hisplentifully present part course of fromThese Letters are a selectionstudy. those received Persian friends.from variousactually The of the has beenvariety handwriting carefully but the of certainreproduced, necessity obliterating names etc. has some erasures here andproper produced there in reader's isfor which thethem, indulgence It will be noticed that the Les-requested. Reading sons are as is usual in Persian andpaged books, at the end of the Volume.begin It is to add to the bulk of thisunnecessary volume aby appending Persian-English Vocabulary, as Palmer's Smaller will Dictionary all that the will The ad-supply beginner require.VI vanced student will find PersianSteingass' Dictionary needful. It remains for me to obligationsacknowledge my to Forbes' and Dr. Rosen's Persian Gram-Ibrahim's, Ifrom which have borrowed usefulmars, suggestions, I to differ from them wheneverhave venturedthough accuracy required. The of transliteration is an exactsystem adopted and this will enable the withoutone, student, any sacrifice of to with the Persianaccuracy, dispense character in the first few Exercises and thus to learn readof the before tosomething language beginning the Persian a method which has type, experience shewn to be useful and The Persianvery profitable. ofcharacter used in theis, however, reproduction these Lessons in the The oftheKey. English passages for it will betranslation into Persian observed,has, an Oriental as it is a translation from the colouring, Persian in the ofthe histor-Manyoriginal given Key. ical are taken a few alterationspassages (with slight and Hairat's Persianfrom Mirza Ver-simplifications) sion of Sir John Malcolm's of Persia.History W> St. Clair-Tisdall.Bedford.