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

1902·15.2 MB·English

by  Tisdall, William St. Clair Towers, 1859-

'HOD GA8PEY-OTTO-8AOER.
MODERN PERSIAN
CONVERSATION-GRAMMAR
WITH
READING LESSONS, ENGLISH-PERSIAN VOCABULARY
AND PERSIAN LETTERS
BY
THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR-TISDALL, M. A.
i
C.M.S.MISSIONARYATISFAHAN,PERSIA:AUTHOROFGRAMMARS
OF THE PANJABI AND GUJARATl LANGUAGES.
LONDON.
DAVID NUTT,57-59LongAcre. DULAU & Co.,37SohoSquare.
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & Co., St. Dunstan's Hoxise, Fetter
Lane, Fleet Street.
NEW YORK.
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HEIDELBERG.
JULIUS GROOS.
1902.
The method of Craapey-Otto-Sanar ismyownprivateproperty,
having been acquired by purchase from theauthors. Thetext-books
made after this method are incessantly improved. All rights, espe-
cially the right ofmaking neweditions, andtherightoftranslation
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
intelligible to the natives ofPersia, should he for 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obsolete and have been superseded by others in the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-SauerMethod')has done me
the honour to entrust me with the preparation ofthe
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
and employing modes(') of expression which are not
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 ofthe
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
propernames 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
character is, however, used in the reproduction of
these Lessons in the Key. The English ofthe 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 ofthehistor-
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.