THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For FEBRUARY, 1772.

ART. I. Conclufion of the Account of Mr. Jones's Perfian Grammar.

HA

AVING, in our last month's Review, given a general idea of the defign of this Oriental Grammar, and done that justice to the learned and very ingenious Author, to which he is amply entitled, we think ourselves obliged alfo, in juftice to the public, to obferve that his work feems more deficient, with respect to proper and adequate inftructions, as to the fyllabication and reading of the Perfian language, than in any other circumftance. We apprehend that, on the principles of common fenfe, there is no language but muft have fome rules to direct the learner in this refpect; and we have been furprifed to hear gentlemen, who have vifited Hindoftan, alledge, that no one can read the Perfian language until he is thoroughly mafter of it. We imagine that these wrong conceptions must have proceeded from their having be gun to learn the Perfian without being initiated in the principles of the Arabic grammar.

We have already feen that the Perfians, on the introduction of Mahomedifm into their country, relinquifhed their ancient alphabet, and adopted that of the Arabians; and hence we conceive that a man who can read Arabic, has made confiderable advances towards reading the Perfian. All the letters in the Arabic alphaber are confonants: the Arabians have, from the original of their language, had certain dots, or vowel points, to mark the founds a, e, i, o, u, as hath every other nation, as far as we know.

The Perfians, on adopting the Arabic alphabet, must naturally have used thefe very marks, or dots, to point out their vowels. The Arabians call the mark of the fhort a and e phata; the Perfians use the same dot, and call it zeber, above, so named from its fituation, because it is placed above the letter VOL. XLVI.

G

to

it:

to which it is fubjoined. The Arabians call the short i, kefra the Perfians ufe the fame dot to mark their fhort i, but call it by the name of zir, because it is placed below the confonant to which it is annexed. The Arabians call the dot which marks the fhort u and o, zamma, or damma as fome pronounce the Perfians call the very fame dot by the name of a peifh, which fignifies before. The Arabians mark the long a by their phata, with a quicfcent alif following; their long i with a filent je following; and their long o and u with a quiefcent waw following: and we imagine that this is the fame method practifed by the Perfians; for it is certain that the Arabians and Perfians caufe their children to write out all the letters of the alphabet with thefe dots placed properly under and above the letters, in order to teach them the nature of pure or fimple fyllables, as their Grammarians call them. And in like manner they proceed to teach them to read the alphabet where two confonants concur in a fyllable with only one vowel annexed; there being, properly, no diphthong in the Eaftern languages; for wherever two confonants meet together in the fame fyllable, there is a gem or gezma put over the letter, to fhew that it makes a mixed fyllable. The reader may fee this fully illuftrated in Meninfki's Perfian Grammar, publifhed in quarto, at Vienna, in 1756.

Now as all the letters in the Arabic language, as well as the Perfic, are confonants, every one may fee what a difficult and laborious task it must be for a learner to read Arabic or Perfic, unlefs the vowel points are annexed to the letters. True it is, indeed, that the children in Arabia and Perfia, after having learned the nature of fyllabication with the vowel points annexed, and after having thus made fome progrefs in reading a language which is their mother tongue, learn to read words which occur in common life with greater facility than we Europeans can eafily comprehend; but every one may fe that this must be the effect of great labour and practice: for, as far as we can learn, the Arabians, from a fenfe of the danger of miftaking the meaning of the words, by affixing different dots, have their Koran always written with the vowel points fubjoined, left the reader fhould miftake the fenfe of their prophet.

That all the letters in the Perfian as well as Arabic alphabets are conforants; is attefted by the celebrated Chardin, who fpeaks with the greateft confidence on this fubject. "Les vingt-huit lettres font toutes confones, n'y ayant point de voyelles dans l'alphabet Perfan, non plus que dans PArabe, quoique l'alif, qui eft premicre lettre, & qui à la force de notre a avec un accent reflemblant à nos accens graves ou ai ..7

gus,

gus, foit eftimé de plufieurs grammariens être une lettre voyelle. Leur alif eft l'aleph Hebreu, & il repond à cet accent dont les Grecs fe fervent, & qu'ils appellent fprit doux. J'ai dit que tout leur alphabet eft de confones: il y a pourtant trois lettres, alef, vau, yé, qui ont fouvent la force de voyelles, a caufe de quoi ils les appellent lettres de repos. Leur voyelles font proprement des accens. Les Perfans nomment en general les accens, herket, c'est-à-dire, mouvement, parce que les accens donnent le branle aux autres lettres. Ils en ont de trois fortes; les plus communs font ceux qu'ils appellent zeber, zer, pich, c'est-à-dire, deffus, defous, devant le pich cft un accent fait comme une virgule, les deux autres font de accens aigus. Ils. apprennent ainfi à les lire: B avec zeber, Ba; avec zer, Bi; avec pich, Bou; & ainfi des autres lettres. Ces accens font les mêmes que les Arabes ont deux accens plus que les Perfans n'en employent dans leur écriture."

The ingenious Author of the Grammar fays, that the ain in Perfian is a fort of vowel, and anfwers generally to our broad a,

as

Arab, the Arabians; fometimes (fays he) it has a

found like our o, as in the word

عطر

otr, effence. Here we cannot but differ from this learned Gentleman; for the letter ain is really a confonant as much as any letter in the Arabic or Perfic alphabets and for proof of this, we woulu obferve, that this letter ain has in the Koran the different points, phata, kifra, and damma, marking the different vowels a, e, o, which could never be the cafe, were it a real vowel.

The above-mentioned word

is marked with the vowel

points in Arabic and written by Meninski in Roman characters areb, with an ain put above, and the other word

عط

is pointed by Golius thus, and written by Meninski ytr, with an ain put over the y.

To fhew that the letter ain has the various vowel points denoting a, e, i, o, u, fubjoined to it, we refer the Reader to Golius's Arabic, and Meninfki's Perfian Dictionary, where he may find various inftances to prove what we have faid.

Mr. Jones acknowledges that the letters 9 waw and S je are often used as confonants, like our and y: we apprehend that they are always confonants. Mr. Jones fays the long vowels are alif, waw, je, and may be pronounced ,, e, in the words call, fele, feed, as in chan, a lord;

G 2

but

but here the alif is quiefcent, and ferves only to diftinguish the long a, from the fhort one: thus alfo in the word

ora, the quiefcent or filent waw diftinguishes the long u' from the fhort, fo alfo in the word neez, the filent je distinguishes the long i from the fhort.

Thus the learned John Gravius, in his Perfic Grammar, after enumerating the fhort vowels a, e, i, o, u, in the Perfian language, fays, "Earum productione tres etiam confonæ quiefcentes inferviunt, nempe et quæ amissa sua poteftate naturam vocalium præcedentium induunt, cumque iis in unam Fongam coalefcunt alif cum phata, waw cum damma, S cum kefra, et tunc phata valet à clarum, ut yûr, focius, ų pas, rubigo, &c.” damma cum valet os, sæpe û, ut gough, aw is, awis, jzur,

گوش

و

zur, violentia.

يار

Kefra cum S valet & five ie Anglicum, ut acutus, Í fuarie, equitatio. Vid. Gravii Elementa Ling. Perf.

ري

4to. Londini. P. 11, 12. Anno 1649.

This alfo Ludovicus De Dieu alerts, that the long vowels are diftinguished from the thert ones, by adding the filent or quiefcent letters alif, waw, and je. Quum vocales per litera ( producuntur, nempe phatah per alif, keira per Sdamma per &c. Vid. De Dieu Gram. Perf. p. 3. 4to. Lugdun. Batavorum. 1639. Magnam quoque (fays De Dieu) in libris MSS. parit difficultatem abfentia vocalium, Mulie enim dictiones, confonantibus aedem, foli: vocalibus divertæ diverfa fignificant, ut gil, lutum, clay, gul, rofa,

a rofe, flos quivis. gelen vertere, ire,

kushten, occidere,

liften, feminare, ‘ercre, to sow,
interficere, to kill, flay, &c. Vid. De Dieu Gram. p. 3.

There are a vaft number of words in which the confonants are the very fame, and they are diflinguifhed only by the vowels fubjoined to them. The Author's rule in this cafe is very vague, and muft perplex the learner. See Jones's Grammar, p. 11. lin. 14.

Let us hear the learned Erpenius on this fubject:Harum vocalium productione inferviunt, propria poteftate

2

confo

teræ

اوي

confonantium amiflà, unde et quiefcere tum dicuntur, tres licum ipfæ vocalibus deftitutæ immediate iis poft ponuntur : quidem primæ, fecundæ, et Stertiæ: valetque eo cafu, fatha a feu ae noftrum, vel, feu Anglicum

Damma & feu œ noftrum, vel ∞ Gallicum, ut jgå võp.

oe

Kefra feu ie noftrum ut

نیر

p. Vid. Erpenii Rudiment. Ling. Arab. p. 8. 4to. Lugduni Batavorum. 1733.

Meninfki alfo fhews the truth of what we have afferted above, although he mentions only the Turkish language, as he confiders the rules for reading Arabic, Perfic, and Turkifa to be the fame in that chapter, De Vocalibus literarum, aliifque notis, et de combinatione ac lectione iyllabarum immediate poft alphabetum fublunt Turcæ in fuis abecedariis lineam hujuf modi cum his vocalibus, aliifque notis, &c. Vid. Meniniki Gram. p 18. 4to. Vindobonie. 1756.

6

Mr. Jones, page 12, adds, The omillion of the fhort vowels will, at first, perplex the fludent, fince many words that are compounded of the fame confonants have different fenfes, according to the difference of the vowels omitted; but until he has learned the exact pronounciation of every word, from a native, he may give every fhort vowel a kind of obfcure found, very common in English, as in the words fun, bird, &c. which a Mahomedan would write without any vowel fa, brd'

The Author here candidly acknowledges that many words, which are compounded of the fame confonants, have different fenfes, according to the difference of the vowels omitted. This indeed cannot be denied, either with refpect to Hebrew, Arabic, or Perfic, by those who are in the fmallest degree acquainted with thefe Eaftern languages; fo that the fenfe not only of one word, but of the whole fentence, must neceflarily depend on the different vowels fupplied by the reader, if the word has not the vowel dots fubjoined. This can be easily proved from a variety of examples which might be brought from Arabic and Perfic books. The Reader needs only, to be convinced of what we affirm, look into Golius or Meninfki's Lexicons, where he will find numberlefs examples confirming what we have advanced.

The Reader will plainly perceive the force of our reafoning, in two of the examples exhibited by Mr. Jones in the words fa, brd, and he will eafily fee how ambiguous they are: thus In may be read feen, fin, fen, foon, fun, fyne; and the word bra may be read bard, beard, bread, breed, board, broad.

G 3

From