270 



On the Language of the Si-dh-posh Kafirs. 





[No. 3, 



words does he refer ? to the first word, or the second ; to the begin- 

 ning, middle, or termination of these words ? The explanation he 

 gives will, I am sure, be perfectly unintelligible to all who do not hap- 

 pen to understand Pus'hto thoroughly ; I think I can clear up the point. 

 The Missionary refers, no doubt, to the adjective jj^.f which takes a 

 different sound before the final consonant for masculine and feminine 

 nouns ; and this peculiar vowel sound only occurs, either in the case of 

 nouns, adjectives, and verbs, before the final consonant of a word. It 

 will be found fully explained in my Grammar,in the declensions of nouns 

 in the word Ji " ghal" a thief; in the word jdjyx*" " skhwandar" a 

 steer, in the fifth variety of nouns of the 6th Declension; in the ter- 

 minations of adjectives of the same class ; and in the terminations of 

 some verbs. I have always written it, in the second edition of my 

 Grammar, as explained by the Afghan author of the " Mjaib-vl- 

 Ltjghat"* gives it ; viz., as a compound sound of short a and i. Thus 

 in the example which Dr. Trumpp gives (which, in fact, is no example 

 at all 3 since he places the short vowel point (V) — " a" — over both the 

 adjectives he uses), the first should be written t & J (u-dceh) (mas.) 



and the second %^) u-dah (fern.). In the work just quoted, the 

 author states, — " The word sAh}j is an example of this peculiar sound. 

 When written with simple r, a, quiescent gh, I with the short vowel 

 a, and unaspirated h, or " M-i-khafi" it is the third person feminine 

 singular — " she goes ; " and when written with simple r, d, quiescent 

 gh, I, with a short vowel approaching, to a and i slightly sounded, and 

 unaspirated h, it is the third person masculine plural." These are the 

 exact words of the author as I have given them in my Grammar. The 



vowel Q (fatfhah) with (;') (hamzah) combined ? ' = (ce) give an 



equivalent sound, as near as possible^ which I have therefore adopted. 

 It will be found written thus in the same manner in my Pus'hto 

 Dictionary, in scores of words. The Afghans, of course, mark it in 

 speaking ; but in writing they do not mark it : it is supposed, that a 

 person acquainted with the rules of the language will read and under- 

 stand it accordingly. 



I may mention, that the Doctor has made some considerable errors 

 with regard to the Pus'hto examples he has given. In the words 



for example. By the word J f *» he evi- 



^j<« *4*;T an( i *£* *dj 

 dently means a man 



# See my Grammar, Introduction,, pages 34 and 



4*7 

 but if so, the letter j is not correct :. it should 



