330 Is tlie Pushto a Semitic Language? [No. 4, 



a few pages on, he catches at a statement of Ibn Haukal's that 

 Pushto is a Tatar dialect (he says, " Tartar"), and makes many apo- 

 logies on behalf of the Afghans for having exchanged Hebrew for a 

 Tatar dialect. 



In return, one onght to be ready to make every allowance for Mr. 

 Forster. His book was published in 1854 ; the materials for becom- 

 ing acquainted with Pushto were then not readily accessible to an 

 English scholar, who probably would care little for Russian publica- 

 tions though they be in the English language ; it is not likely that 

 he had seen Captain Vaughan's " Grammar of the Pooshtoo Lan- 

 guage" which was published in Calcutta in the same year ; and Cap- 

 tain Raverty's Grammar was not published till 1856. It would 

 be impossible now, with an apparatus like that contained in the last 

 mentioned grammar, with its copious paradigms and examples, what- 

 ever be the valué of the system or the rules, — it would be impossible 

 now to fall into the wretched mistake of calling an Arian language 

 a Semitic one. Alas, for human hopes ! What if the guide himself 

 should lead you astray ? Not wilfully perhaps, but blindly ? 



Affcer devoting ten years to the study of Urdu, Persian, Marathí, 

 G-uzerathí, Arabio, Pushto, Sindí, Punjabí and Multaní (see the Pre- 

 face to Capt. Raverty's " Grammar of the Pukhto," p. vi.), and 

 after writing a copious Pushto Grammar with all the grammatical 

 terms in Arabic, Capt. Raverty is inclined to consider the Pushto a 

 Semitic dialect (see the Introduction to the Grammar, p. 36). Nay, 

 he is more than inclined ; he produces five arguments in favour of the 

 view : — ■ 



.(1). The vowels and consonants used in Pushto have the same 

 powers as those of the Arabic, Hebrew and other Semitic dialects. 



(2). Like them it has two genders. 



(3). In common with the Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian, it has the 

 peculiar separable and inseparable pronouns. 



(4). The inflexions of the " Afghánian" verbs are formed accord- 

 ing to the Arabic, and Hebrew system, with two original tenses only. 



(5). In many respects the Pushto syntax agrees with that of the 

 Hebrew. 



Bcfore examining these arguments, it may be worth while to 

 inquire what could have led Captain Raverty so grievously astray 



