§ 104.] LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ORMURI. 49 



Many other similar cases occur lower down, ywek-in, said, pi. 3, agreeing with 

 ' words ' understood, ' he said words.' This is the usual idiom for ' he said.' i-h" likl-t, 

 for what. The-/ is the suffix of the genitive of the second person, referring to zll ' thy 

 heart.' hU sa, pres. sg. 3 of syok. Hal-a, hal, contracted pronoun of 3rd person, -a, 

 pronominal suffix of agent case of 3rd person, forming the subject of ywek-in. liki- 

 mm-al = Hki-\-m-\-hal. The w is doubled before {h)al (§66). It is the suffix of the 

 genitive of the ist person, ' my heart.' pa-iami, instr. pi. of hom, an eye. dak femi- 

 nine of dok, past part, of kayek, to make. It is feminine to agree with isar", a sign, 

 understood. ' He made a sign.' syl is feminine of so or s", one, a. It agrees with 

 nmlai, mulai-l = mrdal+hal. w"lk, f. of iv'lak, to bring, hu xwdlk, imperfect fem. of 

 xivalak, to eat, 'he was eating (the radish, fem.).' The subject is the final -a of (2- 

 mulai-a. x^^^"^'^? x^^^isplur. of x«w, a laugh, -roa is suffix of 3rd person sing, agent. 

 It takes this form, with w, after a vowel, bu dak-in, imperfect, 3rd pi. Mahmudd-al, 

 for Mahmud-^-hal, with doubling of the d before {h)al. bu x<^'^, pres. sg. 2 of x^^^^^k, to 

 laugh, a-lawanai-l = a-lawanai-\-hal. ta-p' , gen. sing, inanimate of ho, this, governed 

 by the postposition par\ for, = Hindi is-ke liye, or is-liye. 



Free Translation. 



Sultan Mahmud once said to a madman, ' for what doth thy heart long ? ' The 

 madman replied, ' my heart longeth for the tail of a fat-tailed sheep.' The Sul- 

 tan made a sign with his eyes to one of his men to give the madman just a radish. 

 When they brought the radish and gave it to him, the madman began to eat it, 

 shaking his head and laughing the while. Said the Sultan to him, ' O madman, why 

 dost thou laugh? ' He replied, 'This is why I am laughing, that since thou hast 

 become king, there has been no fat left even on the tail of a fat-tailed sheep.' 



THE LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ORMURI. 



§ 102. In order to ascertain the relationship borne by Ormuri to other Kranian 

 languages, it will be convenient to follow, in the main, the lines taken by Professor 

 Geiger in his General Survey of the Kranian Dialects and their Grouping in GIF. I, 

 ii, pp. 4i2ff., which have been freely utilized in what follows. 



§ 103. As pointed out by Professor Geiger, Classical Persian stands apart from 

 other Eranian forms of speech as the descendant of the court and literary language of 

 the times of the Achsemenides and of the Sasanides. This was based on the dialect 

 of the ancient district of Persis, which corresponds to the modern Farsistan. Persian 

 goes back, through Pahlavi, to the old Persian of the Achaemenide inscriptions, and 

 owing to the fact of its being from the first a literary language has been preserved 

 from decay, — or its development has been retarded, — so that it has remained un- 

 changed for a thousand years. 



§ 104. Very different was the fate of the various local Eranian dialects other 

 than that of Persis. With nothing to retard their development, they are in a much 

 further advanced condition of phonetic growth than their classical brother. They 

 fall into two main groups, — a Western, or Medic, and an Eastern ; both of which 



