Page:A Grammar of the Persian Language.djvu/51

 property of causing all the preceding letters to rise above the line, as I, LS. bukhārā, nakhchir, esta tagħiħ. The letters that precede pm, are also sometimes raised. And, as the vowels are here applied according to the rules of prosody, he will find a few vowels lengthened, as well as some contractions made, not hitherto accounted for. In future examples the prosody will be disregarded. Some of the contractions, however, should be explained ; ,, for example, is often pronounced in connection with the preceding word, as, iz graw samarkan-do; for which, perhaps, no better reason can be given than, that facility of pronunciation requires it to be so. The in jl, also receives its vowel from the preceding word; because it has no proper vowel of its own. In this case ) is called the conjunction alif. (Art. 5.) و go,cor 54. The Arabick characters, like those of the Europeans, are written in a variety of different hands; but the most common of them are, the Nişkhī, the day Tatlik, hanging, or common place ; and the Lumalas Shikestah, or broken. Most books are printed in the Nişkhi hand, and all Arabick manuscripts, as well as many Persian and Turkish histories, are written in it; but the Persians write their poetical works in the Ta<lik, which answers to the most elegant of our Italick hands. As to the Shikestah, it is very irregular and sometimes very inelegant ; it is chiefly used as the cursive hand for business and correspondence :