Page:A Grammar of the Urdū Or Hindūstānī Language in Its Romanized Character.djvu/38

18 words, as abrū 'an eyebrow,' ābrū 'honour,' ārzū 'wish,' bo(or bū) 'smell,' tarāzū 'a pair of scales,' jo 'a stream,' and kho 'habit,' which are all Feminine.

(4) Most Nouns ending in short a (i.e. in the Persian silent h ) are Masculine, as banda 'a slave,' parda 'a curtain.' But tauba 'repentance,' lāsha 'a corpse,' ṣarfa 'expenditure,' dafa’ 'a time,' and some others are Feminine.

(5) All Nouns ending in pan (generally answering to the English 'ness') are Masculine, as laṛakpan  'childishness,' 'childhood,' kamīnapan 'meanness,' darpan 'a mirror.'

(6) Feminine terminations are—

(a) Arabic Nouns with final ā (with a few exceptions), as balā 'a calamity,' baqā 'duration.' Also Diminutives in iyā, as mentioned under No. 2.

(b) Arabic Nouns ending in t, as izzat 'honour,' ibādat ' worship,' ulfat 'affection.' Also Persian Abstract Nouns ending in t, formed by dropping the final n of the Infinitive, as guft 'speech,' 'conversation,' raft 'going' (from guftan 'to speak,' raftan 'to go'). There are only a few words ending in t that are Masculine, as sharbat 'a drink,' waqt 'time,' yāqūt 'a ruby,' and a few others. Ḵẖil’at 'a robe of honour,' is either Masculine or Feminine.

(c) Persian Nouns ending in ish, e.g. dānish 'knowledge,' sozish 'inflammation.' Perhaps the only exception to this rule is bālish 'a pillow.' The termination sh simply is not generally Feminine in Urdū Nouns.

(d) Nouns ending in ī are nearly all Feminine, though to this, too, there are a few exceptions, viz. pānī 'water,' jī 'life,' ghī 'clarified butter,' dahī 'curdled milk,' hāt,hī 'an elephant,' motī 'a pearl,' and a few others.