Page:A Grammar of the Urdū Or Hindūstānī Language in Its Romanized Character.djvu/39

Rh Some, too, though ending in ī, are Masculine, of course, from signification, e.g. mistrī 'a carpenter,' d,hobī 'a washerman,' k͟hazāṅchī 'a treasurer,' mālī 'a gardener.' The Feminine of such words is usually formed by changing the final ī into in, nī or ānī, as d,hobin 'a washerwoman' (or 'ḍ,hobi's wife'), mālin 'a gardener's wife.' A female elephant is hat,hnī, and the wife or daughter of a Ḳ,hatrī, by caste, is called a K,hatrānī; the wife of a mullā ('a doctor' or 'schoolmaster') is mullānī.

(e) Original Arabic Nouns formed after the type or model of the word taf’īl (i.e. by prefixing the letter t to the first letter of the verbal root, and ī to the final) are almost always Feminine, e.g. tamsīl 'a parable or proverb,' taqdīs 'holiness.' Perhaps the only exception to this rule is the word ta’wīz 'an amulet,' which is Masculine.

(f) Almost all Nouns terminating in the syllables hat, wat, and mat, are Feminine, as sak͟hāwat 'liberality,' ghābrahat 'confusion,' dandāwat 'obeisance, 'k͟halwat' retirement,' alāmat  'a sign,' 'symptom.' Even to this, however, there are a few exceptions, as Ḳhewaṭ 'a caste of boatmen,' Masculine.

(g) Arabic Nouns signifying instruments, of the type mif'āl (i.e. with mi prefixed to the root and āinserted in last syllable), are generally Feminine, as miqrāẓ 'scissors,' mizān 'a balance,' minkār 'a bird's beat'; but minshār 'a handsaw,' mismār 'a peg' or 'nail,' and miyār 'a touchstone,' are Masculine.

(h) Nouns with ī in the last syllable are mostly Feminine, as injīl 'the Gospel,' rasīd 'a receipt.'

(7) A good many words are of Common or optional Gender, as jān' life.' and fikr 'thought.' This is the case with the word bulbul, too, meaning 'a species of nightingale';