Page:Simplified grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic.pdf/41



The Persian Alphabet is the same that is used for Hindūstānī (see p. 1), except that it has none of the four-dotted letters,, ,.

The pronunciation is nearly the same in both languages, except that the long alif is pronounced in Persian like aw in "awe", instead of ā in "father", as in Hindūstānī.

The Persians also frequently pronounce gāf with a slight y sound, like the Cockney mode of pronouncing the g in garden, "gyarden." When it occurs between two vowels it is often sounded like y, as pronounced like éyer.

In old Persian, and in the language spoken in India at the present day, the long &#x645; and &#x6CC; have two sounds, ū and ī, called ma'rūf, "known", and o and é, called  majhūl, "unknown". The modern native of Iran does not employ the latter sounds.

Like other languages, Persian contains three parts of speech, namely, Nouns, Verbs, and Particles.