A GRAMMAR OF THE HINDUSTĀNĪ OR URDU LANGUAGE. BY JOHN T. PLATTS, LATE AN INSPECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA. LONDON: WM. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE, 1874. PREFACE. THE Grammar now offered to the public was begun in India many years ago; but its progress was so retarded by illness, press of official work, and other causes, that on my return to England about eighteen months ago, scarcely a third of it was in a form ready for the press. It owes its origin to certain Indian friends, whose arguments, backed by the results of my own reading and observation, led me to conclude (1) that, much as had been achieved in the field of Urdu Grammar by Europeans (and especially by Englishmen), that field had not been so thoroughly worked but that a great deal more might be won from it; (2) that no small portion of the work which had been done was of a kind that afforded room for improvement. In justification of the first of these opinions, I would refer my readers to the large quantity of what is believed to be absolutely new matter that is to be found in almost every part of this work, and especially in the sections which treat of (1) gender; (2) numerals; (3) Persian and Arabic constructions; (4) causal verbs; (5) compound verbs; (6) particles; (7) derivation of words; and in almost every chapter of the Syntax. In support of the second, I would point to the sections which treat of the construction-(1) of verbs and adjectives in connection with the broken plurals of the Arabic; (2) of nominal and frequentative verbs; (3) of the accusative |