An-hání piyádhagh-e lashkar gándhí-e túfak er-khanagh-án, their infantry were armed with breech-loaders (them-of thefoot soldiers breech-loaders are down-making). Gándhí-e túfak, a breech-loader; er-khanagh, to keep, to have. That was what they learned from the spies: this calls for the present imperfect.

Án-hání tof-án azh phagárthagh-e asín juṛethagh-ant, their big guns were of cast iron (them-of the-guns from melted iron were made).

QUESTIONNAIRE.

1. Enumerate the various uses of the genitive case.

2. What cases would you use to denote the price of an article? Give an example.

3. Name any class of verbs that govern the genitive case.

4. Form sentences to include the words gir, kal, samá, mokal. 5. Form sentences to include the words vash, der, lajj. 6. What verbs govern the dative case?

7. Give an example of khafagh, to fall, governing the dative. 8. How and when is the agentive case used?

9. What are the chief functions of the locative case?

10. What are the Balochí equivalents for dog, elephant, bull, swine?

CHAPTER XIX.

RULES OF CONSTRUCTION AND SYNTAX.

216. The rules given below are of general application only, and amount to a summary of what has already been said. There is authority for all of them, but there are exceptions also to all of them, or to nearly all of them. They will be of value to the student only when he has mastered the whole scheme of the language, as a place of ready reference, and as an aid to memory. Until this has been accomplished he will find them meaningless.

THE ALPHABET.

Rule I. The letter n when preceded by one of the long vowels is generally nasal: as, in, this, áñ, that.

Rule II. A final nasal n when followed by a word beginning with a vowel loses its nasality: as, de-án-í, I will give it; khanán-í, I will do it.

Rule III.—The sound of the letter e is generally that of ay in the word "day", never that of e in the word "me”: as, mard-e, a certain man; khas-e-á, by a certain person.

Rule IV. The letter e when used in the 2nd person singular of the imperative is sounded as áe, or nearly as the letter y in the word "my"; as, de, give.

THE ARTICLES.

Rule V.—The indefinite article is represented by the numeral adjective yá, yak, one, or by the suffix e, or by both: as, fakir, beggar; yá fakir, a beggar; yá fakír-e, a certain beggar.

Rule VI.-The force of the English definite article is obtained by placing the demonstrative pronouns e, this, and án, that, in their emphatic forms haw-e and haw-án, before the noun: as, zál, a woman, haw-e zál, this woman, the woman; mard, a man, haw-án mard, that man, the man.

GENDER.

Rule VII.—Where separate words do not exist the gender of nouns the names of animals is determined by placing the words nar, male, mádhagh, female, before them: as, rophask, a fox; nar-e rophask, a male fox; mádhagh-e rophask, a female fox.

THE NOUN.

Rule VIII. The plural of nouns is formed by adding án to the nominative case singular, and less frequently by adding gal : as, mard, a man; mard-án, men; duz, a thief; duz-gal, thieves.

Rule IX. The genitive case in a and e, as well as that form of it which remains without a suffix, precedes the qualifying noun; but the genitive in egh, egha, ígh follows the governing noun and is used predicatively: as, wazir topú, the minister's hat; e mál sarkár-egh en, this is government property.

Rule X.-That form of the accusative case which ends in the affixed short a should not be used when the agentive case in long á is in such a sentence one of the suffixes ar, ár, ára, ra, should be used with the object if it be necessary to render that object particular or emphatic, otherwise it may be left unchanged: as, má mard-ar jatha, I struck the man, or má mard jatha, I struck a man; but not má mard-a jatha.

Rule XI. The agentive case is used only before the present perfect tense of transitive verbs: as, duz-á ma-na na jatha, the thief did not strike me.

THE ADJECTIVE.

Rule XII.-Adjectives generally precede the nouns they qualify, except when for any reason they are used predicatively : as, jathagh-e mál, stolen property; sakhía jawán en, it is very good.

Rule XIII. When two objects are compared, that with which the comparison is made is put in the ablative case: as, ahmad azh mohan mazann en, Ahmad is older than Mohan.

Rule XIV. The superlative degree is expressed by placing hama, all, or some word of similar meaning, before the ablative

case of the noun with which comparison is made: as, ahmad azh hama chhorav-án mazann en, Ahmad is the biggest boy, or Ahmad is the oldest boy.

THE NUMERALS.

Rule XV.-The ordinals are formed from the cardinals by the addition of the syllable mí, less often by the addition of wí: as, nuh, nine, nuh-mí, ninth.

Rule XVI.-Multiples denoting " fold" are formed by placing yak-e before the cardinals, or by adding sar: as, yak-e chíár, fourfold; sai sar, threefold.

THE PRONOUN.

Rule XVII. That form of the genitive case of pronouns that ends in ígh, egh, is generally used predicatively: as, án túfak khaigh en, whose is that gun?

Rule XVIII. The pronouns of the 3rd person are represented by the demonstratives e, this, and án, that: as, esh-í topú, her hat; án-hí túfak, his gun.

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Rule XIX. The pronouns e, this, and án, that, when used as demonstratives are indeclinable: as, án wakht-a, at that time; haw-e mard zahm, that man's sword.

Rule XX.-Whenever in a sentence a possessive pronoun refers back to the subject of that sentence it is translated by wath-í: as, wath-í túfak dátha-í, he gave his gun, he gave his own gun.

THE VERB.

Rule XXI. The root or base of any verb can be derived from its infinitive by dropping the syllable agh: as, khanagh, to do, root khan; deagh, to give, root de.

Rule XXII.-The contingent future and absolute future tenses are made up of the root and the present imperfect tense of the substantive verb: as, khan-án, I may do, I shall do, from the root khan; thar-án, I may return, I shall return, from the root thar.

Rule XXIII.—The present imperfect tense consists of the infinitive of any verb followed by the present imperfect tense of

the substantive verb: as, ravagh-án, I am going, from ravagh,

to go.

Rule XXIV. The past imperfect of any verb is made up of its infinitive and the past imperfect of the substantive verb: as, ravagh-ethán, I was going, from ravagh, to go.

Rule XXV. The present perfect tense of an intransitive verb is made up of its past participle in its adjectival form and the present imperfect of the substantive verb: as, murthagh-án, I have died, from miragh, to die, past participle adjectival form, murthagh.

Rule XXVI.--The present perfect tense of a transitive verb is formed in the same way as that of an intransitive, but is used in the 3rd person singular and plural only. If the object be singular the verb will be in the singular, if the object be plural and followed by one of the suffixes of the accusative case the verb may still be in the singular; but if the object be plural and in the nominative form, that is, without any suffix, the verb should be in the plural: as, má mard jatha, I struck the man; má mardánra jatha, I struck the men; má mard-án jathagh-ant, I struck the men.

Rule XXVII.--The past perfect tense of any verb can be formed by adding the past imperfect tense of the substantive verb to the adjectival form of its past participle: as, nishtaghethán, I was sitting, from nindagh, to sit, past participle adjectival form, nishtagh.

Rule XXVIII.—The root and the 2nd person singular of the imperative of all verbs are the same; the 2nd person plural of the imperative is formed by adding eth to this root: as, jan, strike thou, jan-eth, strike ye, from janagh, to strike, root jan.

Rule XXIX. The present participle active is formed by adding ána to the root of any verb, and the present participle passive by changing the final short vowel a of the past participle into iya: as, khan-ána, doing, from khanagh, to do, root khan; dokhtiya, sewn, from doshagh, to sew, past participle, dokhta.

Rule XXX. The conjunctive participle of any verb can be got by changing the final short vowel a of its past participle into o as, murtho, having died, from murtha, died.