15. As to Gender: Nouns may also be divided into three classes, viz. Masculine, Feminine, and of Common or Optional Gender.
The Semitic Grammarians acknowledge no 'Neuter'( i.e. 'neither') Gender, but there are many Urdū Nouns belonging to the third class, namely,[1] 'either.'
16. Then as to Number: though the Dual is recognised and provided for both in Arabic and Persian, and also in Sanskṛit (the Mother of Hindī), and though many of such Dual forms are in constant use in Urdu literature and parlance,[2] we must admit that the Urdū Grammar acknowledges, or at least makes provision for, as indigenous, but two Numbers—the Singular and the Plural.
17. And lastly, as to Cases: there are, properly speaking (in our opinion), but three original Cases in Urdū, as in the Arabic and Persian Grammars, and also in our own language, viz. (1) the Subjective, (2) the Genitive, and (3) the Objective; as illustrated in the English Pronouns, 'He,' 'his,' 'him,' 'Who,' 'whose,' 'whom,' etc.
18. In Urdū, however, the Subjective is expressed by two different forms, viz. (a) the Nominative (corresponding to ours), the primary uninflected form of the word; and (b) the Agent,[3] which is marked by the addition of the
- ↑ The Greek and Latin (Aryan) languages derive their ' Neuter' from their parent Sanskrit, which is also the mother of Hindi and Persian.
- ↑ As instances of Dual words in meaning or in form, or both, in constant use in Urdu and English, we may give: a ' pair' jorii; ' both' donon 'parents' wdlidain, ma-bap; 'man and wife' joru-khasam ; 'twins' taupman -, 'nostrils,' minkharain ; 'eyes' 'ainain.
- ↑ We are pleased to find, since writing the above, that Mr. Platts agrees with us (as do most native Grammarians) in regarding the Agent as simply another form of the Nominative or Subject.
