Page:A Grammar of the Urdū Or Hindūstānī Language in Its Romanized Character.djvu/6

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PREFACE.

notice in the Compendium may be just the things the student wants to know and which puzzle him. And, after all, if a person really intends to master a language—or even merely to converse in it intelligibly—he is always glad to have a good Grammar at hand to consult when needful, even if he has not time or inclination to go studiously through it at once. With this conviction I was induced to abandon my first intention, and to finish and bring out, in a separate volume, a fuller Grammar.

Feeling myself thus unfettered, I have been enabled to ventilate certain theories on some grammatical points which I could not well have introduced—because I could not discuss—in a mere Epitome.

The use of the Romanized-system of writing the Indian languages generally—but especially the Urdū—is fast spreading throughout that vast continent, and a large proportion of the modern literature intended for natives—particularly Christians—is now printed in that character. It is taught in almost all