英语翻译
NOUNS.GENDER.
The gender of a noun can sometimes be deduced from its grammatical form.Thus,a-stems are either
masculine or neuter,while almost all ˝-stems are feminine.The i- and u-stems,as well as consonant stems
can be either masculine,neuter,or feminine.The gender of each word should therefore be learned together
with the word itself.
In the vocabularies masculine nouns of all declensions and feminine nouns of the ˝-declension will be
unmarked,while all other nouns will be marked as feminine (fem.) or neuter (neut.)
NOUNS.THE NOMINATIVE SINGULAR.VOWEL STEMS.
The texts in lessons 1-2 contain examples of the a-,˝-,i- and u-declensions.The a-declension contains
masculine and neuter nouns.There are two ˝-declensions,the common feminine ˝-declension and the
masculine ˝-declension,which contains a few proper names,among them the name of the god
Ahuramazd˝-.The i- and u-declensions contain masculine,feminine,or neuter nouns.The nominative
singular endings are:
a-declension
masc.neut.
˝-declension
masc.fem.
i-declension
masc.,fem.neut.
u-declension
masc.neut.
daha≥yu-
-ah -am -˝h -˝ -iπ (-iy) -uπ -uv daha≥y˝uπ
Examples:ar^kah “disloyal,” r˝stam “straight,” Ahuramazd˝h,Aƒur˝,pastiπ “foot-soldier,” D˝rayavahuπ
“Darius,” paruv “much.” There are no examples of the nom.of neut.i-stems in OPers.
The masc.a-,˝-,i-,and u-declensions originally (= in Indo-European) had the same ending in the
nominative singular,namely -s,as in Greek theós “god,” pístis “faith” and ikhthús “fish,” Latin dominus,
civis,sinus,but in the Indo-Iranian mother language s became h after a and ˝ but π after i or u according to
the “ruki” rule,which states that s became π after r,u,k [Iran.x],i.The Indo-Iranian forms were therefore
-ah,-˝h and -iπ,-uπ.In Old Persian the final -h was lost.
Masculine ˝-stems:
There are only three masculine ˝-stems:Ahuramazd˝-,Xπayaa≥rπ˝- (or Xπay˝rπ˝-) “Xerxes,” and
A˘rtaxπaç˝- “Artaxerxes.” Of these three Xπayaa≥rπ˝- was originally an n-stem,Xπayaa≥rπan-,and
A˘rtaxπaç˝- an a-stem.The nom.Aspacan˝h “Aspathines” is from an h-stem (Aspacanah-,see lesson 8).
Adjectives:
Most Old Persian adjectives are declined according to the a-declension in the masculine and neuter.
Feminine forms of adjectives of the a-declension are usually declined according to the ˝-declension
(exceptionally according to the ^-declension).
There are a few i- and u-stem adjectives.
The fem.noun daha≥yu- is properly an au-stem.