The title of this volume indicates its purpose, and every endeavour has
been used to make it of practical service to Travellers, Traders,
missionaries, and Soldiers, as well as to Students. A carefully prepared
phonetic pronunciation is given throughout, the whole system of study
being based on the way a child naturally learns to speak its native
tongue. Thanks are due to Colonel F. FORJETT late of the Indian Army,
President and Examiner in Hindtistiini of the Military Staff College,
India, for the valuable suggestions he has given during the compilation
of this treatise. The work has been divided into two volumes, the first-
Hindfistiini Self-Taught -containing the matter most necessary for
every-day requirements by those who find themselves in the midst of a
strange people without any knowledge of their speech, whilst in the
second- Hindiistiini Grammar Self-Taught --a simplified scheme of study
is developed to give the learner a more thorough grasp of the language.
In the present work the Persi-Arabic characters have not been given
throughout, as comparatively few of the natives are able to read or to
write, but the improved system of Rowza it letters and spelling used by
Mr. John Shakespear in his Hindiistiini Dictionaries has been adopted,
which provides at a glance a simple and ready may of learning to talk.
It must be borne in mind that Hindfistiini, when well spoken, is a
language of vowels and double consonants, anci should be vocalized like
Italian the great faults of Europeans, clipping their words, and leaving
out the non-initial, must be scrupulously avoided. It must, however, be
carefully noted that the phonetic columns are not in any sense a
tansliteration of the Persi-Arabic characters, but represent a
consistent effort to express by English spelling and method the correct
sound of the Hindfistgni words and sentences as spoken by educated
natives, and this is worked out in accordance with the scheme adopted at
the last Congress of Orientalists.
