There arc 2 simple vowels and about 14 diphthongs in Zend, for each of which there are special characters. Of vowels peculiar to this idiom may be mentioned the cs (long, with a nasal sound), used chiefly in the genitive plural termination; further the which, in the Giltita dialect, often replaces the final 15 of the usual Zend, and which, by the fre quency with which writers confound it with i, would also prove itself closely allied to that sound. There is, further, an initial a to be observed, which probably crept lute the Zend texts when they were transcribed into their present characters, which, no doubt, are borrowed from the Syriac. This a corresponds to the aleph prostheticon of the Semitic idioms, Again, the short vowels are always lengthened at the end of a word in the Gittha dialect: owing, most probably, to the circumstance that the Walla literature ,—the most sacred hymns—were sung, and the singer's voice resting upon the fiva: vowel, whether long or short, had the effect of lengthening it even in the MSS., writter. mostly from memory. Of consonants, there are 6 gutturals, 2 palatals, 4 dentals, 3 labi• als, 4 semivowels, 5 sibilants, 5 nasals. The roots are mostly monosyllabic, consisting occasionally of one vowel only, or being a combination of a vowel with a simple or double consonant, or of two consonants with a vowel between them: e.g., i, to go; cla", to give; gel, to go; mere, to die, as, to be, etc. Additional sounds added to the simple roots, enlarge and otherwise change the meaning of a word—dd, to make, becomes, by the addition of th, dealt, to place; from mere, to die, is derived merefielt, to kill. Three chief modifications are to be noticed in the verbal roots, irrespective of tense and mood —via., the "causal form," expressing the idea of "to make," "to get made," which is formed by lengthening the :vowel of the root, and adding the syllable aye, as in San skrit. ..,ext stands the desiderative form, expressing the wish of obtaining anything, which is formed by the reduplication of the first syllable and the addition of s to the crude form before the terminations. The last or intensive form, used to render the verb more emphatic, was originally prochiced by a simple reduplication of the root and the termination ; afterward, only the vowel of the first part was lengthened, and the consonants following were omitted. Three voices—the active, middle or reflective (Let. deponent), and the passive—obtain in Zend, as in Greek and Sanskrit; and there are four chief moods, which may be used in all these three voices—the indicative, sub junctive, potential, and imperative. The subjunctive is of a double nature, the one expressing the "might, would, or should," the other the feature lost in clas sical Sanskrit, and only to be met with in the ancient language of the Vedas. The potential, too, is of two kinds, corresponding to the Sanskrit "potential "and " preca tive." There are as many tenses in Zend as there are in Sanskrit, though fewer than in Greek, which is, in this respect, the richest of the Aryan stock. There may be distin tinguished one formation for the present, four for the past, and two for the future.
The general scheme of the (active) present and imperfect is as follows: The division of the "crude" forms into ten classes, in use with the grammarians of Sanskrit, is also fully applicable to the Zend. Additions and reduplication make up the distinguishing features. The past tenses are likewise formed, as in the sister tongues, by augmentation, reduplication, or composition. Apart from those forms which are identical with those employed in Sanskrit, Greek and Lithuanian, Latin, and the ancient Teutonic languages, we find the use of two kinds of subjunctives. Equal richness of forms is found in the participle and the infinitive, whilst there are fewer gerundial forms than in Sanskrit. Nouns are formed out of roots by the addition of suffixes, which generally correspond to those of the cognate languages. There are three genders in Zend—masculine, feminine, and neuter. The comparative and superlative are formed very nearly as in Sanskrit and Greek. The number of compound nouns in Zend is some what less than in the Sanskrit and Greek, on account of its standing nearer the more simple Vedic idiom. There are three numbers and eight cases of inflection for singular and plural of nouns; while there are no less than five cases in the dual, no other Aryan language having retained more than three. The terminations of the cases (in words ending with a consonant) are somewhat according to the following scheme: There are only pronouns of the first and second persons to be found in Zend, the third being made up by a demonstrative pronoun. There are some older forms to be
found in the Gana dialect only. Most of the pronouns resemble closely the Sanskrit forms. The relative is sometimes used as a demonstrative. The numerals from one to ten are: aeva, dva (va, duge, aye), thri, chathware, poilcha (menda), khshvas (khshvi dem), hapta, asta, nava, daca. The following numbers are formed by the addition of, the single cardinal numbers to the ten or data: 20 = vIcaiti, 100 = catein, 200 = duye caite, 1000 = hazanra, 10,000 = baevare, 100,000 = ahOkhsta. The ordinals are: paiorya, first; bhp, second; thritya, third; klitfiiryah, fourth; pukhdha, fifth, etc. " Multipli cation numerals" arc formed by addition of keret and hakeret, once; bizhvat, twice; thrizhvat, thrice; etc. Particles and prepositions are often identical with those of Sanskrit. The latter may be separated from the verb, if forming part of it, as in the case in the Vedic and Homeric languages, but not in classic Sanskrit or Greek.
n We have started with the now fully proved assertion that Zend is closely allied to Sanskrit, more especially to the ancient Vedic dialect. To the latter, it bears about the same affinity which the different Greek dialects Colic, Doric, Ionic, Attic) bear to one another. The ancient Brahmans and the Parsecs are but two tribes of the nation which is called Aryas both in the 'Veda and the former somewhat to be com pared to the Ionians, the latter to the Dorians. But in comparing Zend with Sanskrit it is noticeable that it resembles more the primitive Vedic than the classical Sanskrit. In verbal forms, chiefly moods and tenses, the classical Sanskrit is much poorer than it ;s in its primitive Vedic phase, having lost various forms of the subjunctive mood, most tenses of all other moods, except indicative, the manifold forms expressing the infinitive mood, while all these are found completely preserved in the Vedas, and Homeric Greek. From these and many other signs it would indeed follow as if the classical Sanskrit had been formed long after the separation of the Iranians from the Hindoos. The differences between the Vedic, Sanskrit, and Zend are very minute in grammar, but important both' phonetically and lexicographically, like the difference between German and Dutch. But the philologist can easily transform, by slight phonetic changes, the Zend word into the Sanskrit one. As a striking proof of the original idea tity, of grammatical forms between the two, the circumstance may be cited of their both exhibiting certain identical irregularities.
For Zend literature we may refer both to our articles on PERSIAN LANGUAGE. AND LIT ERATURE and to ZEND-AVESTA. We confine ourselves here to a brief mention of the principal items. At the head stand the five Gathas, which may safely be ascribed to Zoro aster and his disciples themselves. There is no doubt that what now survives is but a scanty fragment of what once existed of this literature. Probably they but represent a selection of verses considered most efficacious for putting down evil influences, and for increasing the welfare of the Zarathustrians. The Gathas, as they now stand, may be com pared to the Samaveda, which contains selections from the Rigveda, used at the Soma sacrifices. Next in order stand the Yasna, or seven chapters, containing songs and pray ers, which dates from a much later period ; and here again the first portion, or "Younger Yasna," is of still later date; and on the same line stands the Visparad, the collection of prayers called " All heads," in 23 chapters. The Vendidad, on the other hand, repre sents conversations held by Zoroaster with Ahuramazda on religious topics, and is most likely the work of the high-priests of the Iranian community of later periods. The Yashts, or songs and conversations, are the latest. The age of the different works men tioned is fixed by Haug in the following manner: The Gathas abolit 900 Or 1200 B.C. ; the larger portion of the Vendidad at about 900 or 1000 B. C.; the younger Yasna, about 700–S00 B. C.; the latest part of the Vendidad (the Pazend) being written as late as 500 when the collection of the different parts also seems to have taken place. This com putation would give the Zend, or rather the famed Parsee literature, a range of about 800 years, or from 1200 to 400 B. c. Cf. Hang's Essays on the Religion of the Fames (Bom bay, 1862).—See PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, ZEND-AVESTA, ZOROASTER.