persian (farsi) language and alphabet

Language and Writing

Arabic ?PersianPersian = Arabic?

Indo-European Afro-asiatic Sino-Tibetan [other]

Afro-Asiatic languages

Indo-European languages

Indo-European Languages

Indo-Iranian Languages

Iranian Languages

Persian

Afro-asiatic Languages

Semitic Languages

Arabic

Indo-European languages:the most widely spoken family of languages in the world

other languages

Hellenic

ItalicGermanic

Slavic Indo-Iranian

Iranian Indian (Indo-Aryan)

Split up around early 2nd millenium BC

Dardic and Nuristani languages

Persian (around 70 million speakers)

Kurdish (ca. 25 million speakers)

Pashto (ca. 25 million speakers)

Balochi (ca. 7 million speakers)

Main distinction: Eastern group and Western group

a glimpse of Persian language history

Official name: Farsi ( فارسی )

Present name: Fars (ARABIC)

Persia (LATIN) Πέρσις - Pérsis (GREEK) Parsa (OLD PERSIAN)

Persian (ENGLISH) Persianus (LATIN)

Language spoken in

a glimpse of Persian language history

Proto-Iranian language

Appeared in the Iranian plateau ca. 1500 BC

From which Persian descended…

… and evolved through three stages of development

Old Persian Middle Persian Modern Persian

ca. 525 BC – 300 BC ca. 300 BC – 800 AD from 800 AD

It’s clear that Persian belongs to the Indo-European family

Let’s have a look at his history.

… but why we still have an Arabic echo when we listen to it?

a glimpse of Persian language history

Old Persian

ca. 525 BC – 300 BC

Originated in the Parsa (Fars) province

First written evidence with the rise of Achaemenid empire

Was spoken throughout the vaste Persian Empire and used as “lingua franca”for over 200 years

Received influence from… Elamite, Babylonian, Aramaic, Greek…

…and gave influence to Hebrew

a glimpse of Persian language history

Old Persian

ca. 525 BC – 300 BC

It was written in an adapted cuneiform alphabet (known as Mikhi)It declined with the fall of Achaemenid dinasty (300 BC)

Old Persian must not be confused with Avestan

Written from left to right

Aramaic

a glimpse of Persian language history

Middle Persian

ca. 300 BC – 800 AD

Middle Persian is a period, more than a single language

Parthian, a language once spoken in small region, spread through all Iran

After the rise of the Sassanid, a language named Pahlavi was spoken

Pahlavi was written in an alphabet of the same name, an Aramaic-derived script

Written from right to left

Middle Persian influenced

Middle Persian period ended after the Arab conquest

Arabic, Latin; Hindi, Armenian, Georgian

a glimpse of Persian language history

Modern Persianfrom 800 AD

Modern Persian began after the Arab conquest

The process of transformation lasted around 200 years

and consisted of:

- Import of new Arabic words which changed the vocabulary

- Use of Arabic script instead of the previous Pahlavi alphabet

(but NOT the structure of the language)

Transition from Middle Persian to Modern Persian lasted till 10th century AD

Since then the language is known as Classical Persian

… having its Golden Age during the 13th and 14th century AD

Evolution of Persian language – some brief notes

.

today520 B.C

hardly understandable…

todayFerdowsi

940 – 1020 AD

But…

The communication would be possible

• Modern Persian reached its maturity long ago

• This means that…

• …in 1000 years the language has remained stable in terms of grammar rules and large part of vocabulary

Evolution of Persian language

First 1500 of history: modification in the transition from Old Persian to Modern Persian

GENDERAbolition of

Abolition of CONJUGATIVE SUFFIXES

PLURAL OF FOREIGN WORDS

Simplification in the formation ofKETAB (Arabic)

KOTOB (Arabic)

KETAB - HA (Persian)

As a whole the structure of the language…

…became simplified

characteristics

Persian is very powerful in wordbuilding and versatile in ways a word can be built from combining affixes, stems, nouns and adjectives

Just by combining roots with affixes, Persian vocabulary could reach the number…

…of 226 million words!

characteristics

From the root dân

For example:

present stem of the verb dânestan (to know)

we can obtain

Persian word Components English translation

dâneš dân + -eš knowledge

dânešmand dân + -eš + -mand Scientist

dânešgâh dân + -eš + -gâh university

dânešgâhi dân + -eš + -gâh + -i pertaining to university

hamdânešgâhi ham- + dân + -eš + -gâh + -i university-mate

dâneškade dân + -eš + -kade faculty

dânâ dân + -â wise, learned

dânâyi dân + -â + -i wisdom

nâdân nâ- + dân ignorant; foolish

nâdâni nâ- + dân + -i ignorance; foolishness

dânande dân + -ande one who knows

dânandegi dân + -ande + -i knowing

characteristics

Persian uses a large quantity of compound verbs

i.e. verbs consisting of an element (noun, adjective, preposition), followed

by a light verb (“do”, “give”, “hit”) which loses its original meaning

Examples:

FEKR

kardan

thought

to do

GUSH

dadan

ear

to give

Fekr kardan = “to think”

Gush dadan = “to listen” Very similar to the old English give an ear

فارسی

ShawlPyjamaTaffetaKhakiKioskJasmineBazaarCaravan…

Language of literature (zaban-e adabi)language of books, newspapers,news on TV…

Colloquial language (zaban-e khodemani) language of everyday use

الف باء

Arabic alphabet is composed

mainly of consonants.

Only long vowels are indicated.

Therefore, to read short vowels it needs diacritical symbols to be added

Ambiguity

M R K

kerm "worm" karam "generosity"

kerem "cream" krom "chrome"

karm "vine"

Integrative letters

بجزک

Integrative letters

p ب

ch (chair) ج

j (like in French jour) ز

g (game) ک

simplifications

t ط

صs ث

ذz ض

ظ

So the alphabet used in Iran is actually called...

Perso-Arabic script