Download - 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