Modern Persian 
Did you know: Middle Persian is believed to be the language spoken between Marco Polo and Khubilai Kahn.
Historical Background
Modern Persian or Farsi (Parsi) is a member of the Indo-Iranian language family, a sub-group of Indo-European languages. Despite being currently written with a variant of the Arabic alphabet, Persian does not share language groups with Arabic, which is part of the Semitic language family.
The tomb of Darius I with an inscription of his biography
Old Persian is the earliest form of the language and was spoken by the Parsa tribe of the Hakahmaneshinian, also known as the Achaemenids, who inhabited southern Iran, from approximately 550 – 330 BC. There are several inscriptions written in cuneiform which attest to a complex inflectional grammatical system including eight cases, three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and three inflections for number (singular, dual, and plural), all typical of ancient Indo-European languages. The most notable example of Old Persian is displayed at the great monument of Darius I, found in western Iran on Mount Behistun in the Province of Kermanshah.Although some historians claim that Persian can be divided into three main eras (Old, Middle, and New), most believe that four periods exist.
Pahlavi Script
During the Middle Persian period, also referred to as the Pahlavi Era, the linguistic tides began to change and Persian became highly influenced by Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, resulting in the Persian adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet. The earliest stage of this adaptation, known as Huzvaresh, consisted of alphabetically written Aramaic words used as logograms to represent words of Persian. The integration into Persian of these Aramaic-derived words is one of the foremost characteristics of the Pahlavi script, which was the full use of an Aramaic-derived alphabet to represent the sounds of Middle Persian. This lasted from the fourth century BC to the 7th century AD, although some say its intelligibility lasted through the 11th century. Due to the stability of the grammatical system between Classical and Modern Persian, texts from roughly the 12th and 11th centuries are still able to be read and understood today.
Classical Persian is also referred to as Early New Persian and began as a mostly literary form of Dari (a dialect of Persian) of the Samanid Dynasty. The language spread geographically and became the lingua franca of Central Asia and is even believed to be the language spoken between Marco Polo and Khubilai Kahn. Classical Persian became the language of the Moguls, the Turkish ruling class, and the Indian kings. This era lasted until the 14th century.
Modern Persian is largely characterized by the use of the Arabic alphabet, and a host of loan words borrowed from other languages, mostly due to Arabic influence and technological developments. It is noted that up to 50% of Persian words are of Arabic origin. Modern Persian claims over 110,000,000 speakers in the regions of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, where the dialects Farsi, Dari, and Tajik are spoken respectively.
For a full linguistic map of Iran, click here.
The Writing System
It was in Baghdad during the 8th century, about 100 years after the Arab conquest of Persia (637 AD) that the shift in the Persian alphabet was seen. The writing system of Modern Persian is based on the Arabic alphabet. There are 32 graphemes (letters), 28 of which are shared with Arabic and four of which are specific Persian. They are classified by their form (18 types, separated in the chart below) and are distinguished by one, two, or three dots placed above or below. Long vowels are represented by letters whereas short vowels are written as diacritics, above or below the consonant which they follow. Words are written from right to left with most contiguous letters written as one, uninterrupted line, although certain letters can be connected from either the left or the right, others only from the right. Therefore, the position of the letter in the word will affect its shape, each letter having up to three forms, initial, medial, and final.
Three scripts have been established, each used in different circumstances. The nasx (which means ‘copying’) script is thought to have been developed by an Iranian calligrapher to copy manuscripts in the 10th century and is currenty typically used for Arabic. The more formal nastaʿlīq script, which replaced the nasx, originated in the 15th century. Not only is it still used today for manuscript writing but is also the most popular contemporary calligraphy style. The shekaste (meaning ‘broken’) script is the successor to nastaʿlīq and is the universal handwritten form of Modern Persian.
A comparison of nasx and nastaʿlīq can be found here.
Transliteration
As Persian is written with the Arabic script, it undergoes transliteration in order to become intelligible to anyone who does not know the Arabic alphabet. Transliteration is the conversion of text from one script to another, generally done letter-by-letter. For example, the Persian word for table or desk is میز. But if you do not read Arabic script, this means nothing to you. In this article, we will instead provide the Roman approximate, the transliteration, of the script, in italics. For table, this would be maz.
Consonants
The consonantal sound inventory differs from Standard English only in that Persian has the velar fricatives [x] and [ɣ] as well as the uvular stops [q] and [G]. Allophones consist of [ŋ], [r] (voiced and voiceless) and [G]. (The consonants in red represent those of Persian origin.)
Vowels
Modern Persian has six vowels three of which are considered long [i], [u], [ɒ], and three of which are considered short [e], [o], and [æ]. There is some discrepancy as to whether this vowel distinction is based on quantity (duration of the sound) or quality (the actual position of the tongue in the vocal tract during phonation). Long vowels are considered bi-moraic, or in other words, bearing more phonetic weight than short vowels. All [+back] vowels are [+round] as are all [-back] vowels are [-round].
Table 1 Modern Persian Consonants and Vowels
Table 2 Modern Persian IPA consonant chart
Syllabic Structure
Here are the types of syllable structures of Modern Persian.
(1)
CV [do] ‘two’ CV: [hɒ:] ‘plural noun marker’
CVC [mæn] ‘I’ CV:C [ʃi:r] ‘milk’
CVCC [fekr] ‘mind’ CV:CC [du:st] ‘friend’
*Some claim that V is allowed as a syllabic structure however it has been proposed that a glottal stop will be inserted when these structures are phrase initial thus becoming CV.
These syllable shapes are quite interesting for several reasons. First, the language allows complex coda clusters consonants (two subsequent consonants at the end of a syllable) of all combinations. What is even more fascinating is that many of these complex codas violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle.
Here are some examples:
(2) [sæbr] ‘patience’ [fekr] ‘mind, spirit’ [hosn] ‘beauty’ [xætm] ‘end’
Generally, languages that permit complex codas will also allow complex onsets (two subsequent consonants at the beginning of a syllable) since the former are much more common in languages across the world. However, Modern Persian does not allow complex onsets, so much so that when a word is borrowed which has a complex onset an epenthetic vowel is inserted between the two consonants.
(3) /ski/ → [eski] ‘ski’ /skul/ → [eskul] ‘school’
Prosody
Modern Persian is not a tonal language.
Some claim that Persian is a ‘pitch-accent’ language, similar to intonation patterns observed in Japanese. This accent generally falls on the right edge of a word boundary. The addition of verbal affixes will shift the pitch accent to either the initial syllable or the final syllable of the verb stem. Exceptions include no pitch accent on verbal suffixes, possessives, or pronouns
For articles on word stress/pitch accent in Modern Persian, see below.
This Word is a Phrase, Phonologically: Evidence from Persian Stress
Morphology
Typology
Modern Persian is a synthetic and the only Indo-Iranian agglutinating language. Although word order is fairly free, Modern Persian is considered an SOV language since the verb is always found at the end of a phrase.
Nominal system
The nominal (noun) system is fairly simple with no case markers for gender (except for a very few Arabic loanwords which take the feminine ending –e) and several plural suffixes depending on the type of noun or origin (mainly Arabic). Only specific direct objects receive any type of case marker.
One quite interesting element of Persian morphology is the enclitic particle –e (-ye after a vowel), ‘Ezafe’ which is traditionally understood by some to be a type of genitive case marker on noun phrases, and by others to be a kind of agreement marker. This discrepancy lies in the fact that the usage of Ezafe is somewhat unpredictable.
For more information on the Ezafe, click here.
Modifiers are generally attached to nouns as suffixes. For example, the possessive morphemes and certain adjectives follow the noun they modify.
(4)
[ketɒ:b-e man] [yek khɒ:ne-ye bozorg] book-Ez my one house-Ez big ‘my book’ ‘A big house’Verbal System
Verbal phrases form a closed word class of about 200 lexemes, which results in fairly complex verbal constructions consisting of incorporating or combining a verb and another part of speech, i.e., noun, adjective, prepositional phrase, etc. In (4) we see a common verb used with a noun to form a complex verb. 1
(5)
[dɒ:dæn] ‘to give’, which, when combined with [guʃ] ‘ear’, yields [gush dɒ:dæn] ‘to listen.’Verbs agree in gender and number with their subject. For regular verbs, there exist two basic verbal stems, one for the present tense and one for the past tense. Stems can vary, depending on the verb class they belong to. Inflectional suffixes are attached to stems to show person and number. Table 3 gives several examples of verbal stems.
Table 3 Present/past tense verbal stems
ex: xordæn ‘to eat’ending in -idæn
ex: bɒ:xʃidæn ‘to forgive’ending in – ɒ:ndæn
ex: kɒ:ndæn ‘to dig’Removed/æn-idæn-anPresent Stemxor-bɒ:xʃ -kɒ:n -Past Stemxord-bɒ:xʃid -kɒ:nd –
Persian exhibits two separate paradigms of the present indicative forms for the verb ’to be’, [hæst], which is conjugated with regular endings for person and number, and [æst] which surfaces as an enclitic that can attach to nouns or adjectives. For examples, click here.
Word Formation
Basic word formation in Modern Persian occurs through extensive use of affixation and compounding. Although types of prefixes are comparatively few, suffixation is used quite frequently in many contexts. Just as in English, certain suffixes can be added to adjectives to derive nouns.
(6)
[xob] ‘good’ + [xobi] ‘goodness’Others can be can be added to nouns to derive adjectives.
(7)
[servæt] ‘wealth’ + [servætmaend] ‘rich’There are even suffixes that can be added to prepositional phrases to derive nouns (the word disloyalty is formed from the prepositional phrase without+loyalty + ness).
Suffixation is used to derive complex verbs from nouns (8) and nouns from verbs (9) as well as temporary and permanent adjectival conditions. There are many more examples of such usage of suffixation.
(8)
[esm] ‘name’ à [esmidænd] ‘to name’ [cɒ:r] ‘work’ à [cɒ:rmænd] ‘employee, member’Another common method of word formation is compounding. These words are composed of a more general or basic concpet as the left-most element, with a qualifier to the right.
(9)
[xɒ:ne] ‘house’ [maeraez] ‘sick’ [maeraezxɒ:ne] lit. ‘sick-house or hospital’There are very few restrictions on the composition of compounds. In others words, almost any combination of parts of speech can be used in their formation. In fact, many compounds include three or more elements, such that a compound word can be used as the basic left hand element, with a qualifier to the right.
Even verbal compounding can occur in which verbs are constructed by attaching a noun, adjective or preposition to a light verb such as “do”, “give” or “hit”. See (4). They are slightly idiomatic in the sense that the parts do not form the meaning of the verb.
(10)
[pɒ:yɒ:n yɒ:ftæn] ending find ‘to end’ [æz dæst dɒ:dæn] from hand give ‘to lose’Syntax
Modern Persian is recognized as an SOV language; however word order is basically free such that most any type of phrase can occur in more than one position in a sentence, even though sentences are mostly verb-final.
Modern Persian is also a pro-drop language, thus the subject is optional when it is a personal pronoun (I, he, you, etc.)
Language Contact
Modern Persian has been considerably influenced through contact with other languages, which has resulted in many borrowings. Arabic has clearly had the largest effect with some claiming up to 50% of Persian words actually being of Arabic origin; however other languages, notably English, French, and the Turkic languages have also made their contributions to the Persian lexicon.
Arabic Influence
Many Arabic words have been introduced into the Persian language especially in the realm of religious terminology. And although a considerable percentage of these borrowings are derived from Arabic tri-consonantal roots, including some plural forms, these morphological processes are not productive in the language.
As far back as the 10th century the more educated class has made efforts to lessen the use of Arabic loanwords in Persian. However since the return to Islam in the 1970’s, an opposing tendency to increase the use of Arabic words in both spoken and written Persian has occurred in certain populations.
English Influence
English borrowings in Modern Persian are considered the most recent and mostly fall into specific categories such as food, sports, technology, medicine, and transportation. Several of the most popular borrowings from English are based on computer technology and include words such as ‘email’.
(11)
zædænemail ‘email hit – to send an email’
emailklik kɒrdæn ‘click do – to click’ (on a mouse)
Although there have been several unsuccessful and unpopular attempts to Romanize the Persian/Arabic script, a standard writing system called Desphilic has recently been introduced which is the official script of Penglish (or fargelisi or fingilish). This has arisen largely in relationship to the growth of online chatting.
French Influence
French borrowings began to surface during the Qajar period (1794-1925) and were quite pervasive due to the fact that French culture was the most significant model of modern secular culture. This led to a significant contribution to the Persian language in the areas of science and technology. The significance of the French influence is evident seeing that the Persian word for thank you is ‘merci!’ Table 4 shows some examples of common French/Persian words.
Table 4 French Borrowings
Turkic Influence
Less evident, but also substantial are the Turkic borrowings that have been introduced into the Persian language. Parts of modern-day Iran were ruled by Turkic dynasties, which maintained and promoted Persian culture and literature thus many of these borrowings have a more familiar tone. Table 5 gives a list of such borrowings.
Table 5 Turkic borrowings
Persian Influence in Other Languages
Persian has influenced other languages, notably Arabic, as well as English and other Indo-Iranian and Turkic languages.
Arabic Words of Persian Origin
The influence of the Persian language in Arabic throughout history has been related to cultural aspects of life such as literature, poetry, Iranian maxims and proverbs as well as many musical terms and names of musical instruments.
Here is a list of several Arabic words of Persian Origin.
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sarwal ‘pants, slacks’
satel ‘pail’
khan ‘box’
bawsi ‘boss’
bijama ‘pajama’
dest ‘trampled’
bakdounis ‘parsley’
bakht ‘luck’
tisht ‘washtub’
Persian Loan Words in English
The influence of the Persian language in English is more far reaching than most English speakers realize.
Below is a list of common English words which are of Persian origin.
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algorithm derived from: Persian scientist Khwarazmi caviar derived from: khagavar ‘bringer of eggs’ khaki derived from: khake FIND ‘soil, dirty’ kiosk derived from: kushk ‘palace, pavilion’ lilac derived from: nilak ‘bluish’ magic derived from: magus ‘mighty one’ mother derived from: madder ‘mother’ mummy derived from: mumiya ‘wax’ scarlet derived from: saqirlat ‘type of red cloth’ shawl derived from: shal typhoon derived from: tufan
Proverbs
The Iranian culture is very renowned for its poetry and proverbs, most of which shed light on human nature. They are culturally rich and full of common sense. Below are some of the more well-known Persian proverbs.
“Be a lion at home and a fox abroad.”
“Courteous men learn courtesy from the discourteous.”
“By a sweet tongue and kindness, you can drag an elephant with a hair.”
“A stone thrown at the right time is better than gold given at the wrong time.”
“A thief is a king till he’s caught.”
“If fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your tooth.”
“One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common sense to apply it.”
“The best of men are but men at best.”
“Experience is a comb which nature gives to men when they are bald.”
“Fear those who do not fear God. “
“While yearning for excess we lose the necessities.”
Learning to Speak
Persian is an exceptionally beautiful language to listen to and speak. Below are several websites which offer free Persian language lessons as well as other interesting links.
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~talattof/persian/lessons.shtml
http://www.linguanaut.com/english_farsi.htm
References
Bonami, O. Samvelian, P. Degrees of periphrasis in Persian conjugation. (2008) Université Paris-Sorbonne Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Dabir-Moghaddam, M. Compound verbs in Persian. (1997) Studies in the Linguistic Sciences. Volume 27, Number 2
Elwell-Sutton, L.P., Elementary Persian. (1992) Cambridge University Press, Victoria, Australia.
Iran Chamber Society. (2014) <http://www.iranchamber.com/scripts/pahlavi_script.php>
Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan. Persian Ezafe construction: case, agreement or something else. (2006 ) In the Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Persian Language and Computer, 3-16. Tehran University.
Marszałek-Kowalewska, K. Iranian language policy: a case of linguistic purism. Instytut językoznawstwa,uniwersytet im.adama mickiewicza al.niepodległości 4, 61-874.
Megerdoomian, K. Persian Syntax. Computing Research Laboratory <http://www.zoorna.org/shiraz/syntax.html>
Tajikam. (2011) <http://tajikam.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=37>
R. Aronow
