Persian Language: Interesting Facts

Telling Facts about Persian Power Point Slides for an Online Persian Discussion • slides designed and online sessions moderated by Michael Craig Hillmann • Slides highlight presumably relevant facts and issues for discussants.

• Discussants ask any questions they want about Persian.

• Questions the moderator can not answer on the spot will get answered in Persian Online Discussion Notes, posted in an online Telling Facts about Persian Dropbox file.

• FBFs not on the Dropbox list for Persian refresher materials can send an e-message to mchillmann@aol.com to get added to the Persian Online Discussion Group.

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1

Many mistakes that educated native speakers of Persian make in English reflect Persian rules.

• Tomorrow can you bring the book which I lent it to you last week?

• I bring it to class tomorrow.

• When you found time, take a look at Egtesādiniā’s new article on Farrokhzād.

• In Persian, we say that “Persian language is sugar.”

• I thought something is missing from your paper that should be in such papers.

• At the party last night, Maryam took some pictures from me.

• The pomegranate tree is full of fruits.

• It’s been almost ten years since the last time I paint.

• There’s so much similarities between the dictators…

• It doesn’t worth it.

• •

2

The Persian Way of Viewing Numbers Dar khuneh ketāb dārin?

Ketābhā injāst.

Do you have any books at home?

The books are right here.

Yek ketāb dāram.

Do-tā ketāb daram.

I have one book.

I have two books.

‫در خونه کتاب‬ ‫دارین؟‬ .‫کتابها ایجاست‬ .‫یک کتاب دارم‬ .‫دوتا کتاب دارم‬

3

A Persian Conception of Time

Dārin chekār mikonin?

What are you doing?

Dāram surat jalaseh-ro edit mikonam. I’m editing the minutes of the meeting.

Dāram dar telefon harf mizanam.

Dar telefon harf nemizanam.

‫دارین چکار می کنین؟‬ ‫دارم صورت جلسه رو ادیت‬ .‫می کنم‬

.‫دارم در تلفن حرف نمیزنم‬ I’m talking on the telephone right now.

I’m not talking on the telephone right now. .‫در تلفن حرف نمیزنم‬

4

The Persian Gulf

• Khalij-e Fārs

‫ااااارس‬ ‫ف‬

‫خلیج‬

Persian Gulf

• “Fārsi” or “Persian” for ‫ی‬ «‫ااااارس‬ ‫?» ف‬

• “Iran” or “Persia” as the country’s name?

• Fārsi Tājiki Dari

‫فارس‬ ‫ی‬ ‫تاجیک‬ ‫ی‬ ‫دری‬

Dunwoody Press, 2003

3

What’s behind the names “Takht-e Jamshid” and “Naqsh-e Rostam”?

• One of the most depicted images in miniature paintings accompanying the text in Shāhnāmeh manuscripts.

• The two most recent English translations of Ferdowsi’s Shâhnâmeh, Dick Davis’s in 2006 and Ahmad Sadri’s in 2013, feature covers that associate the work with Persian miniature painting.

• The Sadri translation highlights Rostam’s role in the Shāhnāmeh by ending its narrative with the death of Rostam.

4

Iran…Iranian…Persia…Persian The word “Irān” ‫ن‬ [‫] ایرا‬, the indigenous name for the country, denotes “of/relating to Aryans,” while its synonym “Persia” is a Western coinage, based on the Persian word “Pārs” ‫س‬ [ ‫ ] اااپ ر‬or “Fārs ‫س‬ [ ‫ااااار‬ ‫] ف‬, the name of the ancient central Iranian land in the south/southwestern part of today’s Iran and the name of the province of which the city Shirāz is the capital.

The words “Iranian” and “Persian” are likewise used synonymously to refer to citizens of the country of Iran and things belonging to it, although the word “Persian” is used more than “Iranian” in talking about the country’s art, e.g., “Persian carpets” and “Persian miniature painting.” The word “Iranian” is used more than “Persian” in talking about history and politics, e.g., “the Iranian government.”

“Persian” is also the name of the national language of Iran called ‫ی‬ «‫ااااارس‬ ‫[ » ف‬Fārsi] in Persian.

In distinguishing different Iranian ethnic and linguistic groups, the phrase “Persian Iranians” refers to Iranians whose native language is Persian and/or who think of themselves as descended from Indo-European speakers of Persian, as opposed to (Āzarbāyāni) Turkish, Kurdish, Bakhtiyāri, or Torkaman Iranians. Persian Iranians are called «‫ااااارس‬ ‫[ » ف‬Fārs] in Persian.

5

Languages of Iran

Top three languages of Iran: Fārsi Āzarbāyjāni Turkish Kurdish

5

Fārsi Persian…As Easy as Indo-European Languages Get

(1) presents native speakers of general American English with no serious pronunciation problems (e.g., easily resolvable, initial issues with /kh/, /r/, /q/, front ‘l’ in syllable-medial and -final positions, and /h/ in syllable-medial and -final position);

(7) features no declension of nouns, pronouns, adjectives or relative pronouns;

(2) exhibits no definite article or indefinite article per se;

(9) involves no irregularities in cardinal and ordinal numbers;

(3) features no irregular verbs;

(10) features a single verb conjugation and only twelve discrete tenses;

(4) has no grammatical gender except in the use of some Arabic loanwords and phrases; (5) calls for no change in word order in any sort of interrogative statements; (6) requires no change in word order or convolution of elements in subordinate clauses that normally exhibit subject-object-verb patterns;

(8) involves no necessary pluralization of nouns used with cardinal numbers;

(11) allows for flexibility in the word order of subject, object, and verb parts of statements; and (12) makes use of a Perso-Arabic writing system that is phonetic, albeit with a significant shortcoming problematic in the short term; e.g.,‫ هتل‬/hotel/ being spelled /htl/.

• Then, why does it take years to get good at Persian?

6

A Golden Age of Persian Lexicography, 1980s-2020…..100+ reliable dictionaries

• Sokhan Comprehensive Dicfionary, Persian to Persian, 2003

• Newer Persian-English and English-Persian dictionaries

• 70 + technical and specialized English-Persian and Persian-Persian dictionaries • IRI-era specialized and technical dictionaries on: agriculture, animal husbandry, Arabic loanwords, archaeology, architecture, art, astronomy, banking, biology, business, carpets, oriental (Persian), chemical engineering, chemistry, cinema, civil engineering, dialects, earth sciences, economics, electricity, electronics, engineering, environment, European loanwords, geography, geology and mines, geophysics, health and hygiene, industrial engineering, journalism, law, linguistics, literature, management, materials, mathematics, mechanical engineering, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, military affairs, mining engineering, mountain climbing, music, names (male and female), nursing, nutrition, painting, philosophy, phonetics, photography, physical education/ sports, physics, political science, politics, proverbs, psychology, psychiatry, pure Persian, railroad, religion, science and technology, slang, sociology, statistics, and veterinary medicine.

7

“Arabesque” in Persian

‫ااسلیم‬ ‫ی‬ eslimi

Shāh Mosque Dome, Royal Square, Esfahān Late 20th-century Esfahān Arabesque [= eslimi] Medallion and Arabesque Field Carpet

8

Calligraphy: A Major Iranian Art Form

Thorns and Roses (1988) by Hossein Zenderoudi

1 Lost Joseph is coming/will come again to Canaan.

Don't grieve.

The (Jacob's) hut of sorrows will become a flower garden.

Don't grieve.

2 This grief-stricken heart will get better. Don't despair.

And this frenzied head will again find peace.

Don't grieve.

3 If the heavens have not revolved for two days in accord with our wishes, the business of the ages is not continually the same.

Don't grieve.

4 Hey, don't despair because the hidden remains secret.

Behind the curtain there are hidden machinations.

Don't grieve.

5 O heart, if transience should flood the foundation being, when/since you have Noah as captain in the storm, don't grieve.

6 If out of zeal for the kaaba you walk in the desert and acacia thorns offer rebukes, don't grieve.

7 Although the halting place is dangerous and the destination distant, there is no road which does not have an end. So don't grieve.

8 God, the changer of conditions, knows my condition, all of it, if separated from the beloved and importuned by the rival: don't grieve.

9 In isolated indigence and lonely dark nights, don't grieve, Hâfez, as long as your chant is prayer and the lesson of the Koran.

• A calligraphic painting presenting the text of a ghazal by Hāfez (c.1320c.1390), the premier lyric poet in the Persian language. Famous for ghazals that describe romantic and mundane love and ghazals that describe spiritual and Sufistic love and ghazals that treat love ambivalently, this “Thorns and Roses” ghazal voices orthodox Muslim sentiments.

post-e jomhuri-ye eslāmi-ye irān

nehzat-e savād’āmuzi

Tchaar-Bagh (1981) by Hussein Zenderoudi • Sold at Christie’s for $1,600,000

.

by Nasser Ovissi

by Nasser Ovissi

Shaykh Safiyoddin Shrine, 16th-18th c., Ardabil

• Shaykh Safiyoddin Ardabili (1252-1334), the eponym of the Safavid dynasty (ruled 1501-1722), was a Sunni Sufi shaykh in Ardabil and founder of the Safaviyyeh order.

•The word “Allâh” [‫االاله‬ ] appears “infinitely” around the tower cylinder. Even the illiterate viewer who cannot read that word can sense the infinity of God which the design communicates.

• This opening page of an 1817 Koran from Iran, on which floral motifs and patterns take up much more space than does the text, creates the impression of a garden of stylized and idealized garden elements, the calligraphed verses also part of the garden.

• Insofar as the Koran represents for Muslims God’s very words to humankind, it makes sense that calligraphy would become a major art form in Islam, as well as manuscript illumination of copies of the Koran.

• a reliable translation, including the Arabic text

• The Arabic Koran is the most widely circulated book in a book’s original language in history, and only the original Arabic text has validity for Muslims as divinely inspired.

• But because the vast majority of Muslims around the world cannot read Arabic, translations into national languages in countries with a significant Muslim population has particular significance in the practice of Islam.

• For readers of Persian, Bahā’oddin Khorrāmshâhi’s translation called Qor’ān-e Karim [The Great/Noble Koran] (Tehrān: Dustān, 2005/6), with the original Arabic text on facing pages, is the most readable Persian version and has the approval of Iranian Shi’ite Muslim authorities.

• One of the first stamps printed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, was this image of a curvilinear field design carpet with a central medallion, the same sort of design that the Pahlavi monarchy favored.

• “Symbolism in Modern Persian Carpet Design,” in Persian Carpets (1984) by Michael Craig Hillmann, suggests why these antithetically opposed governments felt wholly comfortable with the same Persian carpet iconography. jomhuri-ye eslāmi-ye irān post-e irān

Hich [ ‫ هیچ‬nothing]

by Parviz Tanavoli (b. 1937)

Rebellious Silence (1994)

by Shirin Nashat

• Called hejâb (= hijab), this stamp depicts one sort of ideal Iranian woman in the 97 eye(s) of the Islamic Republic.

• See Talinn Grigor, Contemporary Iranian Art: From the Street to the Studio (Reaktion Books, 2014).

“Victory comes from God and victory is near” [in Arabic]

• During the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran issued scores of stamps supporting the war and honoring Iranian soldiers.

9

Persian and Arabic • From its 9th-century beginnings, the Neo-Persian language [ ‫یدر)اااب ر(ی‬ ‫ااااارس‬ ‫] ف‬ made use of a modified version of Arabic script as its writing system and has exhibited a significant overlay of Arabic loanwords, the latter a fact about which many Iranians remain sensitive, some even decrying those Arabic loanwords and advocating a Persian lexicon eliminating the Arabic element . In the contemporary period, dictionaries have appeared offering “pure” Persian lexical items to replace existing Arabic loanwords. In addition a Persian Language Academy [Farhangestān-e Zabān va Adab-e Fārsi] has existed since the 1920s that has recommended new Persian words, often either to take the place of foreign loanwords or to introduce Persian neologisms before foreign loanwords establish themselves in the lexicon, especially in the arenas of modern concepts and technology.

• The facts that Persian poetry adapted Arabic prosody (e.g., notion of figures of speech and terms, a quantitative metrical system despite the natural accentual basis of rhythm in Persian speech), that the Persian language adopted and adapted Arabic vocabulary, and that it continues to adopt and adapt loanwords from French and English do not, in fact, suggest any deficiency in either the language or the people who speak it (as some Persian Iranians suppose), but rather indicate the capacity for growth and expansion in the language and the adaptability of Iranians who speak and write it. But, because Iranian adaptability in this regard was involuntary with respect to Arabic and has not seemed wholly voluntary to many of them with respect to French and English, many native speakers appear to oscillate dualistically between xenophobia and xenophilia when it comes to dealing with originally foreign linguistic and cultural elements in their mother tongue.

Vazheh’yāb

Dictionary of Pure Persian Words

• Persian Grammar and Verbs (2012) treats “Arabic Loanwords in Persian” and “Arabic Phrases and Grammar in Persian,” pp. 331-412.

• A Frequency Dictionary of Persian: Core vocabulary for Learners (2017) lists 245 Arabic lexical items among the 500 most frequently occurring Persian words in everyday texts and speech.

• The Pooya English-Persian Dictionary (2008, 3rd edition), features among its 40,000 English headwords several thousand headwords for which it offers no “pure” Persian equivalents–here are random examples under the letter “p”: pacifist, page, parts of speech (both the term and names of parts of speech), politics, posture, precondition, pro-life, probably, promise, and prosody (both the term and names of elements of prosody).

• Some Iranians think that the “purer” their Fārsi Persian language is the better. But aren’t richer languages those that can readily adopt and adapt foreign concepts and vocabulary? It so happens that Fārsi Persian is one such language, but an understandable xenophobic element in Iranian cultural nationalism has it that using “pure” Persian words and coining “pure” Persian neologisms strengthen their mother tongue. When they apply that view to the past, they perpetuate such myths as asserting that Ferdowsi eschewed Arabic loanwords in his Shāhnāmeh.

10

Farhangestān-e Zabān va Adab-e Fārsi

• See M.A. Jazayery, “Farhangestān,” Encyclopaedia Iranica at www.iranicaonline.org

11

What two letters appear in word-initial position more than any other letters in Persian alphabet? And why?

/mim/

‫م‬

/alef/

-

‫آ‬ ‫ا‬

• Dehkhodā’s Loghat’nāmeh, 42 volumes and an introductory volume. Does not include colloquial or slang lexical items or vocabulary that has entered the Persian language since the 1960s.

/ā…/ /a…/ /e…/ /o…/ /ay…/ /ow…/

12

Persian terms for “fate”

‫سرنوشت‬ ‫تقدیر‬ ‫قسمت‬ ‫قضا و قدر‬ ‫قضا و بل‬

sarnevesht taqdir qesmat qazā va qadar qazā va bālā taqdirgerā taqdirgerāyi

‫تقدیرگرا‬ fatalism ‫تقدیرگرایی‬

fatalist

Livān az dastam oftād.

‫افتاد‬.

I dropped the glass.

lit: The glass fell out of my hand.

Sāket bāsh.

Pā show.

Be quiet!

Get up!

Zamin nakhori ā!

Don’t fall down!

Sarmā nakhori ā!

‫اایلااواناز دستم‬

Don’t catch cold!

!‫ساکت باش‬ !‫پا شو‬ ‫زیمن‬ !‫نخوریا‬ ‫سرما‬ !‫نخوریا‬

13

Phonemic Word Stress in Persian

They live in a greén hoúse.

They live in a greénhouse.

Mahmúd unjāst.

Máhmud, bíyā injā. ketābí kētābi ráftam Unjā raftám [I’ve gone there.]

14

Ta‘ārof

‫تعارف‬

The Combined New Persian-English English-Persian Dictionary (1986) defines ta‘ârof as: (1) compliments; (2) ceremony; (3) courtesy; and (4) flattery. The same dictionary defines ta‘âróf kardán [to make/do/perform ta‘âróf] as: (1) to use compliments; (2) to stand upon ceremony; and (3) to make a present of (something). And it defines ta‘ârofí [ta‘ârofish] as: somebody who uses ta‘âróf a lot. Sokhan Unabridged Persian Dictionary (2002/3) defines ta‘âróf as: (1) wanting, accompanied with politeness and courtesy and sometimes insistence, that somebody perform an action or accept an invitation; (2) hesitating to accept an invitation or something usually contrary to one’s inner inclination; and (3) making use of statements accompanied by politeness/courtesy and respect, to please a person addressed or to somebody or to ask after somebody’s health.

Kimia Persian-English Dictionary (2006) defines ta‘âróf as: (1) compliment(s); (2) polite talk, especially offers of hospitality that one expects to be declined; (3) offering something to somebody; and (4) a gift. And Persian Encyclopedical Dictionary (2009) defines ta‘âróf as: (1) pleasant/agreeable talk; (2) offering some thing or service without charge and in a friendly manner; and (3) ceremoniousness/formal, ceremonious behavior. In Persian Conversations (2018), ta‘âróf is defined as a culture-specific (Iranian) and language-specific (Fârsi Persian and Iranian Âzarbâyjâni Turkish) conventional system of verbiage and gestures: (1) communicating politeness, respect, and deference; (2) potentially pleasing somebody so addressed through compliments and intimations of that person’s lofty status and the speaker’s lowly status; (3) creating a pleasurable and comfortable (because familiar and conventional) ceremonial context or backdrop for/in interaction situations; (4) verbally achieving unequal status with an interlocutor to seek some thing or service or to avoid providing some thing or service; and (5) enabling users politely to avoid disclosing information and views, including their distrust, dislike or disdain of interlocutors.

!‫قربونت برم‬

Qorbúnet béram.

Qorbúnam bérin.

āmadán/umadan

!‫قربونم برین‬ ‫ن اومدن‬ /‫آمد‬

to come

budán

to be sp/present‫ن‬ ‫اابوااد‬

raftán

to go

tashrif āvardan

to come

tashrif dāshtan

to be sw/present‫ن‬ ‫داشت‬

tashrif bordan

to go

rudarvāsi [= rudarbāyesti]

‫رفتن‬ ‫ااشاریف آوردن‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ااتشااریف‬

‫اار دن‬ ‫ااشاریف ب‬ ‫ت‬

= ‫رودرواسی‬ ‫رودربایستی‬

15

Registers of Contemporary Tehran Fārsi Persian

• language registers:

• written language: • literary language: • archaic/obsolete literary: gereft • widely used literary:

‫ب زبان‬ ‫مراات‬ ‫ااواشتار‬ ‫زبان ن‬ ‫ى‬ ‫زبان ادب‬ ‫ى مهجور‬ ‫ادب‬

x

marāteb-e zabān zabān-e neveshtār zabān-e adabi

he/she fled .‫ت‬ ‫اارااف‬ ‫گ‬

‫ت‬ ‫هزی م‬ ‫م‬ ‫م‬ /‫ت‬ ‫ااراایز اااگرااف‬ ‫گگ‬

‫ی متداول‬ ‫ادب‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ت مرف‬ ‫هزی م‬ ‫م‬ ‫م‬ ‫ااهاا‬ ‫ب‬ be hazimat raft • contrived literary: ‫ى مصنوع‬ ‫ادب‬ ‫ااهاااد‬ ‫ااراایز ناا‬ ‫ااهاا گ‬ ‫اااپ ب‬ pā be goriz nahād • formal language: ‫ى‬ ‫زبان رسم‬ • refined/cultured language: ‫زبان مااهذذااب‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ااراایخ‬ ‫گك‬ gorikht • technical/scientific Language: ‫ حرف ه اى‬،‫ى‬ ‫ااخاصص‬ ‫ ت‬،‫ى‬ ‫زبانعلم‬ • administrative/judicial/commercial language ‫ تجارى‬،‫ قضایى‬،‫زبان ادارى‬ ‫شد‬ ‫گممتوارى گ‬ motavāri shod • standard: ‫زبان معیار‬ zabān-e me‘yār ‫اارااد‬ ‫اارااار مك‬ ‫مف‬ farār kard • spoken language: .‫اافااتار‬ ‫زبان گ‬ zabān-e goftār ‫اارااد‬ ‫اارااار مك‬ ‫مف‬ farār kard • colloquial/everyday language: . ‫ زبانروزمر ه‬/ ‫زبانمحاور ه‬ ‫ت‬ ‫دررف‬ dar raft • colloquial/slang language: ‫ زبانعامیان ه‬zabān-e ‘āmiyāneh ‫اادااا‬ ‫جیم ش‬ jim shod • street talk: ‫ی‬ ‫االا ه میدان‬ ‫چ‬ ‫ی‬ /‫ااتاا‬ ‫ی ل‬ /‫تزبان جاهل‬ ‫ااسا‬ ‫ب‬ ‫گرا‬ ‫االاان‬ ‫ف‬ falang-rā bast

goriz

16

The Colloquial Persian Phenomenon [ ‫ ااپدااید ه‬/ padideh] • literary Persian

zabān-e adabi

• bookish/written Persian

zabān-e ketābi/neveshtāri

• colloquial/spoken Persian mohāvereh’i/goftāri

zabān-e

• colloquial and slang Persian

zabān-e ‘āmiyāneh

‫ن مامدبی‬ ‫مزبا ا‬ ‫اناوشتاری‬/‫زبان کتابی‬ ‫زبان گمحاوره‬ ‫گگفتاری‬/‫ای‬ ‫زبان عامیانه‬

• See “10. Colloquial/Spoken amd Bookish/Written Registers of Tehran Persian, Persian Grammar and Verbs (Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody Press, 2012), pp. 61-74. Available online at wwwAcademia.edu/MichaelHillmann.h

17

The Letter Aléf

L. A Hair perhaps divides the False and True; Yes; and a single Alif were the clue— Could you but find it—to the Treasure-house, And peradventure to THE MASTER too; Edward FitzGerald, ROOK (4th ed., 1879)

• See “ Chapter 1: The Persian Writing System,” Persian Reading and Writing (Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody Press, 2010), pp. 1-62. Available online at www.Academia.edu/MichaelHillmann.

18

The Iranian Love Affair with 1,100 Years of Persian Poetry

• Iranians take special pride in their Persian language, and Persian poetry has been Iran’s most beloved art form since the 10 th century.

The first major poet in the Neo-Persian was Rudaki (d. 940/1), the millennium of whose birth this postage stamp commemorates. It was unnecessary for the designers of the stamp to include the word “poet” on it.

• Other pre-modern poets commemorated in Pahlavi and Islamic Republic Era postage stamps: Ferdowsi, Nāser Khosrow, Nezāmi, Sa’di, Rumi, and Hāfez.

hezār-e sadomin sāl-e tavallod-e rudaki 1,000th anniversary of the birth of Rudaki

Ferdowsi (940-1020)

˙Hāfez (c.1320-c.1390) Sa‘di (c.1215-c.1295)

Nezāmi-ye Ganjavi (1149-1201)

‘Omar Khayyām (1048-1131)

• See Talinn Grigor, Building Iran: Modernism, Architecture, and National Heritage under the Pahiavi Monarchs (Periscope, 2009).

‘Attār (d.1221)

Jalāloddin Rumi (1207-1273)

Khājeh ‘Abdollāh Ansāri

• Using a Persian-speaking collaborator’s translations, Barks also looks at other translations and then produces his own “translations,”which often reduce the Islam-specific content of the Persian originals.

Rābe‘eh Qozdāri (856-926)

Parvin E‘tesāmi (1907-1941) Forugh Farrokhzād (1934-1967) Tāhereh Qurratu’l- ‘Ayn (1817-1852)

19

Supposing the future is past, which it will be then.

• Vakhti residin tehrun, bā barādaram belāfāseleh tam ās begirin.

• Vāy, che qad dir shodeh, man raftam.

• (1) “Hamid, kojā’id?” (2) “Māmān jun, umadam.”

• • • • • •

20

Sequencing Verb Tenses

21

A sampling from among 200+ English words of Persian origin bazaar candy caravan caviar check* checkmate** China cushy dervish jasmine julep kabob khaki kiosk lemon

magic musk orange pajama paradise pistachio saffron scarlet shah shawl sugar taffeta turban typhoon

…………………. ………………… …………………. ………………….. ………………….. …………………. …………………. ………………... ………………… ………………… …………………

* The English words “check” and “checking” come from the Persian word shāh / ** “checkmate” = shāhmāt‫ت‬ ‫ما‬

‫اااااا ه‬ ‫[ ش‬king].

‫اااااا ه‬ ‫[ ش‬the king (is) immobilized/dumbfounded but

not “dead.”

• What sort of Iranian culture do English loanwords from Persian suggest?