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Look up Indo-Iranian Swadesh lists in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Persian belongs to the Indo-European language family, and many words in modern Persian usage ultimately originate from Proto-Indo-European. The language makes extensive use of word building techniques such as affixation and compounding to derive new words from roots. Persian has also had considerable contact with other languages, resulting in many borrowings.
Persian is very powerful in word building and versatile in ways a word can be built from combining affixes, stems, nouns and adjectives. Having many affixes to form new words (over a hundred), and the ability to build affixes and specially prefixes from nouns, [note 1] The Persian language is also claimed to be [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] and demonstrated [7] [8] [9] [10] as an agglutinative language since it also frequently uses derivational agglutination to form new words from nouns, adjectives, and verbal stems. New words are also extensively formed by compounding – two existing words combining into a new one, as is common in German, Sanskrit and hence most of the Indian languages. The Persian dictionary consists of 343,466 words. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
An example set of words derived from a present stem combined with some of available affixes:
| Persian | Components | English | Word class |
|---|---|---|---|
| dān دان | dān دان | Present stem of dānestan (to know) | Verbal stem |
| dāneš دانش | dān + -eš دان + ش | knowledge | Noun |
| dānešmand دانشمند | dān + -eš + -mand دان + ش + مند | Scientist | Noun |
| dānešgāh دانشگاه | dān + -eš + -gāh دان + ش + گاه | university | Noun |
| dānešgāhi دانشگاهی | dān + -eš + -gāh + -i دان + ش + گاه + ی | pertaining to university; scholar; scholarly | Adjective |
| hamdānešgāhi هم‌دانشگاهی | ham- + dān + -eš + -gāh + -i هم + دان + ش + گاه + ی | university-mate | Noun |
| dāneškade دانشکده | dān + -eš + -kade دان + ش + کده | faculty | Noun |
| dānešju دانشجو | dān + -eš + -ju دان + ش + جو | student | Noun |
| dānā دانا | dān + -ā دان + ا | wise, learned | Adjective |
| dānāyi دانایی | dān + -ā + -i دان + ا + ی | wisdom | Noun |
| nādān نادان | nā- + dān نا + دان | ignorant; foolish | Adjective |
| nādāni نادانی | nā- + dān + -i نا + دان + ی | ignorance; foolishness | Noun |
| dānande داننده | dān + -ande دان + نده | one who knows | Adjective |
| dānandegi دانندگی | dān + -ande + -gi دان + نده + گی | knowing | Noun |
An example set of words derived from a past stem combined with some of available affixes:
| Persian | Components | English | Word class |
|---|---|---|---|
| did دید | did دید | Past stem of didan (to see) | Verbal stem |
| did دید | did دید | sight; vision | Noun |
| didan دیدن | did + -an دید + ن | to see | Infinitive |
| didani دیدنی | did + -an + -i دید + ن + ی | worth seeing | Adjective |
| didār دیدار | did + -ār دید + ار | visit; act of meeting | Noun |
| didāri دیداری | did + -ār + -i دید + ار + ی | visional, of the sense of sight | Adjective |
| dide دیده | did + -e دید + ه | seen; what seen | Past participle; Noun |
| nādide ندیده | nâ- + did + -e ن + دید + ه | what unseen | Noun |
| didgāh دیدگاه | did + -gâh دید + گاه | point of view | Noun |
| didebān دیدبان | dide + -bān دید + ه + بان | watchman | Noun |
| didebāni دیدبانی | dide + -bān + -i دید + ه + بان + ی | watchman-ship | Noun |
Loanwords in the Persian language mostly came from Arabic, French, and Turkic languages; though the extent of Turkic influence differs greatly by dialect. Recently, some English loanwords have entered the language as well.
Persian has likewise influenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially Arabic, [13] Armenian, [14] Georgian, [15] Indo-Iranian languages and Turkic languages. Many Persian words have also found their way into the English language.
The Arab conquest of Iran lasted for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th CE. During this period, Arabic words were imported into the Persian language, and a number of Persian words found their way into Arabic. Persian words of Arabic origin especially include Islamic terms. Arabic has had an influence on the Persian lexicon, but it has not affected the structure of the language. The morphological process used to obtain these lexical elements has not been imported into Persian and is not productive in the language.
These Arabic words have been imported and lexicalized in Persian. So, for instance, the Arabic plural form for ketāb (كتاب) ["book"] is kotob (كتب) obtained by the root derivation system. In Persian, the plural for the lexical word ketâb is obtained by simply adding the Persian plural morpheme hā: ketāb+hā → ketābhā (كتاب‌ها). Also, any new Persian words can only be pluralized by the addition of this plural morpheme since the Arabic root system is not a productive process in Persian. In addition, since the plurals formed by the Arabic morphological system constitute only a small portion of the Persian vocabulary (about 5% in the Shiraz corpus), it is not necessary to include them in the morphology; they are instead listed in the dictionary as irregular forms.
In fact, among Iranians there have been sporadic efforts as far back as the Safavid Empire to revive a purer version of Persian by diminishing the use of Arabic loanwords in their language. Both Pahlavi Shahs supported such efforts in the 20th century by creating the academy of Persian Language and Literature. In 1934, Reza Shah ordered to rebuild tomb of Ferdowsi, who is regarded as the savior of Persian language, and set up a ceremony in Mashhad, celebrating a thousand years of Persian literature since the time of Ferdowsi, titled Ferdowsi Millenary Celebration (Persian : جشن هزاره فردوسی).
Academy of Persian language and literature after the Iranian revolution continued its striving to protect the integrity of the Persian language. However, the attention of the academy has been turned towards the persistent infiltration of Persian, like many other languages, with English words, as a result of the globalization process. Since the 1980s, the academy constantly campaigns for the use of the Persian equivalents of these new English loanwords. It also has the task of linguistically deriving such words from existing Persian roots if no such equivalents exist, and actively promoting the adoption of these new coinages instead of their English equivalents in the daily lives of the Persian-speaking people in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Speakers of Turkic languages and Iranian language have been in contact since pre-islamic times; as such there are notable Turkic forms (including Mongolian borrowings through Turkic) that have entered the Persian language. [16] Throughout history, the Persian-speaking realm was ruled by a succession of dynasties of Turkic origin, notably Ghaznavid, Seljuk, the Sultanate of Rum and Timurid which have patronized Persian culture and literature. With the exception of certain official designations within the government, trade and military, many of the Turkic borrowings in Persian have a more informal, homely flavour, [17] and therefore, to many Persian native speakers these words do not feel like foreign: e.g. āqā 'mister', dowqolu 'twin', komak 'help', tumān 'official currency of Iran' (but riāl < Portuguese), yābu 'pack nag', qešlāq 'winter quarters', yeylāq 'summer quarters', qeyči 'scissors'. The usage of Turkic loan words varies by dialect; generally, eastern dialects such as: Tajik, Dari, and Hazaragi have more Turkic influence than Iranian Persian. [18]
Over the past couple of centuries, Persian has borrowed many loanwords from European languages (mainly French). [note 2] A lot of these loanwords were originally French and use French pronunciation, also other common words mainly come from English, Italian, German, and Russian (example: samovar) as well. The table below shows some examples of common French/Persian words.
| Persian | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| دوش duš | douche | shower |
| مرسی mersi | merci | thanks |
| گارسون gārson | garçon | waiter |
| مانتو mānto | manteau | women's coat |
| شوفاژ šufāž | chauffage | radiator |
| شومینه šomine | cheminée | fireplace |
| اتوبوس otobus | autobus | bus |
| کراوات kerāvāt | cravate | tie |
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Iranian Persian, Dari Persian and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivative of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivative of the Cyrillic script.
Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Deccan, Northern India and Pakistan, and used as a lingua franca in both countries. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, it is also called Hindi–Urdu. Colloquial registers of the language fall on a spectrum between these standards. In modern times, a third variety of Hindustani with significant English influences has also appeared which is sometimes called Hinglish.
Kazakh or Qazaq is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia by Kazakhs. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. It is the official language of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, north-western China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of western Mongolia. The language is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs throughout the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Turkey.
Hazaragi is an eastern dialect and variety of the Persian language that is spoken by the Hazara people, primarily in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region of central Afghanistan, as well as other Hazara-populated areas of Afghanistan. Hazaragi is also spoken by the Hazaras of Pakistan and Iran, and also by the Hazara diaspora living elsewhere.
Azerbaijani or Azeri, also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, and in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken. Although there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and sources of loanwords.
The Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL) is the regulatory body for the Persian language, headquartered in Tehran, Iran. Formerly known as the Academy of Iran, it was founded on May 20, 1935, by the initiative of Reza Shah, the founder of Pahlavi dynasty.
The Persian alphabet, also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic alphabet with four additional letters added: پ چ ژ گ. It was the basis of many Arabic-based scripts used in Central and South Asia. It is used for the Iranian and Dari standard varieties of Persian; and is one of two official writing systems for the Persian language, alongside the Cyrillic-based Tajik alphabet.
Hindustani is one of the predominant languages of South Asia, with federal status in the republics of India and Pakistan in its standardized forms of Hindi and Urdu respectively. It is widely spoken and understood as a second language in Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Persian Gulf and as such is considered a lingua franca in the northern Indian subcontinent. It is also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world by total number of speakers. It developed in north India, principally during the Mughal Empire, when the Persian language exerted a strong influence on the Western Hindi languages of central India; this contact between the Hindu and Muslim cultures resulted in the core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the Indian dialect of Hindi spoken in Delhi, whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi, being enriched with Persian loanwords. Rekhta, or "mixed" speech, which came to be known as Hindustani, Hindi, Hindavi, and Urdu, also locally known as Lashkari or Lashkari Zaban in long form, was thus created. This form was elevated to the status of a literary language, and after the partition of colonial India and independence this collection of dialects became the basis for modern standard Hindi and Urdu. Although these official languages are distinct registers with regards to their formal aspects, such as modern technical vocabulary, they continue to be all but indistinguishable in their vernacular form. From the colonial era onwards, Hindustani has also taken in many words from English, with an urban English-influenced variety emerging known as Hinglish.
Persian grammar is the grammar of the Persian language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Caucasus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is similar to that of many other Indo-European languages. The language became a more analytic language around the time of Middle Persian, with fewer cases and discarding grammatical gender. The innovations remain in Modern Persian, which is one of the few Indo-European languages to lack grammatical gender, even in pronouns.
The phonology of the Persian language varies between regional dialects, standard varieties, and even from older variates of Persian. Persian is a pluricentric language and countries that have Persian as an official language have separate standard varieties, namely: Standard Dari (Afghanistan), Standard Iranian Persian and Standard Tajik (Tajikistan). The most significant differences between standard varieties of Persian are their vowel systems. Standard varieties of Persian have anywhere from 6 to 8 vowel distinctions, and similar vowels may be pronounced differently between standards. However, there are not many notable differences when comparing consonants, as all standard varieties a similar amount of consonant sounds. Though, colloquial varieties generally have more differences than their standard counterparts. Most dialects feature contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters.
Khalaj is a Turkic language spoken in Iran. Although it contains many old Turkic elements, it has become widely Persianized. Khalaj has about 150 words of uncertain origin.
The Persian language and Urdu have had an intricate relationship throughout the history of the latter. Persian historically played a significant role in the formation and development of the modern Urdu, and today acts as its prestige language.
Mazandarani (also spelled Mazani or Tabari ; Mazanderani: مازِرونی, is an Iranian language of the Northwestern branch spoken by the Mazandarani people. As of 2019, there were 2 million native speakers. As a member of the Northwestern branch, etymologically speaking, it is rather closely related to Gilaki and also related to Persian, which belongs to the Southwestern branch. Though the Persian language has influenced Mazandarani to a great extent, Mazandarani still survives as an independent language with a northwestern Iranian origin.
The Talysh language is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan by around 500,000-800,000 people. Talysh language is closely related to the Tati language. It includes many dialects usually divided into three main clusters: Northern, Central (Iran) and Southern (Iran). Talysh is partially, but not fully, intelligible with Persian. Talysh is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
Khorasani Turkic or Khorasani Turkish is an Oghuz Turkic language spoken in the North Khorasan Province and the Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. Nearly all Khorasani Turkic speakers are also bilingual in Persian.
Qazvin County is in Qazvin province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Qazvin.
Arabic has had a great influence on other languages, especially in vocabulary. The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries visited by Islam or Islamic power.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pe (Persian letter)</span> Letter used to represent the [p] sound in Persian alphabet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Rue_Champollion_in_Alexandria.JPG/320px-Rue_Champollion_in_Alexandria.JPG)
Pe (پ) is a letter in the Persian alphabet used to represent the voiceless bilabial plosive ⟨p⟩. It is based on bā' (ب) with two additional diacritic dots. It is one of the four letters that were created specifically for the Persian alphabet to symbolize sounds found in Persian but not Arabic, others being ژ, چ, and گ.
The Tati language is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by the Tat people of Iran which is closely related to other languages such as Talysh, Mazandarani and Gilaki. It is also, for the most part, mutually intelligible with Persian. Tats are a subgroup of Northwestern Iranians.
Iranian Persian, Western Persian or Western Farsi, natively simply known as Persian, refers to the varieties of the modern Persian language spoken in Iran and by minorities in neighboring countries, as well as by Iranian communities throughout the world. These are mutually intelligible with other varieties of Persian, including Afghanistan's Dari and Tajikistan's Tajiki.
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