Persian vocabulary
Encyclopedia
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 affix
ation and compounding
to derive new words from roots. Persian has also had considerable contact with other languages, resulting in many borrowings.
to form new words
from nouns, adjectives, and verbal stems. New words are extensively formed by compounding
– two existing words combining into a new one, as is common in German
. Professor Mahmoud Hessaby
demonstrated that Persian can derive more than 226 million words.
An example set of words derived from a present stem combined with some of available affixes:
An example set of words derived from a past stem combined with some of available affixes:
s in the Persian language, mostly coming from Arabic
, English
, French
, and the Turkic languages
.
Persian has likewise influenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially Arabic
, Indo-Iranian languages
and Turkic languages
. Many Persian words have also found their way into the English language.
lasted for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th CE. Arabic
gradually was replaced with Pahlavi and as the Pahlavi books translated into Arabic by newly-converted Iranians, Arabic became the language of the intellectuals: Writers, poets and philosophers, as well as people in the administration chose to speak and write in Arabic.
During this period, many Arabic words were imported into the Persian language and many Persian words found their way into Arabic. Arabic has had an extensive influence on the Persian lexicon, but it has not really affected the structure of the language. Although a considerable portion of the lexicon is derived from Arabic roots, including some of the Arabic plural patterns, the morphological process used to obtain these lexical elements has not been imported into Persian and it 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 kutub (كتب) obtained by the root derivation system. In Persian, the plural for the lexical word ketâb obtained by just adding the Persian plural morpheme
(ketāb+hā → ketābhā كتابها). Any new Persian words, however, can only be pluralized by the addition of the 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.
On the other hand, among educated Persians, there have been sporadic efforts
as far back as the 10th century to diminish the use of Arabic loanwords in their language. Both Pahlavi Shahs
supported such efforts in the 20th century. Since the Revolution
, a contrary tendency to increase the use of Arabic words in both spoken and written Persian has emerged among government leaders.
forms (including Mongolian borrowings) that have entered the Persian language. Throughout history, the Persian-speaking realm, including the Iranian plateau, was ruled by a succession of dynasties of Turkic origin, notably Ghaznavid, Seljuk
, Timurid
, Safavid, Qajar, which have patronized Persian culture and literature. Even the Mongol Il-Khanate brought more Turkic speakers, who constituted the backbone of the Mongol armies, to the Iranian plateau. 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, and therefore, to many Persian native speakers these words do not feel like foreign: e.g. āqā 'mister', dowqolu 'twin', komak 'help', toman 'official currency of Iran' (but riāl < Portuguese), kākā 'brother', yābu 'pack nag', qeshlāq 'village; summer quarters', jelow 'front; bridle', qeychi 'scissors'.
and use French pronunciation, also other common words mainly come from English, Italian and German as well.
The table below shows some examples of common French/Persian words.
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, and many words in modern Persian usage ultimately originate from Proto-Indo-European. The language makes extensive use of word building techniques such as affix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
ation and compounding
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
to derive new words from roots. Persian has also had considerable contact with other languages, resulting in many borrowings.
Native word formation
Persian is very powerful in word building and versatile in ways a word can be built from combining affixes, stems, nouns and adjectives. Persian frequently uses derivational agglutinationAgglutination
In contemporary linguistics, agglutination usually refers to the kind of morphological derivation in which there is a one-to-one correspondence between affixes and syntactical categories. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative languages...
to form new words
Word formation
In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...
from nouns, adjectives, and verbal stems. New words are extensively formed by compounding
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
– two existing words combining into a new one, as is common in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Professor Mahmoud Hessaby
Mahmoud Hessaby
Sayyed Mahmoud Hessaby was a prominent Iranian scientist, researcher and distinguished professor of University of Tehran...
demonstrated that Persian can derive more than 226 million words.
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 dânestan (to know) | Verbal stem |
| dāneš دانش | dān + -eš دان + ش | knowledge | Noun |
| dānešmand دانشمند | dān + -eš + -mand دان + ش + مند | Scientist | Noun |
| dānešgâh دانشگاه | dān + -eš + -gâh دان + ش + گاه | university | Noun |
| dānešgâhi 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 |
| 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 + -i دان + نده + ی | 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 + بان | watchman | Noun |
| didebāni دیدبانی | dide + -bān + -i دید + بان + ی | watchman-ship | Noun |
External influences
There are many loanwordLoanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s in the Persian language, mostly coming from Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and the Turkic languages
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
.
Persian has likewise influenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani...
and Turkic languages
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
. Many Persian words have also found their way into the English language.
Arabic influence
The Islamic conquest of IranIslamic conquest of Persia
The Muslim conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sassanid Empire in 644, the fall of Sassanid dynasty in 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia...
lasted for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th CE. Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
gradually was replaced with Pahlavi and as the Pahlavi books translated into Arabic by newly-converted Iranians, Arabic became the language of the intellectuals: Writers, poets and philosophers, as well as people in the administration chose to speak and write in Arabic.
During this period, many Arabic words were imported into the Persian language and many Persian words found their way into Arabic. Arabic has had an extensive influence on the Persian lexicon, but it has not really affected the structure of the language. Although a considerable portion of the lexicon is derived from Arabic roots, including some of the Arabic plural patterns, the morphological process used to obtain these lexical elements has not been imported into Persian and it 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 kutub (كتب) obtained by the root derivation system. In Persian, the plural for the lexical word ketâb obtained by just adding the Persian plural morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
(ketāb+hā → ketābhā كتابها). Any new Persian words, however, can only be pluralized by the addition of the plural morpheme since the Arabic root system is not a productive process in Persian.
In addition, since the plurals formed by the Arabic morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
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.
On the other hand, among educated Persians, there have been sporadic efforts
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
as far back as the 10th century to diminish the use of Arabic loanwords in their language. Both Pahlavi Shahs
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
supported such efforts in the 20th century. Since the Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, a contrary tendency to increase the use of Arabic words in both spoken and written Persian has emerged among government leaders.
Turkic influence
Less noticeable, but also considerable are the TurkicTurkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
forms (including Mongolian borrowings) that have entered the Persian language. Throughout history, the Persian-speaking realm, including the Iranian plateau, was ruled by a succession of dynasties of Turkic origin, notably Ghaznavid, Seljuk
Seljuq dynasty
The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...
, Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
, Safavid, Qajar, which have patronized Persian culture and literature. Even the Mongol Il-Khanate brought more Turkic speakers, who constituted the backbone of the Mongol armies, to the Iranian plateau. 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, and therefore, to many Persian native speakers these words do not feel like foreign: e.g. āqā 'mister', dowqolu 'twin', komak 'help', toman 'official currency of Iran' (but riāl < Portuguese), kākā 'brother', yābu 'pack nag', qeshlāq 'village; summer quarters', jelow 'front; bridle', qeychi 'scissors'.
French/European influence
Over the past couple of centuries, Persian has borrowed many loanwords from European languages (mainly French). A lot of these loanwords were originally FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and use French pronunciation, also other common words mainly come from English, Italian and German as well.
The table below shows some examples of common French/Persian words.
| Persian | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| doosh | douche | shower |
| mersi | merci | thank you |
| gârson | garçon | waiter |
| mânto | manteau | women's coat |
| chufâj | chauffage | radiator |
| shomine | cheminée | fireplace |
| otobus | autobus | bus |
| kerâvât | cravate | tie |
| sâk | sac | bag |
| pâpiyon | papillon | bow |
| Alman | Allemagne | Germany |
| mâyo | maillot | swimming suit |
| jambon | jambon | ham |
See also
- List of French loanwords in Persian
- Academy of Persian Language and LiteratureAcademy of Persian Language and LiteratureIran's Academy of Persian Language and Literature is a body controlled by the Iranian government presiding over the use of the Persian language in Iran and other Persian speaking countries. The academy members are academics of Persian literature and linguistics from , , , and .- History :The...
- List of English words of Persian origin
- :Category:Persian loanwords