Questions tagged [persian]
Persian is an Indo-European, Western-Iranian language spoken mostly in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. "Persian" is used synonymously to "Farsi".
51
questions
3
votes
0
answers
99
views
How did خشاب become the Persian word for magazine?
In Iran magazine (in a gun) is called خشاب (kheshab). I tried to find a relation to another language but I failed.
The only thing I found is that خشب (khashb) means wood in Arabic.
In Arabic magazine ...
- 377
-1
votes
1
answer
122
views
How and when was the name of Somalia written with س in Iran?
In Arab world Somalia is written with ص. They call it صومال.
But in Iran where people use so many Arabic words in a daily basis without misspelling them, write Somalia with س. They write it سومالی.
...
- 377
-2
votes
3
answers
174
views
Is it reasonable to connect the Old Persian/Avestan word for "garden" with the Greek word?
The Old Persian/Avestan word for "garden/orchard" is bustan/bostan. On the surface, this word looks very similar to the Greek term botane, which means the same thing (and is clearly the ...
4
votes
3
answers
166
views
What types of Arabic word were never adopted in Persian?
The Persian lexicon has a very large number of Arabic borrowings, including a small portion of very frequently used ones, and a larger portion of Arabic vocables seemingly spanning across all semantic ...
3
votes
1
answer
138
views
Farsi: why letter Alef often sounds like long "o"?
Gday, everyone. I'm a beginner in the Persian language.
Why letter Alef often sounds like long "o"? For example, in the word "air" - هوا - havaa.
If I listen to examples, say, on ...
6
votes
1
answer
241
views
Etymology of Persian city suffix +jand
City names in Iran and Central Asia, such as "Birjand" in Iran and "Khujand" in Tajikistan end with "jand" suffix.
The first idea that comes to my mind is that it might ...
- 73
0
votes
0
answers
86
views
Is there an android app that adds short vowels to Persian texts?
I found an app for Arabic.
But is there an app or maybe a website for Persian too?
- 1
7
votes
3
answers
929
views
Etymology of the Turkish word "rüzgâr"
In Turkish rüzgâr means "wind". From the looks of it (especially the long â vowel which is not native to Turkish) it seems to be of Persian origin: "روزگار". Some sources verify ...
- 463
7
votes
1
answer
181
views
Distinction between Chemistry and Alchemy in Arabic and Farsi languages
According to Wikipedia, in Europe the semantic distinction between the rational science of chimia and the occult alchimia arose in the early 18th century. So it seems like there was a need to separate ...
- 171
6
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
I'm a Persian, I'm from Iran, and I speak Farsi.
Here, we have a very strange rule that we turn آ into و in informal conversations.
For example:
خانه = house (formal) /kh a ne/
خونه = house (informal) ...
- 1,355
2
votes
1
answer
499
views
Is the Turkish word for brother(kardeş) of Indo-Iranian origin?
I looked up the word for "brother" in other Turkish languages. In Ubzek it is aka. And in Volga Tatar the corresponding word is abi. The word "kardesh" sounds suspiciously similar ...
- 197
4
votes
3
answers
258
views
How to Romanize "شایق" in order to be easiest to an English speaker?
Question
How to Romanize "شایق" in order to be easiest to an English speaker?
Description
I am Iranian; my last name is شایق (Persian). To get a passport, it is needed to submit your full ...
- 159
-3
votes
1
answer
79
views
A possible diacritic for a silent و in Persian? [closed]
In modern Persian the و of "خوا" in many words is silent.
خواب xāb
‘sleep, asleep; dream; the nap (of a cloth)’
خوابیدن xābidan
infinitive: ‘to sleep, lie down’
Examples from the link ...
- 95
0
votes
4
answers
240
views
Does [s] before [b] always become [z]?
There is a Persian word اسبابكشی asbābkeši and it is quite difficult to stick strictly to the transcription saying there is [s] before [b]. The assimilation of [s] to [z] before a voiced stop is ...
- 510
0
votes
2
answers
106
views
How to interpret the only available Middle Persian dictionary?
I am looking at this:
I think this is a verb (some others are even less clear). What does besaz(en)- mean? The parentheses and the hyphen. The M is for Middle Persian, but there is no indication that ...
- 4,306
2
votes
2
answers
166
views
/o/ -> /u/ change in Persian xānum خانم ‘mistress’
Is it correct to describe /o/ -> /u/ change in خانم xānum as nasalisation under the influence of the following /m/? What does general phonetics say about it? One Persian teacher said /m/ has nothing ...
- 510
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
How different is Old Persian / Avestan / Farsi from each other?
I am looking at dictionaries of the avesta and old persian of which there isn't much, and would like to collect words in the old persian cuneiform and avestan script. First part of the question is, ...
- 4,306
5
votes
1
answer
294
views
What is a good etymological dictionary for the Persian language?
There are dozens of etymological dictionaries for Persian, has somebody compared them, and if yes could you recommend me a good one?
- 73
7
votes
2
answers
799
views
Did modern Farsi lose its casual word for yes?
Hobby linguistic learner here.
Farsi naturally shares a lot of simple words with other Indo-European languages:
German for [daughter]: "Tochter" / "doxtar" (دختر)
English for [bad]: "bad"/"bad" (بد)
...
- 249
1
vote
2
answers
502
views
If I learn Persian/Farsi, could I be able to understand Uighur language?
Ok, someone once told me that Uighur is a Turkic langugage. But just wondering, for Persian and Uighur, the two, Are they similar in any way? or just helps a little bit? Could one understand another?
- 231
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Did Persian ever have a hard or soft "th" sound?
Farsi does not distinguish between ث (soft 'th' in Arabic, like "think") and ذ (hard 'th' in Arabic, like "that"). A native Farsi speaker pronounces ث like the 's' in "sing" and ذ like the 'z' in "zoo"...
- 249
-4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Persian text on carpet [closed]
I would be happy if someone could translate the text which is written on the carpet shown on the photo:
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
355
views
How is it possible to use a single Latin alphabet for Persian which will represent ALL three standards?
How can there be a SINGLE standard Latin script (mainly for International purposes) which properly represent standard Iranian Persian, Afghan Persian and Tajik Persian.
Especially the different ...
- 109
3
votes
1
answer
214
views
Is "Qadaqan" Mongolian or Turkish? [closed]
In Persian, the word Qadaqan (q is an uvular stop consonant, i.e. having the same place of articulation as the French r) means "emphasis" and "illegal", in some Persian dictionaries it is mentioned as ...
-2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
meaning of yek in Persian or Farsi [closed]
I know that in Persian "Man yek sag daraam" means "I have a dog", where:
Man = I, sag = dog, daraam = have. What is the purpose of yek? Is it a/an, the indefinite article?
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
385
views
In Arabic loanwords, why does Persian change the short vowels with different vowels instead of matching them with long counterparts?
Classical Arabic (4th-9th century) short vowels are /a/, /u/, and /i/, and long vowels are /a:/, /u:/, and /i:/.
New Persian (1000-1200 years old) short vowels are /æ/, /o/, and /e/, and long vowels ...
5
votes
3
answers
455
views
Etymology of Ancient Greek interrogative particle ἆρα
The Ancient Greek interrogative ἆρα is strikingly similar to modern Persian āyā.
Both words exclusively signal yes/no questions, and almost always begin the sentence. There is an accent on the first ...
- 417
1
vote
2
answers
164
views
What is the difference between "میگفت" and "میگفت"?
I read in WP's entry on Persian alphabet that the "ye" final form is 'ﯽ', and its medial form is 'ﯿ'.
Logically, when typing "میگفت", most software automagically write "میگفت".
However, the ...
0
votes
2
answers
467
views
Do Urdu Numerals belong to the Persian Script?
Do Urdu Numerals belong to the Persian Script and does Urdu use the same Unicode characters as Persian Language apart from Western Arabic numerals?
- 181
9
votes
2
answers
298
views
L2 acquisition as a factor in loss of "complex" grammatical features
Recently I came across a short text on Language Log briefly discussing a phenomenon which seems to affect certain languages. The author noticed that loss or heavy weakening of inflection during ...
- 1,418
1
vote
1
answer
42
views
Program or website for transcribing Old and Middle Persian
Is there any program or website that is able to transcribe Old and Middle Persian text (or transliteration of them) to an orthographic or phonetic transcription?
- 487
7
votes
2
answers
487
views
Musical notation in languages with right-to-left writing
How does musical notation in languages that use right-to-left writing direction (such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, Yiddish) look like? Is it right-to-left too? If not (i.e. if they use the same ...
- 317
1
vote
1
answer
695
views
Order of components within measurement units in RTL languages
This question is about measurement units in languages written in right-to-left (RTL) scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Malay, Farsi, etc. and their country-specific variants (for example, Arabic ...
- 129
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Are Tajik and Persian mutually intelligible?
I know that the Persian language family has three branches: Persian, Dari and Tajik-Persian.
Is the Persian of Iran mutually intelligible with Tajik?
And how does the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet differ ...
- 61
1
vote
3
answers
1k
views
Is this letter ق pronounced almost same in Arabic and Persian?
In Persian langauge there are two letters which have same pronounciation when spelled with vowels, they are غ andق, in Arabic there is aslo a 'ق', i want to know do the two 'ق' have the same or ...
- 11
0
votes
2
answers
982
views
Can Dari be understood by everyone in Afghanistan?
I was told that in Afghanistan there are two major languages Pashto and Dari, and when you live in Afghanistan you will find that almost all the Afghanistanis could speak Dari and fewer people could ...
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
345
views
Relation of Persian "Ke" and English "That" [closed]
First I should say I am not a linguist, but try to understand it to help my English.
In my native language, Persian, we do much use "Ke" (که) which almost corresponds to "which, who, that" in ...
- 173
11
votes
2
answers
587
views
How can I check whether 'question' in English, and 'xahesh' in Persian are cognates?
It seems plausible to me, and I would like to know how to verify it.
Why I think xahesh might be cognate with question:
xahesh (IPA: /xɑːheʃ/) in Modern Persian is a noun meaning "request, plea". ...
- 417
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What is the origin of the Persian word شكر meaning Sugar?
Google says the word Sugar originates from سكر in Arabic. Yet the classic dictionary القاموس المحيط says the word comes from شكر in Persian. Any help with the etymology of the Persian word شكر?
- 31
0
votes
1
answer
138
views
Farsi Alphabet Tips [closed]
I do not understand how I can learn the Farsi (Persian) alphabet. I try to look at it in order and memorize but it just doesn't stick. Are there any websites that anybody knows about that can help, or ...
- 43
3
votes
1
answer
175
views
Do Persian Jews voice Hebrew ק?
I recently saw the Hebrew name יעקב transliterated into (American) English by Persian Jews as Yaghob. I find this curious (because the ע isn't transliterated, but that's a question for another time, ...
- 1,005
3
votes
2
answers
222
views
Do Persian Adjectives have Masc. Fem. and Neuter forms
For adjectives in Farsi (Persian), do they have Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter.
For Example:
The adjective خوب (Khoob, meaning good), does it have different forms, like in French or Russian?
...
- 43
17
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Is "Kent" in Tashkent of Turkic origin or Indo-European?
In Turkish there is this word Kent which means city. Some Turkic city names have this as a suffix, like Başkent and Tashkent. In Azerbaijani the same word, with the spelling of Kənd (Kand) means ...
- 463
6
votes
2
answers
939
views
Arabic and Persian loans in Turkish
Both Persian and Turkish - as have other "islamic" languages - have a great deal of Arabic vocabulary. Due to an (initially) favourable vowel inventory (and maybe due to the same script being used) ...
- 1,030
2
votes
1
answer
325
views
Etymology of persian دریا
In a poem of Hafez I found a pun based on the double meaning of دریاب, at once the present (or aorist) stem of دریافتن, and another word for دریا, meaning "the sea". Now it would be great to know, ...
- 1,030
2
votes
1
answer
211
views
Use of Arabic script for Farsi
Some of the letters of the Arabic script do not represent any native Persian sounds and thus are used only for Arabic loans. Therefore, e.g., there are four "z"-sounds in the Farsi script, ز ض ظ ذ.
...
- 1,030
2
votes
2
answers
144
views
Do written languages evolve along the lines of the script?
The medieval sound changes of New Persian are suggestive of tracing back ultimately to the script, so as if to normalize the writting by adjusting the underlying spoken language.
Thus the majhul and ...
- 1,030
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Some common features of unrelated languages: Turkish and Persian
This is somehow related to the question Are some languages known to have taken grammatical features etc rather than just lexicon from their substrate languages?
In the area of today's Turkey, Iran ...
- 1,030
2
votes
1
answer
896
views
Turkish loanwords in persian or the other way round?
It is quite obvious that there are a lot of Persian loanwords in Turkish. Some words, though, I cannot easily figure out which way they travelled.
Take for example trk. küçük, frs. kucak. I have ...
- 1,030
9
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is دشمن ("enemy" in Persian) borrowed from δυσμενής ("hostile" in ancient Greek)?
A couple of years ago I encountered the world δυσμενής, meaning hostile, in an ancient Greek text I translated. If I recall correctly, this can be pronounced as "dusmenè". This always intrigued me, ...
