13
votes
Accepted
Etymology of the Turkish word "rüzgâr"
The semantic shift seems to be: time > weather > wind
For the first step compare Latin tempus “time” > French temps (“time, weather”).
For the second compare German Wetter (“weather”) with ...
- 23.1k
12
votes
Accepted
How to Romanize "شایق" in order to be easiest to an English speaker?
Gh would be preferable to q in my opinion.
In Iranian Persian, q̈âf has merged with ġayn, both representing a [ɣ]~[ɢ], sound. While this sound doesn’t exist in English, the closest sound is certainly [...
- 1,152
9
votes
Accepted
Did Persian ever have a hard or soft "th" sound?
There are two different issues here. First: New Persian never had a voiceless /ϑ/, at least not in words of Persian origin (though it is possible that in early Islamic times bi-lingual speakers did ...
- 23.1k
9
votes
If I learn Persian/Farsi, could I be able to understand Uighur language?
No.
Your friend is right about Uighur being Turkic. But Persian is not Turkic; it's Indo-European, so lexical similarity between these languages is going to be VERY low and limited to a few loan-...
- 4,368
8
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between "میگفت" and "میگفت"?
There is no difference. It is just a matter of spelling. You can write the particle مى as a separate word, or you can join it to the following verb.
- 23.1k
8
votes
Are Tajik and Persian mutually intelligible?
Yes, the standard forms of the Persian of Iran, Afghan Persian, and Tajiki are mutually understandable. They are about as different as British and American English. But this does not mean that all ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
What is the origin of the Persian word شكر meaning Sugar?
The word for “sugar” in virtually all languages goes back to Sanskrit śárkarā. From Sanskrit it developed into North-West Prakrit śakara, which was borrowed into Middle Persian as šakar, and then from ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Did modern Farsi lose its casual word for yes?
First, you seem to be starting from the assumption that all words that are similar between Persian and other IE languages must be cognates. But that's not true; there are three distinct reasons two ...
- 2,605
7
votes
What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
The shift of classical Persian ān to ūn is a feature of Tehran dialect (Tehrūnī), and of many other forms of colloquial Persian. It is an example of “labialization”. This phenomenon is widespread in ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
I don't know Persian, however I have some knowledge of linguistics. The example given seems to be linked to a shift in register (different use of language in different circumstances). The formal ...
- 406
6
votes
Accepted
Etymology of Ancient Greek interrogative particle ἆρα
ἆρα is considered to be cognate with the interrogative particle in Baltic languages (Latvian ar, Lithuanian aȓ).
Persian āyā does not have a known ancestor in Old or Middle Persian. In early New ...
- 23.1k
6
votes
Accepted
How to interpret the only available Middle Persian dictionary?
Here in Mackenzie’s dictionary verbs are normally cited in the infinitive form, but if (as in this case) the infinitive is not attested, the dictionary quotes the present stem followed by a hyphen. So ...
- 23.1k
5
votes
Accepted
How can I check whether 'question' in English, and 'xahesh' in Persian are cognates?
Henning, Das Verbum des Mittelpersischen der Turfanfragmente (1933) p. 187 posited Iranian *xwaz, ‘wish, want’, represented by Middle and New Persian xwāh-, with long-grade present stem, the regular ...
- 23.1k
5
votes
Accepted
How different is Old Persian / Avestan / Farsi from each other?
Your first question: Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested Old Iranian languages. Both are very close to the reconstructed Old Iranian, and thus to one another. New Persian (Fārsī) is (mainly) ...
- 23.1k
5
votes
Does [s] before [b] always become [z]?
In Arabic, تَسْبِيح [tasbi:ħ] is pronounced with s. It may well be common in human languages that sequences of obstruents agree in voicing, and the main tendency is for regressive assimilation, but ...
- 75.2k
4
votes
Can Dari be understood by everyone in Afghanistan?
Dari is Persian as spoken in Afghanistan. The difference between Afghan Persian and Iranian Persian is about as great as that between British English and American English. They sound a bit different, ...
- 23.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Do Persian Adjectives have Masc. Fem. and Neuter forms
No. Farsi has no grammatical gender, its nouns are not divided into Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter, neither are its adjectives. Farsi even has no distinction between 'he' and 'she', both of them are ...
- 16.8k
4
votes
In Arabic loanwords, why does Persian change the short vowels with different vowels instead of matching them with long counterparts?
I see evidence that this is just some relatively modern shift in pronunciation in Persian in some accents.
For example, i in the pronunciation of kitab is preserved in 1) the languages which ...
- 7,293
3
votes
Musical notation in languages with right-to-left writing
Yes, the standard international musical notation is used for songs in these languages as well. The words are broken up into syllables and written syllable for syllable below the staff.
- 23.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Order of components within measurement units in RTL languages
Even in RTL languages you are still writing numbers and numbers are LTR so when writing numbers we should treat them as LTR so -10°C is the correct way.
Consider the following example from Persian:
...
- 1,227
3
votes
Are Tajik and Persian mutually intelligible?
Yes, modern standard Tajik, Dari and Iranian Persian are mutually intelligible.
All three descend from Middle Persian. In some cases the Tajiki variant is actually truer to older or more formal ...
- 7,293
3
votes
How is it possible to use a single Latin alphabet for Persian which will represent ALL three standards?
Yes it is possible, in fact writing Persian using Latin alphabet clearly shows its indo-european nature and can be extremely useful if done correctly, here I introduce you the one I'm currently ...
- 31
3
votes
Is "Qadaqan" Mongolian or Turkish?
The modern Persian word pronounced /γadaγan/ means “prohibition” and the like; it is spelt both as غدغن and as قدغن. It can hardly be a native Persian word. I have searched for it in Clauson’s “...
- 23.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Do Persian Jews voice Hebrew ק?
The name Jacob is well-known among Jews, Christians and Muslims. In Iran this name is known in all communities in the Arabic/Qurʼanic form Yaʻqūb يعقوب but in Persian the Arabic letter q ق is ...
- 23.1k
3
votes
Do Persian Adjectives have Masc. Fem. and Neuter forms
I agree with Yellow Sky, however I just need to add that some adjectives which are borrowed from Arabic have actually brought the Feminine and Masculine forms which happen to be actually used a lot in ...
- 151
3
votes
Accepted
Do Urdu Numerals belong to the Persian Script?
I think I understand what you are asking. Urdu, like Persian, is written with Arabic script, with a few extra letters. The numbers are written with the Eastern form of the Arabic (originally Indian) ...
- 23.1k
3
votes
Does [s] before [b] always become [z]?
It has been claimed by some phonological theories such as Lombardi's (1991) that (de)voicing is regressive in nature, which means that in your question we would expect /s/ to become [z] before /b/. ...
- 64
3
votes
Is the Turkish word for brother(kardeş) of Indo-Iranian origin?
Old Turkish (from 8th century on) has kadaş and ka kadaş in the meaning “kinsman”.
Anatolian Turkish kardeş results from a folk-etymological reinterpretation of the old word, as if from karın "...
- 23.1k
2
votes
Can Dari be understood by everyone in Afghanistan?
It depends on the area they come from.
There are many Persian phrases which Dari speakers struggle to understand e.g name of fruits or terms which exist in Iranian Persian only.
There are also ...
- 151
2
votes
L2 acquisition as a factor in loss of "complex" grammatical features
First, I don't think English really did get simpler, it just moved its complexity into other parts of the language. Less inflectional morphology, but more complicated word order rules, and many more ...
- 2,605
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