Persian/Lesson 4

In lessons 1, 2, and 3, you learned some greetings, the first twenty-nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell and pronounce several words with those letters. In this lesson, you will learn the final three letters (ﻭ ‹vâv›, ﻩ ‹he› and ى ‹ye›), diacritics, and the remaining rules for reading and writing Persian vowels. You will also learn about a Persian tradition called ‹haft sin›. Dialogue: ‹esm-e šomâ ci e?› Reza meets Shirin: The dialogue below and those in subsequent lessons are shown in both Persian script and UniPers. Some of the Persian letters used below are explained later in this lesson, so read the UniPers transcription for now, then come back to read the Persian script version after completing this lesson. شيرين Shirin ببخشید، اسم شما چی است؟ bebaxšid, esm-e šomâ ci-st? Excuse me, what is your name? رضا Reza اسم من رضا است. و شما؟ esm-e man rezâ-st. va šomâ? My name is Reza. And you? شيرين Shirin اسم من شیرین است. esm-e man širin e. My name is Shirin. رضا Reza خوشبختم، خانم شیرین. xošbaxtam, xânom-e širin. Nice to meet you, Miss Shirin. |} Explanation Shirin meets Reza. Vocabulary ببخشید bebaxšid excuse me اسم esm name چی ci what خانم xânom /xɒːnom/ Miss خوشبختم xošbaxtam Nice to meet you. و ‹vâv› ‌و vâv fa-و.ogg does not connect with the following letter The letter و does not connect with the following letter. It is pronounced in different ways, depending on the word: ‹v›, ‹u›, or ‹o›. آواز âvâz آ â و v ا â ز z The word آواز âvâz voice, song /ɒːˈvɒːz/ is shown on the right, demonstrating that و ‹vâv› is pronounced as the consonant ‹v› in some words. چوب cub چ‍ c ‍و u ب b The word چوب cub wood /tʃuːb/ is shown on the right, demonstrating that و ‹vâv› is pronounced as the long vowel ‹u› in some words. اوت ut ا - و u ت t The long vowel sound ‹u› may also occur at the beginning of a word, in which case it is spelled with initial او, as demonstrated on the right in اوت ut August. تو to ت‍ t ‍و o Some Persian words that were originally pronounced with the long vowel sound ‹u› are pronounced today with the sound ‹o›, but their spelling has not changed. So و sometimes represents the sound ‹o› in Modern Persian: تو to you (informal) دو do two و vâv Waau-individua.svg Lettre 27 wâw.jpg Lettre 27 wâw.gif ه ‹he› ه he fa-ﻩ.ogg The letter ه he is often pronounced like ‹h›, just like the Persian letter ح he. To distinguish between them, a Persian speaker may specify ح by saying ‹he-ye jimi›, in reference to the similar form shared with ج jim. Or, because of the traditional arrangements of letters in chronograms, they may be distinguished as حاء حطّی he-ye hotti for ح and هاء هوّز he-ye havvaz for ه. جوجه jojeh ج‍ j ‍و o ج‍ j ‍ه h The connecting forms of ه ‹he› are shown on the right in a typical Persian style. There are several variations, though, so you may run across any of the following: راه râh road, path جوجه jojeh chicken At the end of a word, ه often is not pronounced as ‹h›, but just indicates that the word ends in the sound ‹e›: خانه xâne house ه he Haa-individua.svg Lettre 26 hâʾ.jpg Lettre 26 hâ'.gif Duplicate Letters In Persian there is more than one letter available for some sounds because words imported from Arabic are spelled using their Arabic spelling, but with Persian pronunciation. So, there are three letters for ‹s›, four for ‹z›, two for ‹t›, two for ‹q›, two for ‹h›, and two for ‹'›. They are not all used equally, for example ز is more common than the other ‹z› letters. ‹s›: س ص , e.g. صد sad hundred ث ‹z›: ز ذ ظ ض, e.g. راضی râzi satisfied ‹t›: ت ط, e.g. طور towr method ‹q›: ق, e.g. آقا âqâ sir غ, e.g. آغا âqâ madam ‹h›: ه ح <'>: In Arabic, a symbol known as hamza ( ء ) is used to separate two vowels. This convention only used in Persian for words of Arabic origin. ء, e.g. رأس râ's head ع, e.g. رعد ra'd thunder ی ‹ye› ی fa-ی.ogg ye The last Persian letter, ى ye, has a few different pronunciations: ‹y›, ‹i›, or ‹ey›. Its isolated and final forms vary significantly from its initial and medial forms: It has a tail and no dots in the isolated and final forms, but it has two dots and no tail in the initial and medial forms,. یک yek ی‍ y ‍ک k In یک yek one, ی as the first letter of the word is pronounced ‹y›. سیب sib س‍ s ‍ی‍ i ‍ب b ایران irân ا - ی‍ i ‍ر r ا â ن n این in ا - ی‍ i ‍ن n As the examples این in this and سیب sib apple show on the right, ی as the second letter of the word is pronounced as ‹i›. فارسی fârsi ف‍ f ‍ا â ر r س‍ s ‍ی i In فارسی fârsi Persian (language), ی as the last letter of the word is pronounced as ‹i›. Vowels at the beginning of words When a Persian word begins with any vowel sound, it is spelled with an initial ا. If that initial sound is a short vowel, the specific vowel is not indicated, but if it is a long vowel, the corresponding long vowel letter is written ( ا for ‹â›, و for ‹o›, or ی for ‹i›). So, ا is the first letter in Persian words that begin with a long ‹i› sound, such as ایران irân Iran and اين in this. Remember from lesson 1, though, the long ‹â› sound at the beginning of a word is not spelled with two ا letters in a row, but with آ, alef madde. ی ye Yaa-Persa-individua.svg Culture Point: هفت‌سین haft sin 270px|right|a Haft sin table in Iran Do you remember the letter س ‹sin› from lesson 3? Combined with هفت haft seven from this lesson makes an important Iranian New Year tradition of هفت‌سین haft sin seven Ss. During the Persian New Year ‹nowruz›, the سفره sofreh tablecloth is arranged with seven items beginning with the letter س ‹s›. That might include: ‹sabzeh› ‹sib› ‹sir› ‹samanu› ‹senjed› ‹serkeh› ‹somâk› Originally called هفت چین haft cin Which of the following items would go on your traditional هفت سین haft sin table? (Clue: Sabzeh, Sib, Sir, Samanu, Senjed, Serke and Somâq) |سیب زمینی sib zamini (potato)- no سیب sib (apple)- yes سگ sag (dog)- no ستاره setareh (star)- no سير sir (garlic)- yes سركه serke (vinegar)- yes سوسک‌ (cockroach)- no سبزه sabzeh (wheat, barley or lentil sprouts)- yes سیگار sigar (cigar)- no سنگ sang (stone)- no سماق somâq (sumac berries)- yes سنجد senjed (senjed, the dried fruit of the oleaster tree )- yes سمنو samanu (wheat pudding)- yes |} Ligatures Certain combinations of letters are written in a combined form known as a ligature. لا lâ ل‍ l ‍ا â When ل lâm is followed by ا alef, they combine to form the ligature لا lâ, as shown on the right. سلام salâm س‍ s ‍ل‍ l ‍ا â م m The lâm-alef ligature appears in the greeting سلام salâm. ۀ he-ye ه‌ he ‌ی ye In an ezafe construction after a word ending in ‹he›, the ی is sometimes written in a small form over the ه, i.e. as ۀ he-ye. It looks like a hamze, and is considered such by some, but others consider this a ligature of ه‌ی. Diacritics Like the accent mark over the e in café, Persian diacritics (symbols written above or below the letters) are not actual letters in the Persian alphabet. ّ tašdid strengthening Tashdid is a mark that looks like a small, curly w, placed above a consonant to double or strengthen it. It may be omitted, but is used in many situations for clarity. ء hamze The diacritic ‹hamze›, isolated and over ‹he›: ء هٔ fa-هٔ.ogg ‹’›, ‹ye› The symbol on the right is called همزه hamze. It is never at the beginning of a word and has different pronunciations, depending on whether it is in a native Persian word or one borrowed from Arabic. خانهٔ xuneye خ x ا â ن n هٔ e-ye In Persian words, hamze may be written over silent final ‹he› ( هٔ ), as shown on the right, to represent the sound ‹ye› in a construction called ‹ezâfe› that will be explained in Lesson 6. The hamze for this purpose is usually left unwritten and is only added for extra clarity. Rarely, it is used in the same way with words ending in ی (that is, ئ). Historically   Modern جملهٔ جمله‌ای jomlei a sentence قهوهٔ رنگ قهوه‌ای رنگ qahvei rang brown خستهٔ خسته‌ای xaste i you are tired شیمیائی شیمیایی šimiāi chemical بگوئید بگویید beguid say Historically, Persian words with the sounds ‹âi› or ‹ui› were written with a hamze (that is, with ائی or وئی) to show that the vowel sounds were separate, but today such words are usually written with a doubled ی (that is, ‹âi› is written as ایی and ‹ui› as ویی) instead. Similarly, words ending with ‹ei› were once written as هٔ, but today that ending is written as ه‌ای. ژوئن žuan ژ ž و u ئ‍ - ‍ن n As shown on the right, ئـ is used in some foreign words, like ژوئن žuan June (from French juin), to show a transition between vowels. أ ‹a’›/‹’a› متأسف mota’assef sorry تأسیس ta’sis foundation ؤ ‹o’› مؤمن mo’men believer مسئول mas’ul responsible ئو ‹’u›, ئـ ‹’› مسأله\مسئله mas’ale problem In words taken from Arabic, like the ones on the right, hamze may appear anywhere after the first letter of a word to represent a glottal stop [ʔ], i.e. the same ‹’› sound that ع ’eyn represents. Usually, though, أ is written without the hamze, e.g. متاسف mota’assef, مساله masale. جزء joz ج‍ j ‍زء z At the end of an Arabic word, ء is usually silent and written by itself, e.g. جزء joz part. Arabic loanwords ending with a final اء are sometimes still spelled that way, but the final hamze in such words is silent, so the hamze is usually omitted. For example, ابتداء ebtedâ beginning is now usually written ابتدا. Short vowel marks In children's books and some other learning resources, short vowel are marked using the following symbols: َ, called زَبَر zabar above or فتحه‎‎ fatha opening, is used to represent short ‹a›. E.g. دَر در dar door, at ِ, called زير zir below or كَسره kasra breaking, is used to represent ‹e›. ُ , called پيش piš before or ضَمّه zamah, is used to represent ‹o›. The short vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of an Arabic loanword to indicate that the vowel is followed by ‹-n›, known as تنوين tanvin nunation (also, تنوين نصب tanvin nasb marking a consonant with tanvin). In Arabic, the signs indicate grammatical case endings: ـً -un (nominative), ـٍ -en (accusative), and ـٌ -an (genitive). A related mark is سُكون sokun, also called جَزْم jazm amputation. It is used to indicate the absence of a vowel and is written as a superscripted o: ْ Exercises Recognizing letters | What are the names of and sounds represented by the following letters? |- | ﻭ The letter ‹vâv›, which represents the consonant ‹v›, the long vowel ‹u›, or the short vowel ‹o›. ى The letter ‹ye›, which represents the long vowel ‹i› or ‹ay› in a dipthong, e.g. ‹ye›, ‹ay›, ‹ey›, .... ن The letter ‹nun›, which represents the sound ‹n›. ﻩ The letter ‹he›, which represents the consonant ‹h› or the short vowel ‹e›. م The letter ‹mim›, which represents the sound ‹m›. |- | Non-connecting letters. |- | Which seven Persian letters do not join with the letter that follows? ا ‹alef›, ﺩ ‹dâl›, ﺫ ‹zâl›, ﺭ ‹re›, ﺯ ‹ze›, ژ ‹že› and ﻭ ‹vâv›. |} Reading words | Read these words by breaking them down into their component parts. |- |ما ‹mâ›: م‍  ‍ا ماه ‹mâh›: م‍  ‍ا ه نه ‹nah›: ن‍  ‍ه هفت ‹haft›: ه‍  ‍ف‍ ‍ت طناب ‹tanâb›: ط‍ ‍ن‍ ‍ا ب اسم ‹esm›: ا س‍ ‍م |} The Persian script | Determine which of these words has unwritten vowels (vowels not included in the spelling of the word). |- |ما No, the one vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian. ماه No, the one vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian. نه Yes, نه nah not has an unwritten short vowel: ‹a›. چرا Yes, چرا cerâ why has a written long vowel ‹â› and an unwritten short vowel ‹e›. هفت Yes, هفت haft seven has an unwritten short vowel: ‹a›. آب No, the one vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian. بابا No, the vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian. اسم No, the vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian. چرا اثاث Yes, the vowel ‹â› in the middle of the word is written, but the short vowel ‹e› at the beginning of the word is unwritten. توت |} Word recognition | See if you can recognize these familiar words. |- |شاه شاه šâh shah, king افغانستان افغانستان afqânestân Afghanistan زعفران زعفران za'ferân saffron پايجامه پايجامه payjâma pajamas مادر مادر mâdar mother |} Review In this lesson, you learned the final letters of the Persian Alphabet and some diacritics. You also learned about a Persian tradition called ‹haft sin›. Congratulations! You now know how to read, write, and pronounce Persian words! Core vocabulary: yes ببخشید bebaxšin excuse me اسم esm name چی ci what خانم xânom /xɒːnom/ Miss Letters: و vâv ه he ی ye Diacritics and ligatures: لا lâ (‹lâm› + ‹alef›) ۀ he ye اً tanvin nasb ّ tašdid ء hamze َ fatha ِ kasra ُ zamma Bonus words: آواز âvâz voice, song چوب cub wood اوت ut August تو to you (informal) جوجه jojeh chicken یک yek one سیب sib apple فارسی fârsi Persian ايران irân Iran هفت haft seven هفت‌سین haft sin seven Ss (Iranian New Year tradition) سیر sir garlic سنجد senjed senjed (the dried fruit of the oleaster tree) سمنو samanu samanu (a kind of wheat pudding) ماه mâh moon, month مرد mard man نه nah no نه noh new و va and ولی vali but 4 Persian/Lesson 5 Lesson 5 ( ۵ ), Introduction to Verbs