Persian vocabulary

Vocabulary of the Persian language

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.

## Native word formation

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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 and Persian language is able to make 225 million 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

## External influences

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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.

### Arabic influence

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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[clarification needed]), 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.

### Turkic influence

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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]

### French and other European influences

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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

## See also

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Look up Indo-Iranian Swadesh lists in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* List of French loanwords in Persian
* List of English words of Persian origin
* Academy of Persian Language and Literature

## References

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1. ^ "Index archive". Mashad. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
2. ^ "فرهنگ و هنر ; فارسی زبانی عقیم، مقاله ای از دکتر باطنی". BBC. 2 June 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
3. ^ "色戒汤唯免费在线观看(中国)股份有限公司". www.lingoistica.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2011.
4. ^ http://www.sid.ir/fa/VEWSSID/J_pdf/34813894404.pdf [bare URL PDF]
5. ^ "همشهری آنلاین: اهمیت زبان فارسی در عصر دهکده جهانی". Hamshahrionline.ir. Archived from the original on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
6. ^ Behnegarsoft.com (8 May 2011). "خبرگزاری کتاب ايران (IBNA) – زبان فارسي زباني اشتقاقي است". Ibna.ir. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
7. ^ "Ř˛Ř¨Ř§Ů† Ů Ř§ŘąŘłŰŒ ŮƒŘ§Ů...Ů"Ř§ ŮžŰŒŮˆŮ†ŘŻŰŒ Ůˆ ŘŞŘąŮƒŰŒ 30% ŮžŰŒŮˆŮ†ŘŻŰŒ(Ř§Ů"ŘŞŘľŘ§Ů'ŰŒ) Ř§ŘłŘŞ!". Forum.hammihan.com. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
8. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2011-05-24.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. ^ a b "توانمندی زبان فارسی در برابر زبان تازی ( عربی )". Fareiran.com. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
10. ^ a b "Deutsch-Iranischer Sozial & Kultur Verein e.V". Iskv.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
11. ^ "جمعیة اللسان العربی الدولیة". Allesan.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
12. ^ "Archived copy". www.ariarman.org. Archived from the original on 1 December 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2022.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. ^ "FĀRESĪYĀT – Encyclopaedia Iranica". Iranicaonline.org. 1999-12-15. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
14. ^ "ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language". Retrieved 2 January 2015.
15. ^ "GEORGIA v. LINGUISTIC CONTACTS WITH IRANIAN LANGUAGES". Retrieved 2 January 2015.
16. ^ Doerfer: G. Doerfer, Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen. Vols. I-IV. Wiesbaden 1963–1975
17. ^ John R. Perry, "Persian in the Safavid Period", Pembroke Papers 1996 (4), pp. 269–283.
18. ^ Perry, John (2001). "The Historical Role of Turkish in Relation to Persian of Iran". Iran & the Caucasus. 5: 193–200. doi:10.1163/157338401X00224. ISSN 1609-8498. JSTOR 4030859.

* v
* t
* e

Persian language

History|

* Proto-Indo-European (c. 3000 BCE)
* Proto-Indo-Iranian (c. 2000 BCE)
* Proto-Iranian (c. 1500 BCE)
* Old Persian (c. 525 – 300 BCE)
* Middle Persian (c. 300 BCE – 800 CE)
* New Persian (from 800)

Language families|

* Indo-Iranian languages
* Iranian languages
* Western Iranian languages

Dialects and varieties|

* Standard Persian
* Iranian
* Afghan
* Tajik
* Hazaragi
* Aimaq
* Kuwaiti Persian
* Tat
* Judeo-Persian
* Judeo-Tat (Juhuri)
* Bukhori
* Sistani
* Dehwari

Language features|

* Vocabulary
* Nouns
* Verbs
* Phonology

Grammar|

* Persian grammar
* Ezāfe
* Tajik grammar

Writing system|

* Old Persian cuneiform
* Pahlavi scripts
* Persian alphabet
* Persian calligraphy
* Tajik alphabet
* Romanized Persian alphabet
* Persian Braille

Literature|

* Persian literature
* Middle Persian literature
* Tajik literature

Organizations|

* Academy of Persian Language and Literature
* Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan
* Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature

Other topics|

* List of English words of Persian origin
* List of French loanwords in Persian
* List of countries and territories where Persian is an official language
* Persian language in South Asia

## Notes

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1. ^ Such as سگ (dog) in سگ‌مست (stoned, drunk) as well as خر (donkey) in خرمست and سیاه (black) in سیاه‌مست with the same meaning.
2. ^ Prevalence of French influence varies by Dialect.

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