Learn about augmentatives in Persian
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| Michael: What are augmentatives and how are they formed in Persian? |
| Negar: And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Sasha Lee is talking to her friend, Afsane Afshar, after watching a new hero movie. She asks her, "Who's your favorite superhero?" |
| Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Afsane Afshar: مرد آهنی! (mard-e aahani!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Michael: "Who's your favorite superhero?" |
| Afsane Afshar: مرد آهنی! (mard-e aahani!) |
| Michael: "Iron Man!" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you will be learning what augmentatives are. The word "augmentative" sounds like this in Persian: |
| Negar: بزرگساز (bozorgsaz) |
| Michael: You will also be learning about the two ways that augmentatives are formed in Persian, and how commonly they are used within the Persian language. |
| Let's begin by talking about what an augmentative is. When we augment something, we amplify it in some way. For instance, we want to improve on it, increase it in terms of number or size, or make it more intense. |
| In grammar, an augmentative is an element of language that has this effect on other elements. Typical examples of this are the English prefixes "grand," as in "grandparent," and "super," as in "supermarket." In Persian, augmentatives are made similarly, but using small elements of language known as "morphemes" which behave in the same way as the aforementioned English prefixes. |
| Now, as I mentioned earlier, there are two ways to augment words in Persian. One way is to make use of compounding, and the other is to use a method called reduplication. To explain these very simply—compounding is what happens when you put two or more words together to create a new one with a modified meaning. "Reduplication" is the act of repeating a word, or elements of a word, in order to create a new, augmented word. We will start by looking at examples of compounding. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Who's your favorite superhero?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Michael: In this question, Sasha Lee asked about a "superhero." You will, no doubt, recall the English example of augmentation that I mentioned previously—it was "supermarket." This word is made up of the augmentative "super" and the noun "market." The same thing is true of the word "superhero" in English. It is composed of the augmentative "super" combined with the word "hero." In other words, this is no ordinary hero, but a SUPER hero---an augmented hero. In Persian, the word for "hero" is: |
| Negar: قهرمان (qahremaan) |
| Michael: and the word they use to augment it is |
| Negar: ابر (abar) |
| Michael: which translates to "super." Put them together and you have a "superhero" or |
| Negar: ابرقهرمان (abarqahremaan) |
| Michael: You will remember that I pointed out that there are two ways of augmenting words in Persian and this is an example of the first one I mentioned. It is called compounding—where two or more words are combined to form another with a new meaning. We will be looking at four specific morphemes that are used in Persian to build augmentatives through the use of compounding. |
| The first of these is |
| Negar: شاه (shaah) |
| Michael: which translates to "king." When added to other words, this morpheme generally conveys the sense of something being major, main, or big. One can, for instance, add it to the Persian word for "verse," as in a verse of a poem, and create a new word meaning "the greatest verse of a poem" which sounds like this: |
| Negar: شاهبیت (shaahbeyt) |
| Michael: If the whole poem is incredible, you could describe it by using another compound word containing the "king" morpheme. It sounds like this: |
| Negar: شاهکار (shahkaar) |
| Michael: and it means "kingly work" or "masterpiece." |
| The next augmenting morpheme you will be learning about translates to "donkey," it can also mean "big," and it sounds like this on its own: |
| Negar: خر (khar). |
| Michael: Yes, you heard me right. I said "donkey." I would guess it's a pretty universal rule that, when using the word "donkey" to describe something or someone, the connotations are not usually positive. This is definitely true in Persian. With this morpheme, the meaning of the new compound word is not always positive. Instead, it often conveys the meaning of, interestingly, both "bigness" and "weakness." It is regularly used in compounds that denote attenuation or contempt. Consider the compound word |
| Negar: خرمهره (kharmohre) |
| Michael: which contains the "donkey" morpheme and means "a big blue bead." The meaning of this compound is that whatever is being referred to as a "big blue bead" is of little value, or is worthless. The "donkey" morpheme is also used in this compound, which means "filthy rich," and expresses contempt for the person being referred to: |
| Negar: خرپول (kharpool) |
| Michael: It's probably best to steer clear of this augmentative unless you want to risk upsetting people. |
| The next augmenting morpheme is a safer one to use. It means "great" and it sounds like this: |
| Negar: والا. (vaalaa) |
| Michael: It's often used to denote that something or someone is superior. For instance, the word |
| Negar: والامقام (vaalaamaqaam) |
| Michael: means "someone with royal and noble rank." As you can guess the word |
| Negar: مقام (maqaam) |
| Michael: means "rank" or "position." Similarly, the word |
| Negar: والاحضرت (vaalaahazrat) |
| Michael: translates as "majesty." The word |
| Negar: حضرت (hazrat) |
| Michael: is an honorific Arabic title commonly used to honor a person. It literally translates to "presence" or "appearance." |
| The last morpheme we will look at in the context of compounding is one that means "outsize" or "gigantic," and is used in compounds that denote contempt, gigantism, or attenuation. It sounds like this: |
| Negar: گنده (gonde) |
| Michael: It can be found in the compound |
| Negar: گندهلات (gonde-laat) |
| Michael: which means "big hooligan," and it expresses contempt for the person being referred to. It can also be found in the compound |
| Negar: گندهبک (gonde-bak) |
| Michael: which means "with an outsize frame of body." This is also an expression of contempt. As with the "donkey" morpheme, this one is not used to augment other words in a pleasant way---best to be careful when using it. |
| Now, you might recall that earlier I spoke of two ways to augment other words. The one was compounding, which we've already discussed, and the other was reduplication. Let's have a quick look at what reduplication entails. |
| As you can tell from the word, it refers to the duplication or doubling of words. When this is done, a new word is formed that differs from the meaning of the word being repeated. In most cases, reduplication as a form of augmentation involves the repeating of an entire word. Consider this example: |
| Negar: تکهتکه (tekke-tekke). |
| Michael: It means "to cut to pieces," and it is a doubling of the word |
| Negar: تکه (tekke) |
| Michael: which means "a piece" or "a slice." Another example of reduplication can be found in the compound word meaning "a myriad of." It sounds like this |
| Negar: هزارهزار (hezaar-hezaar) |
| Michael: and is a repetition of the word |
| Negar: هزار (hezaar) |
| Michael: which means "a thousand." Fortunately, there are not thousands of these reduplicated words so you won't have too much difficulty learning them. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that there are two basic ways to augment words in Persian. One of these ways is to create compound words by joining an augmentative morpheme to a word, or even to several other words, and thereby create a new word with a new meaning. The other way is to use reduplication, which entails repeating a word or a part of a word in order to create a new word. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: It might be useful to know that most compound words that have been formed as a result of augmentatives have their head on the left. What this means is that the important part of the compound is on the left. This would be the part of the compound that carries most of the meaning, while the augmentative morpheme usually performs the function of modifying the meaning of the word that has been used to form the head. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Who's your favorite superhero?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: ابرقهرمان مورد علاقت کیه؟ (abarqahremaan-e mored-e alaaqat kiye?) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Afsane Afshar says "Iron Man?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Afsane Afshar: مرد آهنی! (mard-e aahani!) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Negar as Afsane Afshar: مرد آهنی! (mard-e aahani!) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Afsane Afshar: مرد آهنی! (mard-e aahani!) |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Negar: خداحافظ (khodaahaafez) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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