Learn about loanwords in Persian
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| Michael: What are some common loanwords in Persian? |
| Negar: And are any English words used differently in Persian? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mark Lee and Paria Parvizi are walking past a car showroom. Mark Lee says, |
| "I want a new car." |
| Mark Lee: (man ye maashin-e taaze mikhaam.) |
| من یه ماشین تازه می خوام. |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: (man ye maashin-e taaze mikhaam.) |
| من یه ماشین تازه می خوام. |
| Paria Parvizi: (man ham hamintor. man ye maashin-e qermez mikhaam.) |
| من هم همینطور. من یه ماشین قرمز می خوام. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: (man ye maashin-e taaze mikhaam.) |
| من یه ماشین تازه می خوام. |
| Michael: "I want a new car." |
| Paria Parvizi: (man ham hamintor. man ye maashin-e qermez mikhaam.) |
| من هم همینطور. من یه ماشین قرمز می خوام. |
| Michael: "Me too. I want a red car." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be talking about some common loanwords in Persian. |
| Iran, being a major hub on the silk road trade route, and being a link between Europe and East Asia, is a mix of cultures. This has led to some borrowing of words from other languages in the Persian language. Let's look at the influence that some of these languages have had on Persian. We will start with Arabic. |
| Due to the fact that Iran was under Arabic rule for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th centuries CE, many Arabic words found their way into the Persian lexicon. They did not, however, affect the overall structure of the Persian language because they are not productive, whereas the Persian language is. What this means is that the Persian language is very flexible, and one can combine words and parts of words to form new words. This does not happen with the Arabic words that found their way into the language. Consider this word for example: |
| Negar: (ketaab) |
| كتاب |
| Michael: It means "book" and the plural form of this word, in Arabic, is |
| Negar: (kotob) |
| كتب |
| Michael: but the plural form in Persian is |
| Negar: (ketaab-haa) |
| كتابها |
| Michael: This is because the plural form in Persian always uses the plural morpheme |
| Negar: (haa) |
| ها |
| Michael: Arabic root words are not productive in Persian. |
| Another language that has been borrowed from is Turkish, but there are not that many examples of these influences. The Persian-speaking realm was ruled over by several Turkic dynasties throughout history, so it is not surprising that one finds some words of Turkic origin in the Persian language. However, many Persian speakers don't even realize that these words are not Persian because they tend to have a familiar feeling to them. Here are a couple of examples. The first is |
| Negar: (aaqaa) |
| آقا |
| Michael: which means "mister," and the second is |
| Negar: (qeychi), |
| قیچی |
| Michael: which means "scissors." Such words are rather limited in their usage. |
| Interestingly, over the past couple of centuries, Persian has also borrowed quite a few words from European languages, but especially from French. This word, for instance, means "thank you" and it comes from French. |
| Negar: (mersi) |
| مرسی |
| Michael: English words have also found their way into the language in more recent times, and one of these words is |
| Negar: (aayfon) |
| آیفون |
| Michael: which means "intercom" or "iPhone." Even the German language has contributed a word or two. This one, for instance, means "highway" or "expressway" |
| Negar: (otoobaan) |
| اتوبان |
| Michael: Another language that Persian has sometimes borrowed words from is Sanskrit. This word, for instance, found its way from Sanskrit into Persian and Arabic, and eventually made its way into English. It means "sugar," and it sounds like this: |
| Negar: (shekar) |
| شکر |
| Michael: As I mentioned earlier, the European language that has been borrowed from the most in Persian is French. You heard an example of this earlier in the dialogue for this lesson. Let's quickly hear that first part again and discuss some examples of French loanwords. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Mark Lee says "I want a new car?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Mark Lee: (man ye maashin-e taaze mikhaam.) |
| من یه ماشین تازه می خوام. |
| Michael: In this sentence, Mark uses the word |
| Negar: (maashin) |
| ماشین |
| Michael: which is borrowed from French and means "car" in Persian, but it actually means "machine" in French. |
| Another commonly used French loanword is |
| Negar: (doosh) |
| دوش |
| Michael: which means "shower." The word for "waiter" in Persian has also been borrowed from French. It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (gaarson) |
| گارسون |
| Michael: And another word, which you can clearly hear has been borrowed from French, is the one meaning "bus." |
| Negar: (otoboos) |
| اتوبوس |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that the Persian language has borrowed words from several other languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Turkish, French, Sanskrit, English, and German. |
| English loanwords are less frequent than French or Arabic, as we discussed in this lesson, and they are usually related to recent technology, words such as the Internet, email, and printer; thus, the meaning is pretty much the same. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: While many loanwords have found their way into the Persian language, over time, there have been efforts to conserve the Persian language by finding replacements for these words. In the modern era, the Academy of Persian Language and Literature is the body responsible for preserving the purity of the language and will often suggest Persian replacements for loanwords. One such example is the word |
| Negar: (aarshiv) |
| آرشیو |
| Michael: which was borrowed from French and has been officially replaced with the Persian word |
| Negar: (baaygaani) |
| بایگانی |
| Michael: Both of these words mean "archive." |
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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