Persian/Lesson 1
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Contents |
[edit] In This Lesson
| • Basic greetings. |
| • Letters: Alef, Be, Pe, Te, Se, Jim, Che, He and Khe. |
| • Grammar: changing letter shapes. |
| • Grammar: unwritten vowels. |
| • Exercises: word breakdown and letter recognition. |
[edit] Salâm!
Shirin sees Arash in passing. The following dialogue takes place:
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English:
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Explanation
Salâm is (loaned from arabic) a casual way of saying "hello", and literally means "peace".
Arash and Shirin are Persian personal names.
Mamnoon means Thanks.
Man is a personal pronoun meaning "I".
Khub means "good".
Hastam is the verb "to be" in the first person, so "man (adjective) hastam" means "I am (adjective)".
The word khodâ means "God". Khodâ hâfez means "good-bye" and literally "May God be with you". It is similar to the Spanish word "adiós", which means both "Good-bye" and "to God".
[edit] The Alphabet
Persian is written from right to left, the opposite way to English. In ancient times it was written using its own cuniform alphabet, but due the influence of Arabic and Islam the Arabic alphabet was adopted for writing Persian. The whole alphabet is summarized in the Alphabet table. In addition to the normal Arabic alphabet, Persian uses four extra letters to represent sounds that do not exist in Arabic. پ (pe), چ (che),ژ (zhe) and گ (gâf).
Just as some letters in English change shape when we write them "joined-up", some Persian letters similarly change shape when they are connected to other letters.
[edit] Alef
| ا and آ |
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These are the two forms of our first letter in Persian, written with one simple stroke downwards, sometimes with a small "hat" on top which you can look closely to see in the example on the right. The name of the letter is alef. The "hat" of the alef changes the way it is pronounced. The "hat" on آ represents a second alef written over the top of the first, to avoid writing ا ا. With a "hat" at the beginning of a word it is read as (long) "â":
| آب |
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In this word,آ(alef) is read as "â", so the whole word is read (right to left) as "âb" (with a long "a" rhyming with "car"). In contrast, consider the following word:
| اسم |
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"Alef" without a "hat" at the beginning of a word is read as (short) "a", "e" or "o", so the hatless alef in this word is read as "e", so the whole word is read as:
| اسم | = | م | + | س | + | ا |
| esm | = | m | + | s | + | e |
,or "esm" which means "name". In this word the sound of ا (Alef) is "e" (as in "end" not "bee").
 Distinguishing a and â: |
| Decide whether the "alef" in the following words stands for (short) a or (long) â. You do not need to be able to read the whole word at this stage! |
| 1. ابشار |
| 2. المان |
| 3. آبی |
| 4. آن |
| 5. اب |
| 6. المان |
| 7. اسب |
| 8. آق |
[edit] Be, Pe, Te, Se
| ب پ ت ث |
This group of letters is read "Be, Pe, Te, Se" (from right to left).
| ب |
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ب(be) rhymes with "bay" in English. Combined with a hatless alef makes the word "bâbâ", with both the alef in medial positions representing long "â" sounds:
| بابا |
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| بابا | = | ا | + | ب | + | ا | + | ب |
| bâbâ | = | â | + | b | + | â | + | b |
It means "father," but informal. More like "daddy."
پ "pe" rhymes with "pay". listen (help·info)
| پا |
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پا can be broken down as:
| پا | = | ا | + | پ |
| pâ | = | â | + | p |
It means "foot."
| ت |
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ت (Te)is prounounced similarly to the sound "t" in English. With an alef it combines to spell:
| تا |
تا can be broken down as:
| تا | = | ا | + | ت |
| tâ | = | â | + | t |
It means "until".
| ث |
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ث is used mainly in words of Arabic origin and is not a very common letter.
| اثاث |
The word اثاث is made up of ا which was the first letter studied in this lesson, and ث "se". This word once again demonstrates the difference between a hatless initial ا alef which represents a short "a" and an alef in the middle of a word which represents â, a long "a" sound. The spelling of the word is:
| اثاث | = | ث | + | ا | + | ث | + | ا |
| asâs | = | s | + | â | + | s | + | a |
Asâs means "furniture".
[edit] Jim, Che, He, Khe
| ج چ ح خ |
ج is called "jim" and sounds similar to an English "j". Combined with اmakes:
| جا | = | ا | + | ج |
| jâ | = | â | + | j |
pronounced "jâ", meaning "place" or "space". It can be seen from this example that the shape of the letter "jim" ج has changed when connected to the alef ا.
چ is pronounced "che".
| چرا | = | ا | + | ر | + | چ |
| cherâ | = | â | + | r | + | ch |
Ch+r+a= chera. You might have noticed that the "e" sound is not represented. That is because in Persian, the short vowels "a", "e" and "o" are not usually written. Another example of this can be seen using our next letter, ح, "he" (which is closer to rhyming with "hay" than "she").
| حب | = | ب | + | ح |
| hab | = | b | + | h |
حب (hab) means "pill". It is written as h + b, with the short vowel "a" unwritten.
From the above example it can also be seen that ح is written differently when connected to another letter. The shape of some of the letters of the Persian alphabet vary depending on whether they are at the start, middle, or end of a word. Therefore it is important to learn to recognize the different forms of each letter.
[edit] Grammar Points
[edit] Changing letter shapes
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Most Persian letters take different forms depending on their position in a word, except for seven letters which do not change shape. Some letters look fairly similar in their different forms, while others look quite different in their initial, middle and final forms. |
[edit] Unwritten vowels
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As can be seen from the examples of the first words in this lesson, in Persian there is an important distinction between short and long vowels. Short vowels are not usually written, therefore both the written form of a word and its pronunciation must be memorized, and when you come across a new word in writing you might have to find out how it is pronounced from a dictionary or someone who speaks Persian. Although there is a system of marking vowel sounds (see Alefba), it is only usually seen in children's books, because it disrupts the normal layout of text. In contrast, long vowels have their own letters and are written down. |
[edit] Culture Point: тоҷикӣ
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Not all dialects of Persian are written using the Perso-Arabic alphabet. The Tajik language, a variant of Persian spoken mainly in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. |
[edit] Exercises
Try to memorize the letters of the alphabet studied in this lesson.
| ج | → |
jim |
| ا | → |
alef |
| ﺙ | → |
se |
| آ | → |
alef (â) |
| ت | → |
te |
| ﺏ | → |
be |
| پ | → |
pe |
| ا | → |
alef |
| خ | → |
khe |
| ح | → |
he |
Which four letters were added to the Arabic alphabet by Persians to represent sounds which do not exist in Arabic?
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Answers
پ (pe), چ (che),ژ (jeh) and گ (gaf). |
Which sounds have no letters of their own in Persian?
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Answers
Short vowels. |
Which letters stay the same whether they are at the beginning, middle or the end of a word ? (Hint: consult the alphabet chart)
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Answers
ا Alef, ﺩ Dâl, ﺫ zâl, ﺭ re, ﺯ ze , ژ zhe and ﻭ vâv. |
Read these words by breaking them down into their component parts:
آب
بابا
اسم
چرا
اثاث
Example: جا
| جا | = | ا | + | ج |
| jâ | = | â | + | j |
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Answers
{{{1}}} |
| آب | = | ب | + | آ |
| âb | = | b | + | â |
| بابا | = | ا | + | ب | + | ا | + | ب |
| bâbâ | = | â | + | b | + | â | + | b |
| اسم | = | م | + | س | + | ا |
| esm | = | m | + | s | + | e |
| چرا | = | ا | + | ر | + | چ |
| cherâ | = | â | + | r | + | che |
| اثاث | = | ث | + | ا | + | ث | + | ا |
| asâs | = | s | + | â | + | s | + | a |
Practise using the following phrases in a short dialogue:
• Salâm.
• Shomâ chetorin?
• Man khubam, mersi.
• Khodâ Hâfez.
[edit] Vocabulary
| Persian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| آب | âb | water |
| بابا | bâbâ | Dad, Papa |
| اسم | esm | name |
| اثاث | asâs | furniture |
| جا | jâ | place, space |
| تا | tâ | until |
| چرا | cherâ | why |
| حب | hab | pill |
[edit] Phrases
| Persian | English |
| Salâm | Hello |
| Shomâ chetorin | How are you? |
| Man khub hastam | I'm fine |
| Khodâ hâfez | Goodbye |
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