| Revision as of 03:37, 30 December 2002 view sourceGabbe (talk | contribs)Administrators34,329 editsm 46 million people speak persian, not 200 million + links← Previous edit | Revision as of 00:44, 7 January 2003 view source Gabbe (talk | contribs)Administrators34,329 editsm link to Indo-Iranian languagesNext edit → | ||
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| Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that | Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that | ||
| family, it belongs to the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) branch, within which, the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: ]/] -> Middle Persian (]) -> Modern Persian. | family, it belongs to the ] (Aryan) branch, within which, the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: ]/] -> Middle Persian (]) -> Modern Persian. | ||
| The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. | The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. | ||
Revision as of 00:44, 7 January 2003
Persian (also known as Farsi or Parsi) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Gorjestan (Georgia), part of India and part of Pakistan. It has over 46 million speakers. It belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is of the Subject Object Verb type.
Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that family, it belongs to the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) branch, within which, the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: Avestan/Old Persian -> Middle Persian (Pahlavi) -> Modern Persian.
The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. Due to technological developments new words and idioms are created and enter into Farsi like any other language. In Iran the Academy of Farsi language and literature is a center that evaluates the new words in order to initiate and advise its Farsi equivalent.
Is the name of the language "Persian" or "Farsi"? To answer this question ask: is it "Spanish" or "Español"? In other words, "Persian" is an English word, and "Farsi" or "Parsi" are Persian words.
Farsi phonology -- adapted from this Structural Sketch of Farsi.
| front | central | back | |
| high | i: | u: | |
| mid-high | E | O | |
| low | a | A: |
| labial | dentals |
palatals | velars |
|
| voiceless stops | p | t | tS | k |
| voiced stops | b | d | dZ | g |
| voiceless fricatives | f | s | S | x |
| voiced fricatives | v | z | Z | Y |
| nasals | m | n | ||
| liquids | l, r | |||
| glides | y | h |
The functional contrast for vowels appears to be between long {/i:/, /u:/, /A:/} and short {/E/, /O/, /a/}. Therefore, it seems possible to represent the phonology as {/i:/, /u:/, /a:/} and {/i/, /u/, /a/}. Also note that /tS/ and /dZ/ are affricates, not stops.