Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Largest Iranian language (about 50 million speakers), official language of Iran, in addition approx. 5 million speakers in Afghanistan (Dari dialect) and 2.2 million speakers in Tajikistan. Modern Persian, of which the first documentation occurs in the eighth century, is not a direct descendant of a Middle Iranian dialect. The lexicon was strongly influenced by Arabic. Around AD 1300 a supraregional standard (Classical Persian) developed with a comprehensive literature; it was the court language of both the Ottoman Empire and northern India (Mogul Dynasty). Arabic script is used with a few additional characters.
Characteristics: relatively simple sound system. Morphology: the Indo-European nominal and verbal inflection was almost completely lost and replaced by analytical constructions and enclitic pronouns. Differential object marking (marking of specific objects). Nominal syntagms can consist of the structure modifier—head—modifier. The modifier following the head is linked to it with an e, the so-called ezāfe: īn mīz-e-bozorg ‘this big table.’ Word order: SOV.
References
Towhīdī, J. 1974. Studies in the phonetics and phonology of modern Persian. Hamburg.
Windfuhr, G.L. 1979. Persian grammar: history and state of its study. The Hague.
Grammars
Bātenī, M.R. 1370 (=1991). Towsīfe saxtemāne dasturīe zabāne fārsī. 4th edn. Tehran.
Boyle, J.A. 1966. Grammar of modern Persian. Wiesbaden.
Clair-Tisdall, W.S. 1923. Modern Persian conversa-tion grammar. London.
Lambton, A.K.S. 1986. Persian grammar. Reissue (with corrections and repagination). Cambridge.
Lazard, G. 1957. Grammaire du persan contempor-ain. Paris.
Rastorgueva, V.S. 1963.
A short sketch of Tajik grammar. Transl. and ed. by H.H.Paper. IJAL Part II. (Repr. Bloomington. IN 1992).
——1964. A short sketch of the grammar of Persian. Bloomington. IN and The Hague. (=IJAL 30:1. pub. 29.)
Dictionaries
Aryanpur Kashani, A. 1986. Combined new Persian—English and English-Persian dictionary. Lex-ington.
Dekhodā, A.A. 1334/1962. Loghatnāme. Tehran.
Haim, S. 1985. New Persian-English dictionary. 6th impr., 2 vols. Teheran.
Hübschmann, H. 1895. Perische Studien. Straßburg (additions and corrections to Horn).
Steingass, F. 1892. A comprehensive PersianEnglish dictionary. (8th impr. 1988.) London.
Etymological dictionary
Horn, P. 1893. Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie. Strasburg.
Iranian
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