Iranian Linguistics

by Rebecca Rose Orton

Updated July 13, 2008

Persian Sign Language

According to Behmanesh, the Julia Samii Research Center in Iran has a Persian Sign Language dictionary available. I have witnessed only a few signs from Persian Sign Language, but among these signs are MEANING, PERSON and LOVE. The Persian sign MEANING looks like the ASL sign for POLITICS. The Persian sign PERSON looks identical to the Italian and Peruvian sign for PERSON. PERSON is shaped like an X handshape with the thumb out and hooked as well. The Persian sign for LOVE looks like a one-handed ASL version, a fist over the heart. "I love you" is expressed in SOV order with the Persian signs ME YOU LOVE. (Later, I learned that the heart must be tapped twice.) The Persian signs for YES and NO are on opposite, counter-intuitive cognitive poles: YES is a wave of the hand downward and NO is a wave of the hand upward (with corresponding head movement in the same direction). There is also an equivalent of SEE called "Farsi Exact Signing" (FES). Persian is called "Farsi" in the Iranian language. For Persian Sign Language, the equivalent of fingerspelling is Iranian Cued Speech.

Iranian Cued Speech

Jabbar Baghcheban invented the phonetic hand alphabet used by older Deaf people in Iran. I have named it Iranian Cued Speech because of its apparent similarity to American Cued Speech, but they are completely different systems. The original Iranian Cued Speech has a strong basis on the Persian written alphabet. Young Deaf Iranians are learning a more abstracted system that is not directly related phonetically to the written Farsi alphabet and looks more like fingerspelling in ASL. I asked BF to spell a certain word in Iranian Cued Speech, but she had difficulty deciding which Iranian Cued Speech sign to use with an "e" vowel. Apparently, in the Persian written language, some words are spelled differently even if the vowel sound is similar. There are also two additional letters in Persian represented as "kh" and "gh". There are letter pairs {j, g}, {a, l}, {p, t) and {f, s} that are distinguishable only by mouthing in Iranian Cued Speech. It is clear that mouthing is contrastive, as far as the phonetic hand alphabet is concerned. It would be interesting to see what other PSL signs are contrastive by only mouthing. Otherwise, there are corresponding signs in Iranian Cued Speech for most of the Persian alphabet. I also discovered that some vowel signs like the ‘e’ look like their corresponding orthographic vowels in writing, a form of iconicity. This is a finding similar to what Jean Ann found in Taiwanese Sign Language and the Taiwanese written language. In addition, I learned how to spell my name in Iranian Cued Speech.

Persian Phonetic Script in Roman Characters

There is a way to write Persian using the Roman characters on an English keyboard. The Persian phonetic script is used on the English keyboard. According to BACA, Persian had 32 characters and Arabic has only 28 characters. The additional characters are ch, g, p, and ch. As an interesting aside, Arabic uses b instead of p where normally a p would appear, for example “computer” would be said as “combuter.” I have seen VA and BA type in the Persian phonetic script when they are using instant messenger with each other. For example, "Happy Birthday" would look like "tulledt mobarek" or "tulledt mubarak" as written in the Persian phonetic script. Please note that the same phrases can be spelled differently in the Persian phonetic script, for example "doset daram kheyli ziad" is equivalent to "duste daram khili ziad". Regarding the meaning of these phrases, I have asked four different Iranian men what "duste daram" means. One said it meant "I like you" as in desire, another said it meant a casual "ILY" and still a third and a fourth said that it meant "I love you" as used only with your girlfriend/boyfriend, spouse, or your parents. According to the fourth, “khili duste daram” would not be said to just a friend. I had concluded that this polysemous phrase was similar to "te quiero" in Spanish with multiple, but related meanings. The Spanish phrase incorporates both meanings of desire and love, depending on the context: "I want you" is the literal meaning, but one can substitute the verb meaning with the meanings for "like" or "love".

I have listed the various Persian phrases of endearment in the Persian phonetic script below for your comparison:

"daram" means "have"

"duste" means "love/like"

"khili" means "very much" or “a lot”

"ziad" means "very, very much" in an unlimited sense

"ziad duste daram" means "very, very much love/like"

"duste daram khili ziad" means "love/like very, very, very much"

"man" means "I"

"heshgh" means "love"

"shoma" or “shomah” means "you"

"hastam" means "I am" from the verb "to be"

"man heshgh shoma hastam" is a more passionate and very direct expression of "I love you"

"baraye" means "for"

"abadi" means "ever"

"man heshgh shoma hastam baraye abadi" means "I love you forever"

"azizam" and "jan" mean "dear" (keep this in mind for comments later in this paper)

Formality/Familiarity

"Dustat daram" means "I like/love you" where the subject is older than the object, similar to the Spanish tu/vosotros casual forms of addressing people who are familiar to you or who are children. "Dustat daram" is common for Iranian people to tell children, and is appropriate among friends. "Dustane daram" means "I like/love you" where the subject is younger than the object, similar to the Spanish Usted/Ustedes formal forms of addressing people who are strangers or elders. I also found that shoma or shomah was a formal version of "you" and "tu" was a casual form of "you." For example, "tu bahoush asty" means "you're smart" in a casual form and is literally transcribed as "you smart are" in a S_V sentence structure where the adjective is before the verb. In addition, Persian has only two forms of “you,” which are you-singular and you-all, similar to Spanish, whereas Arabic has three forms of “you,” which are you-singular, you-two, and you-all, also according to BACA.

Structure of Persian Sentences

The verb tends to be last in a Farsi sentence. According to BACA, Persian is considered to be a language of SOV structure. English is SVO.

Phonetic Persian: Man be madreseh miravam

Literal transcription: I to school go

English translation: I go to school.

I have asked BACA about subjects and objects, and he indicated that Persian does not make any distinction between these two entities, unlike English. Please note below that “oon” seems to be a generic Persian pronoun for he, she, or it.

English sentence: She gives something to him.

Literal transcription: she/he/it-subject to she/he/it-object something gives

Phonetic Persian translation: Oon be oon ye chizi midahad

be = to

oon = she/he/it

ye chizi = something

midahad = gives

English sentence: She gives him something.

Literal transcription: she/he/it-subject to she/he/it-object something gives

Phonetic Persian translation: Oon be oon ye chizi midahad

In this case, the preposition “to” had to be added to make the corresponding sentence in Persian. Please note that in both Spanish and English, the indirect object tends to be a person and the direct object tends to be a thing.

According to the Encyclopedia of Linguistics, the basic word order of Farsi depends on its specificity. For example, if the object is non-specific, the word order is S-IO-O-V. If the object is specific and follows the word “ra,” the word order is S-O-IO-V. By the way, Farsi does not have dummy subjects like “there” or “it” in English.

Verb Endings

Later, I had learned more details about "duste daram." The "t" at the end of "dustet" in "dustet daram" means "you." The "m" at the end of "daram" in "dustet daram" means "I." Supposedly, "duste daram" means "I love her/him/it" but I cannot confirm the accuracy of this translation at this point. Apparently in Persian, there are agreement endings that are changeable to agree with first, second, or third person, just like agreement endings in Spanish. I have gathered some more examples below of verb endings.

General verb form: fahmidan – to understand

First person singular: fahmidam – I understand

Second person familiar: fahmidi with an accent on the last i – you understand

Third person familiar: fahmid – he/she/it understands

General verb form: khordan – to eat

First person singular: khordam – I eat

Second person familiar: khordi with an accent on the last i – you eat

Third person familiar: khord – he/she/it eats

General verb form: raftan – to go

First person singular: raftam – I go

Second person familiar: rafti with an accent on the last i – you go

Third person familiar: raft – he/she/it goes

I also got more endings for the verb “to have” in Farsi. They are listed below.

First person singular: daram – I have

First person plural: darim – we have

Second person familiar: dari – you have

Second person formal: darid? – you have

Third person singular: dard – he/she/it has

Third person plural: darned – they have

I also got the endings for the “to be” verb in Farsi. They are listed below.

First person singular: hastam – I am

First person plural: hastim – we are

Second person familiar: hastid – you are

Third person singular: haste or aste - he/she/it is

Third person plural: hastnd – they are

I gathered some more information from the Funny in Farsi book by Firoozeh Dumas that I think is relevant. I also added some information I found in the book Persian Lions, Persian Lambs: An American's Odyssey in Iran that Curtis Harnack, a native of Iowa, my homestate, wrote in 1965.

Useful Words and Phrases

vaqti-ke Engelisi harf mizanam mifahmid? = Do you understand when I speak English? (Harnack, pg. 3)

na = no (Harnack, pg. 3)

salaam = hello (Harnack, pg. 15, 211)

khoda hafez = farewell or goodbye (Harnack, pg. 200)

khahesh mikonam = welcome! (after thank you) (BA, October 1, 2007)

Mamnoon = thank you (GR, June 10, 2008)

befarmeid = welcome in (Harnack, pg. 19-20, BA, October 1, 2007)

bafarma’eed = after you (Zanganeh, pg 14)

befarmeid beneshinid = good welcome and come in (rough translation) (Harnack, pg. 211)

omidvar am baz ham shomah rah bebiam = “I am pleased to see you and wish you well.” (Harnack, pg. 217)

omidvar be didar mojdad ba shoma hastam = “Hope to see you again.” (GR, June 10, 2008)

omidvar = to see

khaste nabashi = Do not be tired – normally said to people as they come home from work in Iran (NN, Nov 2007)

Ba behtarin Arezoo ha = Best regards (GR, June 10, 2008)

Nowruz Mubarak = Happy New Year (Dumas, pg. 106)

noruze u ham mobarak = [literal translation] New Year you also happy = [English translation] Happy New Year to you too (NN, 12-31-2007)

noruze = new year

nou=new

ruz=day

ham=also

u=you

Other Words and Phrases

inja = behold (Harnack, pg. 225)

Shahnaz = the daughter of the King of Iran (Harnack, pg. 10)

aqd = Persian wedding ceremony at the bride's house (Dumas, pg. 147)

sofreh = wedding cloth the size of a queen size bed spread (Dumas, pg. 147-148)

haft ranghe = seven colors (Harnack, pg. 223)

chedurs = black silt or flowered cotton print used to cover the head except for the eyes (Harnack, pg. 8)

chador = head to toe covering for the female body (NN, Nov 2007)

hijab = general noun that refers to female clothing that covers the body (NN, Nov 2007)

hejab = head coverings (Zanganeh, pg 90)

shaal = long scarf to wrap around the neck (NN, Nov 2007)

rosari = informal tied head-covering, either black or multi-colored (NN, Nov 2007)

magane = formal pull-over head-covering, solid color (NN, Nov 2007)

mu = hair (Harnack, pg. 13)

sabzeh = olive-skinned (Zanganeh, pg 13)

madchen = a woman’s figure (full figure, not slender figure) (Harnack, pg. 144)

kudam behtar ast? = which is better? (Harnack, pg. 210)

az an mard bepurs = ask that man (Harnack, pg. 210)

pochettes = suits? (Zanganeh, pg 77)

souteh delan = broken hearts (Zanganeh, pg 113)

man kharam = I am an idiot (Dumas, pg. 34)

Huzzahr = I am here in class (Harnack, pg. 43) – I am unsure of this translation.

esme man Harnack ast = I am this Harnack (rough translation)

ast = this or which (rough translation)

mashghe shab = homework (Zanganeh, pg 85)

Entrez = enter (Harnack, pg. 110)

kaili khob = bravo! (Harnack, pg. 50)

bi-sedah! = be quiet! (Harnack, pg. 210)

saket = be quiet! (Zanganeh, pg 18)

ahah! = damn it! (NN, Nov 2007)

in khaili mohem ast = this is very important (Harnack, pg. 210)

ahan = ok (NN, Nov 2007)

senevesh = fate (Harnack, pg. 16)

enshallah = in good time, whenever it could be arranged (Harnack, pg. 223, 231)

hanooz = yet (Harnack, pg. 51)

faqir = poor (Harnack, pg. 170)

faqih = supreme clerical authority in Iran (Zanganeh, pg 25)

alaho akbar = God is great (Zanganeh, pg 113)

mouflon = wild sheep (Harnack, pg. 172)

pedaram be-mam farman dad = his father ordered him to do it (Harnack, pg. 196)

Family Relations

According to the Dumas book, family relations are described in greater detail than English.

Father's brother, uncle = amoo

Father's sister, aunt = ameh, amme

Mother's brother, uncle = dye-yee or dayee

Mother’s sister, aunt = khaleh

Aunt’s husband = shohar ameh (father's side)

Aunt's husband = shohar khaleh (mother's side)

(depends on which side of the family the aunt is from)

Girl, daughter = dokhtar

Boy, son = pesar, pessar

There are eight words to describe cousins in Persian; unfortunately, they were not listed in the Dumas book. According to BACA, the following words are used to describe cousins.

1. Mother’s brother’s son = pesar dayee

2. Mother’s brother’s daughter = dokhtar dayee

3. Father’s brother’s son = pesar amoo

4. Father’s brother’s daughter = dokhtar amoo

5. Mother’s sister’s son = pesar khaleh

6. Mother’s sister’s daughter = dokhtar khaleh

7. Father’s sister’s son = pesar amme

8. Father’s sisters’ daughter = dokhtar amme

Persian Calendar

According to NN (12-24-2007), Iran has a different calendar that is based on the Sun’s orbit. For example, year 2008 consists of the Persian years 1386 and 1387. Please note that university classes begin in the fall and end in midwinter. They start up again after a 15 day interval and they finish at the end of spring. You can find the Iranian calendar on this website: http://www.alavi.us/jcal/. I have included a listing of the Persian month names and what times they span in the Roman calendar.

Persian Roman

Dey = December 2007 – January 2008

Bahman = January – February 2008

Esfand = February – March 2008

Farvardin = March – April 2008,

(The Persian New Year (1387) begins on the first day of spring, in the month of Farvardin.)

Ordibehesht = April – May 2008

Khordad = May – June 2008

Tir = June – July 2008

Mordad = July – August 2008

Shahrivar = August – September 2008

Mehr = September – October 2008

Aban = October – November 2008

Azar = November – December 2008

Persian Customs

Business Savvy:

“Persians are good businessmen” (Harnack, pg. 260)

Reversed Gender Stereotype:

“Women were considered to be the solid, practical, unemotional, down-to-earth sex, whereas men were afflicted with delicate sensibilities, unstable emotions, and excessive nervousness” (Harnack, pg. 17).

Reversed Dowry System:

In Iran, the groom pays a dowry to the bride, (Satrapi, pg 146) not the other way around as was normally known in the Victorian age in England.

Temporary Marriages:

sigheh = a temporary marriage contract that even married men can enter (Zanganeh, pg 121)

Homosexuality:

bardaj or barah = this Persian word may be the 1700’s origin of the Native American word berdache or a gay man that acts like a female shaman; it can also be translated as male prostitute or “kept boy” (Jacobs, Thomas, & Lang, pg. 4)

Public Display of Tears:

“But when they saw tears running down his cheeks, they were immediately sobered, for Persians are always in awe and fully reverent before any show of emotion” (Harnack, pg. 113)

Mourning the Dead:

Persians literally beat their chest over the heart with their fists during ceremonies of honoring the dead. It was sometimes taken to extremes (i.e. chains instead of fists) in order to be macho (Satrapi, pg. 95-96).

Unique Gesture:

Kissing the air = an Iranian gesture that is meant to indicate “No, damnit!” in a contemptuous manner (Harnack, pg. 116)

Revolution:

“It was among university students that rebellions in this part of the world so frequently began” (Harnack, pg. 118).

Philosophy of Resignation:

“When a big wave comes, lower your head and let it pass.” (Satrapi, pg 95.) This saying is in reference to “2500 years of tyranny and submission; First our own emperors, then the Arab invasion from the West, followed by the Mongolian invasion from the East and finally modern imperialism” (Satrapi pg. 11). Many Persians believe the same tyrannical state of affairs continues under the Iranian democracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

External Drive and Motivation in Persian Personality Traits:

“To press or inquire would be inexcusably rude. Persians were very oriental in this respect; one waited to see what would evolve, all in good time” (Harnack, pg. 228)

Zoroastrianism: The oldest religion in Iran has this proverb at its core:

(Habibian 2002)

Iranian Art Interpretation:

“The leader here was clearly accepting a gift from a conquered subject – an old theme in Persian art” (Harnack, pg. 28).

How to Keep Warm:

Coals were put in a brazier. The brazier would be put underneath a large, low, round table called the corsi. There would be a quilt and a table cloth on top of the corsi. People would put their legs straight up to the brazier and lay back on large pillows, eat, and drink in order to stay warm during the cold winter months (Harnack, pg. 71).

Well-Treated House Guests:

Tarrof is “an ancient tradition of Iranian culture in which the guest or visitor is accorded the highest respect and honor” (Zanganeh, pg 102)

Currency

Toman, tuman = 15 cents in 1965 (Harnack, pg. 6)

5 tomans = 70 cents in 1965 (Harnack, pg. 79)

100 tomans = $15 in 1965 (Harnack, pg. 79)

500 tomans = ~80 dollars in 1976 (Zanganeh, pg 41)

500 tumans = 5 dollars in 1984 (Satrapi, pg 146)

750 tomans = 75 cents in 2004 (Zanganeh, pg 87)

1000 tomans = 1 movie ticket worth $1 in 2004 (Zanganeh, pg 87)

30 rials = 40 cents in 1965 (Harnack, pg. 13)

baksheesh = bribe (Harnack, pg. 37, 272-273)

Savak = secret police (Harnack, pg. 60)

Food

narghili = hoka or Laocoon waterpipes (Harnack, pg. 3, 38, 110)

mast = local yogurt (Harnack, pg. 5)

nun = unleavened bread (Harnack, pg. 161)

ghee = aged butter used in India and the Middle East for deep fat frying (Harnack, pg. 17)

abpaz = hard-boiled (word is used for eggs) (Harnack, pg. 239)

chai = tea (Harnack, pg. 111, 113, 202)

Places

khane = house (Harnack, pg. 202)

chaikhane = teahouse (Harnack, pg. 111)

restoran = café (Harnack, pg. 225)

longhes = towels or scarves (Harnack, pg. 130)

hammams = separate bathhouses which do not include toilets (Harnack, pg. 130, 143)

bodgee = servant or maid at a hotel or bathhouse (Harnack, pg. 144)

zurkhanes = houses of strength (Harnack, pg. 76) similar to a downtown athletic club

zur = strength

jube = irrigation canal (Harnack, pg. 5)

koutche = street (Harnack, pg. 112, 138, 139)

maidan = main square of the city or business district (Harnack, pg. 81, 85)

ostan = province (Harnack, pg. 121)

apadana = the great hall of the palace at Persepolis (Harnack, pg. 133)

lam = wall (Harnack, pg. 243) I am unsure of this translation

bagh = shaded gardens people owned out in the suburbs of Iranian cities (Zanganeh, pg 55)

Analzanal = purple-red mountain with an Islamic shrine on top. (Harnack, pg. 6)

madresehs = religious schools (Zanganeh, pg 25)

biruni = public (Zanganeh, pg 108)

andaruni = private (Zanganeh, pg 108)

pardeiza = paradise or walled garden (Amberstone, pg 208)

Names and Meanings

Most of these names came from the Dumas book. Exceptions noted.

Male

Farbod = Greatness

Farshid = He Who Enlightens

Arash = Giver

Female

Firoozeh = Turquoise

Neggar = Beloved or She Whose Name Almost Incites Riots

Delroba = Charming (Harnack, pg. 98)

shenasnameh = identity certificate (Zanganeh, pg 105)

According to Satrapi, “Iran was derived from ‘Ayryana Vaejo’ which means ‘the origin of the Aryans’ (Intro.). For example, the first Shah said when he was crowned, “I am the light of the Aryans. I will make this country the most modern of all time. Our people will regain their splendor” (pg 27).

According to the Encyclopedia of Linguistics (pg 324), Farsi came from the province of Pars where the powerful dynasties came from. The language was named Parsi. However, after the Arab invasion in the sixth century, the “P” was changed to an “F” because there is no P in Arabic. Farsi is now the official language of Iran.

“Persia is the Greek terminology for Iran” (Zanganeh, pg 20)

Persian Spoken Language

According to BA, Arabian people usually say "salomoalikom" for a greeting but in Persian "salaam" means "hi" similar to the Jewish greeting "salom." In addition, thank you in Farsi is “merci” the same word as in French. According to what MA once told me, Iranian people distinguished themselves from Arabian people because they speak Persian, not Arabic. Iranians don’t speak Arabic as a mother language. Arabic is only used for religious Muslim sayings. I can say duste daram in Persian, but I can’t account for whether it is understandable to a native hearing Iranian.

According to NN, a native of Tabriz, there are dialects of Farsi in Iran, depending on whether another language more common spoken is used. In Tabriz, for example, Turkish is spoken. It has an influence of making vowels longer in Farsi. For example, in both Farsi and Turkish, “hava” means air. In Farsi, it is spoken as “hava” and in Turkish, it is spoken as “haava.” The word for Middle Eastern break is “nan,” which is spoken in Tabriz Farsi as “naan.”

According to NN, the second g in the word “garage” has a zh sound like in the Farsi “zh”. It is pronounced like the French letter “j.” I thought it might sound like a English “g” with a “z” sound, but wasn’t sure. English doesn’t have the sound for the letter “kh” either, which exists in Farsi. My understanding is that this is a deeply guttural “k” sound, perhaps with an aspiration, like with the English “p” sound.

Vowels

I recently discovered to my chagrin that my nickname, Reba, had been pronounced incorrectly by Iranians due to a misunderstanding. The “e” character in Farsi corresponds to a long “a” sound in English, like in Rebecca. The “i” character in Farsi corresponds to a long “e” sound in English, like in Reeba or bee. In English, my nickname is pronounced with a long “e” sound in the first syllable, not a long “a” sound. The second rendering of my nickname in Farsi below is the correct pronunciation. However, according to ZR (June 2008), the correct written form is still the first rendering due to Farsi sentence structure where the vowel is pronounced as a long “e” sound anyway.

I wish to make it clear that the long vowel sounds in Farsi and in English are not the same. According to the book, Alphabet to Email, How Written English Evolved and Where It’s Heading, the Great Vowel Shift in Old English to Middle English, and then to Modern English occurred between 1400-1600 AD.

“Between roughly 1400 and 1600, for reasons unknown, the entire system of English long vowels was on the move. All of the vowels in question moved up a notch in their place of articulation in the mouth, and the two that were already at the apex fell off the top, becoming centralized in the mouth and diphthongized” (Baron, pg 108).

This meant that English long vowels no longer matched vowels in other languages, like Spanish or Farsi, for that matter.

English Great Vowel Shift:

Spanish A – for example, apt, gap, fat.

English long A – Spanish E – for example: ape, gape, fate

English long E – Spanish I - for example: bee, see, fee

English long I – a diphthong AI – for example, eye, bye, fly

English long O – Spanish O – for example, doe, toe, foe

English long U – Spanish U – for example, boot, hoot, food

English has many short vowel sounds that sound different from the long vowels. According to the book Words, Integrated Decoding and Spelling Instruction Based on Word Origin and Word Structure, English vowels also change their pronunciation to a “medium” vowel sound if there is an “r” or an “l” present in the syllable. The r or the l controls the vowel, in other words.

Below is a listing of vowels in Farsi that may correspond to vowels in English. However, vowel pronunciation is not straightforward. Farsi is full of exceptions, just like English. For example, the first A in Apple is almost the same as A in At in the list below, but not quite because there is ‘something’ between them in Farsi. NN and BA told me that Farsi syllables before and after a vowel influence how the vowel is pronounced in some cases. According the Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Farsi has six short vowels and two long vowels. There is one semi-vowel, y. Most of the long vowels were lost through time. For example, ‘sheer’ meaning ‘milk’ and ‘shir’ meaning ‘lion’ are both pronounced as ‘shir’ now. The corresponding U vowel in Farsi was found on the keyboard by pressing “d” and “,” in sequence. ZR helped me to find this combo.

Persian Written Alphabet

With the help of the Farsi Hand Alphabet For the Deaf chart on page 8 (you start from the back, not from the front) of the Farsi Sign Language, 4th edition by Dr. Younes Lotfi and other deaf authors whose names I can't read, I was able to decipher the Farsi fonts that I was able to install on my computer. I used the instructions provided by http://www.laits.utexas.edu/rfpit/persianword/winXP.htm and BA checked my work and added two missing English characters. NN added the Farsi character for “zh.” Pictures of the Farsi fonts are shown below the keyboard layouts since I don't want anyone to go through the possibly painful steps of installing the Farsi fonts on their computer if they don't want to.

Below is the keyboard layout in Persian.

I have enlarged the Farsi characters in the same order as the keyboard above.

Below are the meanings of the Farsi characters that I have determined to the best of my ability.

These characters are already on the Farsi keyboard without needing to be shifted in order to type it. I’ve tried to name most of these Farsi characters to the best of my ability.

Persian Written Language

The endearment "dustet daram" as written in the Persian written language looks like this

As you can see, the Persian written language is based on a different right to left writing system. Another example of Farsi script is "Congratulation very much to you" which is meant to congratulate someone usually by saying "Very many congratulations to you."

"Congratulation" is separated into this Farsi script:

The phrase "very much" is separated into this Farsi script:

The word "to" is separated into this Farsi script:

I found out that the meaning "you" is represented orthographically by the letter "t" in Farsi script, like in the "dustet daram" example that I had mentioned above.

= "t"

The word "from" is another example of Farsi script below:

The word "Graduation" is another example of Farsi script below:

Strangely enough, the phrase "you Graduation from" is considered to be the appropriate arrangement of words in Farsi:

I can write my nickname in the Persian written language. For example, my nickname "Reba" looks like:

VA has told me that the vowels are often left out and makes it more difficult to read. One example is "Reba" in Farsi script without the “E” vowel at the end:

I have learned that Farsi uses a median line to write characters above or below it.

The Re- part of my nickname is below the median and the -ba part is mostly above.

Below is an illustration of how I could write my nickname.

Translation

BF translated into the Persian written language something that I signed in ASL. I also asked for written translations twice from VA. The first time was a translation from ASL into Persian written language for a letter to BF. The second time was a translation from English (with some clarifications in ASL) into Persian written language. BA translated this second translation back into English. As a result, I discovered a Persian custom that I was unaware of previously even though BA had been using it with me all along. Among the Persian people, it is customary to say the name of the listener with an endearment to indicate a change of topic. This tradition is characteristic of my instant messaging (IM) with BA. For example, [Name] khili azizam and [Name] jan are endearments used in conversation for topic changes. After seeing BA type "Reba Jan" after every change of topic, I have started doing this custom myself with him. In addition, VA told me as of April 6, 2004 that "Joune" was a more casual form of "Jan." He used "Jan" with his mother, unlike the English equivalent, "darling" which "Jan" can be translated as. Another endearment, "Nanaz Joune" was used by the Queen of the Shah with her children and was translated as "my life" in her book Enduring Love, My Life With the Shah: A Memoir. Jan in stylized Farsi script looks like this below:

According to BA, one tribe out of 68 tribes in Iran uses crude language as a customary way of speaking. I have also seen BA type in the same crude fashion at least once during our IM’s. Even so, BA has indicated to me that it is possible to be overly insulting and this had indeed occurred inadvertently during the second translation. VA had used a Persian word with a broad meaning to translate a specific English word and the resulting interpretation felt insulting to BA. There was also no question that the English to Persian translation lost some of the original meaning and also added meaning where there was none in the original. BA told me that the translation didn’t make literal sense as a whole and that he had to use his own intuition to decipher the translation. We agreed that English to Persian translations are too risky.

Interpretation

On the other hand, an interpreting situation that I found myself in was fun. When I went to visit BF and BM in Toronto, we couldn’t speak to each other in a common language. All three of us had a chance to interpret what the other was communicating. When BF communicated with BM, they used Iranian Cued Speech. When BF communicated with me, we used ASL. When BM and I communicated with each other, we used spoken English. One day, all three of us ate together for a meal. I realized that any two of us could communicate privately in plain sight. Only if someone was willing to interpret could the third person understand the topic. It was really cool to see all three of us interpreting for each other during the meal.

References

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Ann, Jean. 1998. “Contact Between a Sign Language and a Written Language: Character Signs in Taiwan Sign Language.” In Pinky Extension and Eye Gaze, Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities Series, Ceil Lucas (ed.), 59-99. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.

Baron, Naomi S. 2000. Alphabet to Email; How Written English Evolved and Where It’s Heading. NYC: Routledge.

Behmanesh, Abbas Ali. July 2002. Deaf Way II Presentation On Iranian Deaf Culture. Accessed on March 15, 2003. (http://www.oocities.org/abehmanesh/IranDeaf.htm)

Blokhin, Vitaly. April 4, 2005. Transliteration Tables. Retrieved January 20, 2008 from http://www.uconv.com/translit.htm

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Pahlavi, Farah. January 21, 2004. Enduring Love, My Life With the Shah: A Memoir. New York: Miramax Books.

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Schreiber, Arye. May 15, 2005. ASCII Character Set. Retrieved January 20, 2008 from http://mobile.lionscribe.com/downloads/files/wp2rtf/wpcharacters.pdf

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Webster's II New College Dictionary. 2004. 3rd Ed. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Zanganeh, Lila Azam. 2006. (Ed.) My Sister, Guard your Veil; My Brother, Guard your Eyes; Uncensored Iranian Voices. Boston: Beacon Press.