Persian/Lesson 2

In lesson 1, you learned some greetings, the first nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with those letters from right to left. You also learned that short vowels are usually not written, and that many letters change their shape depending on whether they connect with letters before or after them.

In this lesson, you will learn more formal greetings, the next eleven Persian letters and syllable stress.

Dialogue: ‹hâl-e šomâ cetor e?›
Arash sees Peyman:


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Explanation
 * Arash and Peyman are using a more formal style of speech typically used to show respect. That is why they use the formal pronoun  instead of the informal  used in lesson 1.

Vocabulary

 

د ‹dâl›, ذ ‹zâl›
The next two Persian letters, shown on the right, have the same basic form, but only second one has a dot. Like ا ‹alef›, these two letters do not connect with the letter that follows them.



The letter represents the /d/ sound. It sits on the baseline and is written beginning at the top, ending at the bottom left. Its name sounds like the English word “doll”.



The Persian word is shown on the right. As shown, د does not join with the letter that follows it.



The letter is one of the “foreign” letters in Persian. In Arabic, it represents the consonant [ð], but Persian does not have that sound, so it is pronounced as the closest Persian sound. Thus, ذ ‹zâl› is one of four Persian letters pronounced /z/.



As shown in on the right, the letter ذ also does not join with the letter that follows it.

  

ر ‹re›, ز ‹ze›, ژ ‹že›
The next three Persian letters, also have the same basic form except for the dots. They are all written with a tail that drops well below the baseline. Like ا ‹alef›, د ‹dâl›, and ذ ‹zâl›, these three letters do not connect with the letter that follows them.



The letter is pronounced as [ɾ], that is, it is produced by striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth, then expelling air over the middle of the tongue, similar to the r in the Scottish English pronunciation of free or the tt in the American English and Australian English better. Between vowels, it is often trilled like rr in the Spanish word perro. Its name, ‹re›, sounds similar to a quick pronunciation of the English word "ray".



As shown below the word, the letter ر does not join with the letter that follows it.



چ followed by ر and ا spells the word. Recall that ‹e›, like other short vowels, is not usually written in Persian.



The letter is the most common of the four ‹z› letters in Persian.



The word is shown on the right. Recall that ‹o› is usually not spelled in Persian words. Like ر, ز does not join with the letter that follows it.



The letter is transcribed in UniPers and here as ‹ž› and is pronounced as [ʒ], i.e. like the "g" in "mirage" or the s in measure and Persian. If you open your Persian-English dictionary at the letter ژ, you can see that it is not used in very many words. It occurs in many loanwords of French origin.

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As shown in the word, ژ does not join with the letter that follows it.

<br style="clear:both" /><span id="س" > <span id="ش" >

س ‹sin›, ش ‹šin›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but one of them has no dots and the other has three.

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The letter is the usual Persian letter for /s/. Its name sounds like the English word "seen".

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As shown in the word on the right, the letter س joins with the letter that follows it.

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The letter is pronounced as [ʃ], that is, like "sh" in English. It is transcribed in UniPers as ‹š›, but in other literature it may be transcribed as sh, sch, ʃ, or ş. Its name sounds like the English word “sheen”.

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As shown in the word, the letter ش joins with the letter that follows it.

<br style="clear:both" /><span id="ص" > <span id="ض" >

ص ‹sâd›, ض ‹zâd›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but only one has a dot.

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The letter is the third Persian letter for the sound /s/.

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As shown in the word, on the right, the letter ص joins with the letter that follows it.

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The letter is another Persian letter for the sound /z/.

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As shown in the word on the right, the letter ض joins with the letter that follows it.

<br style="clear:both" /><span id="ط" > <span id="ظ" >

ط ‹tâ›, ظ ‹zâ›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but only one has a dot.

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The letter is another Persian letter for the sound /t/.

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As shown in the word on the right, the letter ط joins with the letter that follows it.

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The letter is another Persian letter for the sound /z/. It is rare and only appears in words of Arabic origin.

ظ joins with the letter that follows it.

Exercises

 * What are the names of and sounds represented by the following letters?


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 * Read these words by breaking them down into their component parts.


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 * See if you can recognize these familiar words:


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Review
In this lesson, you learned some greetings, the first nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with those letters from right to left. You also learned that short vowels are usually not written, and that many letters change their shape depending on whether they connect with letters before or after them.

Below are all the core vocabulary words from lessons 1 and 2. The far right column shows the words in Persian script. Don't worry if you can't yet read the Persian script: