Significations et usages de Persian_grammar

Persian grammar (Persian: دستور زبان فارسی) is the body of rules describing the properties of the Persian language. Persian grammar is similar to that of many other Indo-European languages, especially those in the Indo-Iranian family. Middle Persian had become more analytical, having no grammatical gender and few case markings, and Persian has inherited such characteristics.

  Word order

While Persian has a subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, it is not strongly left-branching. The main clause precedes a subordinate clause. The interrogative particle āyā (آیا), which asks a yes/no question in written Persian, appears at the beginning of a sentence. Modifiers normally follow the nouns they modify, although they can precede nouns in limited uses. The language uses prepositions, uncommon to many SOV languages. The one case marker, rā (را), follows the definite direct object noun phrase.

Normal sentences are ordered subject–preposition–object–verb. If the object is specific, then the order is "(S) (O + "rā") (PP) V". However, Persian can have relatively free word order, often called "scrambling." This is because the parts of speech are generally unambiguous, and prepositions and the accusative marker help disambiguate the case of a given noun phrase. This scrambling characteristic has allowed Persian a high degree of flexibility for versification and rhyming.

  Nouns

Persian nouns have no grammatical gender. Persian nouns mark with an accusative marker only for the specific accusative case; the other oblique cases are marked by prepositions. Possession is expressed by special markers: if the possessor appears in the sentence after the thing possessed, the ezāfe may be used; otherwise, alternatively, a pronominal genitive enclitic is employed. Inanimate nouns pluralize with -hā, while animate nouns generally pluralize with -ān (with variants -gān and -yān), although -hā is also common.^[1] Special rules exist for some nouns borrowed from Arabic.

  Pronouns

Persian is a null-subject, or pro-drop language, so personal pronouns (e.g. I, he, she) are optional. Pronouns generally are the same for all cases. The first-person singular accusative form mæn rā "me" can be shortened to mærā. Pronominal genitive enclitics (see above) are different from the normal pronouns, however.

Possession is often expressed by adding suffixes to nouns. These are added after inflection for number.

Note that when the stem to which these are added ends in a vowel, a "y" is inserted for ease of pronunciation.

In colloquial speech, the personal pronouns can be used in conjunction with verbs to incorporate a direct object. For example: "Yesterday I saw him."

  Adjectives

Adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify, using the izāfa construct. However, adjectives can precede nouns in compounded derivational forms, such as khosh-bækht (lit. good-luck) 'lucky', and bæd-kār (lit. bad-deed) 'wicked'. Comparative forms ("more ...") make use of the suffix tær (تَر), while the superlative form ("the most ...") uses the suffix tærin (تَرین).

Comparatives used attributively follow the nouns they modify, while superlatives precede their nouns.

With respect to comparison, "than" is expressed by the preposition "از" (az), for example:

• سگ من از گربه‌ی تو کوچک‌تراست
• (Sag-e man az gorbe to kuchektar ast; My dog is smaller than your cat.)

  Verbs

Normal verbs can be formed using the following morpheme pattern:

( NEG - DUR or SUBJ/IMPER ) - root - PAST - PERSON - ACC-ENCLITIC

• Negative prefix: næ - changes to ne before the Durative prefix
• Durative prefix: mi
• Subjunctive/Imperative prefix: be
• Past suffix: d - changes to t after unvoiced consonants
• Optative identifier: an "ā" is added before the last character of the present tense of singular third person. Although there are suggestions that this inflection has been abandoned, but significant remnants of its usage can still be observed in contemporary stylish Persian compositions and colloquial proverbs, as in hærče bādā bād (هرچه بادا باد) "come what may" and dæst mærizād (دست مريزاد) lit. "May that hand not spill [what it is holding]", meaning "well done".

  Conjugations

Example verb conjugations for third-person singular form of khordæn "to eat".

  Compound verbs

Light verbs such as kærdæn "to do, to make" are often used with nouns to form what is called a compound verb, light verb construction, or complex predicate. For example, the word "sohbæt" means "conversation", while "sohbæt kærdæn" means "to speak". One may add a light verb after a noun, adjective, preposition, or prepositional phrase to form a compound verb. Only the light verb (e.g. kærdæn) is conjugated; the word preceding it is not affected. For example:

dāræm sohbæt mikonæm ("I am speaking")

sohbæt kærde æm ("I have spoken")

sohbæt khāhæm kærd ("I will speak")

As can be seen from the examples, the head word (in this case, sohbæt) remains unchanged throughout the conjugation, and only the light verb kærdæn is conjugated. They may be compared to English verb particle constructions, such as hand down (leave as an inheritance) and set up (arrange), or German compound verbs, such as radfahren (to ride by bicycle) and zurückgehen (to go back).

Some other examples of compound verbs with kærdæn are:

• fekr kærdæn, "to think"
• færāmush kærdæn, "to forget"
• gærye kærdæn, "to cry"
• telefon kærdæn, "to call, to telephone"
• tæmir kærdæn, "to fix"

  Auxiliary Verbs

• bāyæd - 'must': Not conjugated
• shāyæd - 'might': Not conjugated
• tævānestæn - 'can': Conjugated
• khāstæn - 'want': Conjugated. Subordinating clause is subjunctive
• khāstæn - 'will': Conjugated. Main verb is tenseless

  Prepositions

Prepositions in Persian generally behave similarly to those in English – they precede their object. They include the following:

  See also

• Persian language
• Tajik grammar
• Kurdish grammar

  References

1. ^ Mahootian, Shahrzad (1997). Persian. London: Routledge. p. 190. ISBN 0-415-02311-4. 

  Bibliography

  Grammar books

• A Grammar of Contemporary Persian (Persian Studies, No 14) by Gilbert Lazard and Shirley A. Lyon (Paperback - Nov. 1993)
• Modern Persian: Spoken and Written by Donald L. Stilo and Jerome Clinton (Hardcover - Dec. 1994)
• Persian (Descriptive Grammars) by Shahrzad Mahootian (Hardcover - June. 27 1997)
• Old Persian Grammar Texts Lexicon Vol. 33 (2nd Edition) by Roland G. Kent (Hardcover - Nov. 1, 1998)
• Persian Colloquial Grammar by Fritz Rosen and Fritz Rosen (Hardcover - Mar. 2000)
• Persian Grammar: For Reference and Revision by John Mace (Paperback - Oct. 18, 2002)
• Grammar of the Persian Language by B. Forbes (Paperback - Sept. 30, 2003)
• Modern Persian: A Course-Book by Simin Abrahams (Paperback - May 16, 2005)
• A Concise Grammar of the Persian Language by Arthur Henry Bleeck (Paperback - Nov. 14, 2008)
• An Introduction to Persian Revised 4th Edition by W. M. Thackston (Hardcover - Jan. 1, 2009)
• A Grammar of the Persian Language: To Which Is Added, a Selection of Easy Extracts for Reading, Together with a Copious Vocabulary by Duncan Forbes (Paperback - Mar. 2010)
• Modern Persian Conversation-Grammar; With Reading Lessons, English-Persian Vocabulary and Persian Letters by William St. Clair Towers Tisdall (Paperback - Jan. 6, 2010)
• Historical Grammar of the Ancient Persian Language by Edwin Lee Johnson (Paperback - Feb. 24, 2010)
• A Grammar of the Persian Language by Sir William Jones (Paperback - Mar. 1, 2010)
• Modern Persian Colloquial Grammar: Containing a Short Grammar, Dialogues and Extracts from Nasir-Eddin Shah's Diaries, Tales, Etc., and a Vocabulary by Friedrich Rosen (Paperback - Mar. 9, 2010)
• A Grammar Of The Persian Language: To Which Are Subjoined Several Dialogues; With An Alphabetical List Of The English And Persian Terms Of Grammar by Meerza Mohammad Ibraheem (Hardcover - May 23, 2010)
• Media Persian (Essential Middle Eastern Vocabulary) by Dominic Parviz Brookshaw (Paperback - Dec. 15, 2010)
• Modern persisk grammatik by Ashk Dahlén (Paperback - 2010) (Swedish)

  Older texts

• A New Persian Grammar (1828) by Duncan Forbes and Sandford Arnot (Hardcover - reprinted on May 22, 2010)
• Higher Persian Grammar V1: For The Use Of The Calcutta University (1919) by D. C. Phillott (Hardcover - reprinted on June 2, 2008)
• Higher Persian Grammar V2: For The Use Of The Calcutta University (1919) by D. C. Phillott (Hardcover - reprinted on June 2, 2008)
• A New Grammar Of The Persian Tongue, Part 1, Accidence: For The Use Of The Higher Classes In Schools And Colleges (1875) by Sorabshaw Byramji Doctor (Hardcover - reprinted on May 22, 2010)
• Modern Persian Conversation Grammar by William Tisdall (Hardcover - June 1959)
• Elementary Persian Grammar by L. P. Elwell-Sutton (Paperback - Jan. 1, 1963)
• Persian Grammar: Students Edition by Ann K. S. Lambton (Paperback - Jan. 1, 1971)
• Spoken Persian (Spoken Language Ser) by Serge Obolensky, Kambiz Yazdan Panah, and Fereidoun Khaje Nouri (Paperback - July 1973)
• Persian Grammar: History and State of Its Study (Trends in Linguistics State of the Art Reports, No 12) by Gernot L. Windfuhr (Hardcover - June 1979)

  External links

• Persian grammar encyclopedia, by Navid Fazel (English version) also available in German and Persian
• Persian Grammar Sketch (pdf)
• Persian grammar (ppt) (in Persian)
• Persian grammar: Part 1 (ppt) (in Persian)
• Introduction to Persian grammar (in Persian)
• Persian grammar (brief introduction at IRIB website)(in Persian)
• A brief Persian grammar (in Persian)
• Learning Persian grammar: an introduction (in Persian)
• A brief Persian grammar course written by Ahmad Shamlou (in Persian)
• Introduction to Persian grammar at Tebyan (in Persian)
• BBC's complete guide to Persian grammar (in Persian)
• Persian grammar: introduction and definitions (in Persian)
• Desphilic Application notes on Persian pronouns
• Desphilic Application notes on Persian Tenses

  Online Persian Verb Conjugators

• Persian Verb Conjugator
• Another Persian Verb calculator
• Boyle's Persian verb classifications