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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| rhowey Diglot Newbie New Zealand Joined 4728 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Studies: Persian, English*, German Studies: French, Esperanto | Message 9 of 20 03 December 2011 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for this! I'm going to watch it because he writes so nicely and I've only been
able to learn from the computerised text which of course doesn't look normal! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 10 of 20 06 April 2012 at 1:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't seem to start a new thread, but this one is fairly close to what I want to ask, so...
I'm just starting the Persian language. I have the older Teach Yourself Persian by Mace and have just ordered the new version of TY. I was wondering if anyone has any tips to get started with Persian or courses that they would like to recommend. I became interested in Persian because of Jalal ad-Deen Rumi's poetry and other classic texts, so it is mainly the written language that I am interested it. I have heard that the Persian spoken in Afghanistan (Dari) is closer to written Persian than Farsi or Tajiki. Can anyone confirm this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 11 of 20 09 April 2012 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have another question which is about the difference between spoken and written Persian. How big of a gap is there between them? Since I am interested in learning the written language, will I still benefit from using a course that focuses on colloquial usage?
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5583 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 12 of 20 09 April 2012 at 11:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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The main points of the colloquial form of Persian are:
- <ân> becomes <un> or <on> - the accusative-marker <râ> becomes <ro> or <o> - many verbs have short forms, eg. <mi deham> becomes <mi dam> "I give" etc. - Verb endings change from <ad>, <id>, <and> to <e>, <in> and <an> - <ast> "he is" becomes <e> - the ezâfe <e> is often omitted - a few words have variants, eg. <digar> "other" becomes <dige> etc. The diglossic situation is not very strong, unlike Arabic, Καθαρεύουσα, Tamil etc. Edited by Cabaire on 09 April 2012 at 11:34pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7128 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 13 of 20 19 April 2012 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Talib, if your primary interest is in written classical Persian, you might want to take a look at the latest edition of Wheeler M. Thackston's "An Introduction to Persian", which in addition to the standard printed form of the script (naskh) also teaches and has a good deal of the written exercises et al in the more ornate nasta'liq, which is used a great deal in Iran, as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly for poetry.
The book is grammar-heavy, and rather dry, but it goes into more depth than either version of "Teach Yourself Modern Persian", and also includes sections on "Classical and Archaic Uses" and "Colloquial Transformations". It has more substantial reading selections in both modern and classical prose (no poetry, I'm afraid), as well as glossaries. (I think there's also a separate answer key available, which I don't have.) Most of the example sentences are printed in both Arabic script and transliteration, so that the pronunciation is clear even for those who haven't yet become fully accustomed to reading the script. (I realize that's not a problem for you, but it might be for others.) You want the "revised fourth edition." To follow on in terms of poetry, look at the same author's "A Millennium of Classical Persian Poetry", which explains meter et al, and then provides an anthology of poems in various classical genres and a glossary. And for the "mother of all Persian grammars" (in English), don't forget the massive compendium by Phillott, "A Higher Persian Grammar", available to download in various formats here: http://archive.org/details/higherpersiangra032060mbp (I paid 175 dollars for an original copy several years ago, but now, in addition to the free downloads available, it's been reprinted as a book for a decent price. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 14 of 20 19 April 2012 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the recommendations. I checked out Thackston's book from the library, (although they only had the third edition.) I wouldn't call it easy, but it has a good presentation of the grammatical topics, and it seems doable.
Knowing a little bit of Arabic helps with the script, but some of the letters are pronounced differently than Arabic and the short vowels need explanation, so it helps a lot that the transliteration is included. All in all, it looks like a good book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7128 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 15 of 20 19 April 2012 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, Talib,
I haven't done a close comparison between the two editions of the Thackston book, but I think that in terms of the instructional text, the third and fourth editions are pretty similar, if not identical. The biggest, and perhaps only, difference is in the inclusion of the nasta'liq script in the newer edition. The number of pages, for instance, is identical between the two editions. The nasta'liq form of the script is also the main form used in Urdu, as you may already know. Also, if your primary interest is literary Persian, I wouldn't bother with the "Colloquial Persian" book; although I think it's pretty good for its purpose, it focuses on the spoken variants of the language, and uses them in writing as well, which Iranians, to my knowledge, hardly ever do. (It would be like Arabs writing in a dialect rather than standard Arabic.) Edited by daristani on 19 April 2012 at 9:23pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 16 of 20 22 April 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
Would learning a dialect be detrimental to learning literary Persian or would it just not be the fastest way? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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