Upon the request of some readers, as an addition to my previous article entitled ”
Is our language dying“, I would like to present a longer list of Persian words that can replace their Arabic equivalents in colloquial Persian speech. I am a 21-year-old engineering student who has grown up abroad throughout most of his life. Hence, I am absolutely open to any sort of related criticism on my observation.
As a consequence of my personal analysis on the ways whereby the Persian language could be more Iranianised by resurrecting some of our own words that are on the verge of fading into oblivion due to seldom usage, I have prepared a list to demonstrate the feasibility of protecting our language with
our own words, an act which has unfortunately been neglected, owing to the saga of turbulent incidents and cataclysms Iran has been afflicted with in the past few centuries.
This turbulence and the consequent skirmishes for domination along with the repeated intrusion of foreign forces, have prevented the growth of the Persian language by making this issue a very petty and marginal one amidst a myriad of other more significant political issues and incidents.
Finally, in the below list, I am not trying to prescribe the way one should speak like the way most of the consecutive rulers of our country have determined our daily life by meddling in the way our people dress, speak, or write. I am merely evincing a very lucid way of protecting our affluent language, which is in dire need of a resounding facelift on account of the intense Arabic element in our language.
Here is a more comprehensive list of my own observations denoting the way to protect some Persian words that are in a precarious position. It is also timely to note that in most cases, Persian words sound more melodic than their commonly-used Arabic equivalents
– 1)
Peyvand: This word has been vanquished in its battle of prevalence by the word
Ettehaad, which is popularly deployed in formal documents.
– 2)
Peyvasteh: By the same token,
Peyvasteh, unfortunately sounds highly bizarre in the presence of the more ubiquitous one,
mottahed. However, wouldn't it be nice to refer to, for instance, the United Nations as
Melaleh Peyvasteh rather than
Melaleh Mottahed, which is 100% Arabic?
– 3)
Hamegaani: How many times have you seen this word be used? Probably on the cover of Telephone Directories printed for each city in Iran under the name
Daftarcheyeh Hamegaani. All the same, can anyone assert that this word is more widely used than its Arabic equivalent,
omoomi?
– 4)
Dang: How many of you have come across this word? The usage of this word is comparatively low as opposed to its Arabic equivalent,
sedaa. On the other hand, the word
dang is still very widely used in Kurdish and other dialects of Persian. However, I admit, I am more inclined to employ the word
sedaa since this Arabic word is one of my favourites. Nevertheless, the best solution would be to encourage a tendency of familiarising our people with the word
dang while retaining
sedaa
– 5)
Penhaan: Meaning secret, recent indications evince an ever-decreasing popularity of this word while its Arabic equivalent,
serri, has grown more favourable.
– 6)
Chehaar-Goosh: As you might have realised, the bulk of the mathematical-terms in Persian are Arabic. There , sometimes, exist some less popular Persian words like
Chehaar-Goosh as an alternative to
Morabbah.
– 7)
Ashtee: Although the word
Ashtee, meaning peace, is evidently favoured more by colloquial speakers, there seems to be a tendency of almost shying away from this word in formal documents, which are more in tune with the Arabic Word
Solh.
– 8)
Pahnaavar: Despite sounding more eloquent than its Arabic equivalent,
Vasee,
Pahnaavar, under current circumstances, is likely to suffer from a state of oblivion if the current trends persist for a few more decades.
– 9 )
Gozeedan: Do you realise how melodic this word sounds? In fact, this word is a typical paradigm of the sweet nature of the Persian language. Yet, how many of you would be inclined to use it ubiquitously in daily speech in lieu of its Arabic equivalent,
Entekhaab Kardaan (note that only
entekhaab is Arabic) rather then restricting the usage of this word just to poetry books? I think the answer is an imponderable.
– 10)
Gozeedeh: By the same token,
entekhaab's derivative,
montekhab has more or less replaced
Gozeedeh, which is one of the most glamourous Persian Words.
– 11)
Maanand: This is also one of my favourite words, but has unfortunately been expelled from the tongues of its own speakers only to be replaced with the Arabic Word
masleh.
– 12)
Dorood: One of the auspicious trends these years has been marked with the proliferating public demand to utilise
Dorood, as a way of awakening and as an alternative to the omni-present influence of
Salaam
– 13)
Sepaasgozaar: Wouldn't it be more pleasant to hear this word more frequently than what we have been bequeathed (
mamnoon), from our rulers and leaders?
– 14)
Daleer: Although
Daleer and its Arabic Equivalent,
Shojaa, have a more or less an equal level of prevalence in Persian. Even so, the preference made on
Shojaa is lilkely to surge within the next few years.
– 15)
Niroomand: This is one of the words that has, sadly, been unable to culminate to its rightful position in Persian by virtue of the high prevalence of the word
Ghavee, which has caused
Niroomand to feel alien in its own land.
– 16)
Farang: How many of you have ever realised that the word
foreign in English could have derived from the Persian
farang? Furthermore, would it be accurate to conclude that
farang has as much eminence in Iran as the Arabic word
Khaarejee? In fact, the new generation Iranians almost hardly ever deploy the word
farang due to having grown up to hear
Khaarejee more often.
– 17)
Nou, Novin: Both of these words, having approximately similar meanings, are amongst the oldest words of the family of Iranian languages. In fact, the English
new and the German
neu is thought to have been derived from it. Yet, what have we done with our word
nou? We have put it straight into the dust bin to replace it with Arabic
jadid.
– 18)
Ghaali: Hand-woven carpets, notably after the advent of silk worm to Iran from China, have for centuries been amongst of the symbols of our land. Yet, how felicitous is it to totally abolish the word
Ghaali to be replaced with Arabic
Farsh? Why has the word
Ghaali been belittledso much?
– 19 )
Del: The word
Del, meaning heart, has only found refuge in love songs and poems whereas the word
Ghalb has a more comprehensive usage.
– 20)
Andooh: A word meaning sorrow, anguish; it has a relatively seldom level of usage amongst Iranians in the presence of more well-rooted Arabic words such as
gham and
ghosseh, which are indubitably more in the ascendant.
– 21)
Chehreh: An old Persian word meaning face, in today's colloquial Persian chehreh is less in vogue as opposed to the Arabic Word,
Soorat, which has dominated a wide array of contexts.
– 22)
Raaz:This Persian Word carries the meaning of secret and is primarily heard either in songs or in poems with a high literary value; it is not hard to remark on the invincible domination of its Arabic equivalent
ser.
– 23)
Piroozi:(meaning victory) Not only in Persian, but also in various Iranian Languages this Persian word has for centuries retained its popularity only until recently to lose the combat of firstdom to its Arabic equivalent
Zafar.
– 24)
Khaaneh: Predictably, most of you must have got pretty flabbergasted at my inclusion of the word
Khaaneh in the list of the words facing oblivion. You are probably right since the word
Khaaneh is rather popular in our language. Yet, why do we invariably, especially during phone calls, tend to ask the question of
Manzeleh aghaayeh/khaanoomeh…? ? Moreover,
Khaaneh has never been popular vis-a-vis
Manzel in formal speeches.
– 25)
Naamdaar: This is a true paradigm of what an obscure word is like. It is so obscure and inconspicious that it is only sustained in surnames andstories whereas it is scarcely heard in everyday conversation due to the intense influence of the Arabic Word
Ma'roof.
– 26)
Yaadegaar: Although the word
Yaadegaar is less popular than its Arabic equvalent,
Khaatereh, it is also correct to note that
Khaatereh is one of the Arabic Words with a great grandeur and is for the most part favoured by most Iranians. All the same,
Yaadegaar should also be bestowed the eminence it deserves.
– 27)
Jahaan: How many of you can affirm that you yourselves tend to use
Jahaan more often than
Donyaa ? Probably very few!
Alternatively, there also exist a multitude of long-forgotten and previously very popular Persian Words that are at present being barely used for even eloquence in literature. While the list of those words could be extended to hundreds, it suffices to provide several of them here to underscore the gravity of their inclusion in our daily life:
-1)
Pardees: How many of you are aware of the meaning of this word?
Pardees means paradise. As many people discern, the English word
Paradise comes from the Persian Word
Pardees. Even the concept of paradise is thought to have first originated in Iran. However, we have grown so foreign to our word ,
Pardees, with which most speakers of the Persian Language are not acquainted today.
-2)
Nik: This word is only seen in ancient texts. Nonetheless, it could be a great synonym for another Persian word
Khoob, which widely in use.
3)
Derang: Meaning late, this is also one of the melodic Persian words facing oblivion.
Derang is still very often used in Kurdish; yet its extent of usage is highly narrow in Persian. However, as in the case articulated above,
Derang can also be deployed as a synonym for the Persian word
Dir
4)
Barjasteh: A very old and meaningful Persian word meaning distinguished,
Barjasteh is one of the words that should be granted greater attention and its usage should be proliferated.
The above examples, as I delineated formerly, are just a handful of the examples expounding upon the neglected affluence of the Persian language, which, in some areas is self-sufficient, whereas in others the inclusion of foreign words is required to better the expressive capability of the language. Yet, if of centuries-old negligence that has been demonstrated towards the Persian language persists, we will probably forfeit a very significant portion of our vocabulary within the next few decades.
