Persian alphabet
| Persian alphabet | ||
|---|---|---|
| Font | Abdschad | |
| languages | Persian | |
| Usage time | since 642 AD | |
| ancestry |
Byblos script → Phoenician script → Aramaic script → Protosinaite script → Nabataean script → Arabic script → Persian alphabet |
|
| particularities | horizontally from right to left | |
The Persian alphabet , called alef-bā after the first two letters in Persian , is used to graphically present New Persian , an Indo-European language , and consists of a total of 32 letters. The alphabet is a modified form of the Arabic alphabet : the basic Arabic alphabet has been expanded by four letters, and the spelling of two letters has been slightly changed.
The Arabic alphabet was introduced from 642 AD after the Islamic expansion in Khorasan (today northern Afghanistan , northeast Iran and Uzbekistan ) and adapted to Persian language usage under the Samanid rulers in the 9th century. From there it spread over the entire Persian-speaking area. Before the adaptation of the Arabic alphabet was for the Middle Persian usually the misleadingly as " Pahlavi called" cursive form of the Aramaic script used for religious purposes and the Avestan the Avestan writing , but also based on the Aramaic script.
The letters of the Persian alphabet
Like the Arabic alphabet, the Persian alphabet is written from right to left; short vowels (formerly e , a and o ) are either not written out at all or only indicated by diacritics borrowed from Arabic . The spelling of the letters changes depending on the position in the word: initial (connected to the left), medial (connected on both sides), final (connected from the right) or isolated. The pronunciation described refers to modern Tehran Persian, pronunciations in other regions and countries are sometimes very different.
| Surname | DMG | Junker / Alavi | pronunciation | Phonetic spelling | Final | Medial | Initial | Isolated | Remarks | Unicode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleph * | ā, a (with Hamze : ʾ) | ā, a (with Hamze: |
long open a , at the beginning of the word, or when the hamster is crackling | [ ɒ ; ʔ ] | ﺎ | ﺎ | ا | ا | The crackling sound ( ' as a sharp paragraph at the beginning of the word or ' as a gentle paragraph inside the word) is only transcribed if Alef is a hamster inside the word (applies to Arabic loanwords). | U + 0622 (Alef-e madd ī), U + 0627 (Alef) |
| Be / Bā | b | b | b | [ b ] | ﺐ | ﺒ | ﺑ | ﺏ | U + 0628 | |
| Pe | p | p | p | [ p ] | ﭗ | ﭙ | ﭘ | پ | not included in the basic Arabic alphabet | U + 067E |
| Te | t | t | t | [ t ] | ﺖ | ﺘ | ﺗ | ﺕ | U + 062A | |
| Se | s̱ | s | voiceless s . Hard, "sharp" s (ß). | [ s ] | ﺚ | ﺜ | ﺛ | ﺙ | has an Arabian Lehnwort out | U + 062B |
| Jim | ǧ | ǧ | dsch , like j in English James. | [ dʒ ] | ﺞ | ﺠ | ﺟ | ﺝ | U + 062C | |
| Che / Tschim | č | č | ch , like ch in English Churchill | [ tʃ ] | ﭻ | ﭽ | ﭼ | ﭺ | not included in the basic Arabic alphabet | U + 0686 |
| Hey-ye Djimi | H | H | H | [ h ] | ﺢ | ﺤ | ﺣ | ﺡ | indicates an Arabic loan word | U + 062D |
| Che | H | x | ch, rough as in Bach | [ x ] | ﺦ | ﺨ | ﺧ | ﺥ | U + 062E | |
| Dāl * | d | d | d | [ d ] | ﺪ | ﺪ | ﺩ | ﺩ | U + 062F | |
| Sāl / Zāl * | ẕ | z | voiced s . Soft as in the German word rose | [ z ] | ﺬ | ﺬ | ﺫ | ﺫ | U + 0630 | |
| Re * | r | r | rolled r with one tongue | [ r ] | ﺮ | ﺮ | ﺭ | ﺭ | U + 0631 | |
| Ze * | z | z | voiced s | [ z ] | ﺰ | ﺰ | ﺯ | ﺯ | U + 0632 | |
| Že * | ž | ž | j as in journal ("soft" sch) | [ ʒ ] | ﮋ | ﮋ | ژ | ژ | not included in the basic Arabic alphabet | U + 0698 |
| Sin | s | s | voiceless s | [ s ] | ﺲ | ﺴ | ﺳ | ﺱ | U + 0633 | |
| Shin | š | š | sch | [ ʃ ] | ﺶ | ﺸ | ﺷ | ﺵ | U + 0634 | |
| Sād | ṣ | s | voiceless s | [ s ] | ﺺ | ﺼ | ﺻ | ﺹ | U + 0635 | |
| Zād | ż | z | voiced s | [ z ] | ﺾ | ﻀ | ﺿ | ﺽ | indicates an Arabic loan word | U + 0636 |
| Tā / Tejn | ṭ | t | t | [ t ] | ﻂ | ﻄ | ﻃ | ﻁ | also refers to a loan word from other languages | U + 0637 |
| Zā / Zejn | ẓ | z | voiced s | [ z ] | ﻆ | ﻈ | ﻇ | ﻅ | indicates an Arabic loan word | U + 0638 |
| Eyn / Ejn | ʿ | ʿ | Loud , spoken like Hamze | [ ʔ ] | ﻊ | ﻌ | ﻋ | ﻉ | indicates an Arabic loan word | U + 0639 |
| Gheyn / Ġejn | G | G |
similar to the German palate r or a gh spoken deep in the throat , somewhat harder at the beginning of the word |
[ ɣ ; ɢ ] | ﻎ | ﻐ | ﻏ | ﻍ | U + 063A | |
| Fe | f | f | f | [ f ] | ﻒ | ﻔ | ﻓ | ﻑ | U + 0641 | |
| Qaf | q | G |
similar to the German palate r , a little harder at the beginning of the word |
[ ɣ ; ɢ ] | ﻖ | ﻘ | ﻗ | ﻕ | U + 0642 | |
| Kāf | k | k | k | [ k ] | ﮏ | ﮑ | ﮐ | ک | Spelling deviates from Arabic | U + 0643 |
| Gāf | G | G | G | [ g ] | ﮓ | ﮕ | ﮔ | گ | not included in the basic Arabic alphabet | U + 06AF |
| Lam | l | l | l | [ l ] | ﻞ | ﻠ | ﻟ | ﻝ | U + 0644 | |
| Mim | m | m | m | [ m ] | ﻢ | ﻤ | ﻣ | ﻡ | U + 0645 | |
| Now | n | n | n | [ n ] | ﻦ | ﻨ | ﻧ | ﻥ | U + 0646 | |
| Wāw * | v, ū, ou | w, u, ou | similar to w , u , ou, less often o | [ v, oʊ, u ] | ﻮ | ﻮ | و | و | U + 0648 | |
| He Do Tscheschm | H | H | h (always spoken in Persian and not used as an expansion symbol as in German) | [ h ] | ﻪ | ﻬ | ﻫ | ﻩ | U + 0647 | |
| Ye / Yā | y, ī | j, i | j , i , also ej | [ j, i ] | ﯽ | ﯿ | ﯾ | ﯼ | Spelling deviates from Arabic | U + 06CC |
* Seven letters cannot be connected to the left, so that the initial and isolated as well as the medial and final form match.
In non-scientific use, unusual, particularly diacritical marks in scientific transcriptions are mostly replaced by letters that are easier to type: ġ becomes gh, ḫ / x becomes ch, č becomes ch, ǧ becomes dsch, ž becomes j or zh. There are deviations in English non-scientific transcriptions, where kh is written instead of ch, j instead of dsch, ch instead of ch. Since both German and English transcription modes are used side by side for sound reproduction in the German-speaking area, their deviations often lead to ambiguities. That is why the German Oriental Society developed a scientific, largely precise transcription at an early stage .
Letter combinations
| Character combination | Phonetic description | Phonetic transcription | Example Persian (with translation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ای | stressed, closed (i), initial | [ iː ] | ایران (Iran) |
| او | stressed, closed (u) as in "nun" | [ uː ] | او (u - he, she, it) |
| خوی ،خوا | chā, chi (the و is mute here) | [xɑː], [xiː] | خواهر(chāhar - sister); خویش (Chish - self) |
| لا | Combination of Lām and Aleph to (lā) | [lɑː] | بالا (bālā - above) |
Deviations from the Arabic alphabet
The spelling of two letters differs slightly from Arabic: In the isolated form of Kāf (ک) is in contrast to the Arabic spelling كusually no small kāf used in the letter. Also, in the isolated form of the yeى the two points of the Arabic variant يomitted. The final form of the Persian ye is identical to the Arabic letter Alif maqsura . Since this letter also occurs in Arabic loan words from Persian, it leads to ambiguities.
The letters Pe (پ), Che (چ), Že (ژ) and Gāf (گ) have been added to the basic Arabic alphabet, as the corresponding phonemes only occur in Persian and not in Arabic.
In contrast to the Arabic alphabet, where each character represents its own phoneme , in Persian there are different characters for the same sounds.
special character
A number of special characters were taken from Arabic: The Shadda displays a Konsonantverdoppelung and set a Alef double slashes ( Tanwin the indefinite Arab accusative) are used to present the combination of sounds on , as inلطفاً loṭfan ( loṭfan ). The hamze above the ending he (ـهٔ), on the other hand, is a Persian "invention", which refers to a subsequent connection of the reference word with its attribute called eżāfe (pronunciation: ye ). Historically, this is the stylized form of a superscript Ye (ى).
Punctuation marks
Traditionally, in the languages that use the Arabic alphabet , there are no punctuation marks other than the period ( Persian نقطه, DMG noqṭe , 'point', from Arabic نقطة, DMG nuqṭa 'point'). This also applies accordingly to Persian. In the course of writing habits adopted from Western languages , additional punctuation marks such as the comma ( Persian ویرگول, DMG wīrgūl , 'comma'; from the French virgule ) in its upside-down form ⟨،⟩ or the very rarely used semicolon ( Persian نقطه و ویرگول, DMG noqte wa wīrgūl , 'point and comma') in its upside-down form ⟨؛ ⟩ introduced. Likewise, the "question mark" ( Persian علامت سؤال, DMG 'alāmat-e so'āl ) in its mirror-inverted form ⟨؟ ⟩ As well as the "exclamation mark" ( Persian علامت تعجب, DMG 'alāmat-e ta'aǧǧob ,' sign of astonishment ') in the same form ⟨! ⟩ Taken from Latin script and its meaning translated into Persian.
While question marks and exclamation marks are used as in German, this rule only applies to a limited extent for the comma: Since the vowel marks ( Fatḥe , Kasre , Żamme ) are rarely used in Persian spelling and the connections between the reference word and attribute as well as genitive connections ( Kasre-ye eżāfe ) are generally not displayed in the script, a comma is also placed between an apparent word pair in order to prevent any ambiguous reference to it.
Basically, in Persian, there is no well-developed set of rules for setting punctuation marks that would correspond to German, so that punctuation marks are quite often left out.
Digits
The graphic representation of the digits is largely identical to the Arabic one, only the symbols for 4, 5 and 6 have been slightly modified. These digits are used in Persian scripts in Iran , Afghanistan , Pakistan, and India .
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 |
| ۰ | ۱ | ۲ | ۳ | ۴ | ۵ | ۶ | ۷ | ۸ | ۹ | ۱۰ |
| sefr | jek | do | se | chahār | pandsch | schesch | detention | catches | noh | there |
Similar to Roman numerals , the letters can be assigned a numerical value. For example, the first letter ( alef ) stands for 1, the fifth for 500, and the thirteenth for 7.
Use in other languages
Many languages that also use or have used a modified Arabic alphabet have not directly adopted the Arabic but the Persian alphabet and have mostly changed it slightly. The additional Persian letters and the slightly different uses of some letters have found their way into other languages. Examples are the Arabic-based scripts of Urdu , Indian languages such as Sindhi and Panjabi , Ottoman , Sorani- Kurdish and Central Asian Turkic languages such as Kazakh , Turkmen , Kyrgyz , Uzbek and Uyghur .
Other languages outside the Persian sphere of influence, such as the Jawi script of Malay and African languages, on the other hand, have developed their own modified characters for the phonemes foreign to Arabic.
literature
- Bozorg Alavi and Manfred Lorenz : Textbook of the Persian language. Langenscheidt, Leipzig etc. 1967, 7th edition, ibid 1994, ISBN 3-324-00253-2 , p. 15 ff.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ ".َ .." ( fathe ) above a consonant when followed by an a, ".» .. "below ( kasre ) when followed by an e, etc.
- ^ Transliteration of the Persian alphabet of the German Oriental Society
- ^ Bozorg Alavi, Heinrich FJ Junker. Dictionary Persian - German . Langenscheidt, Berlin Munich 1965 (7th edition 1992) ISBN 3-324-00110-2
- ↑ Sounds similar to a non-written crackling sound in front of an alarm in German fire alarm
- ↑ Alavi / Lorenz (1994), p. 25
- ↑ Alavi / Lorenz (1994), pp. 50-53
- ↑ This is evident from old manuscripts.
- ↑ Alavi / Lorenz (1994), p. 23
- ↑ Alavi / Lorenz (1994), p. 16 f.