Comparing English with Persian - Report Example

COMPARING ENGLISH WITH PERSIAN Introduction and Historical Background Persian: Persian or Farsi is the national and indigenous language of Islamic Republic of Iran. Being one of the most ancient languages, it seeks its origin in ancient Farris (old name of Iran) some fifteen centuries B.C., where it was attributed as Avesta in local language. History reveals that the contemporary Persian had been in vogue during the era of all Persian dynasties and monarchies. Since Persian literature is rich and vast in respect of superb text, unique style, wonderful imagination, wisdom and intellect, it contains thousands of maxims, proverbs, idioms, phrases, fables and wise sayings both in prose and poetry. Being a popular and traditional language, Persian did not remain confined to Iran only; rather, it is spoken and understood in few central Asian states along with Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It had enjoyed the status of official language of India from the beginning of the Muslim rule under the Sultanates of Delhi till the fall of Mughal Empire in 1857. Additionally, Persian is aptly viewed as the sweet and melodious language (sheereen zubaan) because of the sophistication and tenderness. Sheikh Sa’di, Farrukhi, Omar Khayaam, Behki, Romi, Iqbal and others are most prominent Persian writers and poets. English: English is the most dominant and popular language of contemporary era, and is spoken in almost all countries of the world at large. The main reasons behind its unabated popularity include the many centuries long rule of the British Imperialism over several Asian and African countries, as well as the technological inventions made by the English speaking nations of the world. Hence, English is being taught as a compulsory language in all parts of the globe. Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, Johnson, Milton, Coleridge, Austen, Keats, Emily Bronte and Frost are the most prominent literary figures of English Literature. STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGES UNDER ANALYSIS: Since both English and Persian are written in quite a different way, which share least characteristics with each other. It is partially due to the very fact that the former resembles with French, German and Spanish, while the latter share commonalities with Arabic, Urdu and Turkish languages. The basic structure of both these languages has been analysed as following: SYNTAX: Both English and Persian share the same number of subjects in grammar, which are six in both the languages. Since both English and Persian have first person, second person and third person as addressees, both look taking after one another grammatically. ENGLISH PERSONAL PRONOUNS: SUBJECTS, OBJECTS AND POSSESSIVES Singular Subject Object Possessive First Person I Me My, Mine Second Person You You Your, Yours Third Person He/ She/It His/ Her/Its Him/ Her/It Plural Subject Object Possessive First Person We Us Our Second Person You You Your, Yours Third Person They Them Their PERSIAN PERSONAL PRONOUNS: SUBJECTS, OBJECTS AND POSSESSIVES Singular Subject Object Possessive First Person Mann من Mann raa را من addition of the alphabet meem (ﻢ) after every object OR addition of Mann after the object Second Person To/Tu تو To/Tu تو Tera/shuma Third Person Ou Ou Ou raa Plural Subject Object Possessive First Person Maa Maa Maa raa Second Person Taan/Shumaa Tu Taan shuma Third Person Ou Eeshaan, aanhaa Ou raa In English grammar, singular first person is described as I, my and me, whereas in Persian, the subject is translated as single word mann, while possessive is translated by adding the alphabet meem (ﻢ) after the noun related to the first person. Similarly, the first person singular object is translated as mann or mann raa (i.e. of or related to me). Similarly, while making plural of first person, the subject we is translated as maa, and for object us, the same maa is generally applied. However, in first person possessive, raa is added to maa, making it maa raa. Similarly, second person is written as tu تو , shuma and tu or shuma raa in place of you, yours and you respectively. Contrary to English language, helping verb comes at the end of the sentence in Persian; whereas in the sentences of English language, it comes immediately after the subject. For instance, in the sentence ‘King Claudius was offering prayer in his room’, King Claudius is the subject that comes in the very beginning of the sentence, followed by the helping verb was, the verb offer(ing) and the object prayer. The same sentence would be written in Persian in these words: ‘Padshah Claudius der adaegi namaaz mesroof bood der kemra e ou. Here padsha Claudius is the subject, der is preposition, adaegi is verb, namaaz is object, kemra is noun and ou is pronoun. Thus, the entire sequence of sentence is different in English and Persian. Consequently, translation from English into Persian may change the very sense of the statement. For example, if it is said that “Emily Bronte had gifted literary talent”, its Persian translation would be “Emily Bronte deidend liaqat o qabliat beraaey sukhen perdakhti, which changes the entire sequence of the sentence. Consequently, the Iranian learners of English language would be at a perplexed state of affairs. Additionally, unlike English language, the Persian sentences are not familiar with any concept of definite or indefinite article (i.e. the and a/an), which creates problems for learners while making translation. MORPHOLOGY: Morphology is an important term of linguistics, which refers to the structure and composition of words. Morphology is quite different in English and Persian languages. For instance, in English language, the basic source of deriving the words appears to be same; as the word reflect is verb, but with the addition of ‘ion’, it becomes noun. Similarly, the word nation is a compound noun, which becomes an adjective with the addition of ‘al’ i.e. national. However, in Persian, morphology is quite different, as it can be found in the verses by Iqbal: “Ser-e-shakh-e-gul Tairey yek seher, Hameen guft ba tairaaney digger, Na Danend baal aadmi zada ra, Zameen geer kerdend een sada ra” (Iqbal) Here in the first line, ser means at or above, but with the addition of compound noun, it is linked with another word, and its meanings are now dependent of the next word with which it becomes compound noun. Moreover, the word ‘tair’ stands for bird, but tairey in a very concise mode makes it as ‘one bird.’ Further, turning active voice into passive voice are somewhat similar between Persian and English, as both seek support of third form or addition of two to three alphabets to turn it into passive voice. For example, in English, the sentence “they have declared him criminal” would be stated in passive voice as “he has been declared as criminal by them. And in Persian the active voice will be aanhaah gerdaned ou mujrim, and in passive voice the sentence would be “een gerdandend mujrim”, where there is no need of object in the sentence. Moreover, the continuous happening of an incident is depicted through “ing” in English, while the same is shown through the addition of “mee” in Persian. For instance, translation of “he was talking” into Persian would be “ou mee guftend.” Somehow, masculine and feminine as well as singular and plural making has no specific rules in Persian, though the alphabets “alif” and “noon ghunnah” are often added at the end of singular words. For example, the plural for “refta” (departed) is “reftagaan,” but the plural for “ameer” (rich) is “umeraa.” PHONOLOGY: Phonology of words concentrates upon the sound of the dialect delivered from the mouth of the speaker. While analysing both English and Persian, it becomes evident that the latter one is very friendly in respect of pronunciation of words, and seldom creates difficulty for the readers. For instance, in English language, the words “chocolate” and “chemical” have absolutely divergent phonology, though both the words start with “ch.” On the other hand, the words in Persian language are spoken in one and the same way. Consequently, the words started with the same alphabet give similar sound while delivering it. However, the last alphabet in different words give different sounds, as the word “chei” (what) is different from “haala” (moonlight-circle), though both these words end with the alphabet “hey” ( ﻫ ). Similarly, the words “shikwah” (شكوه) and “shikoh” (شكوه) are written in the same way and with the same alphabets, though both of them are pronounced differently and also have different meanings, as the English word “minute” has two separate sounds, pronunciations and meanings. The word shikwah means complain, while shikoh stands for magnificence in its true sense. Phonetics: Phonetics is concerned with the sound of the words; in other words, the movement of lips and tongue determines the sound of a specific alphabet and word. Since every alphabet and word carries different sound, the pronunciation of every word is different from the other; as put and but certainly maintain divergent pronunciation, which may create problems for the learners. Somehow, some alphabets of English language pronounce differently at different occasions; for instance, the alphabet C sounds like K in Clever, while it sounds S in Cylinder. Moreover, F and Ph sound the same. Similarly, like Arabic and Urdu, in Persian language, many alphabets give the same sound, e.g. the alphabets kaaf (ک) and qaaf (ﻕ) are pronounced in almost same sound; similarly, zaal (ذ), zey (ز), zwad (ض) and zoein (ظ) sound in one and the same manner, and the same is the case with tey (ت) and toeyn (ط) on the one hand, and sey (ث), seen (س) and swad (ص) on the other. Thus, only regular practice and thorough and wide study can make the speaker able enough to make distinction between the alphabets while reading and writing. Noun Phrase Construction: “Der zubaan-e-Farsi, ism (i.e. noun) ber khud inhasaar kerda hest, va een tenha maani-e-kaamil perwerda hest.” (Razi, 1995, p. 396) Noun phrase includes noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb and forms of verb etc. Like English and Urdu languages, Persian also consists of different types of nouns including proper noun, common noun, abstract noun, material noun and compound noun. However, description of nouns is different from one another in both these languages. The alphabet hamza is applied in compound words e.g. tamanna-e-bey taab, nama-e-aamaal, khof-e-Khuda, jezba-e-shehadet etc, as it has been expressed in the following verse: “Ger na beend bar oz sheb bera cheshm, cheshma-e-aaftab chei gunah.” (Sa’di, Gulistan, p.9) (If a night blind is unable to see the sun, there is no fault of the sun beams in it). Idioms, Phrases and Maxims: Being a traditional and sweetest language of the world, Persian literature is full of wise and intellectual idioms, phrases, maxims and sayings. The diction of idioms and phrases is so sweet and meaningful that it immediately captures the attention of the readers. The Persian authors convey message through citing the nature and activities of animals. For example: در جوانی توبہ کردن شیوہِ پیغمبری وقتِ پیری گرگِ ظالم می شوَد پرہیزگار “Der Jawani tauba kerden sheiwa-e-peighembari ast, Weqt-e-peeri gerg-e-zaalim mee shewed perhezgaar.” (Iqbal) (Translation: Seeking pardon (from the Lord) in youth is the tradition of the prophets; as at old age, even the cruel wolf turns out to be pious and contented). Similarly, world famous Persian literature of moral tales “Kalilah va Demnah” describes the nature of almost all animals, beasts and birds, where fox has been portrayed as very sharp and clever, while donkey is shown submissive and fool. To conclude, it appears evident that Persian and English languages maintain absolutely divergent historical background, writing style, idioms, phrases and moral examples. “A language may be considered transplanted if it is used by a significant numbers of speakers in social, cultural and geographical contexts different from the contexts in which it was originally used a transplanted language is cut off from its traditional roots and begins to function in new surroundings, in new roles and new contexts.” (Anwar, 2004, p. 410) Though, learning of English language appears to be a great challenge for the Persian speaking students, yet continuous reading and writing, passion to discover its grammar and interest and taste for literature help out the learners to have command over both these languages under analysis. Bibliography: 1. Anwar, Behzad (2009) Urdu-English code switching: The use of Urdu phrases and clauses in Pakistani English (A non-native variety) International Journal of Language Studies (IJLS), Vol. 3(4), 2009 pp. 406-421 Retrieved from http://ijls.net/volumes/volume3issue4/anwar1.pdf 2. Razi, Professor. (1995) Khud Aamoz Farsi A. R. Publishers Urdu Bazaar Lahore Pakistan p. 396 Read More