Some Rules & Items (Continued)
Personal Endings
Personal ending is a final morpheme added to a word base to show the
person it is related to. There are two groups of personal endings in
Persian: possessive personal endings and verbal personal endings.
A possessive personal ending (p.p.e.)
indicates possession and is equal to a possessive adjective in English
(NOTE: In Persian it is not an adjective). Possessive personal endings
in Persian are marked by an apostrophe put immediately before them.
Below is the table of formal and informal p.p.e.'s:
| |
formal |
informal |
|
1st person singular (my) |
'am
|
'am |
|
2nd person singular (thy/your) |
'at |
'et |
|
3rd person singular
(his/her/its) |
'asc |
'esc |
|
1st person plural (our) |
'emán |
'emĺn |
|
2nd person plural (your) |
'etán |
'etĺn |
|
3rd person plural (their) |
'escán |
'escĺn |
A verbal personal ending (v.p.e.) indicates the person or
thing which is the subject of a verb. The "(e)s" and "(e)th"
(respectively indicating the 3rd and 2nd persons singular) are the only
two living counterparts and equivalents of Persian v.p.e.'s in English. Verbal
personal endings are immediately added to the end of verb stems. There
are two groups of v.p.e.'s: present v.p.e.'s (added to the present stem)
and past v.p.e.'s (added to the past stem). Below is the table of formal
and informal v.p.e.'s:
| |
formal |
informal |
| |
present |
past |
present |
past |
|
1st person singular |
am |
am |
am |
am |
|
2nd person singular |
i |
i |
i |
i |
|
3rd person singular |
ad |
- |
e |
- |
|
1st person plural |
im |
im |
im |
im |
|
2nd person plural |
id |
id |
in |
in |
|
3rd person plural |
and |
and |
an |
an |
BUDAN (to
be)
Exactly like most of other Indo-European languages, the verb "budan"
(to be) is an exceptional verb studied and usually inflected differently
in comparison with other verbs within a language.
There are two main forms of the verb
"budan": full form and contracted form.
It has also three present stems: "hast"**, "básc", and (archaic) "bav".
** The stem "hast" is still a problematic issue in Persian grammar. D. A.
S. Moslehi has written a full article about this issue which will be
published in near future. But for the moment, you should know that
"básc" and "bav" are used with present v.p.e.'s and "hast" with past
v.p.e.'s. [stem "bav" is no longer in use.]
báscam, básci,
báscad, báscim,
báscid, báscand
(present subjunctive)
hastam, hasti,
hast, hastim, hastid,
hastand (present simple)
NOTE: the only exception in which a past stem
is used to express a present action or state. This is why some
grammarians use a different infinitive "hastan" to show that it is not
the present stem of "budan" and is inflected with past v.p.e.'s.
NOTE: the
negative form of "hast" is "nist" (na+hast):
nistam, nisti,
nist, nistim, nistid,
nistand (present simple)
budam, budi,
bud, budim, budid,
budand (past simple)
In contracted form, the stem "hast" is
contracted. As usual, the contraction is shown by an apostrophe. Below
is the table:
| |
formal |
informal |
|
1st person singular |
'am |
'am |
|
2nd person singular |
'i |
'i |
|
3rd person singular |
'(a)st |
'e /
's(t) |
|
1st person plural |
'im |
'im |
|
2nd person plural |
'id |
'in |
|
3rd person plural |
'(a)nd |
'(a)n |
DIPHTHONGS
Below you will see the most common diphthongs used in Persian with some
examples.
EY: peymán, Hoseyn, beyn, qeymat, Zeynab, Rey, seyr, ...
ÁY: páy, ráy, záymán, Táyván, Táybád, ...
UY: ru(y) , bu(y), su(y), ruy (a metal), ...
IMPORTANT NOTE: in all above examples, if a
vowel comes after "y", "y" is not written. As a general rule, no "y"
sound is added between two vowels; but if the "y" sound is a part of
the original word, is apparently pronounced within one word, or is a
part of a verbal stem, it is written:
nemudan > nemá(y) > nemáyesc, nemáyande, ...
ruy > ruyin, ráy > Ráyin, páye, sáyer, máyel, soya, ...
OW: now, Nowruz, gowd, mowz, fowri, scowra, ...
Other rarely used diphthongs are: áw, aw, ay, oy, we, wi, wá, wo, ...
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