Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Thus many words in the list below, though originally from Persian, arrived in English through the intermediary of Ottoman Turkish language. Many Persian words also came into English through Urdu during British colonialism. Persian was the language of the Mughal court before British rule in India even though locals in North India spoke Hindustani.
Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages, which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision.The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are the most widely ...
The term Persian, meaning "from Persia", derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís (Περσίς), [24] a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa (𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿), which evolves into Fārs in modern Persian. [25] In the Bible, particularly in the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemya, it is given as Pārās (פָּרָס).
Modern reconstruction of the ancient world map of Eratosthenes from c. 200 BC, using the names Ariana and Persis. The Greeks (who had previously tended to use names related to "Median") began to use adjectives such as Pérsēs (Πέρσης), Persikḗ (Περσική) or Persís (Περσίς) in the fifth century BC to refer to Cyrus the Great's empire (a word understood to mean "country"). [17]
Khoda, which is Persian for God, and hāfiz which is the Arabic word for "protector" or “guardian”. [5] The vernacular translation is, "Good-bye". The phrase is also used in the Azerbaijani, Sindhi, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi languages. [5] [6] It also can be defined as "May God be your protector."
Persian is classified as an Iranian language, whereas Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language. They fall under the larger grouping of the Indo-Iranian languages, and hence share some linguistic features due to common descent. However, the majority of influence from Persian is direct, through a process often called Persianization.
The early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. [15] Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens and dreams ( Histories 7.19, 7.37, 1.107, 1.108, 1.120, 1.128 [ 16 ] ).
Persian belongs to the Indo-European language family, and many words in modern Persian usage ultimately originate from Proto-Indo-European. The language makes extensive use of word building techniques such as affixation and compounding to derive new words from roots.