Persian for Arabs.

As soon as an Arab (especially a Kuwaiti) finds out that I speak Persian (Farsi), they will immediately start in with the few words they know; Ch (or if you are unlucky) Sh-etori, Khodafez and of course a curse word or two, usually khak to saret. Once the initial laughs are exchanged, the more serious reflections on the similarity of the languages are exchanged. I wish to begin with the alphabet. Persian has 4 more letters then Arabic, although 3 of those 4 sounds are found in Arabic dialects. پ or the ب with 3 dots below, the letter for the P sound is the only sound NOT found in any Arabic dialect (although I have heard that it is found amongst some Iraqis, but I digress). The پ is found however throughout the Arab world, in the French Bakery chain پول.
The three 'extra' Persian letters are as follows: چ/گ/ژ/. The چ or the ج with 3 dots, is the Ch sound in the word 'chill', found in the Gulf and Iraq. The گ or the ک with 2 lines, Gaf, as in the G sound in the word 'go', also found in the Gulf, Iraq, Bedouin accents in Jordan and the Egyptian ج. An interesting side note is that I have seen the چ used in Egypt as a J sound, while the ج is still exclusively used as a G sound. A common example is جراچ for a (car) garage or چورچ for the name, George. Lastly the ژ, the equivalent to the Levantine or North African pronunciation of the ج, the more "French" stylized pronunciation of J as Zh, opposed to the proper MSA pronunciation of ج as the J in Jim, really only pronounced 'correctly' in Saudi and Iraqi dialects of Arabic and Persian. Lastly the Kurdish ڤ or the ف with 3 dots, V is a sound not found in Arabic, but found in Persian as the و. Where as the و in Persian is a V, in Arabic it is a W, not found in Persian. Hence the 'Tehrangelian' youth, that make fun of their parents and grandparents for pronouncing Westwood (The heart of the Persian community in LA) as Vestvood.
Persian, unlike Arabic, does not make a distinction in pronunciation of similar sounding letters. Hence, ت/ط, ه/ح, ق/غ, are all the same sound. س/ص not to mention ث are all the same sound. Worst of all Persian has no emphatic consonants. ض/ظ/ذ/ are all sound the same sound as ز. So where as most Persians and Arabs think that they can NOT understand each other, the truth is if you are reading the words rather then hearing them (or now that you have read this tutorial) chances are you would understand a lot more then you previously assumed. Last but not least Persian has no ع, it is often times pronounced as a ء. As in the Persian (or Arabic) word for love; عشق, pronounced in Arabic as 'ashq/3sh8 and in Persian as Eshgh. I hope to able to spread more عشق through this post and in future posts, showing the things that connect us to each other rather then spread us apart.


P.S. My favorite Persian word that found its way into an Arabic dialect, ميوه. The word for fruit in Persian made its way into the Kuwaiti dialect, pronounced as the Arabized version of the Persian word. Rather then the Persian Meeveh, the Arabized; Maywa.

Some other fun facts. When the Arabs invaded Iran and took on Persian words into Arabic they heard certain letters differently. The two major examples of this are that they heard the چ as a ص, like in the word for China, چين opposed to صين. Another Persian borrowing in a contemporary dialect is the Persian word for Cinnamon, دارچين being used in the Gulf dialects as دارصين rather then the MSA term, قرفة.  Most ironic of all, especially for our Egyptian readers is the گ and ج. Many Arabic words ending in ج, such as برنامج، بنفشجي، طازج, are Persian words that the Arabs heard the old Persian plural suffix of گان as a ج. One of the few remaining examples of this is the word مهرگان, Mehregan or the Fall solstice in Persian and مهرجان, Mehrejan for festival in Arabic.

The Welcome Letter.

As someone often times referred to as a unicorn, based on my many rare forms of identity, and the recent developments in my life, I have finally "bitten the built" and decided to start this blog. Unfortunately in this generation, bloggers, fashionistas and talent less reality stars are the role models, icons and idols of the world we live in. While I am not trying to change the world through my blog, I would at least like to make a tiny contribution by opening peoples eyes and minds, especially my peers, on more important social, cultural, political, historical and anthropological issues. With this blog, I hope to take the deep academic issues I read and theorize about and make them plausible subjects for the everyday person to read, learn and engage in. I hope to reflect on my travels and to add to the dialogue of serious issues within my community. Most of all, this blog, as well as my entire academic career and academic future, has always been a means for me to understand my hybrid identity and how it has formed. I believe that many of my peers are in the same boat but never had the opportunity to reflect on such issues and never had the opportunity to be introduced to the incredible literature which has also reshaped my mentality. So! Although I "came out' at age 18, I feel like this is my real coming out, when finally declaring this blog as the window into the mind of a Gay Persian-Arab-American-Jew. Wow that was a lot of hyphens! As I previously mentioned I hope for this blog to open the discussion and mind of others on serious issues, but I also intend to write it journal style as my daily reflections and also include fun educational articles and silly things too. Stay tuned for the Persian (Farsi) for Arabic speakers segment coming soon. In any event, thank you and welcome! Ahla w Sahla, Khosh Amadeed, Merci w Mashkoor!