Democracy 1/4: Persian (Farsi) Readings

[miguel0226]

Napakagandang wika ng Persian, masarap pakinggan ang kanyang tinig sa aking mga tainga. Sana matutunan ko rin siya balang araw. Sa ngayon ay marunong ako nitong Tagalog, English, at français. Sana madagdagan pa ang aking kaalaman sa mga linggwahe. :) Nagsisilbi kang isang inspirasyon, Ginoong Arguelles. Salamat. :)

[TeamLastNerve]

I saw you confused va with wa . wa is arabic, and va is farsi - the letters look the same

around 5:06

[Spieldamelenium]

O_o is it European? Text is whati want to know alot of references to western Europe, but no reference to the Arab world, also would seam odd that their is no talk about what democracy is... Which I have assumed to be typically European.

[8Smitth]

your accent... is incredible

[goodcyrus]

Most Persians do not know much about the ancient Greece and the Greek roots of democracy. Is this text a translation of a western book? It has some informational content that makes me feel a non-Persian wrote it but it also has a huge historical error in understanding democracy that makes me feel a typical Persian wrote it.

[JigareTehroon]

My God you're amazing. You've picked a really hard text, yet you did a great job. Barrikala (well done)

[yurismir1]

I like this language. Does anyone know where I can hear clips of native speakers speaking it online?

[mysteriousDSF]

omg!!!! this is very interesting to me. I am Hungarian. I heard the first sentence, beginning with something like "barkararie". Then I heard the translation "establishment" and I was shock! we have a word in Hungarian "barkácsol" which means "to establish" (kinda in a countryside sense). I thought about Turkish that would have the root "bark" for establishment, building, but I couldn't find anything like this in google translator. what is the reason for this coincidence? ProfASAr?

[durasdiurpaneus1]

@mysteriousDSF "baracă" means a temporary house, or a hut and it's of french origin.

Considering *bark(a), I have found, in the Romanian Ethymology Dictionary "tc., bg. barka, ngr. μτάρκα și βάρkα, alb. barkë.", with the meaning of "boat". Not being able to find a root in otoman turkish(as you suggested), I believe "barkácsol" might be an old iranic borrowing, dating from the proto-hungarian period(either persian or alanian).

[Carletoncentral]

Sir, you are a genius! آفرين

[Ilias512]

This is the most beautiful language I have ever heard. If I had to learn a language just for its beauty, it would definitely be Persian.

[aliazimi]

1) Very well explained and translated :)

2) The text you're reading looks rather old fashioned, probably written in the 1340's (Persian calendar, roughly 1960's) perhaps by someone who wasn't a literary expert. There are certain phrases and repetitions that you will not see in today's writings, such as the one in "az az" (بعد از از میان رفتن). It would be good if you could use more up to date texts.

3) The Persian word for AND (و) is more often read as "o" than "va".

Thanks again.

[2000shiften]

wow you are prefect

[alitalati]

I wish I could have listened to an introduction about the language and the related Iranian subgroup first, as I like your approach that I've seen in other videos...

I'm a Kurdish/Arabic original Speaker and huge fan of languages, and I find the work you do "priceless". Thanks so much...

[m98m99]

well , i8 admire this man he is reading well but whats his point any way ? what does he wantto express in here ? i didnt get it .

[esr518]

@m98m99 see his "Preface to textual readings" video

[jbjaguar]

i would also like more of these, in as many languages and scripts as possible.

[Franny5879]

Good work! Your pronunciation is not perfect (You've got American accent especially when it comes to pronouncing vowels and the phoneme [gh], and you pronounced some of the phonemes like Arabic instead of Farsi e.g. the [z] in "nezam", the [h] and [v] in "tahavollat') but you are doing a great job overall, and your comprehension and translation is just brilliant! Thank you for this and keep up the fantastic job!

[CuteUzbekGirl]

you're great in persian sir !

I'm not persian (I'm Uzbek) but I speak persian very well and I love your accent :-) great job. I love persian language

[LauraMW12345]

you read farsi too?! wow!

[yazalamaful]

It looks like Arabic has affected your Farsi pronunciation...much like how a Frenchman would sound when speaking another Romance language. That said, this is VERY impressive for a western person to be able to do.

[zaffe93]

@yazalamaful

the script is arabic but words that start with P has turned into F so they muslimes could understand because they dont have P in their alphabet

[DariusDaGreat86]

outstanding job Professor, very impressive

on a side note, I don't know why but all the foreigners who speak Persian seem to have the same accent. It's weird, it doesn't happen to foreigners who speak English

[sinakhan]

wow im iranian and that text is so hard to read and undrestand even for us. im really impressed

barikala

Movafagh bashi ;)

[HimmiJoe]

Keep up the good work! (Sorry for the double post)

[HimmiJoe]

How many languages do you know? It's fascinating that an American knew so many languages. No offense meant, it's a compliment.

[Bjowolf2]

Haha, he is trying to raise the average up from the usual 1.01 LOL

[JonVonD]

The ق is pronounced too hard, it resembles the Kazakh қ in that he's reading it unvoiced.

[JonVonD]

@IsraelJosefowitz no, it lengths the preceding short vowel. Prof. Arguelles is very talented but his Persian accent is heavily affected by his previous knowledge of Arabic.

[sosh1339]

Excellent, brilliant, first-rate. Your linguistic skills are completely approved ;-) Persian is not simple this is not a simple text and both your pronunciation and translation is admirable.

@Syedyasirkamal... Shallow comment. You don't understand Persian, "imitate" pronunciation , yet criticize his pronunciation... Funny... let the judgment to Persian. Maybe you better comment on Urdu.

[sosh1339]

Excellent, brilliant, first-rate. Your linguistic skills are completely approved ;-) Persian is not simple this is not a simple text and both your pronunciation and translation is admirable.

@Syedyasirkamal... Shallow comment. You don't understand Persian, "imitate" pronunciation , yet criticize his pronunciation... Funny... let the judgment to Persian. Maybe you better comment on Urdu.

[sosh1339]

Excellent, brilliant, first-rate. Your linguistic skills are completely approved ;-) Persian is not simple this is not a simple text and both your pronunciation and translation is admirable.

@Syedyasirkamal... Shallow comment. You don't understand Persian, "imitate" pronunciation , yet criticize his pronunciation... Funny... let the judgment to Persian. Maybe you better comment on Urdu.

[sosh1339]

Excellent, brilliant, first-rate. Your linguistic skills are completely approved ;-) Persian is not simple this is not a simple text and both your pronunciation and translation is admirable.

@Syedyasirkamal... Shallow comment. You don't understand Persian, "imitate" pronunciation , yet criticize his pronunciation... Funny... let the judgment to Persian. Maybe you better comment on Urdu.

[MAKootage]

farsi is very elegant. i speak urdu and we borrow a number of farsi words

[MAKootage]

I speak Urdu and we borrow a lot of Farsi words. It's a gorgeous language.

[archa000]

This is sick ..in a good way. I like studying languages myself too, although I don't learn so much of them. I study german, finnish, french, swedish, danish and spanish for now. I speak fluent latvian (native) and russian and very good english. By the way, it is interesting how you sound less nervous when you read persian and more nervous when you read danish or swedish. But maybe I'm just mistaking about it. Keep up with the studying.

[superCatia]

It  sounds similar to Hindi.

[juandilar2]

This dude is an extremely good linguist

[spacekangaroo]

Your Persian skills are very impressive. A few suggestions if you want to speak with a more standard accent:

1) short 'a' is pronounced as "æ" as in English "hat", while long 'a' is pronounced as "ɑ" as in English "hot"

2) your pronunciation of 't' and 'd' is alveolar, whereas in Persian, these sounds are dental, often with a very slight affricate quality during release

3) The Persian word for "and" is pronounced as "væ". When the vowel "w" occurs as a consonant, it is pronounced as "v".

[manq211]

well you can read Persian better than many Persians in Europe

[joyuna]

This is a very interesting idea... nice video. This type of thing could help many people, including me. You really need to watch your pronunciation though. The distinction between long and short a is important, you need to make it.

[DarthMaul8065]

He's certainly not using a standard Persian or Tehrani pronunciation. I dont know whether he's just mistaken in his pronunciation or whether he's using some sort of eastern pronunciation.

[JonVonD]

ich kann leider nur hoffen, dass eines Tages ich Persisch, Russisch, u. Englisch so gekonnt so wie Sie beherrschen können werde.

Mach mal diese Videos weiter!

Ich mag sie aber sehr

[ArafKhaled]

lol his faghad is funny! :P What an inspiring man

[syedyasirkamal]

Profasar.. I am a great admirer of yours... but I have to say that ur pronunciation is WAY OFF! ... Please don't speak Persian with an American accent ... for instance the persian "dal" is not the "d" in English ..

I am an Urdu speaker and don't understand Farsi .. yet I can imitate native pronunciation of Farsi..and Spanish!

[spacekangaroo]

syedyasirkamal:

You need to learn tactful and respectful ways of providing constructive criticism to people.

[niz55]

bacha koony turkeh kondeh

[maahnaazz]

You are very good. Afarin!

[Nimme92]

firebreathone2, I agree with you, he speaks really good and the accent sounds like afghan ^^ interesting actually!

[Nimme92]

He pronounces "faghad" funny, it sounds like this: "fackhat" ^^

[Lunatic4Bizcas]

I am currently learning Chinese, but in a future time I plan to study and learn Persian (Iranian). I find it a little humorous that Yu-Nan refers to the nation of Greece, when in Chinese Yu-Nan obviously refers to Yunan province and sometimes even to the nation of Vietnam (Yuenan). Very nice and informative submission.

[gloomyoutlook]

Yunan as in Ionia ;]

[turkselim]

Yunan is Greece we use that word too

[deadknock666]

iranians use these kinds of text to prove themselves to be white

[maryam3580]

Persians are white you idiot! Read some history, or for your level I recommend you some simple searches for videos or pictures of us in internet!

[gloomyoutlook]

What the fuck has literature on democracy got to do with "proving" being "white"? And why would they need to "prove" themselves to be white? And to whom? Iranians have a far richer culture than "whites", why on Earth would they want to abandon that? lol. I wish I was Persian.

[firebreathone2]

I am iranian and I think you did a good job. The accent needs a bit of work (sounds afghan) but on the whole I am rather impressed!

mashala!

[turkselim]

I am Turkish some words are common and very familiar to me in our languages "siyasi" "political" tamami" "all" "iktisadi" "economical" there has to be more common words

[micronie]

"Be-tartib" means "respectively"

Spain, Portugal and Greece were the last countries which joined this current after the disappearance of dictatorships of Franco, Salazar and Colonols ? respectively, welcomed democracy and fundamental participation of people.

I'm a snob.

[BelligerentPacifist]

'betartiib' means 'not in a particular order / disorganised'.

Its 'baatartiib' that means 'in the order given'.

[JUGGALOCO17]

I hate how Farsi is written.

[DerPoltergeist13]

In Tajikstan it is written with the Cyrillic alphabet and sometimes it is written with the latin alphabet for Farsi speakers without a Perso-Arabic keyboard

[fahimchen]

it sounds like an afghan accent lol.

[HesseJamez]

It IS an afghan accent ! - Afghans speak farsi, too (most of them).

[BelligerentPacifist]

I'd like to disagree. He's clearly speaking in a Tehraanii / Iranian dialect. Afghani Farsi / Darii sounds different.

[k0k0isonlymyname]

This is the best source on YouTube for learning Persian. Thank you for putting these up :)

[pary16]

shoma afghani hastin?

[Noregi]

Oh my god...what a beautiful language!

[antianymore]

@Noregi i fell in love that languane :) i 've been learning it for 3 yearss

[K0attack]

I can read that.

[KarinaNBlack]

Iranians are in general very friendly and very eager to convey information about their culture, language, history and any thing that is related to Iran! See the long comment Ive left here and youll confirm me! واقعا به شما تبریک می گویم و برایتان آرزوی موفقیت می کنم.

[KarinaNBlack]

I know is the most difficult part of reading Persian because they are not reflected in the written text!

But apart from minor pronunciation imperfections, you are doing a very splendid job, specially in giving perfect translation of the text. Keep up the good job, and if you need help with improving your pronunciation, Im sure you can find a lot of Iranian friends wherever in the US that you live who would be glad to help you

[KarinaNBlack]

You know Persian amazingly well and in an academic way. I watched your introductory video of these series where you said youre sure youll be having pronunciation deficiencies. Actually you can read Persian much better than you described! However, you pronounce individual letters pretty much similar to how they are pronounced in Arabic. For example, in Persian, we dont pronounce ظ as in that but simply as in zebra. There is also slight problems with pronouncing the vowels which

[anne241163]

This morning I watched this, went out and a lady in the street asked me how to find the Iranian Embassy. How I wished I knew a few words of her language! I can read Arabic and this is very similar except for the hard G and the P sound :)

[stalonean]

i would like to praise your generosity, and the courage you have in supporting the rest of us to learn. you truly are doing a wonderful thing.

[stalonean]

thank you, so much,

this is great way to learn. without you i would have given up.

i respect you and what you do greatly. i am using your videos to help me learn this beautiful language. with your help i feel i am learning so much faster and in a much more engraved way then i could studying without guidance. furthermore, your videos give me an inspiration to push forward with learning this difficult language. i am watching over and over again.

[SolAurum]

PERSIAN not FARSI (arabic pronunciation)

[pary16]

no difference

[GulfVet213]

thank you for these persian videos. I just started to learn Farsi and it is difficult but I WILL learn

[kschumac]

I'm learning MSA and it sounds a lot like it.

[reprog]

I appreciate these persian readings very much! Your style of teaching is very easy to follow and the choice of subject matter is invaluable for a beginning speaker who struggles with building vocabulary. I hope you are able to post more!

[ProfASAr]

Thank you very much for your comments. I certainly would like to make more of these textual readings, but I was not sure that there was much interest as my other styles of videos get so many more views. Now that I know that there is, I should get around to doing so all the sooner!

[HesseJamez]

It's an indo-european language! - Arabic is a semit language and not a relative. Persians only use the (confusing) arabic letters.

[Kiro2017]

Your accent betrays having learned Arabic first, and it seems to be mostly the orthography tripping you up. Nevertheless well done!  A few tips: alef is more back, more round, re is a flap more than a trill, qaf is more often a velar fricative, and there are no schwas or reduced vowels, even unwritten. Also no clusters at the beginning of a word like in English, so it's "demokerAsi". I think your series is a good idea.

[freedom729]

Does anyone else feel astonished at how similar this language sounds to the European languages? I didn't expect to hear the common P.I.E. heritage so clearly.

[Naddodr]

Good point, sounds almost European, I agree. It's the alphabet or writing methods that confuses people. On that point, the Greek language and Greece it's self is in Europe and the alphabet is quite different from the Latin alphabet, but when the alphabet is understood it actually sounds similar to other European languages. Example "Σούπα" pronounced a little bit like "soupa". The Spanish for "soup" is "sopa", anyone can see the similarities with these languages, so your point is well heard.

[HesseJamez]

Persian IS an indo-european language! - No Joke! It has nothing to do with semit language arabic.

[esmaran]

"Fakat" sounds very similar to "Fakt-uh", the word for "only" in Marathi.

[polyphemes]

Arabic has it, too. I wonder where it came from.

[snovymgodom]

The word "faqat" is originally Arabic, and it was borrowed into Persian and several Turkic languages among others.

[mxjgr]

Same with "Awwal"-"First"?

[saxquiz]

If I were learning Persian I can imagine that this would really help! Thanks much for the video. The words for "economy, continent, by degrees, social, political, only, western, changes, organization, and, partnership, problems, obstacles, delay" are just some of the words in this article that are the same in Arabic. This makes realize that Farsi wouldn't be so hard to learn since I know English and Arabic.

[gloomyoutlook]

I enjoyed it a lot more when you read the entire text in the original language, then translated.

[mick1316591]

This is very intriguing, I'd always been intimidated by the Arabic and Persian scripts but hearing Persian spoken I notice many similarities to other Indo-European languages.

[Snolliot]

romany bransch would be nice to see

[NorthwesternerGuy]

Love Persian. In principle, it musn't be too difficult to learn for Europeans since it has the same origin than our languages -Indo-European languages, right?-

Some of the words like 'madar' (mother), 'pehdar' (father), 'dokhtar' (daughter), 'brata' (brother), the numbers (yek, dow, seh, chahar, pang, shesh, haft, hasht, noh, dah) or even the pronouns are still highly resembling... This language seems semitic bc of the alphabet xD It's not.

[Kurdlov]

Persian has quite a different flow than Arabic, and sound. Your grasp of the accent is quite different. I'm more use to you speaking Germanic based languages but you do a good job.

[ThatKles]

Hi Prof. Arguelles,

I really enjoy hearing these languages read and translated like this. Your entire collection of videos is quite fascinating. I'd like to get in to languages, but I am a poor self-teacher at a college which offers little in terms of language. Oh well... I guess I will have to wait.

Anyways, I do have a request. Can you please make a conscious effort to cut down on how much you say "um" and "uh"? I find it somewhat distracting and disruptive of the flow of words. Thanks!

[kauemoura]

Arabic alphabets are in my opinion the most wonderful alphabets.

I learn chinese, it's also wonderful, but arabic, it's so cursive and artistic, it's just gorgeous.

[darthanakin]

But Arabic and its derived alphabets don't mark vowels. This feature might be suitable for Semitic languages with tri-consonantal roots but I can't imagine it fits Persian, Urdu or the Turkic languages very well.

[althganur]

thank u i m arabic native speaker

[cohcam]

You should check out Tamil and Burmese. They

are also beautiful

[Eopyk]

It is awsome that you do Persian. And I was so moved by your last video when you explained why. And great topic you read about here. May you build a bridge of understanding

All love

[nlitement]

Cool.

[blazethemonkey]

Sounds different to what I thought it would sound like. Thanks for reviewing Persian. I hear some people don't like it being called Farsi or is this wrong?

Looks complicated but sounds nice to the ear

[nlitement]

The reason for that is because there is no grapheme that represents "p" in the Arabic alphabet.

[kalamarikahunalord]

"Farsi" was not the original name for Persian. When the Arabs came to Persia, the Persians called it "Parsi" (or maybe even not that. I think that the "i" comes from an Arabism called the "nisbah", but that's a longer story) or, I believe, "Parsa", but the Arabs did not have a sound for P, so they used F. Therefore, Farsi is not technically the name of the Persian language. A lot prefer Persian or Parsi, because that preserves the P sound at the beginning.

[DAR1USH]

Absolutely. Thanks for this comment.

"Persian" is most accurate to describe the language, as well as other things, such as carpet, cat, etc. as we won't say Farsi carpet nor Farsi cat!

The Persian spoken in Afghanistan, reffered to az "Farsi-e Dari" is also Persian, as is the Tajiki. They are just the variation in accents. "Dari" refers to the Court or "Darbaor", describing quality.