Native Word Formation
Persian is very powerful in word building and versatile in ways a word can be built from combining affixes, stems, nouns and adjectives. Having many affixes to form new words (over a hundred), and the ability to build affixes and specially prefixes from nouns, Persian language is also claimed to be and demonstrated as an agglutinative language since it also frequently uses derivational agglutination to form new words from nouns, adjectives, and verbal stems. New words are also extensively formed by compounding – two existing words combining into a new one, as is common in German, Sanskrit and hence most of the Indian languages. Professor Mahmoud Hessaby demonstrated that Persian can derive more than 226 million words.
An example set of words derived from a present stem combined with some of available affixes:
Persian | Components | English | Word class |
---|---|---|---|
dān دان | dān دان | Present stem of dānestan (to know) | Verbal stem |
dāneš دانش | dān + -eš دان + ش | knowledge | Noun |
dānešmand دانشمند | dān + -eš + -mand دان + ش + مند | Scientist | Noun |
dānešgâh دانشگاه | dān + -eš + -gâh دان + ش + گاه | university | Noun |
dānešgâhi دانشگاهی | dān + -eš + -gāh + -i دان + ش + گاه + ی | pertaining to university; scholar; scholarly | Adjective |
hamdānešgāhi همدانشگاهی | ham- + dān + -eš + -gāh + -i هم + دان + ش + گاه + ی | university-mate | Noun |
dāneškade دانشکده | dān + -eš + -kade دان + ش + کده | faculty | Noun |
dānā دانا | dān + -ā دان + ا | wise, learned | Adjective |
dānāyi دانایی | dān + -ā + -i دان + ا + ی | wisdom | Noun |
nādān نادان | nā- + dān نا + دان | ignorant; foolish | Adjective |
nādāni نادانی | nā- + dān + -i نا + دان + ی | ignorance; foolishness | Noun |
dānande داننده | dān + -ande دان + نده | one who knows | Adjective |
dānandegi دانندگی | dān + -ande + -i دان + نده + ی | knowing | Noun |
An example set of words derived from a past stem combined with some of available affixes:
Persian | Components | English | Word class |
---|---|---|---|
did دید | did دید | Past stem of didan (to see) | Verbal stem |
did دید | did دید | sight; vision | Noun |
didan دیدن | did + -an دید + ن | to see | Infinitive |
didani دیدنی | did + -an + -i دید + ن + ی | worth seeing | Adjective |
didār دیدار | did + -ār دید + ار | visit; act of meeting | Noun |
didāri دیداری | did + -ār + -i دید + ار + ی | visional, of the sense of sight | Adjective |
dide دیده | did + -e دید + ه | seen; what seen | Past participle; Noun |
nādide ندیده | nâ- + did + -e ن + دید + ه | what unseen | Noun |
didgāh دیدگاه | did + -gâh دید + گاه | point of view | Noun |
didebān دیدبان | dide + -bān دید + بان | watchman | Noun |
didebāni دیدبانی | dide + -bān + -i دید + بان + ی | watchman-ship | Noun |
Read more about this topic: Persian Vocabulary
Famous quotes containing the words native, word and/or formation:
“The sacrifice to Legba was completed; the Master of the Crossroads had taken the loas mysterious routes back to his native Guinea.
Meanwhile, the feast continued. The peasants were forgetting their misery: dance and alcohol numbed them, carrying away their shipwrecked conscience in the unreal and shady regions where the savage madness of the African gods lay waiting.”
—Jacques Roumain (19071945)
“A word carries farvery fardeals destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space.”
—Joseph Conrad (18571924)
“... the mass migrations now habitual in our nation are disastrous to the family and to the formation of individual character. It is impossible to create a stable society if something like a third of our people are constantly moving about. We cannot grow fine human beings, any more than we can grow fine trees, if they are constantly torn up by the roots and transplanted ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (18871970)