Persian Vocabulary - Native Word Formation

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

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