The ezāfe (/ˌɛzəˈfeɪ/ EZ-ə-FAY or /ɪˈzɑːfeɪ/ iz-AH-fay; Persian: اضافه [ezɒːˈfe], lit. 'addition')[a] is a grammatical particle found in some Iranian languages, as well as Persian-influenced languages such as Azerbaijani, Turkish, Chagatai, Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and Kashmiri; that links two words together.[1][2][3][4] In the Persian language, it consists of the unstressed short vowel -e or -i (-ye or -yi after vowels)[5] between the words it connects and often approximately corresponds in usage to the English preposition of. It is generally not indicated in writing in the Perso-Arabic alphabet,[6][7] which is normally written without short vowels, but it is indicated in Tajik, which is written in the Cyrillic script, as -и without a hyphen.
Ezafe in Persian
editCommon uses of the Persian ezafe are:[8]
- Possessive (like Pertensive marking): برادرِ مریم barādar-e Maryam "Mary's brother" (it can also apply to pronominal possession, برادرِ من barādar-e man "my brother", but in speech it is much more common to use possessive suffixes: برادرم barādar-am).
- Adjective-noun: برادرِ بزرگ barādar-e buzurg "the big brother".
- Given name/title-family name: محمد مصدق Muḥammad-e Muṣaddiq, آقای مصدق āqā-ye Muṣaddiq "Mr. Mosaddeq"
- Linking two nouns: خیابانِ تهران xiyābān-e Tehrān "Tehran Street" or "Road to Tehran"
After final long vowels (ā ا or ū/ō و) in words, the ezâfe is written with the letter ye (ی) intervening before the ezâfe ending. If a word ends in the short vowel (designated by a he ه), the ezâfe may be marked either by placing a hamza diacritic over the he (ـهٔ) or a non-connecting ye after it (ـهی).[9] The ye is prevented from joining by placing a zero-width non-joiner, known in Persian as nēm-fāṣila (نیمفاصله), after the he.
| Form | Example | Example (in Tajik) | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ـِ | زبانِ فارسی | забони форсӣ | zabān-e fārsī | Persian language |
| جمهوریِ اسلامی | ҷумҳурии исломӣ | jumhūrī-ye islāmī | Islamic republic | |
| دانشگاهِ تهران | Донишгоҳи Теҳрон | Dānishgāh-e Tehrān | University of Tehran | |
| هٔ | خانهٔ مجلل | хонаи муҷаллал | xāna-ye mujallal | Luxurious House |
| هیِ | خانهیِ مجلل | |||
| یِ | دریایِ خزر | Дарёи Хазар | Daryā-ye Xazar | Caspian Sea |
| عمویِ محمد | амуи Муҳаммад | 'amū-ye Muḥammad | the [paternal] uncle of Muhammad | |
In Hindi-Urdu
editIẓāfat, or iẓāfā; in Hindi (and even more so in Urdu), is a syntactical construction of two nouns, where the first component is a determined noun, and the second is a determiner. This construction was borrowed from Persian.[1][3][4][2] In Hindi-Urdu, a short vowel "i" is used to connect these two words, and when pronouncing the newly formed word the short vowel is connected to the first word. If the first word ends in a consonant or an ʿain (ع), it may be written as zer ( ــِـ ) at the end of the first word, but usually is not written at all. If the first word ends in choṭī he (ہ) or ye (ی or ے) then hamza (ء) is used above the last letter (ۂ or ئ or ۓ). If the first word ends in a long vowel (ا or و), then a different variation of baṛī yē (ے) with hamza on top (ئے, obtained by adding ے to ئ) is added at the end of the first word. In Devanagari, these characters are written as ए.[10]
| Forms | Example | Devanagari | Transliteration | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urdu script | Devanagari | ||||
| ـِ | ए | شیرِ پنجاب | शेर-ए-पंजाब | shēr-e-Panjāb | the lion of Punjab |
| ۂ | ملکۂ دنیا | मलिका-ए-दुनिया | mālika-ye-duniyā | the queen of the world | |
| ئ | ولئ کامل | वली-ए-कामिल | walī-ye-kāmil | perfect saint | |
| ئے | مئے عشق | मय-ए-इश्क़ | mai-e-'ishq | the wine of love | |
| روئے زمین | रू-ए-ज़मीन | rū-ye-zamīn | the surface of the Earth | ||
| صدائے بلند | सदा-ए-बुलन्द | sadā-ye-buland | a high voice | ||
In other languages
editBesides Persian, ezâfe is found in other Iranian languages and in Turkic languages, which have historically borrowed many phrases from Persian. Ottoman Turkish made extensive use of ezâfe, borrowing it from Persian (the official name of the Ottoman Empire was دولتِ عَليۀ عُثمانيه Devlet-i Âliye-i Osmaniyye), but it is transcribed as -i or -ı rather than -e. Ezâfe is also used frequently in Hindustani, but its use is mostly restricted to Urdu poetic settings or to phrases imported wholesale from Persian since Hindustani by default expresses the genitive with the native declined possessive postposition kā. The title of the Bollywood film, Salaam-e-Ishq, is an example of the use of the ezâfe in Hindustani. Other examples of ezâfe in Hindustani include terms like sazā-e-maut "death penalty" and qābil-e-ta'rīf "praiseworthy". It can also be found in the neo-Bengali language (Bangladeshi, but also especially Dobhashi) constructions especially for titles such as Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal), Jamaat-e-Islami (Islamic assembly) and Mah-e-Romzan (Month of Ramadan).
The Albanian language also has an ezâfe-like construction, as for example in Partia e Punës e Shqipërisë, Party of Labour of Albania (the Albanian communist party). The linking particle declines in accordance to the gender, definiteness, and number of the noun that precedes it. It is used in adjectival declension and forming the genitive:
- Zyra e Shefit "The Boss' office" (The office of the boss)
- Në një zyrë të afërt "In an adjacent office"
- Jashtë zyrës së tij "Outside his office" (The office of his)
Besides the above mentioned languages, ezâfe is used in Kurdish in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran:
Çem-ê
river-EZAFE
Dîclê
Tigris
The Tigris River
Etymology
editOriginally, in Old Persian, nouns had case endings, just like every other early Indo-European language (such as Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Proto-Slavic, and Proto-Germanic). A genitive construction would have looked much like a Latin construct, with the first noun being in any case, and the second being in the genitive case.
- vašnā Auramazdāha "by the will of Auramazda"
- vašnā "will" (Instrumental case)
- Auramazdāha "Ahura Mazda (God)" (genitive case)[11]
However, over time, a relative pronoun such as tya or hya (meaning "which") began to be interposed between the first element and its genitive attribute.
- by the will which (is) of Auramazdah
William St. Clair Tisdall states that the modern Persian ezâfe stems from the relative pronoun which, which in Eastern Iranian languages (Avestan) was yo or yat. Pahlavi (Middle Persian) shortened it to ī (spelled with the letter Y in Pahlavi scripts), and after noun case endings passed out of usage, this relative pronoun which (pronounced /i/ in New Persian), became a genitive "construct" marker. Thus the phrase
- mard-e xūb مردِ خوب
historically means "man which (is) good" rather than "good man."[12]
In other modern Iranian languages, such as Northern Kurdish, the ezâfe particle is still a relative pronoun, which declines for gender and number.[13] However, rather than translating it as "which," as its etymological origin suggests, a more accurate translation for the New Persian use of ezâfe would be a linking genitive/attributive "of" or, in the case of adjectives, not translating it.
Since the ezâfe is not typical of the Avestan language and most Eastern Iranian languages, where the possessives and adjectives normally precede their head noun without a linker, an argument has been put forward that the ezafe construction ultimately represents a substrate feature, more specifically, an outcome of the ancient Elamite influence on Old Persian, which followed the Iranian migration to the territories of the Iranian Plateau previously inhabited by the ancient Elamites.[14]
See also
editNotes
editReferences
edit- 1 2 Hock, Hans Henrich; Bashir, Elena (24 May 2016). The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-042338-9.
Persian not only spread its lexical and some morphological influences into the indigenous languages with which it came into contact, but also was itself influenced by its Indian environment, developing a new literary variety, Sabk-e-Hindi. Abidi & Gargesh (2008) discuss this "Indianization of Persian", citing both the borrowing of words from Indian languages and the use of expressions that are semantically and emotionally Indian. Code mixing with Indian languages occurs at the levels of the morpheme, phrase, and clause. Compound words include one item from Persian and the other from Hindi, and the ezafe construction and conjunctive -o- are found joining Hindi words (Abidi & Gargesh 2008: 112).
- 1 2 Kiss, Tibor; Alexiadou, Artemis (13 November 2015). Syntax - Theory and Analysis. Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter. p. 50. ISBN 978-3-11-039315-6.
There are also Persian prepositions, such as baa- 'with' and bee- 'without', which form Hindi-Urdu compound words (Schmidt 1999: 20-252): (52) a. baa-iimaan 'with faith, faithful' b. bee-sharm 'without shame, shameless' Another interesting construction borrowed from Persian is the ezafe construction, which in Hindi-Urdu, especially in Urdu, contrasts with the genitive =kaa postposition (Schmidt 1999: 246-247).
- 1 2 Bhatia, Tej K.; Ritchie, William C. (2006). The Handbook of Bilingualism. pp. 789–790.
- 1 2 Calendar of Persian Correspondence. Superintendent Government Printing. 1911. p. xxxv.
Not only the vocabulary but the very structure of the Persian language had undergone some modifications in the hands of the Hindu munshis. They used Hindi words with Persian izafat (case-ending), viz, jatra i Prayag (pilgrimage to Prayag), purohit i tirtha (priest of the place of the place of pilgrimage), ishnan i Kashi (sacred bath at Benares), dak i harkarah (courier's dawk), darshan i sri Jagannath (visit to Jagannath), kothi i mahajani (merchant's firm).
- ↑ The short vowel "ــِـ" (known as kasra or kasré) is pronounced as e or i depending on the dialect.
- ↑ Abrahams 2005, p. 25.
- ↑ Calendar of Persian Correspondence. India Imperial Record Department. 1959. p. xxiv.
Sometimes Hindi words were used with Persian izafat as in ray-i-rayan (1255), jatra-i-Kashi (820), chitthi-i-huzur (820). But the more interesting aspect of the jargon is the combination of Hindi and Persian words in order to make an idiom, e.g. loot u taraj sakhtan (466) and swargvas shudan (1139).
- ↑ Moshiri 1988, pp. 21–23.
- ↑ "Persian Online – Grammar & Resources » Ezāfe 1". Retrieved 2022-07-06.
- ↑ Delacy 2003, pp. 99–100.
- ↑ Harvey, Lehmann & Slocum 2004.
- ↑ Tisdall 1902, pp. 21, 184.
- ↑ Haig 2011, p. 365.
- ↑ Yakubovich 2020.
References
edit- Abrahams, Simin (2005). Modern Persian: A Course-Book. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1327-1.
- Delacy, Richard (2003). Beginner's Urdu Script. McGraw-Hill.
- Haig, Geoffrey (2011). "Linker, relativizer, nominalizer, tense-particle: On the Ezafe in West Iranian". In Foong Ha Yap; Karen Grunow-Hårsta; Janick Wrona (eds.). Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 363–390. ISBN 978-90-272-0677-0.
- Harvey, Scott L.; Lehmann, Winfred P.; Slocum, Jonathan (2004). "Old Persian: excerpts from Darian Inscription DB IV". Old Iranian Online. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin.
- Karimi, Yadgar (2007). "Kurdish Ezafe construction: implications for DP structure". Lingua. 117 (12): 2159–2177. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2007.02.010.
- Moshiri, Leila (1988). Colloquial Persian. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-00886-7.
- Tisdall, W. St. Clair (1902). Modern Persian Conversation-Grammar with Reading Lessons, English-Persian Vocabulary and Persian Letters. London: Nutt.
- Yakubovich, Ilya (2020). "Persian ezāfe as a contact-induced feature". Voprosy Jazykoznanija (5): 91–114. doi:10.31857/0373-658X.2020.5.91-114. S2CID 226493392.