Some additional information on sounds and pronunciation
A user had sent me a PM requesting this so I thought to include it in the thread. This does side-track the format I was hoping to follow but could help a lot of the users here.
Question: When I listen to Farsi, I don't hear very strong throat sounds.
Answer:
In modern Persian the Arabic sound known as "qaf" is largely assimilated with the sound "gh" which is a sound similar, but not identical to, the "r" in french.
It is a sound found almost exclusively in Arabic loan words, and to my understanding a few native words which borrowed the sound from Arabic.
In some speakers the sound is partially retained, but among Iranians this is applied only to some words, and in many speakers the merger has completely occured. So in reality, if you never learn how to say this sound it doesn't really matter, as most Persian speakers in Iran do not pronounce it anyways.
In other dialects, such as Dari (Persian spoken in Afghanistan) it is more likely to be pronounced as in Arabic (like a K deep in the throat) as their style of speech is much more archaic (i.e. the way Persian is written, and how people spoke it in the 19th century). The Persian language has changed greatly in the past 100 or so years in Iran in terms of pronunciation and grammar. In particular the construction of verbal suffixes, which have been greatly reduced.
Example: Mæn be khuneye dustæm mirævæm.
Translation: I am going to my friend's house.
Becomes generally in colloquial Persian:
Mæn miræm khuneye dustæm.
As can be seen the word "mirævæm" ("am going", or "I am going" if you drop the pronoun "mæn" or "I" as would usually occur) becomes "miræm", with a shortened verbal suffix. Also the word order has changed from Subject-Object-Verb, as is traditionally structured in most Indo-Iranian languages, to that of Subject-Verb-Object, as in English and Mandarin Chinese for example.
This reduction occurs in virtually all the compound verbs except in writing and extremely formal situations: the use of "mirævæm" in normal conversation would sound somewhat strange in Tehran for example.
A further note: A little side note, the origin of the word "Farsi" comes from "Parsi". When the Arabs brought Islam with them and added numerous words to the Persian language, many words lost the sound "P", as Arabic has no P sound, so the Arabs called the language "Farsi" instead of Parsi. (Other examples: Esfæhan from "Espæhan", Sefid (white) from "Sepid").
Thus it is technically incorrect to call the language "Farsi" in English, even though this usage is more and more common, and in some ways seen as a political statement.
It is essentially like calling German "Deutsch" when you are speaking English. The proper name for the language in English is Persian, as it is derived from the Indo-Aryan root of the ancient name for the language, "Parsi".
"Iran" is also a mispronunciation of what should be called "Eyran." When Farsi started using the Arabic script early on, to write "Eyran" Iranians needed put the letters "alef" (ا‎
and "ye" (ى
to create the "ey" sound. The problem is though that, in arabic, when "alef" and "ye" اي are put together, they make the "EE" sound, that is how "Eyran" became "Iran." ايران.
