Notes on the colloquial lanǵuaǵe of Persia as recorded in certain recent writings

J. A. Boyle

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00088431

Notes on the colloquial lanǵuaǵe of Persia as recorded in certain recent writings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

J. A. Boyle

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

§ 1. There is in all languages a considerable difference between literary and colloquial usage. Sometimes this difference is so great that one can almost speak of two distinct languages. But even when the contrast is less striking it remains true that a large part of the vocabulary and a number of grammatical forms are to be encountered only in books and do not come spontaneously to the lips in natural speech; just as, on the other hand, there are words and expressions to be heard on every side in ordinary conversation that would be unthinkable in formal writing. All this is as true of Persian as of any other language; but whereas in the West the colloquial idiom has long since achieved literary recognition in the drama and in fiction, this is by no means the case in Persia, where recent experiments in the recording of the spoken language have met with strong opposition from the upholders of the classical tradition. The first shot hi this new ‘Battle of the Books’ was fired more than 30 years ago by Sayyed Mohammad ‘Ali amālzāde with the publication of his celebrated collection of short stories known as Yekī būd yekī na-būd, in which he introduced into Persian literature a host of words and phrases in common use by all classes throughout Persia but unrecorded in dictionaries and carefully avoided by men of letters. ǰamālzāde was content to enrich the vocabulary of the literary language: it was left to men like the late Sādeq Hedāyat and his disciple Sādeq Čūbak to take a second and much more controversial step and to make the creatures of their imagination employ, as nearly as possibly, the actual pronunciation and grammar of the spoken language.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1952 , pp. 451 - 462

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00088431 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 451 note 1} I should like to express my gratitude to Lieut.-Colonel G. E. Wheeler, C.B.E., C.I.E., for reading through my MS. and offering helpful criticism; and also to Mr. A. A. Haidari, a young Persian writer, for providing me with much valuable information about the vocabulary of the spoken language.

^{page 451 note 2} Published by Ma'refat in the series: Sad ketāb az sad nevīsande-ye bozorg-e donyā. For permission to quote the Persian translation and the American original I am indebted to the courtesy of the author and his publishers, Messrs. William Heinemann. The translation is referred to hereafter as MM.