Understanding the Language

Western Asia has a rich linguistic heritage that encompasses everything from Aramaic, Assyrian and Babylonian through Latin and Greek, Kurdish, Armenian and classical Persian. While not all of these languages are spoken today, you will see their inscriptions in archaeological sites and historic manuscripts, and their grammatical structures, words and literary ideas have significantly influenced three of the modern languages widely spoken in the region today: Arabic, Persian and Turkish.

Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew, and its various dialects all stem from the Classical Arabic of the 6th century AD. Today’s written Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) is derived from the Arabic of the Koran and is the official language of 26 states, even though their various spoken dialects can be mutually unintelligible.

Arabic verbs are marked for person, gender and number, and conjugated for the past or non-past, an active or passive voice, and one of five different moods. Nouns have three grammatical cases, three numbers (singular, dual or plural), two genders and three states (indefinite, definite and construct). Adjectives are marked for case, gender, number and state but interestingly, non-human nouns are always combined with a singular feminine adjective.

Arabic has three short vowels (a i u), three long vowels (ā ī ū) and two diphthongs (aj and aw). A vowel at the end of a word is often not pronounced. Consonants can be plosive or fricative, and either voiced or unvoiced.

Key phrases

Hello مرحبا. marhaba

How are you? كيف حالك؟ Kayfa Haaluka?

Fine, thank you بخير ,شكرا bi-khair Shukran

Please من فضلك. min faDlak

Thank you شكرا shukran

Yes نعم na‘am

No لا. laa

Excuse me لو سمحت min fad.lak

Goodbye مع السلامة ma‘a as-salaamah

Do you speak English? هل تتكلم الانجليزية Hal tatakallam al-ingliziyyah?

Help! مساعدة Musaa‘adah!

Persian

Persian (often also referred to as Farsi) is an Indo-Iranian language and so has close grammatical and structural links with European languages such as Latin and French. It has around 60.6 million native speakers who reside across modern Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and it has significantly influenced the structure and vocabulary of other regional languages including Hindi, Urdu and Armenian.

Persian grammar is pleasingly straightforward. Normal sentences are structured with the subject-object-verb word order and, if the object is specific, it precedes a prepositional phrase. The declension of verbs expresses the tense and aspect of an action, and they agree with number and person of the subject.

The Persian vocabulary has been significantly widened through the compounding of existing words and also the addition of prefixes and suffixes to the stems of verbs and also to nouns and adjectives. Persian has also adopted loanwords from a variety of sources: Mongolian and Turkic words are present in large numbers due to the political role of successive Turkic dynasties in Persian history; French and Russian words (and their adaptations) were absorbed into Persian in the 19th and early 20th centuries; and English is also now making its presence felt, particular in technical vocabulary.

Persian has six vowels (three long and three short) and 23 consonants, of which two are nasal. The majority of consonants are labial (pronounced on the lips, for example m, p, b) or alveolar (pronounced with the tongue just behind the top teeth, for example n, t, d). Only j is spoken with the tip of the tongue on the palate. Syllables always begin with a consonant sound, and it is usually the last syllable of a word that is stressed.

Key phrases

Hello. سَلام Salâm

How are you? چطورید chetorid?

Fine, thank you خوبم، خیلی ممنون xubam, xeyli mamnun

Please لطفا lotfan

Thank you مرسی mersi

Yes بله bale

No نَه na

Excuse me ببخشید bebaxšid

Goodbye خداحافظ xodâhâfez

Do you speak English? میتوانید انگلیسی حرف بزنید؟ Mitavânid Engelisi harf bezanid?

Help! کُمَک komak!

Turkish

Turkish is the native language of more than 71 million people, not only in modern Turkey but also in parts of Cyprus, Iraq, Greece and Bulgaria. The language originated some 1,300 years ago in Central Asia, but the standard version spoken today is known as Istanbul Turkish because of the region in which it is primarily spoken. As late as 1928 Turkish was written in the Perso-Arabic script, but Ataturk introduced a variant of Latin script so that Turkey would be more closely aligned with Europe and also to break with the country’s Ottoman past.

In Turkish the standard word order is subject-object-verb, though this can be altered to stress the importance of a specific word or phrase. Nouns do not have a specific gender, but there is an extensive use of honorifics and second-person pronouns (with their respective verb endings) to denote the status of the person and also the level of familiarity the speaker has with the subject.

The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters, seven of which have been modified from their original Latin forms. There are eight vowels (a, e, i, ī, o, ő, u, ű), and no letters for q, w and x. Turkish words never contain two vowels next to each other, so if you do see two vowels together you know that it’s a loanword from another language. The language is entirely phonetic, which definitely aids pronunciation.

Key phrases

Hello Merhaba mehr hah bah

How are you? Nasılsınız? na suhl suhn uhz

Fine, thank you İyiyim, teşekkürler. ee yee yeem teh shek ür lerr

Please Lütfen Luet fen

Thank you Teşekkür ederim teh shek uer eh der eem

Yes Evet eh vet

No Hayır. Hah yuhr

Excuse me Bakar mısınız? bah kar muh suh nuhz

Goodbye Hoşçakalın. Hosh cha kaluhn

Do you speak English? İngilizce biliyor musunuz? Eengleez jay bee lee yor muh suh nuhz