The Silent vāv[1] (Persian: واو معدوله, romanized: Vāv-e Ma'dule, lit. 'altered vāv'; Urdu: واؤ معدولہ, romanized: Vā'o-i Ma'dūla) is an element of Persian and Urdu orthography resulting when a vāv is preceded by khe and often followed by an alef or ye, forming the combination of خوا or خوی, in which the vāv is silenced.[2][3][4][5] It is always written but not typically spoken, except for in certain eastern Persian dialects wherein it is pronounced.[6] If not followed by a long vowel, the vāv following a khe sometimes adopts the [o] sound of the short vowel zamme/pish.[7] It was also formerly made use of when dealing with Persian loanwords in the Arabic scripts of Turkic languages, particularly in Ottoman Turkish.[8]

History

Historical development

The silent vāv occurs only in words of Iranian origin, and is not present in any Turkic or Arabic loanwords that entered the language. Words in Middle Persian containing the labialised voiceless velar fricative [xʷ] preceding a long vowel developed such that the sound underwent delabialization and simply became the voiceless velar fricative [x]. In cases where it preceded the short near-open front unrounded vowel [æ] it delabialised and took on the sound of the close-mid back rounded vowel [o], evolving from [xʷæ] to [xo]. Despite this, the written language continues to reflect the old standards of pronunciation, hence the silent vāv remains written. These linguistic evolutions did not take place in certain areas of Greater Iran, and thus certain dialects do not have the silent vāv as a feature.[7][9]

In poetry

Historically, sometimes poetic usages of the silent vāv did not follow the traditional literary rules and guidelines.[5] This can be seen in the following poem by Sa'adi in his Bustan book:[10]

مخنّث که بیداد بر خود کند
از آن به که با دیگری بد کند

Phonetic transcription:

[moxænˈnæs kʰe biːˈdɒːd bæɾ xæd ˈkʰonæd]
[æz ɒːn beh kʰe bɒː diːˈɡæɾiː bæd ˈkʰonæd]

According to the Persian literary rules, خود should be pronounced as [xod]; however, as is visible in this poem, it atypically takes on the sound of [xæd] and rhymes with بد/[bæd] in the verse following it. This silent vāv taking on the sound of fathe/zebar, [æ], rather than the [o] of zamme/pish, is a very common feature in classical Persian poetry, also seen, for example, in the works of Ferdowsi and Nezami.[11][5][12]

Geographical distribution.

The standard Iranian form of Persian, does not pronounce the silent vāv in any situation. Tajiki Persian, which has undergone delabialisation in the same way as Iranian Persian, is written in the Cyrillic script, and thus does not have the silent vāv as an orthographic feature. However, the Afghan dialects of Persian, commonly known as Dari, as well as the Persian dialects of Kashan and some other regions of Iran, continue to pronounce the vāv, meaning that the silent vāv is not a feature of the orthography of their dialects.[6][7] In Urdu, labialisation is retained in some words and not others. In some words, the [x] and [xʷ] pronunciation variants are interchangeable.

Examples

Persian Persian IPA transcription[lower-alpha 1] Persian romanization[lower-alpha 1] Urdu IPA transcription English Translation
خویش [xiːʃ] ([xʷeːʃ]) Xish (Xwēsh) [xeːʃ] Oneself
خواب [xɒːb] ([xʷɒːb]) Xāb (Xwāb) [xɑːb] Sleep / Dream
خوش [xoʃ] ([xʷæʃ]) Xoš (Xwaš) [xʊʃ] Good / Happy

Notes

  1. 1 2 The forms of the words in dialects without the "Silent vāv" as a feature are shown enclosed in brackets

References

  1. ↑ Elwell-Sutton, L. P. (1972). Elementary Persian Grammar. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09206-7.
  2. ↑ Mowlavi, Abbasali (1987). راهنمای ادبیات فارسی [Persian Literature Guide] (in Persian) (6th ed.). p. 43.
  3. ↑ Tabrizi, Mohammad Ali Modarres (1879). Qāmūs al-maʻārif : ḥāvī-i tabyīn va tashrīḥ-i chihil va panj hazār madkhal va iṣṭilāḥ-i dīnī, falsafī kalāmī, riyāz̤ī, nujūmī, adabī, tārīkhī va tarjamah (in Persian). Vol. 1. Qom: Muʼassasah-ʼi Imām Ṣādiq. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9789643575007.
  4. ↑ Grierson, George Abraham. "Urdu Language Management". Language Information Services (LIS)-India. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  5. 1 2 3 ar-Razi, Shams ad-Din Muhammad bin Qays. Al-Mo'jam fi Ma'aaeeri Ash'aar il-'Ajam (in Persian). University of Tehran Press.
  6. 1 2 Razzaqi, Seyed Tayyeb (2018-02-20). "Study of four dialects of Kashan (AbuZaydAbadi, Barzoki, Totmachi, Qohrudi)". Kashan Shenasi. 10 (2): 138–157. ISSN 2676-7686.
  7. 1 2 3 "Persian Online – Grammar & Resources » The Silent Letter vāv". University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. 2007. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  8. ↑ Hagopian, V. Hovhannes (1907). "Pronunciation of Letters". Ottoman-Turkish conversation-grammar: a practical method of learning the Ottoman-Turkish language. p. 16. Silent vav, which is found only in some Persian words, between the letters خ khî and ا élif, and is not pronounced; as: خواجه khajé teacher, خواننده khanéndé singer.
  9. ↑ "The Diachronic Change of /xw/ Consonant Cluster in Persian, Sorani Kurdish, Hawrami, and Kalhori Kurdish: An Optimaity Theoretic Analysis". Journal of Language Research. 12 (36): 213–236. 2020. doi:10.22051/jlr.2019.27827.1772 – via Scientific Information Database.
  10. ↑ Shirazi, Saadi (1257). "Chapter 1 Part 28". Bustan (in Persian). Ganjoor. Retrieved 2022-07-27.
  11. ↑ Ə.B., Məmmədova (2008). "Qədim tarixdən qaynaqlanan və fars dilinin fonetik quruluşunda omofon yaradan diqraflardan biri haqqında" [About one of the digraphs originating from ancient history and creating homophones in the phonetic structure of the Persian language] (PDF). Bakı universitetinin xəbərləri: Humanitar elmlər seriyası (in Azerbaijani). Baku University publishing house. 4 (1): 183–190.
  12. ↑ "میازار موری که روزی‌کش است!". www.asrislam.com. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-08-02.

Further reading

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