Sounds incredible, doesn't it? But it's true. Persian and Chinese, albeit being two completely different languages belonging to completely different language families, with little or no contact with each other, share numerous similar, or even identical, idiomatic expressions and grammar structures. I've always wanted to write them down and put them together. Now I have this little space on the Internet I'll undertake this enterprise. I'm not going to write down everything that's there, but a bit at a time.
In today's Persian lesson I've found the following:
1. The expression of' 'in this direction', 'in this way'. Weirdly enough, both languages say 'from this direction': Chinese 从这个方向 (从 'from', 这个 'this', 方向 'direction'), Persian از این طرف (az in taraf: az 'from', in 'this', taraf 'direction').
2. The expression of 'how far'. Both languages say 'how much road': Chinese 多少路 (although this is colloquial and 'how far' does exist in Chinese as well. 多少 'how much' 路 'road'), Persian چقدر راه (cheqadr râh: cheqadr 'how much', râh 'road').
3. Word order after verb tânestan 'to be able to', 'can'. For 'can you read this for me' both languages say 'can you for me...'. The only difference is the order of the subject and the direct object. Chinese follows S-O whereas Persian follows O-S: Chinese 你能不能给我读一下这个 (lit. You can-not-can for me read once this), Persian میتوانی برام این را بخوانی (lit. Can-2nd.sg. for-1st.sg this acc. read). A quick note, personal pronouns in Persian can be attached to the preposition, hence the notation for-1st.sg which basically means 'for me' with 'me' attached to 'for'. One cay say barâye man which literally means 'for me' word for word.
4. The expression of 'you're right', 'you got it right'. It is common for both languages to say 'you guessed correctly': Persian درست حدس زدی, Chinese 你猜对了.
5. The expression of 'since' and 'for'. I have to say the European way is really inaccurate. Both Persian and Chinese use the format 'from + time + ago (+ till now)' which is 'since' or 'for' in English, 'depuis' in French, 'da' in Italian. Spanish is a little better because it uses the word for 'ago' - 'hace' together with 'since', 'desde' - 'desde hace', German, like English, French and Italian, uses one single word - 'seit'. But Persian and Chinese are complete:
Persian: از چند ماه پیش تا حالا از آنها خبر نداریم
Chinese: 我们从几个月前到现在都没有他们的消息。
The coloured particles correspond perfectly.
Two other points: not only is this structure shared by Persian and Chinese, in this sentence, another word is used in the same way in both languages as well. The words for 'a few' in Persian and Chinese are چند and 几 respectively. In both languages, they also serve as the question word 'how much'. In other words, both languages employ the question word 'how much' to mean 'a few', 'a couple of'.
How can I not love Persian!!
من فارسی را دوست دارم خیلی زیاد
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Persian and Chinese, albeit being two completely different languages belonging to completely different language families, with little or no contact with each other
ReplyDeleteActually, they have been in contact for hundreds of years, though linguistic influence may indeed have been minimal and the similarities mere coincidence.
mmm im of course aware of silk road and all that. but hundreds of years is nothing for these two countries both with thousands of years of history isnt it ? :P that's why i said 'little'...
ReplyDeletebtw, i dont like the wiki title 'people's republic of china - iran relationship'! PRC is NOT the whole of china and i still refuse to accept it as the legal government of china. PRC has only 60 years of history whereas China has thousands. the title should be 'China-Iran relationship'
ReplyDeletebut hundreds of years is nothing for these two countries both with thousands of years of history isnt it ?
ReplyDeleteWell, just speaking from a linguistic standpoint, it is. Take the impact of French on modern Persian, for example: despite the fact that French-Iranian relations only go back to the Safavid era, French has exerted a pretty large lexical influence on Persian.