Persian Language is Sweet

In linguistics, that is, the scientific study of language, there is no such thing as good or bad, beautiful or ugly, strong or weak, capable or incapable, sweet or bitter language. All languages and their speakers are equally respected. Within the sagacity and wisdom of Mawlana (better known in the West as Rumi), the 13th century Persian poet and scholar, there is a related story:

Once four men who spoke different languages happened to travel together. As they spent some time together, they became friends. But they could hardly communicate, mainly using body language. One day, they were making fire for lunch, when they found a gold coin on the ground.

"Let's buy some 'sharab' for lunch." The Persian traveler suggested.

?"Why don't we buy some 'nabiz' instead?" The Arab said.

? "No! 'Wine' is much better, my friends!" The English speaker told the others.

"I recommend 'sarap'. It's best for our lunch." The Turk said.

They were actually referring to the same thing but because they spoke different languages, they couldn’t agree with one another. They were about to fight when a passer-by saw them disputing. He realized what the problem was.

"I can buy all the things you're suggesting with the coin." The man told them.

Half an hour later, he returned with a bottle of wine and it was what they all wanted to buy.

"All of you had the same thing in mind but you used different languages to refer to. Language was the cause of your dispute." The wise man said.

Mawlana highlights that?????? (having the same mind or empathy) is more important than?? ????? ?(having the same language). Hence, form should not be a barrier to content; languages should not be the object or subject of racism, self-exaltation or miscommunication. Love, wisdom, kindness, justice, humanity, etc. can perfectly be expressed in all languages and they all sound and look beautiful.? ?

??????????? Yet, it is widely said that Persian is a sweet language meaning it is a soft, learner-friendly and melodic language. Why? While 'sweetness', in this sense, is not a linguistic term and we do not rank languages based on how much sweet they are, there are good reasons why Persian leaves such an impression on many foreign learners of this language. Here, I do not intend to present a technical treatment of the subject matter. Rather, I try to clarify very briefly and simply the linguistic basis of such impression.

??????????? Let's start from the building blocks of the sound system of Persian language, that is, phonemes. Phonemes are technically defined as the smallest, meaning-distinctive units of any language.? When it comes to Persian, phonemes have comparatively easier place and manner of articulation than many other languages do. That is, 'where' and 'how' sounds are made are relatively more accessible and easier. For instance, Persian language has notably fewer glottal sounds than Arabic does. Similarly, Persian does not contain the trilled [r] in Spanish and Italian.

??????????? At the second rank in the sound system of Persian, we reach syllables. A syllable, by definition, contains a vowel as its nucleus, and may be accompanied by a number of consonants before and after the nucleus (i.e., the vowel). Persian language, in comparison to some other languages, allows a fewer number of consonants to be attached before or after the vowel. This, practically, means Persian syllables are often short, having few accompanying consonants. Subsequently, the pronunciation of Persian words, particularly in a string of a long sentence and even at a fast speech rate, is more efficient. As some background information, I need to add that a defining characteristic of all consonants is that they are produced by some obstruction in the air flow going out from lungs. For instance, to articulate [p], the air flow is held and then released by the lips; hence, it is technically called a bilabial stop/ explosive sound. Vowels, in contrast, are identified as sounds with no obstruction whatsoever in their articulation. Metaphorically, consonants are like gears and vowels function as the lubricants for these gears to work smoothly. Now back to syllables in Persian language, we can say that the gears in this language are very small and fully lubricated. Thus, they work like a Rolex! Some languages have bigger gears and are less frequently oiled. But, that is not the end of the story.

??????????? We should also take a look at the stress system and intonation patterns of Persian language. Linguistic stress roughly refers to the degree of loudness, pressure and length applied to a sound unit. Persian stress system is mainly fixed, syllable-timed, and syntax-driven. Most Persian words receive the primary stress on their final syllables. However, it is regularly shifted to the initial position if they receive inflectional prefixes. What does it mean in simple terms? Considering the structure of Persian syllables, it means Persian language sounds much like a waltz to ear with weak and strong beats at regular intervals. Such rhythmic phonological system and the correspondence of the beats with the Persian syntax make Persian easier to understand, as well. The intonation contours are also relatively simple in Persian. That is, very complex, varied and sensitive combinations of high- and low-pitch sound units, as in Chinese, do not exist in Persian. The intonation patterns are very functional and easy to catch. It all means, Persian is a like a piece of music which can easily be learned by ear. From the perspective of the speaker, speaking Persian is like sitting behind a professional drum set and playing jazz music. Thus, it is waltz to the listeners so that they can dance with and at the same time, it is jazz so that the speaker can pours out his heart and mesmerize the audience. It is not by chance that there are so many world-renowned Persian poets and that there is a long-lasting art of recitation in Persian culture called 'naghali' where lines of Persian poetry are read aloud to the audience; very similar to jazz players performing in bars.

??????????? Persian syntax also enjoys high regularity and predictability. Persian is technically a pro-drop language. That is, it allows the subject of the sentence being not mentioned, without having any negative effect on the clarity of the sentence. In practice, it means Persian sentences and clauses can be shorter, more to the point, easier to get connected and more flexible. In Persian, from a discursive perspective, you can say less and mean more thanks to its simplified syntax. Many syntactic shackles such as 'gender' (i.e., masculine, feminine, neutral) as in German, have been faded away through several thousands years of Persian's being in continuous and wide use. Relative pronouns and conjunctives as the links between Persian clauses and sentences are also very efficient and fine-tuned. For instance, the word '??' can easily function as a relative pronoun in many different positions within complex Persian sentences. In English, the same can be achieved by several words such as which, that, when, where, etc., with grammatical rules and exceptions that can be quite confusing to the learners of English. Likewise, the Persian equivalent of 'and' in Persian is commonly [o], a short vowel. Back to what I said before about the gears and the lubricants (i.e., consonants and vowels), we can say one short vowel can function as the most common connecting word in Persian. In practice, it means connecting ideas together in Persian phrases and sentences and talking smoothly are facilitated by this word.

Much more can be said about the sweetness of Persian language. But, let's conclude this article with a line of poetry by Hafiz, the 14th century Persian poet, on the same matter:

Sugar-shattering (verse of Hafiz devouring), have become all the parrots (poets) of Hindustan,

On account of this Farsi candy (sweet Persian ode) that to Bangal — goeth

(Translated by H. Wilberforce Clarke)

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