Generally speaking, the diglossia rules of Persian are inconsistent and only implemented to some extent. Still, it is very useful to learn them, particularly when listening to native speakers with varying dialects.
Here in the following pages are gathered 10 sets of basic rules, in no particular order.
Let’s begin with some basic phonemic consonant changes:
In the [st] and [zd] clusters the alveolar plosives are assimilated into the preceding alveolar fricatives, as [s] ([ss] before a vowel) and [z] ([zz] before a vowel):
hand | dast | دست | das; followed by a vowel dass-am ‘my hand’ |
دس
|
ice cream | bastani | بستنی | bassani |
بسنی
|
transitive verb, intransitive verb, to break | šekastan | شکستن | šekassan | شکسن |
tired | xaste | خسته | xasse | خسه |
pistachio | peste | پسته | pesse | پسه |
Where is he, she, it? | kojāst | کجاست | kojās | کجاس |
thief, robber | dozd | دزد | doz followed by a vowel dozzā ‘(the)thieves’ |
دُز
دزا |
thirteen | sizdah | سیزده | sizza | سیزَ |
The [n] in an [nb] cluster is invariably pronounced as [m] (that is, [nb] becomes [mb]); this is in the anticipation of the following bilabial:
Saturday | šanbe | شنبه | šambe |
tail-fat | donbe | دنبه | dombe |
storage (room/space) | anbār | انبار | ambār |
behind, after | donbāl | دنبال | dombāl |
intransitive verb, to move, wag | jonbidan | جنبیدن | jombidan |
movement | jonbeš | جنبش | jombeš |
In certain instances the [b] of [-mb] cluster (from [-nb]) disappears in final position:
tail | donb | دنب | domb | dom | دم |
a large earthen jar | xonb | خنب | xomb | xom | خم |
hoof | sonb | سُنب | somb | som | سُم |
Only in the following words the final [-ar] becomes [-e]:
if | agar | اگر | age | اگه |
the other; not any more, no more | digar | دیگر | dige | دیگه |
(does not exist in English as a single particle) | magar | مگر | mage | مگه |
The particles digar and magar have many syntactic functions. See the sections on these particles.