Theezāfe (/ˌɛzəˈfeɪ/EZ-ə-FAY or/ɪˈzɑːfeɪ/iz-AH-fay;Persian:[ezɒːˈfe] اضافه,lit. 'addition')[a] is agrammatical particle found in someIranian languages, as well as Persian-influenced languages such asAzerbaijani,Ottoman Turkish andHindi-Urdu, that links two words together.[1][2][3][4] In thePersian language, it consists of the unstressed short vowel-e or-i (-ye or-yi after vowels)[5] between the words it connects and often approximately corresponds in usage to the English prepositionof. It is generally not indicated in writing in thePersian script,[6][7] which is normally written without short vowels, but it is indicated inTajiki, which is written in theCyrillic script, as-и without a hyphen.
Common uses of the Persianezafe are:[8]
After final long vowels (âا oruو) in words, theezâfe is marked by aye (ی) intervening before theezâfe ending. If a word ends in the short vowel (designated by aheه), theezâfe may be marked either by placing ahamze diacritic over thehe (ـهٔ) or a non-connectingye after it (ـهی).[9] Theye is prevented from joining by placing azero-width non-joiner, known in Persian asnim-fâsele (نیمفاصله), after thehe.
| Form | Example | Example (in Tajik) | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ـِ | زبانِ فارسی | забони форсӣ | zabân-e fârsi | Persian language |
| جمهوریِ اسلامی | ҷумҳурии исломӣ | jomhuri-ye eslâmi | Islamic republic | |
| دانشگاهِ تهران | Донишгоҳи Теҳрон | Dâneshgâh-e Tehrân | University of Tehran | |
| هٔ | خانهٔ مجلل | хонаи муҷаллал | khâne-ye mojallal | Luxurious House |
| هیِ | خانهیِ مجلل | |||
| یِ | دریایِ خزر | Дарёи Хазар | Daryâ-ye Khazar | Caspian Sea |
| عمویِ محمد | амуи Муҳаммад | amu-ye Muhammad | the [paternal] uncle of Muhammad |
The Persian grammatical termezâfe is borrowed from theArabic concept ofiḍāfa ("addition"), where it denotes agenitive construction between two or more nouns, expressed usingcase endings.[citation needed][dubious –discuss] However, whereas the Iranianezâfe denotes a grammaticalparticle (or even apronoun), in Arabic, the wordiḍāfa actually denotes therelationship between the two words.[citation needed][clarification needed] In Arabic, two words in aniḍāfa construction are said in English to be in possessed-possessor construction (where the possessed is in theconstruct state and any case, and the possessor is in the genitive case and any state).
Iẓāfat, inHindi andUrdu, is a syntactical construction of two nouns, where the first component is a determined noun, and the second is a determiner. This construction was borrowed from Persian.[1][3][4][2] InHindi-Urdu, a short vowel "i" is used to connect these two words, and when pronouncing the newly formed word the short vowel is connected to the first word. If the first word ends in a consonant or anʿain (ع), it may be written aszer ( ــِـ ) at the end of the first word, but usually is not written at all. If the first word ends inchoṭī he (ہ) orye (ی orے) thenhamzā (ء) is used above the last letter (ۂ orئ orۓ). If the first word ends in a long vowel (ا orو), then a different variation ofbaṛī ye (ے) withhamzā on top (ئے, obtained by addingے toئ) is added at the end of the first word. InDevanagari, these characters are written asए.[10]
| Forms | Example | Devanagari | Transliteration | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urdu script | Devanagari | ||||
| ـِ | ए | شیرِ پنجاب | शेर-ए-पंजाब | sher-e-Panjāb | the lion of Punjab |
| ۂ | ملکۂ دنیا | मलिका-ए-दुनिया | malika-ye-duniyā | the queen of the world | |
| ئ | ولئ کامل | वली-ए-कामिल | walī-ye-kāmil | perfect saint | |
| ۓ | مۓ عشق | मय-ए-इश्क़ | may-e-'ishq | the wine of love | |
| روئے زمین | रू-ए-ज़मीन | rū-ye-zamīn | the surface of the Earth | ||
| صدائے بلند | सदा-ए-बुलंद | sadā-ye-buland | a high voice | ||
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Besides Persian, ezafe is found in otherIranian languages and in Turkic languages, which have historically borrowed many phrases from Persian.Ottoman Turkish made extensive use of ezafe, borrowing it from Persian (the official name of theOttoman Empire wasدولتِ عَليۀ عُثمانيهDevlet-i Âliye-i Osmaniyye), but it is transcribed as-i or-ı rather than-e. Ezafe is also used frequently in Hindustani, but its use is mostly restricted topoetic settings or to phrases imported wholesale from Persian since Hindustani expresses the genitive with the native declined possessive postpositionkā. The title of the Bollywood film,Salaam-e-Ishq, is an example of the use of the ezafe in Hindustani. Other examples of ezafe in Hindustani include terms likesazā-e-maut "death penalty" andqābil-e-tārīf "praiseworthy". It can also be found in the neo-Bengali language (Bangladeshi) constructions especially for titles such asSher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal),Jamaat-e-Islami (Islamic assembly) andMah-e-Romzan (Month ofRamadan).
TheAlbanian language also has an ezafe-like construction, as for example inPartia e Punës e Shqipërisë,Party of Labour of Albania (the Albanian communist party). Thelinking particle declines in accordance to the gender, definiteness, and number of the noun that precedes it. It is used in adjectival declension and forming the genitive:
Besides the above mentioned languages, ezafe is used inKurdish in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran:
Çem-ê
river-EZAFE
Dîclê
Tigris
Çem-ê Dîclê
river-EZAFE Tigris
The Tigris River
Originally, inOld Persian, nouns had case endings, just like every other earlyIndo-European language (such as Latin, Greek, and Proto-Germanic). A genitive construction would have looked much like anArabiciḍāfa construct, with the first noun being in any case, and the second being in the genitive case, as in Arabic or Latin.
However, over time, a relative pronoun such astya orhya (meaning "which") began to be interposed between the first element and its genitive attribute.
William St. Clair Tisdall states that the modern Persianezafe stems from the relative pronounwhich, which in Eastern Iranian languages (Avestan) wasyo oryat. Pahlavi (Middle Persian) shortened it toī (spelled with the letter Y inPahlavi scripts), and after noun case endings passed out of usage, this relative pronounwhich (pronounced/e/ in New Persian), became a genitive "construct" marker. Thus the phrase
historically means "manwhich (is) good" rather than "good man."[12]
In other modern Iranian languages, such asNorthern Kurdish, theezafe particle is still a relative pronoun, which declines for gender and number.[13] However, rather than translating it as "which," as its etymological origin suggests, a more accurate translation for the New Persian use of ezafe would be a linking genitive/attributive "of" or, in the case of adjectives, not translating it.
Since the ezafe is not typical of theAvestan language and most East Iranian languages, where the possessives and adjectives normally precede their head noun without a linker, an argument has been put forward that the ezafe construction ultimately represents a substrate feature, more specifically, an outcome of theElamite influence on Old Persian, which followed the Iranian migration to the territories previously inhabited by the Elamites.[14]
Persian not only spread its lexical and some morphological influences into the indigenous languages with which it came into contact, but also was itself influenced by its Indian environment, developing a new literary variety,Sabk-e-Hindi. Abidi & Gargesh 2008 discusses this "Indianization of Persian", citing both the borrowing of words from Indian languages and the use of expressions which are semantically and emotionally Indian. Code mixing with Indian languages is found at the levels of morpheme, phrase, and clause. Compound words include one item from Persian and the other from Hindi; and theezafe construction and conjunctive-o- are found joining Hindi words (Abidi & Gargesh 2008: 112).
There are also Persian prepositions, such asbaa- 'with' andbee- 'without', which form Hindi-Urdu compound words (Schmidt 1999: 20-252): (52) a.baa-iimaan 'with faith, faithful' b.bee-sharm 'without shame, shameless' Another interesting construction borrowed from Persian is theezafe construction, which in Hindi-Urdu, especially in Urdu, contrasts with the genitive =kaa postposition (Schmidt 1999: 246-247).
Not only the vocabulary but the very structure of the Persian language had undergone some modifications in the hands of the Hindumunshis. They used Hindi words with Persianizafat (case - endin) viz,jatra i Prayag (pilgrimage to Prayag),purohit i tirtha (priest of the place of the place of pilgrimage),ishnan i Kashi (sacred bath at Benares),dak i harkarah (courier's dawk),darshan i sri Jagannath (visit to Jagannath),kothi i mahajani (merchant's firm).
Sometimes Hindi words were used with Persian izafat as in ray-i-rayan (1255), jatra-i-Kashi (820), chitthi-i-huzur (820). But the more interesting aspect of the jargon is the combination of Hindi and Persian words in order to make an idiom, e.g.loot u taraj sakhtan (466) andswargvas shudan (1139).