T Polyphilus (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} paradoxosalpha) wrote,@ 2009-06-18 07:44:00 |
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I was curious, and I found out
Persian language
...has no grammatical gender, not even "natural" gender,
...comprehends Farsi (Iran), Tajiki (Tajikistan), and Dari (Afghanistan) among its principal dialects,
...is an Indo-European language most often written in Arabic characters (with four bonus letters not found in Arabic),
...is written in a modified Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan, and
...is called Fingilish or Penglish when written in Latin characters.
The 1001 Nights was based on a prior collection in Persian, and only became "Arabian" in the 9th century e.v. (The Scheherezade frame-narrative seems to date from the 14th century.)
When medieval Persia fell under the rule of the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates, Persian was banned in favor of Arabic, but Islam remained an elite religion of the rulers. Only after the revival of Persian language and literature in the 9th and 10th centuries e.v. ("Persianization") did Islam become a popular religion throughout the region.
Use of the unique Persian alphabet, or Old Persian cuneiform, did not survive Islamicization. Old Persian was a much more inflected language, with extensive grammatical gender and eight different cases.
Persian language
...has no grammatical gender, not even "natural" gender,
...comprehends Farsi (Iran), Tajiki (Tajikistan), and Dari (Afghanistan) among its principal dialects,
...is an Indo-European language most often written in Arabic characters (with four bonus letters not found in Arabic),
...is written in a modified Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan, and
...is called Fingilish or Penglish when written in Latin characters.
The 1001 Nights was based on a prior collection in Persian, and only became "Arabian" in the 9th century e.v. (The Scheherezade frame-narrative seems to date from the 14th century.)
When medieval Persia fell under the rule of the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates, Persian was banned in favor of Arabic, but Islam remained an elite religion of the rulers. Only after the revival of Persian language and literature in the 9th and 10th centuries e.v. ("Persianization") did Islam become a popular religion throughout the region.
Use of the unique Persian alphabet, or Old Persian cuneiform, did not survive Islamicization. Old Persian was a much more inflected language, with extensive grammatical gender and eight different cases.
