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The Tehrani accent ( fa, لهجهٔ تهرانی), or Tehrani dialect (), is a dialect of
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
spoken in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and the most common colloquial variant of the
Western Persian Iranian Persian, Western Persian or Western Farsi, natively simply known as Persian (, ), refers to the varieties of the modern Persian language spoken in Iran and by minorities in neighboring countries, as well as by Iranian communities th ...
. Compared to literary standard Persian, the Tehrani dialect lacks original Persian
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s and tends to fuse certain sounds. The Tehrani accent should not be confused with the Old Tehrani dialect, which was a
Northwestern Iranian dialect The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a ge ...
, belonging to the central group. Some of the words used in the Tehrani accent may derive from the
northwestern Iranian language The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a ge ...
of
Razi Razi ( fa, رازی) or al-Razi ( ar, الرازی) is a name that was historically used to indicate a person coming from Ray, Iran. People It most commonly refers to: * Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925), influential physician, alchemist ...
, such as ''sūsk'' "beetle; cockroach", ''jīrjīrak'' "cricket", ''zālzālak'' "haw(thorn)", and ''vejīn'' "weeding".


Differences between Standard Persian and Tehrani dialect

The following are some of the main differences between colloquial Tehrani Persian and standard Iranian Persian: *Simplification of some internal consonant clusters: **Standard Persian /zd/ ↔ Tehrani /zː/. Example: دزدى /dozdi/ ↔ /dozːi/ **Standard Persian /st/ ↔ Tehrani /sː/. Examples: دسته /dæste/ ↔ /dæsːe/; پسته /peste/ ↔ /pesːe/ *A number of vowel raising processes and diphthong loss: **Standard Persian /ɒːn, ɒːm/ ↔ Tehrani /uːn, uːm/. Example: بادام /bɒːdɒːm/ ↔ /bɒːduːm/ **Standard Persian /e/ ↔ Tehrani Examples: جگر /dʒegær/ ↔ ʒigær شکار /ʃekɒːr/ ↔ �ikɒːr کشمش /keʃmeʃ/ ↔ iʃmiʃ**The word-final // in Classical Persian became [] in modern Tehrani Persian, both colloquial and standard dialects (often romanized as "eh", meaning [] is also an allophone of // in word-final position in modern Tehrani Persian) except for نه [] ('no'), but is preserved in the
Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī  ...
dialects. **Standard Persian /ou̯/ ↔ Tehrani ː Examples: برو /borou̯/ ↔ oroː نوروز /nou̯ruːz/ ↔ oːruːz* غ and ق denoted the original Arabic phonemes in Classical Persian, the
voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , ...
and the
voiceless uvular stop The voiceless uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive , except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula. The symbol in th ...
(pronounced in Persian as
voiced uvular stop The voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G\. is a rare sound, even ...
), respectively. In modern Tehrani Persian (which is used in the Iranian mass media, both colloquial and standard), there is no difference in the pronunciation of غ and ق. Both letters are pronounced as a voiced velar fricative when positioned
intervocalic In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
ally and unstressed, and as a voiced uvular stop otherwise. This allophony is probably influenced by
Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...
like
Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most nume ...
and Turkmen. The classic pronunciations of غ and ق are preserved in the eastern variants of Persian (i.e.
Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī  ...
and
Tajiki Tajik (Tajik: , , ), also called Tajiki Persian (Tajik: , , ) or Tajiki, is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari with which it forms a continuum of mutually intelligible ...
), as well as in the southern dialects of the modern Iranian variety (e.g. Yazdi and Kermani dialects). Example: دقيقه [] ↔ []. *-e as the 3rd person singular suffix for verbs instead of Standard Persian -ad: می‌راوه ['mi:rɒve] ↔ می‌راود ['mi:rɒ:væd] *Use of verbal person suffixes on nominals for the verb بودن u:dæn Iranians can interchange colloquial Tehrani and standard Persian
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquis ...
s in conversational speech.


References


Sources

* Standard Persian Persian dialects and varieties Tehran City colloquials {{iran-stub