Ahmadinejad -- Ah-Ma-Dee-Nay-Zhad (Zh as in the second G in garage) Ayatollah -- Ah-Yeah-Toll-Aa Birjand -- Beer-Jund (Bir rhymes with fear and Jund rhymes with fund) Ghazvin -- Gaz-Vain Hamid --- Ha-Meade (Ha rhymes with da in dada) Isfahan -- Is-Fa-Hawn Karoubi -- Ka-Robe-EE Khamenei -- Kah-Ma-Nay-EE Khatami -- Kah-Tammy Khomeini -- Koh-Main-EE (Try saying it fast, though) Khorasan -- Koh-Ra-Son Mashhad -- Mash-had Montazeri - Mun-Ta-Ze-Ree Mousavi -- Moo-Savvy Neda Aga-Soltan -- Neh-dA Sole-Tan (Neh rhymes with meh, the A in 'da' is pronounced the like the A in 'ark'. Both the A's in Aga are pronounced like the A in Ark. The A in Tan is is pronounced the same way. Nowrouz -- Nav-Rooz (Nav rhymes with Love and Rooz rhymes with booz) Pahlavi -- Pah-Love-Ee Qom -- Gom (Rhymes with Dome) Sanandaj -- Son-un-duj (duj is pronounced like budge) Sohrab A'rabi -- Sooh-Rob A-Rob-EE (Sooh rhymes with Though, the A in A'rabi is prounced like the A that means one but there's TINY TINY pause after the A sound until you get to Rob.) Tabriz -- Tub-raise Tehran -- Tay-Ron Taraneh -- Ta-Raw-Neh (Ta rhymes with wha? Neh rhymes with meh) (Please post names that you're having problems pronouncing in comments and I'll get to them ASAP. )
What a good idea, stops confusing. Not for being fussy, just curious: where is the stress in farsi language generally - first or second syllable? Thanks again, NiteOwl, your dedication is amazing. Are you better again?
Pronunciation Hello, it's the first time I'm commenting here, congrats for the excellent work! I'm just curious about the pronunciation guide you posted: are those supposed to be read exactly as in English words? (e.g. with differences from the litteral transcript?) Since I am Portuguese, I tend to hesitate between reading your pronunciation as in english or litterally (closer to Portuguese pronunciation). Examples: is the "H" as in "Ah" mute? and is the "a" read like "a" (like in "ark") or like "ae" (like in "cat")?
Yes, the pronounciation guide is in English. The A's are read as in the A's in Ark, most of the time. AE is expressed as an e or eh in Persian. Glad you liked it.
Thanks for the clarification! How do you pronounce "Khomeini", by the way? What about names like "Hamid"? Thanks again for the briefs! I would love to help, thw only reason I don't offer to do translations to Portuguese or any other thing is because I won't be available the next 3 weeks...
Pronunciation, ctd. sorry, last msg incomplete and no title. I know someone named "hamid", that's why i asked. Also, what about sadly famous names, like "neda agha-soltan" or "sohrab a'arabi" or "taraneh mousavi"? sorry for being so fussy...just curious really!
I wish the media would stop trying to sound Phrase Deleted by pronouncing "Tehran" with a big "kh" sound as in the Scottish "loch" or the German, um, "Loch" in the middle. Also, while I'm on the subject, in English the noun is "Ih-Rahn", but the adjective is "Ih-Ray-Nee-An". Not, as has recently become the fashion, "Ih-Rahn-Ee-An". It just makes all the reporters sound like Australians. EDIT: I like Operation Marg Bar Diktator-Cash, though. It's not as snappy (no pun intended) a name as Lioncash, but it's a lot better. The voice of the people, it seems, cannot be denied. I mean, what are the Government going to do, ban money?
sorry to just keep nagging... Cheers NiteOwl, what a great work! (especially the Green Briefs, obviously, since this pronunciation guide is just a curious means to know a little more about iranian culture, although i keep addicted to it). And sorry for so many questions, words i feel curious about just seem to pop out in my mind. What about "Nowrouz" (i don't know how to write it in western script)? And "pahlavi" and "ali akbar (akbar means "great" in arab, right? is it a borrowed word, or honorific title?) hashemi rafsanjani"? What about ancient persian's king's names, like cyrus or darius? How do you write and say them in persian?
I haven't heard that pronunciation of Tehran, probably because I can't bring myself to watch TV news. You definitely pronounce the "h" In Tehran, but there's no "kh" sound. "Teh" is like "Tet" without the last "t" and kind of an exhaling "h", and then "ran" has a long a, like "tron". Iran is pronounced "ee" and then the same "ran" as Tehran. Iranian is that and then "ee" and "an" rhyming with "tron". My favorite slogan was "vai be ruz ke mosalah shavim" but I don't think it stuck around long
I'm gonna have to point out that a lot of people here may not be too aware of anonymous or things like that. So on a site like this it could piss a lot of outsiders off. Personally the first time I saw people using the term "faggot" lightly on here I was kind of astonished and pissed off. Mainly because I couldn't figure out why someone was using slurs against me. But since I'm not gay and don't really mind being cursed at too much, it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure that there are a lot of people coming on here though who do not feel the same way. And I think using a racist term like "sand-nigger" is a good way to piss off and alienate the very people we are trying to help out. But anyway, that's just my view of things, as a non-anonymous who came here to help out Iranians.
imma quote the dramatica: Think of the headgames this musta played on the government trolls that come here
"death to this sort of thing!" can we include clarification of certain words and phrases in this thread? cuz i found this really interesting: Outing Iran: Marg Bar
As not being Iranian, not being linked to any Iranian, not being student of any science dealing with Iranian culture or language or the Middle East a.o., I really would appreciate!
Is it Mehdi or Mahdi...is it the same? How do you pronounce them and are they pronounced the same? And how do you pronounce Mousavi's wife's name? I always stumble over that one when I am reading!
just want to add that NiteOwl's pronunciation guide, whilst very helpful, are specifically for North American readers and speakers (because of what sounds they usually associate with certain letter combinations). If I tried hard I could produce an IPA version based on what I THINK his accent is, but this may not be helpful for people who do not read IPA... Doesn't make his guide useless - just might want to keep an American/Canadian accent in mind when you are reading it, as well as how you would pronounce it in your own accent. example: In my accent (New Zealand) the sound in "law" rhymes with "four" - /lɔ:/ and /fɔ:/ (same vowel). Whereas in an North American accent it could be (not always) /la:/ and /fo(w)ɹ/ - and even that changes depending where in North America. so yeah just use your judgment!
Before June, I had only seen the name transliterated as Mehdi. Wikipedia transliterates مهدی کروبی as Mehdī Karrūbĩ, which fits with what I have seen, and Mehdi Bazargan's wikipedia page lists both transliterations as correct, so Mehdi and Mahdi are probably not two separate names. Maybe its pronounced either way, but if it can be only one, Mahdi is probably not gonna be the correct transliteration from Farsi into the roman alphabet. If I'm wrong, its because I'm ignorant and only trying to reason my way through this one.
Slogans Is it possible that you could also add some pronnunciation guides of the slogans of that the opposition are using like 'death to the dictator' (Marg Bar Diktator??) and 'Allah-o-Ahkabar'? Also are 'h' pronounced softly as in English or is it a harder sound from the back of the throat I here some say? Thanks!!
There are both in Persian. For example, in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name, or in the name of the city of Tehran, or in Zahra Rahnavard's name (because someone pointed out difficulty in pronouncing her name earlier in this thread) they are pronounced like an english h, though in places that sound odd for an english speaker (after the vowel rather than before--which might be the reasoning behind the old transliteration of Tehran as being Teheran). Always found it annoying when someone would say Makmoud Akmadinejad (indefensible unless you are willing to say Saddam Kussein or I kan kas cheeseburger and not think you sound like an idiot), which I heard a lot since 2005. But There is also a gutteral kh sound that shows in some words (like khub, which means good) and names (like Khatami) and stuff. You can find pronunciation of phrases like "marg bar diktator" and "Allah-o Akbar" on youtube videos. There's one by Al-Jazeera English from late June that's about 30 minutes long that describes the protests before the media was kicked out of Iran which has videos of people chanting such phrases and more.
