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Jewish Persian from Isfahan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

In the new journal of the Faculty of Letters of Isfahan University there is an article by Aziz Pajand entitled “Purim”. It comprises facsimiles of two texts, two pages in square Hebrew script of Hebrew described as klâsik, and four pages in Rashi script of ‘ebri-ye maḥalli-ye Eṣfahân, with a close Persian translation of the latter, describing the origins of the festival of Purim to a Persian audience. Apart from its content, however, the text in Isfahani Jewish Persian is of considerable dialectological interest. It is therefore reprinted below, with a transcription, translation, and linguistic notes.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1968

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References

1 Našriye-ye Dâneškade-ye Adabiyât-e Eṣfahân, Revue de la Faculté des Lettres d'Isfahan, 1345 (1966), No. 2–3, 173 ff.: copies were generously presented by the Faculty to their guests of the 1st International Congress of Iranologists, September, 1966.

2 In a similar article on Hanukkah, in the first issue of the Našriye, the language is almost entirely ordinary Persian.

3 The nwwšrh of the text is surely a mistake for nwwyrh = Pers. nabire “great-grandchild”, as it is translated.

4 The writer wavered between -t and -ṭ.

5 cf. Sorushian, J. S., Farhang-e Behdinān, Tehran, 1956, 72, 68, 4Google Scholar; also Lorimer, JRAS, 1916, 479, “y. k. xad , occasionally xadī = with”, Bailey, BSOS, 8, 335 ff., “Yazdi”, adō, xodo, xado “with”, all from OIr. hada.

6 If, however, majhul vowels are distinguished, bw may represent pres. *, past *bō; cf. Gabri, ibid., Lorimer, 463, Bailey, 338.

7 See my Dialect of Awroman, Copenhagen, 1966, 49, § 35.