French-Borrowed Lexemes in Persian: A Study on General Tendencies of Sound Change

Abstract

French, the main language of France, is a Romance language of Indo-European family. It developed from spoken Latin of northern Gaul, whereas Persian is a modern Iranian language which developed from Middle Western Iranian which itself developed from Old Iranian. Persian is mainly spoken in Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. French and Persian both belong to the Indo-European Language family. Persian language has been influenced from French since the beginning of 20^th century. This influence has been continued till this age of technology, modernization and globalization, in which Persian has multiplied the lexical copying of French words. These words are being spoken and written in modern Persian language which are estimated in thousands. In this qualitative study, we are going to investigate the effects of these borrowings, with a special focus on the analysis of sound change among French-borrowed lexemes. The causes and the root of borrowings will also be discussed. We made the categories of these pronunciation differences in order to understand how the Persian pronunciation of these French-origin words differs from standard French spoken in France. This study will help us to understand the cultural and linguistic relations between French and Persian speaking communities of the world. It will also help us to understand the change in modern Persian language.