2.

Will and Passion in James

Clifford s moral broadside attracted a radical answer, the essay The
Will to Believe by William James, and it is some of the insights and
confusions of that essay that now define our landscape.
James sees belief in terms of a choice between options. At a particular
moment something that we may be asked to believe in may
strike us as a live hypothesis, meaning that we think it has some
chance of being true. Our choice between believing it and avoiding
belief in it is a forced option, for there is no third alternative. And
the choice may be momentous, in that important consequences hang
on it. When this is all true, James calls the option of belief a genuine
option. He thinks there are then the same risks either way:
Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option
between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its
nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances,
Do not decide, but leave the question open, is itself a passional
decision, just like deciding yes or no,
and is attended with the same risk
of losing the truth.
There are several things to notice here, all of which, from Clifford s
point of view, serve to confuse the discussion. First, we should not be
blind to the forces that lead to issues becoming live . James himself
recognizes the cultural background to such a view. Perhaps for me the
question of whether Jupiter prefers oxen to sheep as a sacrifice, or
whether Mohammed took a night flight to Jerusalem, are about as
dead as can be. Neither is of any interest at all. If for someone else
one or the other or both these questions matter a great deal, we
already have a kind of clash. By having a mind prepared to take such
an issue seriously, you are already half-way to perdition. Everyone is
dead to innumerable actual and possible objects of conviction, from
faith, belief and reason
7
JONES, F. C.
The Far East: A Concise History
MORRIS, A. J. A.
Parliamentary Democracy in the Nineteenth Century
RYDZEWSKI, P.
Art and Human Experience
SCHREIBER, S. M.
An Introduction to Literary Criticism
THIMANN, J. C.
A Short History of French Literature
WELLS, G. A.
The Plays of Grillparzer
International Journal of the Contemporary Artist
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HISTORY AND TRUTH

by
ADAM SCHAFF
Director, European Centre for Co-ordination
of Research into the Social Sciences, Vienna
PERGAMONPRESS
Oxford . New York
Toronto . Sydney . Paris . Frankfurt
U. K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
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Pferdstrasse 1, Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany
Copyright 0 1971 Europa Verlags-A.G. Vienna (Geschichte und Wahreit)
Copyright 1976 Adam Schaff
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of Pergamon Press Ltd.
First Edition 1976
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schaff, Adam.
History and truth.
(Pergamon international library of science, technology,
engineering, and social studies)
Translation of Historia i prawda.
Bibliography: p. 261
1. History Philosophy. I. Title.
D16.8.S254131976 901 76-5469
ISBN 0-08-020579-8
ISBN 0-08-020595-X flexi
Printed in

Lieutenant General Sir Stanley George Savige, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, ED (26 June 1890
15 May 1954) was an Australian Army soldier and officer who served in the First
World War and Second World War.
In March 1915, after the outbreak of the First World War, Savige enlisted in the
First Australian Imperial Force. He served in the ranks during the Gallipoli Ca
mpaign, and received a commission. He later served on the Western Front, where h
e was twice recommended for the Military Cross for bravery. In 1918, he joined D
unsterforce and served in the Caucasus Campaign, during which he was instrumenta
l in protecting thousands of Assyrian refugees. He subsequently wrote a book, St
alky's Forlorn Hope, about his experiences. After the war he played a key role i
n the establishment of Legacy Australia, the war widows and orphans benefit fund
.
During the early years of the Second World War, Savige commanded the 17th Infant
ry Brigade in the North African Campaign, the Battle of Greece and Syria Lebanon C
ampaign. His outspoken criticism of professional soldiers earned him their ranco

ur. He returned to Australia in early 1942, and later commanded the 3rd Division
in the Salamaua Lae campaign. He ultimately rose to the rank of lieutenant genera
l in the Australian Army, commanding the II Corps in the Bougainville Campaign.
In later life, Savige was a director of Olympic Tyre & Rubber Ltd from 1946 to 1
951 and chairman of Moran & Cato Ltd from 1950 to 1951. He was also chairman of
the Central War Gratuity Board from 1946 to 1951, and a commissioner of the Stat
e Savings Bank of Victoria.
Contents
1 Early life
2 First World War
2.1 Gallipoli
2.2 Western Front
2.3 Iran
3 Between the wars
4 Second World War
4.1 Libya
4.2 Greece and Syria
4.3 Defence of Australia
4.4 Wau Salamaua
4.5 New Guinea
4.6 Bougainville
5 After the war
6 Death
7 Notes
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Early life
Stanley Savige was born on 26 June 1890, in Morwell, Victoria, the eldest of eig
ht children to Samuel Savige, a butcher, and his wife Ann Nora, ne Walmsley.[1] S
tan Savige left Korumburra State School at the age of twelve to work as a blacks
mith's striker. While at Korumburra, he enlisted in the school junior cadets as
a bugler.[2] The family moved to Prahran, Victoria, in 1907, where Savige worked
at a variety of jobs and served in the Prahran senior cadets for 18 months, fro
m 1907 to 1909. He became a scoutmaster, forming the First Yarra Troop. Savige w
as an active member of the South Yarra Baptist Church, where he was a Sunday sch
ool teacher. Through his church activities, Savige met Lilian Stockton, to whom
he became engaged on New Year's Day, 1914.[1][3]
First World War
Gallipoli
Savige enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 6 March 1915, an
d was posted to the 24th Infantry Battalion, which departed Melbourne for Egypt
on the transport Euripides on 8 May 1915. He was passed over for a commission du
e to his lack of education,[4] but was promoted to corporal on 30 April and lanc
e sergeant on 8 May.[5] The 24th Infantry Battalion landed at Gallipoli on 5 Sep
tember 1915 and took over part of the line at Lone Pine.[6] Savige became compan
y sergeant major on 20 September.[5] There, he was commissioned as a second lieu
tenant on 9 November 1915.[7] During the evacuation of Gallipoli in December 191
5, Savige was one of three officers chosen to serve with the battalion rearguard
.[8]
Western Front
Eight men, most wearing steel helmets, sit in a shell hole surrounded by wooden
crates.
Brigadier General John Gellibrand and his staff having breakfast in a shell hole

in Sausage Valley. Captain Savige is furthest from the camera.

After a brief period of rest and reorganisation in Egypt, the 2nd Division of whic
h the 24th Infantry Battalion was part embarked for France on 21 March 1916. Savig
e became commander of the battalion scout platoon and led a number of night patr
ols into no man's land. On 12 April, he became battalion intelligence officer an
d he was promoted to lieutenant on 1 May. Coming to the attention of his brigade
commander, Brigadier General John Gellibrand, Savige was attached to 6th Infant
ry Brigade headquarters as a trainee brigade intelligence officer.[8] "We expect
ed a lot of the new B. I. O.," Gellibrand later recalled, "and we got it."[9] Sa
vige served in operations at Pozires and Mouquet Farm in July and August 1916.[9]
At one point he ran through heavy shellfire on an errand. The orderly who went
into it with him was never seen again.[10] Savige was promoted to captain on 15
September.[7] On 8 November, he was wounded at Flers but remained on duty. Howev
er, on 20 December he was admitted to hospital, suffering from influenza.[5] Sav
ige rejoined the 24th Infantry Battalion on 5 January 1917 and was appointed adj
utant on 3 February.[5]
In February 1917, the German Army began a withdrawal from its positions in the S
omme sector to the Hindenburg Line. Gellibrand was in temporary command of the 2
nd Division, which at this time was opposite the town of Warlencourt.[11] Patrol
s from the 6th Infantry Brigade found Warlencourt empty and occupied the town.[1
2] The 24th Infantry Battalion kept in contact with the Germans as they pulled b
ack. On 13 March, the 24th Infantry battalion now responsible for the entire briga
de front found Grvillers empty and occupied it.[13] By 17 March 1917, the trenches
in front of Bapaume were empty and the 6th Infantry Brigade occupied its norther
n suburbs.[14]
In Second Battle of Bullecourt during May 1917, the 6th Infantry Brigade managed
to penetrate the Hindenburg Line but its hold was precarious, as the 5th Infant
ry Brigade on its flank had not been able to manage the same feat. The brigade t
hen faced strong German counter-attacks. Savige was in the front trench, where h
e attempted to coordinate the 24th Infantry Battalion's defence.[15] The situati
on, Savige realised, was "somewhat serious".[16] Extraordinary tenacity and brav
ery was required to hold the position. "The 6th Brigade's achievement on this da
y," wrote Charles Bean, "had few parallels in the history of the AIF. In the who
le line of battle from Vimy to near Quant, theirs had been almost the only succes
s."[17]
Savige was mentioned in despatches for Bullecourt,[18] and recommended for the M
ilitary Cross. His citation read:
For conspicuous gallantry in action at the Hindenburg Line on 3rd May 1917.
After assisting to reorganise a party of broken infantry he acted as staff offic
er to the Senior Officer in the captured position. In this capacity he displayed
most commendable coolness, energy and ability, in securing reliable information
as to the progress of the action.[19]
Savige was ultimately awarded the Military Cross on 1 January 1918,[20] for both
his "consistent good work and devotion to duty" in the period spanning 26 Febru
ary to 17 March 1917 and his "coolness under fire and tenacity of purpose" durin
g the Second Battle of Bullecourt during April/May 1917.[21] He was mentioned in
despatches a second time for his role in the Battle of Passchendaele,[22] altho
ugh he was originally recommended for a bar to his Military Cross.[5] His citati
on read:
For conspicuous gallantry. On the night of the 3rd/4th Oct. he assisted in l
aying out jumping-off and direction tapes at Zonnebeke on which the attacking ba
ttalions formed up. He then checked their correctness This was done under heavy f
ire. He then helped to guide the attackers to their positions.

On the night 8th/9th

ticularly heavy fire and
e forward area gathering
This Officer has been on

Oct. he did similar work on Broodseinde Ridge under par

throughout the attack on the 9th Oct. he remained in th
information and forwarding it to Brigade Headquarters.
many occasions conspicuous for his gallantry.[23]

Although Savige was informed that the citation had gone through, the medal was n
ever gazetted.[5] He became assistant brigade major of the 6th Infantry Brigade
on 10 September and was acting brigade major from 22 November until 11 January 1
918.[7]
Iran
People on foot and on donkeys walk past mud huts.
Armenian refugees from the Lakes Van and Urmia districts, passing through Balad
Ruz on their way to Bakuba where Dunsterforce had established a camp for their r
eception in October 1918.
Following the abdication of the Russian Tsar in 1917, the Caucasus Front collaps
ed, leaving Central Asia open to the Turkish Army. The British War Office respon
ded with a plan to send a force of hand-picked British officers and NCOs to orga
nise any remaining Russian forces or civilians who were ready to fight the Turki
sh forces. A request for Australian officers to participate was sent to the comm
ander of the Australian Corps, General Sir William Birdwood.[24] Some twenty off
icers, drawn from "the cream of the cream" of Australian leaders,[25] were chose
n, including Savige.[5] This force became known as Dunsterforce after its comman
der, Major General Lionel Charles Dunsterville, the inspiration for the titular
character of Rudyard Kipling's novel Stalky & Co. Dunsterforce arrived in Baku i
n August 1918.[26] It was hoped that, from the Christian Georgian, Armenian and
Assyrian people who had supported the Russians and historically feared the Turks
,[27] Dunsterforce could raise an army to contain the Turks but "the task proved
superhuman".[28]
Following the capture of Urmia by the Turks, Savige discovered tens of thousands
of fleeing Assyrian refugees. He deployed a small group of volunteers from his
own force, along with refugees, to form a rearguard to hold back the Persians an
d Kurds who were murdering the refugees and carrying off the young girls as slav
es.[29][30] Official Historian Charles Bean later wrote that:
The stand made by Savige and his eight companions that evening and during ha
lf of the next day against hundreds of the enemy thirsting like wolves to get at
the defenceless throng was as fine as any episode known to the present writer i
n the history of this war.[29]
Savige was subsequently decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for his e
fforts on this occasion.[31] His citation read:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the retirement of refu
gees from Sain Kelen to Tikkaa Tappah, 26/28th July, 1918; also at Chalkaman, 5/
6th August. In command of a small party sent to protect the rear of the column o
f refugees, he by his resource and able dispositions kept off the enemy, who wer
e in greatly superior numbers. He hung on to position after position until nearl
y surrounded, and on each occasion extricated his command most skilfully.
His cool determination and fine example inspired his men, and put heart into
the frightened refugees.[32]
For his services in Iran, Savige was also mentioned in despatches a third time.[
33] He later wrote a book about his experiences, entitled Stalky's Forlorn Hope,
which was published in Melbourne in 1920. In November 1918, he was evacuated to
a hospital in Bombay, suffering an attack of malaria, and returned to Australia
in January 1919 on the City of Exeter.[5][34]

Between the wars

Savige married Lilian Stockton on 28 June 1919 at the South Yarra Baptist Church
.[35] Their marriage produced a daughter, Gwendolyn Lesley, who was born in 1920
.[36] Savige also raised his two nephews, Stanley James and William, after his s
ister Hilda died in 1924.[35] Savige had to struggle to re-establish himself in
civilian life. He was unemployed for a time before finding work with a Melbourne
wholesale firm. In 1923 he became sole agent for the Returned Soldiers' Mill in
Geelong. He was successful as a salesman and eventually became sole agent for a
ll of Australia.[37] In 1930, he ran unsuccessfully for the Victorian Legislativ
e Assembly Electoral district of Caulfield on the Nationalist Party of Australia
ticket.[35]
In 1923, Gellibrand founded the Remembrance Club in Hobart, with the aim of enco
uraging returned servicemen in business. Savige visited Gellibrand in Hobart dur
ing August 1923, and Gellibrand urged him to set up a similar club in Melbourne.
Soon after Savige's return to Melbourne, a group of ex-servicemen met to say fa
rewell to one of their number who was about to go to England. Savige used this o
pportunity to bring up the idea of a club similar to Gellibrand's Remembrance Cl
ub. After several informal meetings, the Melbourne club's inaugural meeting was
held in Anzac House, Melbourne. Legacy Australia was founded as an ex-servicemen
's club, but soon became a charitable organisation focusing on war widows and or
phans. For the next 26 years, due to his commitment, energy and enthusiasm, Savi
ge's name became inseparable from both the club and the movement.[38]
Savige joined the Militia on 19 February 1920, with his AIF rank of captain. He
served with Headquarters 3rd Division then under Gellibrand from July 1921 to Novemb
er 1924. He commanded the 37th Infantry Battalion from 1 December 1924 to 31 Jul
y 1928, the 24th Infantry Battalion from 1 August 1928 to 31 May 1935, and the 1
0th Infantry Brigade from 1 June 1935 to 12 October 1939. Along the way, he was
promoted to major on 1 July 1924, lieutenant colonel on 1 July 1926, colonel on
1 June 1935, and brigadier on 1 May 1938. His promotion, while neither meteoric
nor exceptional, was still far faster than that enjoyed by regular officers like
Frank Berryman, Horace Robertson, or George Alan Vasey, who had been majors in
the AIF but remained at that rank for nearly twenty years, only to find themselv
es junior to Militia officers like Savige.[7] For his part, Savige was a critic
of the regulars. While commander of 10th Infantry Brigade, he insisted that Roya
l Military College, Duntroon graduates serve first as platoon commanders before
assuming staff posts, so they could acquire an understanding of the men. He wrot
e to Gellibrand:
[Staff Corps] men are taken in hand at an early age and trained only to be s
oldiers. In peace they are chiefly military clerks with an ability to repeat the
contents of the little red books. Some of course get beyond that stage but they
are few in number.[39]
Second World War
Libya
Six men in uniforms with peaked caps and sluch hats pose for a group photograph.
Major General Iven Mackay and his senior officers; Brigadier Savige is in the ba
ck row, centre.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Prime Mini
ster Robert Menzies announced the decision to form a Second Australian Imperial
Force.[40] He further directed that all commands in the new 6th Division would g
o to militiamen.[41] Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey who was appointed comman
der of the 6th Division on 28 September selected Savige to command its 17th Infant
ry Brigade, the brigade from Victoria. Savige was given the AIF serial number VX
13.[42] He and Blamey had worked together when Blamey had commanded the 3rd Divi
sion from 1931 to 1937, and Savige was "almost fanatically loyal to Blamey throu

gh bad as well as good times".[43] For regular officers, their exclusion from co
mmand positions was "the final straw".[44] Savige suspected accurately in part that
Staff Corps officers were out to get him. A "general atmosphere of criticism and
derogation" infected the force that would eventually sour relations between Bla
mey and some Staff Corps officers.[45]
Considering its inexperience, Savige's 17th Infantry Brigade was given a complic
ated role in the Battle of Bardia. While the 2/6th Infantry Battalion made a dem
onstration on the right, the 2/5th Infantry Battalion, reinforced by part of the
2/7th Infantry Battalion, attempted to follow up the 16th Infantry Brigade's at
tack, with the remainder of the 2/7th in reserve. The brigade had to move in fou
r directions at once.[46] The plan soon went wrong, as the 2/5th in particular s
uffered a series of mishaps.[47] By nightfall, Colonel Frank Berryman, the divis
ional chief of staff, had reached the conclusion that the 17th Infantry Brigade
had become too tired and disorganised for further effort. This was only partly d
ue to enemy action; the rest was attributable to Berryman's own plan, which had
dispersed the brigade and provided it with inadequate armoured and, in the final
stages, artillery support.[48] Savige also bore some of the blame, for failing
to ensure that his subordinates understood and carried out the plan.[49]
He was a skilful manager of men, using an easy friendly manner to decrease the d
istance that separated him from his subordinates. He was a sage leader in battle
whose approach to all problems was practical and objective. He could write clea
rly and interestingly and enjoyed writing, whether it was of orders and doctrine
for future operations or accounts of past battles; he had a sense of history an
d the doings of his commands were usually more fully recorded than those of comp
anion formations.
Gavin Long[37]
At the Battle of Tobruk, Savige's 17th Infantry Brigade was again split up and g
iven a secondary role. However, in the advance on Derna, the brigade managed to
beat Robertson's 19th Infantry Brigade to Giovanni Berta.[50] By late February,
the campaign was over and Savige was tasked with holding a defensive line near E
l Agheila. He became convinced that German troops were moving into the area, but
his concerns were dismissed by the Brigadier General Staff at I Corps, Brigadie
r Sydney Rowell. A month later, Savige was proven right when the Afrika Korps po
unced on the British forces around El Agheila, but by then he and the 17th Infan
try Brigade were in Egypt, preparing for the Battle of Greece. Although the camp
aign had raised doubts about his suitability for command mostly resulting from his
performance at Bardia, but also with regard to the running feud with Vasey, Ber
ryman and Robertson[51] Savige was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Briti
sh Empire.[52] His citation read:
Brigadier Savige commanded the 17th Aust. Inf. Bde in the Battles of Bardia
(3 5 Jan) Tobruk (21 22 Jan), Derna (24 31 Jan), and the pursuit to Slonta. He showed
fine control organisation and leadership throughout, culminating in an excellent
example of initiative and drive which broke the enemy flank west of Derna thus
accelerating the enemy retreat and final defeat.[5]
Greece and Syria
The 17th Infantry Brigade was the last to land in Greece,[53] arriving at Piraeu
s on 12 April. Savige was placed in charge of Savige Force, consisting of the 2/
5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/11th Infantry Battalions, with armour, artillery, engine
er and other support. He was given the mission of covering the Allied flank arou
nd Kalabaka.[54] On 17 April, Savige received orders to withdraw from Kalabaka,
leaving only a rearguard behind. The road behind him, however, was packed with v
ehicles, and a crucial bridge on the only reasonably good road back had accident
ally been demolished. Savige elected to disregard his orders and hold his positi
on until the road was clear.[55] He then managed to successfully withdraw, altho

ugh his driver's foot was broken in an air raid.[56] Savige arrived back in Pale
stine on 1 May 1941 and began the task of rebuilding his brigade. For the campai
gn in Greece, he received his fourth mention in despatches.[57]
Savige did not pretend to be a military genius but only a commander who knew his
way around the battlefield because he had learned soldiering the hard way.
John Hetherington[58]
In June 1941, the 7th Division was fighting in the Syria Lebanon Campaign. One of
its problems was that it was trying to fight three separate battles with only tw
o brigades, because the 18th Infantry Brigade that was normally part of the divi
sion was engaged in the Siege of Tobruk. Accordingly, Savige's 17th Infantry Bri
gade headquarters was brought in to provide the 7th Division with a third brigad
e headquarters. Savige was given three battalions that had never worked together
before the 2/3rd and 2/5th Infantry Battalions and 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion.[59] H
e scored a notable success in the Battle of Damour, which he rated as his most s
uccessful battle of the war,[60] although his conduct was not above criticism by
Berryman, who felt that Savige had located his headquarters too far back, resul
ting in failure to seize an important opportunity. Ultimately, though, this had
no significant impact on the battle.[61]
By June 1941, Blamey had become concerned about Savige's health. A thorough medi
cal examination in August declared that Savige had reached a stage of complete e
xhaustion.[62] Blamey therefore decided to send Savige and Brigadier J. J. Murra
y back to Australia on a recruiting campaign as "a graceful way of retiring with
honour two officers who have done useful work in the Middle East but seemed to
him unequal to the severe physical demands of fast-moving modern warfare".[63] S
avige said goodbye to the three battalions of the 17th Brigade at a special para
de at Edsaya in Syria on 15 December 1941. At the time his next post was to have
been Director of Recruiting and Propaganda in Australia.[64]
Defence of Australia
Savige arrived in Australia on 5 January 1942 to find that his new appointment h
ad been changed to commander of the 3rd Division,[65] and he was promoted to the
rank of major general two days later.[7] The outbreak of war with Japan prompte
d a wholesale reorganisation of the forces in Australia and Savige was one of a
number of officers with experience in the Middle East who was promoted and given
command of a Home Army formation.[66] Savige threw himself into the task of pre
paring his command for the war, weeding out the physically unfit and incompetent
. By May, he had removed some 60 officers.[65] Replacing them was another matter
. The division was at less than half strength when Savige assumed command and wa
s filled with large numbers of 18-year-old conscripts.[67] One new arrival was e
specially welcome: Lieutenant Colonel John Wilton, who was posted as General Ser
vice Officer, First Grade (GSO1) in August. Savige later recalled that "I never
had a more competent staff, nor such a co-operative team, than that staff after
Wilton came along."[68] The 3rd Division moved to southern Queensland in July, w
here it came under Lieutenant General Edmund Herring's II Corps. In October, Her
ring succeeded Rowell as commander of New Guinea Force, and Savige became acting
corps commander. With his attention focused on the corps, Savige relied on Wilt
on to supervise the training of the 3rd Division.[69]
Wau Salamaua
The 3rd Division was alerted to move to New Guinea in February 1943, but Blamey
did not initially intend for Savige to command it, for he felt that "it's very t
ough going up there",[70] and he still had doubts about Savige's physical fitnes
s. A thorough medical examination cleared the way, and Savige departed for Port
Moresby in March 1943.[71] The successful conclusion of the Battle of Wau left t
he 17th Infantry Brigade now under Brigadier Murray Moten at Wau as the only troops
in contact with the enemy in the South West Pacific Area.[72] Herring, now in co
mmand of New Guinea Force, ordered Savige to threaten the Japanese position at S

alamaua; the result was the Salamaua Lae campaign.[73] Despite the rugged conditio
ns, Savige led from the front. He visited forward positions and flew over frontl
ine areas wearing his scarlet general's cap band to let his men and any Japanese s
niper know that the general was on the job.[74]
"I know," Blamey replied to a senior staff officer who was urging him to drop Sa
vige, "they say I stick with him because he's my friend. Tell me when he has let
me down in this war!" The anti-Savige advocate mentioned a tale which was going
about: it was not Savige but a subordinate commander who was doing the real job
. "Somebody's got to do the job," Blamey answered. "If a commander can pick a go
od man, give him a job to do and stand behind him, that is all that matters. If
he doesn't stand behind him, he's a bad commander. If anybody can prove to me th
at Savige has ever let me down, then Savige won't be there."
John Hetherington[74]
Once again, Savige would not escape controversy. In this case, difficulties aros
e from the fact that Herring failed to make it clear to Savige and Wilton exactl
y what was meant by "threaten". What would end up being threatened by Savige's v
ery success was Blamey's plan for the capture of Lae, which called for the Japan
ese defenders of Lae to be drawn away towards Salamaua.[75] The campaign also in
cluded an acrimonious exchange between Savige and American commanders that threa
tened Allied harmony. This arose, ironically, because of Herring's deliberately
vague instructions, which he hoped would ensure Allied harmony.[76]
On 15 August, Blamey and Berryman, now
History
The 31-acre (13 ha) cemetery site was reserved in 1855 and trustees were first a
ppointed in 1858. A site plan was drawn up by Frederick Acheson, a civil enginee
r in the Public Lands Office, with the layout segregated by religious denominati
on, a common occurrence at the time. The first burial took place in 1859.
In 1864 Albert Purchas, who was architect and surveyor for the Melbourne General
Cemetery, joined the trust. Purchas is believed to be the designer of the lands
cape layout as well as many of the features of the cemetery including the cast i
ron entrance gates (1889), the rotunda (1890) and the surrounding ornamental bri
ck wall (1895 6), as well as various additions to the original 1860 Cottage in the
period 1866 1899 including the clock tower. The design of the cemetery was influe
nced by the Victorian garden cemetery movement. This influence was reflected in
the curving path network following the contours of the site, the creation of def
ined views and a park like setting.
In the latter half of the twentieth century the cemetery was becoming full and m
any pathways and grassed verges were utilised to provide new burial sites. At th
e same time, many of the older Victorian monuments began to fall into disrepair
due to their age and lack of funding to maintain them.
In 2001 the Peace Haven Mausoleum was built by the Cemetery Trust to cater for g
rowing demand for above-ground burials.
Burials and memorials
The Syme Memorial.
The cemetery has had 75,000 burials since 1859. Among these are some very promin
ent Melburnians. The Syme memorial was constructed in 1908 in memory of David Sy
me, publisher of The Age newspaper. It has a temple-like appearance and Egyptian
motifs. Between 1889 and 1907 the Springthorpe Memorial was constructed on beha
lf of Dr John Springthorpe in memory of his wife, Annie and in 1912 the Cussen M
emorial was commissioned by Sir Leo Cussen, a judge of the Victorian Supreme Cou
rt as a memorial to his son, Hubert. The latter is a small chapel designed in th

e Gothic Revival style.

The Springthorpe[2] and Cussen[3] Memorials are listed separately on the Victori
an Heritage Register.
War graves
The cemetery contains the war graves of 43 Commonwealth service personnel, 28 fr
om World War I and 15 from World War II.[4]
Trees
The cemetery has a notable collection of mature trees including rows of Bhutan C
ypress (Cupressus torulosa) and Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens 'Italica
'), as well as specimens of Bunya Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), Canary Island Pin
e (Pinus canariensis), Weeping Elms (Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'), Queensland Ka
uri (Agathis robusta) and Weeping Cypress (Cupressus funebris).
References
"Boroondara General Cemetery, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0049, He
ritage Overlay HO64". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria.
"Springthorpe Memorial, Boroondara General Cemetery, Victorian Heritage Register
(VHR) Number H0522, Heritage Overlay HO64". Victorian Heritage Database. Herita
ge Victoria.
"Cussen Memorial, Boroondara General Cemetery, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR)
Number H2036, Heritage Overlay HO64". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Vic
toria.
BOROONDARA GENERAL CEMETERY CWGC Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from ca
sualty records.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boroondara General Cemetery.
Boroondara General Cemetery (official site)
Boroondara General Cemetery - Billion Graves
Victorian Heritage Register: Boroondara General Cemetery
Victorian Heritage Register: Boroondara General Cemetery (rtf)
Friends of Boroondara (Kew) General Cemetery Inc.
Coordinates: 37.8034S 145.0440E
Categories:
Heritage sites in MelbourneBuildings and structures in MelbourneCemeteries i
n Victoria (Australia)Victorian Heritage RegisterVisitor attractions in Melbourn
e1859 establishments in Australia
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Persian (/'p?r??n/ or /'p?r??n/; ????? farsi [f???'si?] ( listen)) is the predom
inant modern descendant of Old Persian, a southwestern Iranian language within t
he Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in
Iran, Afghanistan (officially known as Dari since 1958 for political reasons),[
7] and Tajikistan (officially known as Tajiki since the Soviet era for political
reasons),[8] and some other regions which historically came under Persian influ
ence. The Persian language is classified as a continuation of Middle Persian, th
e official religious and literary language of Sassanid Persia, itself a continua
tion of Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.[9][10][11] P
ersian is a pluricentric language and its grammar is similar to that of many con
temporary European languages.[12] Persian is so-called due to its origin from th
e capital of the Achaemenid empire, Persis (Fars or Pars) hence the name Persian
(Farsi or Parsi)[citation needed]. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to
as Persophone.
There are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the languag
e holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, P
ersian has also been a prestigious cultural language in other regions of Western
Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia by the various empires based in the regions.
[13]

Persian has had a considerable (mainly lexical) influence on neighboring languag

es, particularly the Turkic languages in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Anatolia, n
eighboring Iranian languages, as well as Armenian, Georgian, and Indo-Aryan lang
uages, especially Urdu. It also exerted some influence on Arabic, particularly B
ahrani Arabic,[14] while borrowing much vocabulary from it after the Muslim conq
uest of Persia.[9][12][15][16][17][18]
With a long history of literature in the form of Middle Persian before Islam, Pe
rsian was the first language in Muslim civilization to break through Arabic's mo
nopoly on writing, and the writing of poetry in Persian was established as a cou
rt tradition in many eastern courts.[13] Some of the famous works of Persian lit
erature are the Shahnameh ('Book of Kings') of Ferdowsi, works of Rumi, Rubaiyat
of Omar Khayyam, Divan ('miscellany') of Hafiz and the two miscellanea of prose
and verse by Sa'di of Shiraz, the Golestan (lit., 'flower garden') and the Bust
an (also meaning "garden;" lit., 'a place of fragrance').
Contents
1 Classification
2 Etymology
2.1 Persian language name in Persian
2.2 English name
3 History
3.1 Old Persian
3.2 Middle Persian
3.3 New Persian
3.3.1 Early New Persian
3.3.2 Classic Persian
3.3.3 Use in Asia Minor
3.3.4 Use in South Asia
3.3.5 Contemporary Persian
4 Varieties
5 Phonology
5.1 Vowels
5.2 Consonants
6 Grammar
6.1 Morphology
6.2 Syntax
7 Vocabulary
7.1 Native word formation
7.2 Influences
8 Orthography
8.1 Persian alphabet
8.1.1 Additions
8.1.2 Variations
8.2 Latin alphabet
8.3 Tajik alphabet
9 Examples
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Classification
Persian belongs to the Western branch of the Iranian family of Indo-European lan
guages, which also includes Kurdish, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Talyshi, and Baluchi.
The language is in the Southwestern Iranian group, along with the Larestani, Kum
zari, and Luri languages.[19]

Etymology
Persian language name in Persian
In Persian, the language is known by several names:
Farsi (?????? farsi),[20] or Parsi (??????) has been the name for Persian us
ed by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of th
e 20th century, for political reasons, in English and French, Farsi has become t
he name of the Persian language as it is spoken in Iran.
Dari (???? dari)[21] was a synonym for farsi in Persian, but again for polit
ical reasons, since the latter decades of the 20th century, has become the name
for the Persian language as it is spoken in Afghanistan, where it is one of the
two official languages: it is sometimes called Afghan Persian in English.[22]
Tajiki (?????? / ??????? tojiki)[23] is a dialect of Persian spoken in Tajik
istan and Uzbekistan and is sometimes termed Tajiki Persian.[24]
English name
Persian, the historically more widely used name of the language in English, is a
n anglicized form derived from Latin *Persianus < Latin Persia < Greek ?e?s?? Pe
rss "Persia",[25] a Hellenized form of Old Persian Parsa.[26] According to the Ox
ford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested i
n English in the mid-16th century.[27] Native Iranian Persian speakers call it F
arsi.[28] Farsi is the Arabicized form of Parsi, due to a lack of the 'p' phonem
e in Standard Arabic (i.e., the 'p' was replaced with an 'f').[29][30] The origi
n of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Provin
ce is the Arabicized form of Prs. In English, this language has historically been
known as "Persian", though "Farsi" has also gained some currency. According to
the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Farsi was first used in English in 1926,
while Parsi dates to 1790.[28] "Farsi" is encountered in some linguistic litera
ture as a name for the language, used both by Iranian and by foreign authors.[31
]
In South Asia the word "Farsi" refers to the language while "Parsi" describes th
e people of Persian origin, particularly Zoroastrians.
The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has declared that the name "Persi
an" is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and
better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national co
ntinuity.[32] Some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of
Encyclopdia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have al
so rejected the usage of "Farsi" in their articles.[33][34]
The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code "fa", as it
s coding system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard I
SO 639-3 uses the name "Persian" (code "fas") for the dialect continuum spoken a
cross Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari (Afgh
an Persian) and Iranian Persian.[35]
Currently, VOA, BBC, DW, and RFE/RL use "Persian Service" for their broadcasts i
n the language. RFE/RL also includes a Tajik service, and an Afghan (Dari) servi
ce. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, T
he Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and many of the lead
ing scholars of Persian language.[36]
History
History of the
Persian language
Proto-Iranian (ca. 1500 BC)

Southwestern Iranian languages

Old Persian (c. 525 BC - 300 BC)
Old Persian cuneiform script
Middle Persian (c.300 BC-800 AD)
Pahlavi script
Manichaean script
Modern Persian (from 800 AD)

Avestan script

Perso-Arabic script
Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the IndoEuropean family of languages. In general, Iranian languages are known from three
periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New (Modern) periods. These co
rrespond to three eras in Iranian history; Old era being the period from sometim
e before Achaemenids, the Achaemenid era and sometime after Achaemenids (that is
to 400 300 BC), Middle era being the next period most officially Sassanid era and
sometime in post-Sassanid era, and the New era being the period afterwards down
to present day.[37]
According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian lang
uage"[9][38] for which close philological relationships between all of its three
stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent[9][39
] one and the same language of Persian, that is New Persian is a direct descenda
nt of Middle and Old Persian.[39]
The known history of the Persian language can be divided into the following thre
e distinct periods:
Old Persian
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improv
e this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may b
e challenged and removed. (May 2014)
Main articles: Old Persian and Persian verbs
Old Persian
Old Persian evolved from Proto-Iranian as it evolved in the Iranian plateau's so
uthwest. The earliest dateable example of the language is the Behistun Inscripti
on of the Achaemenid Darius I (r. 522 BC ca. 486 BC).[citation needed] Although pu
rportedly older texts also exist (such as the inscription on the tomb of Cyrus I
I at Pasargadae), these are actually younger examples of the language.[citation
needed] Old Persian was written in Old Persian cuneiform, a script unique to tha
t language and is generally assumed to be an invention of Darius I's reign.
After Aramaic, or rather the Achaemenid form of it known as Imperial Aramaic, Ol
d Persian is the most commonly attested language of the Achaemenid age. While ex
amples of Old Persian have been found wherever the Achaemenids held territories,
the language is attested primarily in the inscriptions of Western Iran, in part
icular in Parsa "Persia" in the southwest, the homeland of the tribes that the A
chaemenids (and later the Sassanids) came from.[citation needed]
In contrast to later Persian, written Old Persian had an extensively inflected g
rammar, with eight cases, each declension subject to both gender (masculine, fem
inine, neuter) and number (singular, dual, plural).
Middle Persian
Main article: Middle Persian
The complex conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure o
f Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and
plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed the ezafe construction, express

ed through i, to indicate some of the relations between words that have been los
t with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system.
Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the f
all of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had prob
ably already begun before the 4th century. However, Middle Persian is not actual
ly attested until 600 years later when it appears in Sassanid era (224 651) inscri
ptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with an
y degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not a
ttested until much later, to the 6th or 7th century. And from the 8th century on
ward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with the middle-pe
riod form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrian tradition.
The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik, after the name of the et
hnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars", Old Persian Parsa, New Persian
Fars. This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Pe
rsian. Following the collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied e
xclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in Arabic script.
From about the 9th century onwards, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of be
coming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called
Pahlavi, which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both
Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing s
ystem had previously been adopted by the Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from
the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the n
ortheast). While Rouzbeh (Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa, 8th century) still distinguis
hed between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiah) (i
.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries writte
n after that date.
Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian languag
e and the Middle Persian language[5] but also states that none of the known Midd
le Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of the [New] Persian [40][41] Prof
essor. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one
instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian."[42]
New Persian
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh
The history of New Persian itself spans more than 1,000 1,200 years. The developme
nt of the language in its last period is often divided into three stages dubbed
early, classical, and contemporary. Native speakers of the language can in fact
understand early texts in Persian with minimal adjustment, because the morpholog
y and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively
stable for the greater part of a millennium.[43]
Early New Persian
New Persian developed from the 8th century on as an independent literary languag
e.[44] Upon the decline of the Caliphate at Baghdad in the 9th century began the
re-establishment of Persian national life and Persians laid the foundations for
a renaissance in the realm of letters. New Persian was born in Bactria through
the adaptation of the spoken form of Sassanian Middle Persian court language cal
led Dari. The cradle of the Persian literary renaissance lay in the east of Grea
ter Iran, in the Greater Khorasan and Transoxiana regions close to the river Amu
Darya.[45]
The mastery of the newer speech having now been transformed from Middle into New
Persian was already complete during three princely dynasties of Iranian origin
Tahirid (820 872), Saffarid (860 903) and Samanid (874 999), and could develop only in
range and power of expression.[45]
Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the

newer Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the
most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time.[46]
The first poems of the Persian language, a language historically called Dari, ha
ve emerged in Afghanistan.[47] The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki. He
flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their p
ower. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer
has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost w
orks is versified fables collected in Kalilah va Dimnah.[13]
The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium t
hrough which among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and ur
ban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca, a ta
sk for which it was particularly suitable due to its relatively simple morpholog
ical structure and this situation persisted until at least 19th century.[44] In
the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on the Persian
model: Ottoman, Chaghatay and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter
languages" of Persian.[44]
Classic Persian
See also: List of Persian poets and authors
Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature.
The Islamic conquest of Persia marks the beginning of the new history of Persian
language and literature. This period produced world class Persian language poet
s and the language served, for a long span of time, as the lingua franca of majo
r parts of the Islamic world and South Asia. It was also the official and cultur
al language of many Islamic dynasties, including Samanids, Buyids, Tahirids, Ziy
arids, the Mughal Empire, Timurids, Ghaznavid, Seljuq, Khwarezmids, Sultanate of
Rum, Shirvanshah, Safavid, Afsharids, Zand, Qajar, Ottomans and also many Mugha
l successor states such as the Nizams etc. For example, Persian was the only ori
ental language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in h
is journeys through China.[48] The heavy influence of Persian on other languages
can still be witnessed across the Islamic world, especially, and it is still ap
preciated as a literary and prestigious language among the educated elite, espec
ially in fields of music (for example Qawwali) and art (Persian literature). Aft
er the Arab invasion of Persia, Persian began to adopt many words from Arabic an
d as time went by, a few words were even taken from Turko-Mongol languages under
the Mongol Empire and Turco-Persian society.
Use in Asia Minor
Persian on an Ottoman miniature.
Despite that Asia Minor (or Anatolia) had been ruled various times prior to the
Middle Ages by various Persian-speaking dynasties originating in Iran, the langu
age lost its traditional foothold there with the demise of the Sassanian Empire.
Centuries later however, the practise and usage in the region would be strongly
revived. A branch of the Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum, took Persian language,
art and letters to Anatolia.[49] They adopted Persian language as the official l
anguage of the empire.[50] The Ottomans, which can "roughly" be seen as their ev
entual successors, took this tradition over. Persian was the official court lang
uage of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire.[51]
The educated and noble class of the Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as su
ltan Selim I, despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Sh
ia Islam.[52] It was a major literary language in the empire.[53] Some of the no
ted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi's Hasht Bihi
sht, which begun in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers
, and the Salim-Namah, a glorification of Selim I.[52] After a period of several
centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed
towards a fully accepted language of literature, which was even able to satisfy
the demands of a scientific presentation.[54] However, the number of Persian and
Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%.[54]

Use in South Asia

Main article: Persian language in South Asia
See also: Persian and Urdu
Persian poem, Agra castle, India, 18th century
Persian poem, Takht-e Shah Jahan, Agra castle, India
The Persian language influenced the formation of many modern languages of all of
West Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and South Asian regions. Following the Turko-P
ersian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia, Persian was firstly introduced in the r
egion by Turkic Central Asians.[55] The basis in general for the introduction of
Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by vari
ous Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties.[56] For five centurie
s prior to the British colonization, Persian was widely used as a second languag
e in the Indian subcontinent, due to the admiration the Mughals (who were of Tur
co-Mongol origin) had for the foreign language. It took prominence as the langua
ge of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and bec
ame the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors. Beginning in 1843, t
hough, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the su
bcontinent.[57] Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
the extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Wor
ds borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan lan
guages, especially Urdu, also historically known as Hindustani. There is also a
small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated around 16th-18th c
entury to escape religious execution from the Qajar Empire when execution of non
-Muslims was on its high and speak a Dari-dialect.
Contemporary Persian
A variant of the Iranian standard ISIRI 9147 keyboard layout for Persian.
Since the nineteenth century, Russian, French and English and many other languag
es have contributed to the technical vocabulary of Persian. The Iranian National
Academy of Persian Language and Literature is responsible for evaluating these
new words in order to initiate and advise their Persian equivalents. The languag
e itself has greatly developed during the centuries.
Varieties
There are three modern varieties of standard Persian:
Western Persian (Persian, Iranian Persian, or Farsi) is spoken in Iran, and
by minorities in Iraq and the Persian Gulf states.
Eastern Persian (Dari Persian, Afghan Persian, or Dari) is spoken in Afghani
stan.
Tajiki (Tajik Persian) is spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is written
in the Cyrillic script.
All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its li
terary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan a
nd Tajikistan which slightly differ from the standard Persian. Hazaragi (in Cent
ral Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afgh
anistan and Tajikistan), Tehrani (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian
) and Dehwari (in Pakistan) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peo
ples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a rela
tively high degree of mutual intelligibility,[58] give or take minor differences
in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar
much in the same relationship as shar
ed between British and American English.
The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases ar
e considered dialects:
Luri (or Lori), spoken mainly in the southwestern Iranian provinces of Lores
tan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, some western parts of Fars Province an

d some parts of Khuzestan.

Tat, spoken in parts of Azerbaijan, Russia, etc. It includes Judo-Tat & Chris
tian-Tat. It is classified as a variety of Persian and a Persian dialect.[59][60
][61][62][63]
Judo-Tat. Part of the Tat Persian continuum, and spoken in Azerbaijan, Ru
ssia, as well as notably by immigrant communities in Israel and New York.
Lari (in southern Iran)
Phonology
Main article: Persian phonology
Iranian Persian has six vowels and twenty-three consonants.
Vowels
The vowel phonemes of modern Tehran Persian
Historically, Persian has distinguished length: Early New Persian possessed a se
ries of five long vowels (/i?/, /u?/, /??/, /o?/ and /e?/) along with three shor
t vowels //, /i/ and /u/. At some point prior to the sixteenth century within the
general area that is today encompassed by modern Iran, /e?/ and /i?/ merged int
o /i?/, and /o?/ and /u?/ merged into /u?/. Thus, the older contrasts such as sh
er "lion" vs. shir "milk", and rud "river" vs rod "bow-string" were lost. Howeve
r, there are exceptions to this rule, and in some words "e" and "o" are preserve
d or merged into the diphthongs [e?] and [o?] (which are descendants of the diph
thongs [?] and [?] in Early New Persian), instead of merging into /i?/ and /u?/. E
xamples of this exception can be found in words such as [ro??n] (bright).
However, in the eastern varieties, the archaic distinction of /e?/ and /i?/ (res
pectively known as Ya-ye majhul and Ya-ye ma'ruf) is still preserved, as well as
the distinction of /o?/ and /u?/ (known as Waw-e majhul and Waw-e ma'ruf). On t
he other hand, in standard Tajik, the length distinction has disappeared and /i?
/ merged with /i/, and /u?/ with /u/.[64] Therefore, contemporary Afghan Dari di
alects are the closest one can get to the vowel inventory of Early New Persian.
According to most studies on the subject (e.g. Samareh 1977, Pisowicz 1985, Naja
fi 2001), the three vowels which are traditionally considered long (/i/, /u/, /?
/) are currently distinguished from their short counterparts (/e/, /o/, //) by po
sition of articulation, rather than by length. However, there are studies (e.g.
Hayes 1979, Windfuhr 1979) which consider vowel length to be the active feature
of this system, i.e. /?/, /i/, and /u/ are phonologically long or bimoraic where
as //, /e/, and /o/ are phonologically short or monomoraic.
There are also some studies which consider quality and quantity to be both activ
e in the Iranian system (e.g. Toosarvandani 2004). This view offers a synthetic
analysis which includes both quality and quantity, often suggesting that modern
Persian vowels are in a transition state between the quantitative system of clas
sical Persian and a hypothetical future Persian which will eliminate all traces
of quantity, and retain quality as the only active feature.
The length distinction is
classic-style poetry, for
Consonants
Labial Alveolar
Glottal
Nasal m
n
Plosive
p b
t
Affricate
Fricative
f v
s
Tap
?
Trill
(r)
Approximant
l

nevertheless strictly observed by careful reciters of

all varieties (including the Tajik).
Postalveolar

Palatal

Velar

(?)
d
z

k g
t? d?
? ?

x ?
j

(q ?)
h

Uvular

(Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consona
nt. Allophones are in parentheses.)
Grammar
Main article: Persian grammar
Morphology
Persian is an agglutinative[65][66][67][68][69] language.
Suffixes predominate Persian morphology, though there is a small number of p
refixes.[70] Verbs can express tense and aspect, and they agree with the subject
in person and number.[71] There is no grammatical gender in Persian, nor are pr
onouns marked for natural gender.
Syntax
Normal declarative sentences are structured as "(S) (PP) (O) V". This means sent
ences can comprise optional subjects, prepositional phrases, and objects, follow
ed by a required verb. If the object is specific, then the object is followed by
the word ra and precedes prepositional phrases: "(S) (O + ra) (PP) V".[71]
Vocabulary
Main article: Persian vocabulary
Native word formation
Persian makes extensive use of word building and combining affixes, stems, nouns
and adjectives. Persian frequently uses derivational agglutination to form new
words from nouns, adjectives, and verbal stems. New words are extensively formed
by compounding
two existing words combining into a new one, as is common in Ger
man. Professor Mahmoud Hessaby demonstrated that Persian can derive 226 million
words.[72]
Influences
See also: List of English words of Persian origin, List of French loanwords in P
ersian and Iranian languages Comparison table of the Iranian languages
While having a lesser influence on Arabic[16] and other languages of Mesopotamia
and its core vocabulary being of Middle Persian origin,[12] New Persian contain
s a considerable amount of Arabic lexical items,[9][15][17] which were Persianiz
ed[18] and often took a different meaning and usage than the Arabic original. Pe
rsian loanwords of Arabic origin especially include Islamic terms. The Arabic vo
cabulary in other Iranian, Turkic and Indic languages are generally understood t
o have been copied from New Persian, not from Arabic itself.[73]
John R. Perry, in his article Lexical Areas and Semantic Fields of Arabic, estim
ates that about 24 percent of an everyday vocabulary of 20,000 words in current
Persian, and more than 22-40 percent of the vocabulary of classical and modern P
ersian literature, are of Arabic origin. The text frequency of these loan words
is generally lower and varies by style and topic area. It may approach 25 percen
t of a text in literature.[74] Among the Arabic loan words, relatively few (14 p
ercent) are from the semantic domain of material culture, while a larger number
are from domains of intellectual and spiritual life.[75] Most of the Arabic word
s used in Persian are either synonyms of native terms or could be glossed in Per
sian.[76]
The inclusion of Mongolian and Turkic elements in the Persian language should al
so be mentioned,[77] not only because of the political role a succession of Turk
ic dynasties played in Iranian history, but also because of the immense prestige
Persian language and literature enjoyed in the wider (non-Arab) Islamic world,
which was often ruled by sultans and emirs with a Turkic background. The Turkish
and Mongolian vocabulary in Persian is minor in comparison to that of Arabic an
d these words were mainly confined to military, pastoral terms and political sec
tor (titles, administration, etc.).[78] New military and political titles were c

oined based partially on Middle Persian (e.g. arte for "army", instead of the Uzb
ek qo'shin; sarla kar; daryaban; etc.) in the 20th century. Persian has likewise i
nfluenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially other Indo-European la
nguages such as Armenian,[79] Urdu, and (to a lesser extent) Hindi; the latter t
wo through conquests of Persianized Central Asian and Afghan invaders;[80] Turki
c languages such as Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Tatar, Turkish,[81] Turkmen, Azer
i,[82] Uzbek, and Karachay-Balkar;[83] Caucasian languages such as Georgian,[84]
and to a lesser extent, Avar and Lezgin;[85] Afro-Asiatic languages like Assyri
an and Arabic;[86] and even Dravidian languages indirectly especially Telugu and
Brahui; as well as Austronesian languages such as Indonesian and Malay. Persian
has also had a significant lexical influence, via Turkish, on Serbian, Croatian
, Bosnian, and Serbo-Croatian, particularly as spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Use of occasional foreign synonyms instead of Persian words can be a common prac
tice in everyday communications as an alternative expression. In some instances
in addition to the Persian vocabulary, the equivalent synonyms from multiple for
eign languages can be used. For example, in Iranian colloquial Persian (not in A
fghanistan or Tajikistan), the phrase "thank you" may be expressed using the Fre
nch word merci (stressed however on the first syllable), the hybrid Persian-Arab
ic phrase mote akker am (mote akker being "merciful" in Arabic, commonly pronounced
motcakker in Persian, and the verb am meaning "I am" in Persian), or by the pure
Persian phrase sepas-gozar am.
Orthography
Example showing Nasta?liq's (Persian) proportion rules.[ 1 ]
Dehkhoda's personal handwriting; a typical cursive Persian script.
The word Persian in Pahlavi scripts
The vast majority of modern Iranian Persian and Dari text is written with the Ar
abic script. Tajik, which is considered by some linguists to be a Persian dialec
t influenced by Russian and the Turkic languages of Central Asia,[87][88] is wri
tten with the Cyrillic script in Tajikistan (see Tajik alphabet).
Persian alphabet
Main article: Persian alphabet
Modern Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian are written using a modified variant o
f the Arabic alphabet (see Persian alphabet), which uses different pronunciation
and additional letters not found in Arabic. Tajik Persian, as used in Tajikista
n, is typically written in a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet. There ar
e also Persian Romanizations like Desphilic, Unipers and Fingilish/Pinglish for
writing Persian using the Latin alphabet. After the conversion of Persia to Isla
m (see Islamic conquest of Iran), it took approximately 150 years before Persian
s adopted the Arabic script in place of the older alphabet. Previously, two diff
erent scripts were used, Pahlavi, used for Middle Persian, and the Avestan alpha
bet (in Persian, Dndapirak or Din Dabire literally: religion script), used for reli
gious purposes, primarily for the Avestan language but sometimes for Middle Pers
ian.
In modern Persian script, vowels that are referred to as short vowels (a, e, o)
are usually not written; only the long vowels (, i, u) are represented in the tex
t, so words distinguished from each other only by short vowels are ambiguous in
writing: kerm "worm", karam "generosity", kerem "cream", and krom "chrome" are a
ll spelled "krm" in Persian. The reader must determine the word from context. Th
e Arabic system of vocalization marks known as harakat is also used in Persian,
although some of the symbols have different pronunciations. For example, an Arab
ic damma is pronounced [?~u], while in Iranian Persian it is pronounced [o]. Thi
s system is not used in mainstream Persian literature; it is primarily used for
teaching and in some (but not all) dictionaries.
There are several letters generally only used in Arabic loanwords. These letters
are pronounced the same as similar Persian letters. For example, there are four

functionally identical 'z' letters (? ? ? ?), three 's' letters (? ? ?), two 't
' letters (? ?), etc. Although there are four letters that they don't exist in A
rabic (? ? ? ? ? ? ? )
Additions
The Persian alphabet adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet:
Sound Isolated form Name
/p/
?
pe
/t?/
?
ce (che)
/?/
?
e (zhe or jhe)
/g/
?
gaf (ge)
The e is pronounced with the same sound as the "s" in "measure" and "fusion", or
the "z" in "azure". For Arabic speakers, it is similar to the way Lebanese or Sy
rians pronounce the Arabic letter "?". For French speakers, it is the sound "J";
or "G" when it's followed by an E or I. For Turkish and Azeri speakers, it is t
he sound "J" (? in Ottoman Turkish alphabet).
The ce has the same sound as the "cz" in "Czech" or "Check" or "Tchad".
The gaf has the same sound as the "G" in "Guy" or "Gaga".
The Pe has the same sound as the "P" in "Police".
Variations
The Persian alphabet also modifies some letters from the Arabic alphabet. For
ample, alef with hamza below ( ? ) changes to alef ( ? ); words using various
mzas get spelled with yet another kind of hamza (so that ????? becomes ?????)
en though the latter is also correct in Arabic; and teh marbuta ( ? ) changes
heh ( ? ) or teh ( ? ).
The letters different in shape are:
Arabic Style letter
Persian Style letter
?
?
kaf
?
?
ye
Latin alphabet
Main article: Romanization of Persian

ex
ha
ev
to

name

The International Organization for Standardization has published a standard for

simplified transliteration of Persian into Latin, ISO 233-3, titled "Information
and documentation
Transliteration of Arabic characters into Latin characters
Pa
rt 3: Persian language Simplified transliteration"[89] but the transliteration s
cheme is not in widespread use.
Another Latin alphabet, based on the Uniform Turkic alphabet, was used in Tajiki
stan in the 1920s and 1930s. The alphabet was phased out in favor of Cyrillic in
the late 1930s.[87]
Fingilish is Persian using ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is most commonly used in
chat, emails and SMS applications. The orthography is not standardized, and var
ies among writers and even media (for example, typing 'aa' for the [?] phoneme i
s easier on computer keyboards than on cellphone keyboards, resulting in smaller
usage of the combination on cellphones).
UniPers, short for the Universal Persian Alphabet (Frsiye Jahni) is a Latin-based
alphabet popularized by Mohamed Keyvan, who used it in a number of Persian textb
ooks for foreigners and travelers.[90] The current official Iranian romanization
system is virtually identical to UniPers, the only notable differences being th
at UniPers and c are Iranian a and c, respectively.[91]

The International Persian Alphabet (Prsik) is another Latin-based alphabet develo

ped in recent years mainly by A. Moslehi, a comparative linguist.[92] Desphilic
is also a romanization which uses ordinary Latin character set for romanization
of Persian.
Tajik alphabet
Tajik advertisement for an academy.
Main article: Tajik alphabet
The Cyrillic alphabet was introduced for writing the Tajik language under the Ta
jik Soviet Socialist Republic in the late 1930s, replacing the Latin alphabet th
at had been used since the Bolshevik revolution and the Persian script that had
been used earlier. After 1939, materials published in Persian in the Persian scr
ipt were banned from the country.[87][93]
Examples

The following text is from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right
s.
Iranian Persian (Farsi)
IPA
Tajik Persian (Tajiki) English Gloss
???? ????? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ? ????? ? ??????? ?? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?????
? ? ????? ????? ? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ????.
[hmeje fr?
de b?r ?z?d be donj? mi?jnd o hejsijt o ho?u?e ??n b? hm br?br st hme ??n ndi?e o v
d?rnd o b?jd dr br?bre jekdigr b? ruhe br?dri rft?r konnd]
????? ?????? ????? ??
?? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ????????? ?? ??? ??????? ???, ???????? ???????? ?????
? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ??????. All huma
n beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with re
ason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhoo
d.
See also
The existential "be" and copula in Persian
Academy of Persian Language and Literature
Dari
Pahlavi
List of English words of Persian origin
List of French loanwords in Persian
Persian alphabet
Persian braille
Persian grammar
Persian name
Persian phonology
Persianate
Persian Romanization schemes
Southwestern Iranian dialects
References
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"IRAQ". Retrieved 7 November 2014.
H. Pilkington,"Islam in Post-Soviet Russia",Psychology Press, Nov 27, 2002. p. 2
7: "Among other indigenous peoples of Iranian origin were the Tats, the Talishes
and the Kurds"
T. M. Masti?u?gina, Lev Perepelkin, Vitalii Vi?a?cheslavovich Naumkin, "An Ethni
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Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian Languages, Routledge 2009, p. 418.
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(2013). "Farsic
Caucasian Tat". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Ev

olutionary Anthropology.
Asta Olesen, "Islam and Politics in Afghanistan, Volume 3", Psychology Press, 19
95. pg 205: "There began a general promotion of the Pashto language at the expen
se of Farsi
previously dominant at the educational and administrative level
and
the term 'Dari' for the Afghan version of Persian came into common use, being of
ficially adopted in 1958"
Mona Baker, Kirsten Malmkjr, "Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies", pg
518: "among them the realignment of Central Asian Persian, renamed Tajiki by th
e Soviet Union", [1]
Lazard, Gilbert 1975, "The Rise of the New Persian Language" in Frye, R. N., The
Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595 632, Cambridge: Cambridge University P
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(early Islamic times) by the name of Dari or Farsi-Dari, can be classified ling
uistically as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and liter
ary language of Sassanian Iran, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the langua
ge of the Achaemenids. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and mode
rn, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Balochi,
Pashto, etc., Old Persian, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same lan
guage at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars (the true Persia
n country from the historical point of view) and is differentiated by dialectica
l features, still easily recognizable from the dialect prevailing in north-weste
rn and eastern Iran."
Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill, "Sociolinguis
tics Hsk 3/3 Series Volume 3 of Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of t
he Science of Language and Society", Walter de Gruyter, 2006. 2nd edition. pg 19
12. Excerpt: "Middle Persian, also called Pahlavi is a direct continuation of ol
d Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country." "Howev
er, after the Moslem conquest and the collapse of the Sassanids, the Pahlavi lan
guage was gradually replaced by Dari, a variety of Middle Persian, with consider
able loan elements from Arabic and Parthian."
Skjrv, Prods Oktor (2006). Encyclopedia Iranica, "Iran, vi. Iranian languages and
scripts, "new Persian, is "the descendant of Middle Persian" and has been "offic
ial language of Iranian states for centuries", whereas for other non-Persian Ira
nian languages "close genetic relationships are difficult to establish" between
their different (Middle and Modern) stages. Modern Ya?nobi belongs to the same d
ialect group as Sogdian, but is not a direct descendant; Bactrian may be closely
related to modern Yid?a and Munji (Munjani); and Wakhi (Wa?i) belongs with Khot
anese."
Richard Davis, "Persian" in Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, "Medieval Islamic
Civilization", Taylor & Francis, 2006. pp. 602 603. "The grammar of New Persian is
similar to many contemporary European languages."Similarly, the core vocabulary
of Persian continued to be derived from Pahlavi.
Encyclopdia Britannica: Persian literature