International Phonetic Association

?بینالمللی

Letters • Phonemes • Transliteration •
by Rezwan on 04/04 at 11:46 PM
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You may be wondering why this site chooses not to use the International Phonetic Association (IPA)'s notation to transliterate Persian text.
The main reason is that we want to keep things simple.

We can't be bothered to find the keystroke combination to type up the special characters needed for phonetic representation of sounds.

We figure none of our users will be able to either. So we use a simple system that, if you follow it consistently, will give you the ability to read and figure out Persian words written in English.

Bonus value: Our system is practical and easy for text-messaging.

We do, however, encourage you to look into the international phonetic methods on your own. Knock yourself out.

Below is an example of the IPA's notation for vowels. Click on the image to go to their page and download the entire chart.

The Language Instinct:  How the Mind Creates Language

ترجمه لطفا

Language • Grammar • Academic Language • Basic Communication • Creativity •
by Rezwan on 03/27 at 08:17 AM
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Following fast on the heels of Joel Davis’s Mother Tongue ( LJ 12/93) is another provocative and skillfully written book by an MIT professor who specializes in the language development of children. While Pinker covers some of the same ground as did Davis, he argues that an “innate grammatical machinery of the brain” exists, which allows children to “reinvent” language on their own. Basing his ideas on Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory, Pinker describes language as a “discrete combinatorial system” that might easily have evolved via natural selection. Pinker steps on a few toes (language mavens beware!), but his work, while controversial, is well argued, challenging, often humorous, and always fascinating. Most public and academic libraries will want to add this title to their collections.
- Laurie Bartolini, Lincoln Lib., Springfield, Ill.

Steven Pinker

Paradoxical Commandments - use of adverb “anyway”.

فرمانهای متناقض

Grammar • Parts of speech • Adverbs •
by Rezwan on 06/14 at 01:19 AM
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Here is a text that highlights one of my favorite Adverbs, “Anyway”.  We have translated it into “به هر حال” in Persian.  Here, then, is the translation of Kent Keith’s “Paradoxical Commandments” in Persian!  Translated with the help of Dr. Razani and Ms. Javadpour.

Here are the commandments in English:

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Kent M. Keith

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
   Love them anyway.


2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
   Do good anyway.


3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
   Succeed anyway.


4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
   Do good anyway.


5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
   Be honest and frank anyway.


6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds.
   Think big anyway.


7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs.
   Fight for a few underdogs anyway.


8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
   Build anyway.


9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
   Help people anyway.


10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001.

Below in Persian:

Using Forums in Persian

زبان فارسى در محل گردهمايى اين وب سايت

Computer Age • Help with this website •
by Rezwan on 12/21 at 04:46 PM
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Those of you who are comfortable typing Persian may be frustrated with the forums because the default theme ("Developer") is set from left to right.  Don’t panic!  All you need to do is switch from the default theme to the Persian right to left theme ("Developer-pe-rtl").  When you change the theme, you change the direction, but all the data remains the same.  And you can easily switch back.  Effectively, you can interface with the forum in two different modes.  Here’s how it works:

Default Forum Theme

At the bottom of each page of the forums, there is a drop down box that says “Developer”.  This is our forum’s default theme. By default, it’s formatted left to right. 

What’s wrong with this?  Nothing.  You can type in both Persian and English.  If you’re mostly typing English you might not notice a problem.  Sentences start on the left and move out to the right.  This is normal for English. 

But if you write a Persian sentence, it will push off from the left, instead of starting at the right.  And the last piece of puntuation doesn’t follow the last word, it jumps to the right side of the sentence.  This might still not be much of a problem. 

The problems occur when you start mixing the two languages.  If you start the sentence in English and throw in a few Persian words مثل اين it looks OK.  But if you type a Persian sentence and throw in English words, it breaks up the order of the sentence, like so (we copied the same sentence twice, in the second one, we pasted in English text over the dashed lines):

جمله بدون كلمه انگليسي ---- اين شكلى در ميايد.

جمله با كلمه انگليس english words اين شكلى در ميايد.

Why does this happen?  The computer just sees a string of text and has a rule of direction.  So, in the first line, it’s all one string of text.  Call it Astring.  But in the second line, you have a string of text Astring, followed by English text, now that’s Bstring, followed by more Persian, that’s Cstring.  Going left to right, the computer puts it down, A,B,C.  You want it to put down C,B,A, but that’s backward to the computer.  While it will happily show the string itself going in the correct direction, it sequences the strings left to right.

Switching to Right to Left

These left to right features will not bother our English dominant writers, but if you want to work mostly in Persian and interject a few words of English it gets frustrating.  We haven’t figured out a way to have bi-lingual post entry but there is a way to simply switch the whole forum to the other direction.  We developed a new theme ("Developer-pe-rtl") which is set to be right to left.  All you have to do is go to the bottom of the page and open the drop down menu and switch it from Developer to Developer-pe-rtl.  It will then switch the entire forum to right to left format.

All the data in the posts remains the same.  You are simply interfacing with the forum from a different direction. 

This means, of course, that if you’re in Developer-pe-rtl mode, the problems the Persian dominant writers were having with their punctuation and with putting in English words will now affect English writing.  Also, what was written in one mode, when looked at in the other mode will appear differently.  But don’t worry, the data’s all there, you’re just seeing it in a different way.  You can switch back and forth and see it both ways. 

Note that while typing in the text, it may appear to be going the wrong way, but when you preview and post it, it should be fine.  I don’t know if this is a function of my own Mac set up or if everyone has this experience.

Going Fully Bi-lingual

Unfortunately, we have yet to figure out how to make it possible to have one forum, and allow people to switch direction modes within a post.  It’s not hard to do in a post on the blog, like right here.  I just put it in an html p or div tag with the “pe” class and hey presto, the sentence starts over to the right:

For some reason, I can’t do this in the forums. Also can’t seem to do it in the comments section. We’re working on a solution.  Please stand by.

More About Computers and Right-To-Left ("rtl")

If you have any links that explain the technicalities of right to left for computers, please let us know and we’ll add them to our sidebar.

Setting up Your Computer for Persian

حاظر كردن كامپيوتر خود براى نوشتن فارسى

Computer Age • Help with this website •
by Rezwan on 12/21 at 12:13 AM
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This website is compatible with Persian script. 

1. you can write comments in Persian,
2. post on the Forums in Persian,
3. even search in Persian. 

How?  Here are some tips for viewing Persian script properly on your browser, setting up your computer for Persian input in PC and Mac, and typing in Persian. 

Reading Persian on the Internet

Most of you will have no problem seeing Persian script on the internet.  The only exception is if you’re using an older browser, say Explorer in a Mac (which has been discontinued, so should rarely come up).  If this is the problem, just switch to a different browser - find one that works.  Firefox is generally good.

Input Persian Yourself

You can read the Persian.  But how do you type it in?  How can you type in Persian and make comments and post on the forum?  Seems mysterious, but it’s not.  You just need to set your computer up for Persian, and then be able to tell your computer and keyboard when you want to switch to and from that language. 

The way you do this is different for a PC and a Mac.

PC-Microsoft-Windows

To set up your computer on windows, you will need to:

Click START
Click Control Panel
Double Click Regional and Language Option

Note:  You must be logged in as an adminstrator in order to do this sort of thing, so if you’re not the computer owner, like if you’re in a library, you have to ask them to set it up.

Now, you’re in the Regional and Language Option:

In the Languages tab, under Supplemental language support, select the Install files for right to left languages check box.  Click OK or Apply.

Then...OK, I am at a Mac now, a little fuzzy on the PC sequence.  Will finish this post when I get to a library with a PC. 

Play around with it, you may figure it out.  The remaining steps are to then select the language from the other tab, and you can also set it up so that there is a little switch that you will see on your desktop for when you want to switch between languages.  And finally, there is a keyboard shortcut for this. 

Macintosh - Apple

Click the Apple in the top left corner. 
Click on System Preferences. 
Click on International.
Ignore the Language tab.  Click on Input Menu.
Scroll down until you find Persian.  Check the box next to it. 

Now, in the top row of the computer screen, at the end of the menu, to the right of Help, you should see either the American flag or the little Persian map/cat.  Those are the languages you have set up for input.  Click on the icon and a menu drops down.  From here you can switch the languages. 

You can also use a shortcut - Apple + Spacebar - to switch between languages.

Notice now that when you type, if the Persian icon is in the menu, your typing comes out in Persian, if the American flag is there, you type in English. 

This only works for programs that understand Persian, so the keyboard will not let you change language if you are in a program that doesn’t have it supported.  The icon will be unclickable.

Mac OS 10.3 and 10.4 Browser Issue

You may notice that in OS 10.3 or 10.4 you cannot read the Persian very well, as the text is not connected.  Instead of فارسى you see it in the seperate letters - ف ا ر س ى - this is very annoying.  The problem is in Safari.  If you download the Firefox browser (it’s free!), everything seems to work fine. 

The ى “ye” problem

You may also notice a problem with the appearance of the letter “ye” in a word in Microsoft.  If the “ye” appears in the middle of a word, it might look like this: بىن - but you want it to look like this:  بين (if you’re on a PC, you won’t notice a difference).  What you need to do for this is hold the option key when you type the “ye”.  ييييي

Typing in Persian

OK, so you’ve set up your computer to input in Persian, and you hit the keys and Persian letters appear.  Great!  Now you just need to see the keyboard layout.  Best thing to do, get those stickers to put on your keyboard.  Avaiable from Avalienghadam.com for only $4.99.  Here’s what they look like.

And don’t worry that it will be hard to learn how to type all the different forms of a letter.  You hit the key, and the computer puts it in the right form.  Also, the Persian keyboard is set up really well.  The keys you use the most are accessible right in the middle row and with the index fingers.  It’s not like the bizzare qwertyuiop thing you have to deal with in English. 

The stickers will help you at first, but soon, you’ll get the hang of the board. 

One final note about the keyboard stickers, a mac and a pc have a slight difference in the location of the رزدذ and perhaps a few other letters.  So make sure you test the key before putting the sticker on.  This is also a heads up for you’re on someone else’s computer the different letter comes up.