English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates-A Cross-Linguistic Investigation [PP: 21-34] Amin Marzban Department of Foreign Languages, Sepidan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sepidan, Iran Shahrzad Chahardahcherik Department of Foreign Languages, Sepidan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sepidan, Iran ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History Different world languages have a lot of contact with each other and have had The paper received on: different influences on one another. Cognates, words which are similar across 15/01/2015 two or more languages in some aspects, especially with regard to Accepted after peer- pronunciation, portray an interesting and relevant aspect of foreign/second review on: language translation and research. This study intended to identify a type of 28/02/2015 cognate words called false cognates in Persian and English, words which have Published on: the same form in two languages but represent different meanings, and tried to 07/03/2015 study and determine the historical relations between English and Persian words. It also aimed to trace their route back from Proto Indo-European Keywords: languages to the modern languages. To this end, the related literature was gone Back borrowing, through and a sufficient corpus of information has been revealed. Afterwards, Borrowing, authentic monolingual dictionaries in both Farsi and English languages were Cross-linguistic consulted to provide definitions for the cognates and allow for their cross- investigation linguistic comparison. The findings revealed that most of such problematic False cognates, cognates with different meanings in Farsi and English as found through this True cognates, study are likely to be confusing and deceptive for Farsi-speaking EFL learners. The findings also pointed to the need for this line of research to receive more scholarly attention. The study of true and false cognates has some implications for contrastive analysts, error analysts, translators, translation theorists, foreign language teachers, curriculum designers, as well as lexicographers and lexicologists. Suggested Citation: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates-A Cross- Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460 Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 1. Introduction continuation of Latin. Old Persian was used 1.1 Linguistic Evidence in the Indo by Achaemenian kings for official European Family inscriptions engraved on imperial monuments or high on rock cliffs, in a A staggering consequence of linguistic th cuneiform script which practically nobody research in the 19 century was the could read. The administrative language was recognition that some languages show Aramaic. As to the possible oral literary use correspondences of form that cannot be of Old Persian, we know nothing. because of chance convergences, borrowing After the Greek rule and the among the languages, or the global subsequent period of Parthian domination, it characteristics of human language. Such reappears in the shape of middle Persian as similarities; therefore, can only be the result the dominant language in the South of Iran. of the languages in question having sprung In the third century A.D, the inscriptions of from a common source language in the past; the first Sasanian kings were written in three these languages are said to be related and languages; Middle Parthian, Middle Persian, belong to one language family. It can and Greek. Parthian was the language of the therefore be easy to model such linguistic Parthian rulers, who had progressively genetic relationships via ‘family tree’, extended their empire from northern showing the genealogy of the languages Khorasan throughout the whole country of claimed to be related. Persia (i.e. Iran) and eventually settled their Many such language families can be capital in Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. identified. The languages within each family Middle Persian was the language of the new exhibit interesting formal correspondences Sasanid rulers, who had risen in Pars, in their phonology, overall structure, and overcome the Parthian king. Both Parthian vocabulary that link them together. The and Middle Persia were official languages source language, generally called ‘Proto- and they were the most wide spread Indo-European’ was spoken 6500 years ago colloquial languages as well. and has provoked hundred languages, in ten During the four centuries of Sasanian major branches. It includes the Romance rule, there happened considerable changes in languages (Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, the language situation of Iran. Parthian Portuguese), the Slavic languages (Russian, dialect was soon removed from official use. Polish, Bulgarian, Illyrian), the Germanic From the fourth century on-wards, all languages (English, German, Swedish, inscriptions appear in Sasanid Persian only. Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, etc.), the Celtic There are still many Parthian-like dialects in languages (Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish the North-Western provinces of Iran. It is Gaelic), Baltic languages (Lithuanian, obvious that in the Sasanid period, Persian Latvian), Greek, Armenian, and Albanian. as a spoken language spread widely outside 1.2 Adventures of Persian southern Iran, towards the North and the The great historian James East, it completely replaced the Parthian Darmesteter (1883) in his 'Etudes original dialect. After the Arab conquest, the Iraniennes', demonstrated that New Persian colloquial use of Persian was extended till is the medieval and modern continuation of further East by Muslim soldiers and the old Persian language of Darius and merchants. Eventually, it superseded the Xerxes, just as Italian or French are modern original local languages. Literary middle Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 22 International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460 Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 Persian, however, was not yet out of use. It the continent were Germanic tribes, called was practically restricted to the Zoraostrian ‘barbarians’ by arrogant Romans. Theirs communities and their religious writings. was really a rather primitive stage of Nearly, at the same time, a new literary development, compared with the high instrument was created in the East on the civilization of Rome. They were primitive basis of the colloquial language of those cattle-breeders and knew nothing about land regions. Thus, Modern Persian is originally cultivation. Their language contained only an Iranian dialect of South-West which, as a Indo-European and Germanic elements. spoken language, progressively spread from Over the fifth century A.D., several of the South to the North and the East, until in the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, the extreme North-East it became a literary and the Jutes) migrated across the sea now language, which in turn spread out to the known as the English Channel to the British West and South and ultimately was Isles. There they were confronted by the cultivated in a large part of Asia. Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. 1.3 English Language History The Celts violently defended their land Today, the extensive advances in against the invaders, but they were no match linguistics and in ELT and EFL require us, for the military-minded Teutons and teachers of English, to know well not only gradually yielded most of their territory. the language itself but also about the Through their numerous contacts with the language. The same is true for the English defeated Celts, the Germanic tribes absorbed vocabulary. Here, the reasons for the a number of Celtic words, such as bald, percentage of borrowings in the English down, bard, and cradle. Especially, language are explained. Explanations for numerous among the Celtic borrowings this should be sought in the momentous were place names, names of rivers and hills. history of England. If the origin of the The Germanic tribes occupied the English vocabulary is to be summarized, it land, but the names of many parts and can be approximately called Anglo-Saxon, features of their territory remained Celtic. Norman, Scandinavian and French. The seventh century A.D. was significant for However, the borrowings are not confined the Christianisation of England. Latin was only to these languages. There are the official language of the Christian borrowings from Arabic, Turkish, Indian Church, and consequently, the spread of and many others. Some of the borrowings Christianity was accompanied by a new have been fully adapted to the phonetic period of Latin borrowings. From the end of system of the English language, while others the 8th century to the middle of the 11th look and sound as loan words. century England underwent several The English language can be regarded Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left as the most hospitable language in the their trace on English vocabulary. Here are world. Explanations for this should be some examples of early Scandinavian sought in the history of the nation speaking borrowings: call, take, cast, die, law. In the language. A brief overview of some 1066, with the famous Battle of Hastings, historical