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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
§ 1. There is in all languages a considerable difference between literary and colloquial usage. Sometimes this difference is so great that one can almost speak of two distinct languages. But even when the contrast is less striking it remains true that a large part of the vocabulary and a number of grammatical forms are to be encountered only in books and do not come spontaneously to the lips in natural speech; just as, on the other hand, there are words and expressions to be heard on every side in ordinary conversation that would be unthinkable in formal writing. All this is as true of Persian as of any other language; but whereas in the West the colloquial idiom has long since achieved literary recognition in the drama and in fiction, this is by no means the case in Persia, where recent experiments in the recording of the spoken language have met with strong opposition from the upholders of the classical tradition. The first shot hi this new ‘Battle of the Books’ was fired more than 30 years ago by Sayyed Mohammad ‘Ali 
amālzāde with the publication of his celebrated collection of short stories known as Yekī būd yekī na-būd, in which he introduced into Persian literature a host of words and phrases in common use by all classes throughout Persia but unrecorded in dictionaries and carefully avoided by men of letters. ǰamālzāde was content to enrich the vocabulary of the literary language: it was left to men like the late Sādeq Hedāyat and his disciple Sādeq Čūbak to take a second and much more controversial step and to make the creatures of their imagination employ, as nearly as possibly, the actual pronunciation and grammar of the spoken language.
page 451 note 1 I should like to express my gratitude to Lieut.-Colonel G. E. Wheeler, C.B.E., C.I.E., for reading through my MS. and offering helpful criticism; and also to Mr. A. A. Haidari, a young Persian writer, for providing me with much valuable information about the vocabulary of the spoken language.
page 451 note 2 
Published by Ma'refat in the series: Sad ketāb az sad nevīsande-ye bozorg-e donyā. For permission to quote the Persian translation and the American original I am indebted to the courtesy of the author and his publishers, Messrs. William Heinemann. The translation is referred to hereafter as MM.
page 451 note 3 Referred to hereafter as Č.
page 452 note 1 Pādšāh-e γamhā and Pādšāh-e pīrūzmand published in Isfahan in 1946 and 1950 respectively.
page 452 note 2 In the case of the pronoun 
we have such forms as 
envaxt and 
envar alongside 
ūnvaxt = 
and 
ūnvar = 
.
page 455 note 1 We would say ‘eyes like saucers’.
page 455 note 2 MM, p. 61.
page 455 note 3 Ibid., p. 60.
page 455 note 4 Ibid., p. 13.
page 455 note 5 Ibid. p. 12.
page 456 note 1 
is not impossible in the literary language:—
‘The Persian nation will canonize me. After my death they will make a statue of me … Everybody knows me …’
(Keihān, 6th Tīr, 1329—from a speech in the Majlis.)
page 456 note 2 MM, p. 72.
page 456 note 3 Ibid., p. 82.
page 456 note 4 Č, p. 131.
page 456 note 5 Ibid., p. 134.
page 457 note 1 For an early recording of this usage see Browne, , A fear Among the Persians, p. 130 (3rd edition).Google Scholar
page 457 note 2 MM, p. 53.
page 457 note 3 Ibid., p. 77.
page 457 note 4 This is a Tehrani usage.
page 458 note 1 The imperative is 
vāissā < 
:— 
‘Just stand there’. (MM, p. 8.)
page 458 note 2 MM, p. 35.
page 458 note 3 Č, p. 112.
page 458 note 4 MM, p. 8.
page 458 note 5 Č, p. 132.
page 458 note 6 Vullers, 1922.
page 458 note 7 MM, p. 32.
page 458 note 8 Č, p. 112.
page 458 note 9 Ibid.
page 458 note 10 Ibid., p. 134.
page 459 note 1 Ibid., p. 111.
page 459 note 2 Ibid., p. 116.
page 459 note 3 MM, p. 52.
page 459 note 4 Ibid., p. 76.
page 459 note 5 Ibid., p. 77.
page 459 note 6 Č, p. 24.
page 459 note 7 MM, p. 59.
page 459 note 8 Steinbeck, , Of Mice and Men, p. 66 (Penguin edition).Google Scholar
page 460 note 1 MM, p. 61.
page 460 note 2 Steinbeck, , op. cit., p. 68.Google Scholar
page 460 note 3 MM, pp. 42–3.
page 461 note 1 Steinbeck, , op. cit., p. 48.Google Scholar
page 461 note 2 Č, pp. 132–3.
page 461 note 3 Ibid., pp. 104–5.
