Oriental languages and civilizations

This annual course is designed for second year students of the three-year degree in Persian language and translation. This course aims at providing students with a deeper knowledge of grammatical and syntactical notions, enabling them to read, understand and produce written texts in Persian, as well as to converse in modern spoken Persian. Spoken language classes are provided by mother tongue lecturers. In particular, the following topics of Persian grammar and syntax will be dealt with during the course: the contemporary spoken variety of New Persian of Iran; word formation; verbal clause and period syntax (relative, temporal, nominal, interrogative, conditional clauses). Weekly, the course includes 4 hours with the Italian teacher and 4 hours with the mother tongue lecturer. Following the teacher’s methodology (please refer for details to the section ‘Modalità di svolgimento’), students will pursue the study of Persian syntax and the peculiarities of the formation of words and verbs. Within the first semester, students will complete their knowledge of the verbal system with the presentation of two last tenses (compound imperfect and compound past perfect), and the study of passive, causative, incoative and proximity verbs. Word formation and complex verbs will be the following subject. Students will be acquainted with the expression of physical, mental and emotional state, as well as weather description. Students will be introduced to the peculiarities of formal language and pleasantries, but special attention will be devoted to the presentation of the spoken variant’s rules, which will become the main object of mother tongue lecturer’s classes. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around 15 different texts of medium length and difficulty. During the second semester, Persian syntax will be explored in all directions, starting with the analysis of conjunctions, verbal rection with related propositions, and peculiarities of Persian use of verbal moods and tenses. Finally, students will deal with the principles of subordinate clauses: declarative, relative, temporal, interrogative, final, causal, concessive, comparative, as well as conditional clauses and other types. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around other 15 different texts of medium length and increasing difficulty. Translation of short sentences from Persian into Italian and viceversa – related to the subjects dealt with, and taken from the main handbook – will be a continuous object of training, all through the year. For updates and news, please refer to the professor's staff webpage: https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/mariocasari/

A good knowledge of Arabic-Persian script and basic Persian grammar is required: see first year program for details.

D. Meneghini – P. Orsatti, Corso di lingua persiana, Milano, Hoepli, 2012, Units 18-30; H. Grünbaum – A. Coletti, Dizionario persiano-italiano, reprint Roma, Nuova Cultura, 2006 (La Sapienza Orientale - Strumenti). Other relevant materials will be provided by the lecturer during the course.

Weekly, the course includes 4 hours with the Italian teacher and 4 hours with the mother tongue lecturer. Classes with the Italian teacher will start from a short text (of growing difficulty), in order to present the various topics on writing, grammar and syntax: therefore, each class will be divided among explanations and training. The same texts and additional ones will be the object of parallel classes with the mother tongue teacher, who will use them particularly to develop the students’ oral abilities.

Attendance of classes is not compulsory but is strongly recommended.

The final exam consists of a written test, which constitutes the prerequisite for passing to the oral examination. The written test includes translations from Italian into Persian and viceversa, focusing on the main notions acquired during the course. The oral examination consists of a discussion on the written test, set readings, and a free conversation in Persian. The final grade is out of a maximum of 30.

Students also may refer to: G. D’Erme, Grammatica del neopersiano, Napoli, Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1979. A.K.S. Lambton, Persian Grammar, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984. C.-H. de Fouchécour, Eléments de persan, Paris, P.O.F., 19852.

Weekly, the course includes 4 hours with the Italian teacher and 4 hours with the mother tongue lecturer. Classes with the Italian teacher will start from a short text (of growing difficulty), in order to present the various topics on writing, grammar and syntax: therefore, each class will be divided among explanations and training. The same texts and additional ones will be the object of parallel classes with the mother tongue teacher, who will use them particularly to develop the students’ oral abilities.