Oriental languages and civilizations

This annual course aims at familiarizing students with the Arabic-Persian script and with the main structures of Persian grammar and syntax, enabling them to comprehend and produce basic oral and written tasks. 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 Arabic alphabet and Arabic-Persian writing system; phonology of contemporary New Persian of Iran. Morphology: the noun; use of the indeterminate -ī suffix and the postposition -rā; forms and usage of the plural; prepositions; the adjective; pronouns; numerals; verbal moods, tenses, and morphology; constructions with modal verbs. Registers and levels of courtesy. 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’), the Arabic alphabet and Arabic-Persian writing system is taught moving directly from first words and sentences, so that already in the course of the first two weeks students will apprehend and use the living language. Usually, after four weeks, knowledge of the alphabet and writing is completed, together with a growing capability of reading and producing short sentences. Within the first semester students will be presented with numerals, the indetermination and the plural of nouns, possessive schemes, forms of interrogation. As for the verbal system, students will learn how to use ‘to be’ end ‘to have’, the past simple, the present tense, the simple subjunctive, the imperfect tense, imperative and future, as well as how to use modal verbs. Moreover, the expression of time and date will be dealt with. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around 30 different short texts. In the second semester, the picture of the verbal system is completed, with the presentation of the compound tense (present perfect, past perfect, compound subjunctive, present continuous, past continuous) and the nominal forms. Moreover students will learn how to produce comparative and superlative adjectives, and will deepen their knowledge of suffix pronouns and reflexive pronouns, as well as of many other categories whose basic elements already have been introduced in the course of the first semester, such as relative clauses, demonstrative, indefinite, and interrogative adjectives and pronouns. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around other 25 different short texts. Translation of short sentences from Persian into Italian and viceversa – 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/

No prior knowledge is required.

D. Meneghini – P. Orsatti, Corso di lingua persiana, Milano, Hoepli, 2012, Units 1-17; A. Coletti, H. Coletti Grünbaum – Dizionario persiano-italiano. Nuova edizione rivista e aggiornata a cura di P. Orsatti con la collaborazione di M. Fedi e F. Ponzi; P. Orsatti, Appunti per una storia della lingua neopersiana, Roma, Nuova Cultura, 2007 (La Sapienza Orientale - Manuali) (compulsory Chapter I - Le fasi della storia della lingua persiana; optional Chapter II - Fonologia; recommended Chapter III - La più antica documentazione neopersiana in scritture diverse da quella araba) 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 exam consists of a written test (with morphosyntactic exercises and translations from one language to another: sentences from Italian to Persian; a short text from Persian to Italian), preparatory to an oral test: in the oral test, the written test will be discussed in order to assess grammatical and syntactic skills; candidates will also be given passages from the readings done during the year, and some topics in the history of the Persian language will be briefly discussed (based on the book by P. Orsatti, cited in the bibliography). There will also be a short 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.

This annual course aims at familiarizing students with the Arabic-Persian script and with the main structures of Persian grammar and syntax, enabling them to comprehend and produce basic oral and written tasks. 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 Arabic alphabet and Arabic-Persian writing system; phonology of contemporary New Persian of Iran. Morphology: the noun; use of the indeterminate -ī suffix and the postposition -rā; forms and usage of the plural; prepositions; the adjective; pronouns; numerals; verbal moods, tenses, and morphology; constructions with modal verbs. Registers and levels of courtesy. 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’), the Arabic alphabet and Arabic-Persian writing system is taught moving directly from first words and sentences, so that already in the course of the first two weeks students will apprehend and use the living language. Usually, after four weeks, knowledge of the alphabet and writing is completed, together with a growing capability of reading and producing short sentences. Within the first semester students will be presented with numerals, the indetermination and the plural of nouns, possessive schemes, forms of interrogation. As for the verbal system, students will learn how to use ‘to be’ end ‘to have’, the past simple, the present tense, the simple subjunctive, the imperfect tense, imperative and future, as well as how to use modal verbs. Moreover, the expression of time and date will be dealt with. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around 30 different short texts. In the second semester, the picture of the verbal system is completed, with the presentation of the compound tense (present perfect, past perfect, compound subjunctive, present continuous, past continuous) and the nominal forms. Moreover students will learn how to produce comparative and superlative adjectives, and will deepen their knowledge of suffix pronouns and reflexive pronouns, as well as of many other categories whose basic elements already have been introduced in the course of the first semester, such as relative clauses, demonstrative, indefinite, and interrogative adjectives and pronouns. These notions will be acquired through the reading and usage of around other 25 different short texts. Translation of short sentences from Persian into Italian and viceversa – 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/

No prior knowledge is required.

D. Meneghini – P. Orsatti, Corso di lingua persiana, Milano, Hoepli, 2012, Units 1-17; A. Coletti, H. Coletti Grünbaum – Dizionario persiano-italiano. Nuova edizione rivista e aggiornata a cura di P. Orsatti con la collaborazione di M. Fedi e F. Ponzi; P. Orsatti, Appunti per una storia della lingua neopersiana, Roma, Nuova Cultura, 2007 (La Sapienza Orientale - Manuali) (compulsory Chapter I - Le fasi della storia della lingua persiana; optional Chapter II - Fonologia; recommended Chapter III - La più antica documentazione neopersiana in scritture diverse da quella araba) 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 exam consists of a written test (with morphosyntactic exercises and translations from one language to another: sentences from Italian to Persian; a short text from Persian to Italian), preparatory to an oral test: in the oral test, the written test will be discussed in order to assess grammatical and syntactic skills; candidates will also be given passages from the readings done during the year, and some topics in the history of the Persian language will be briefly discussed (based on the book by P. Orsatti, cited in the bibliography). There will also be a short 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.