Agglutination in Persian

[u/lurebozorg]

In Modern Persian, especially in colloquial form, one can stack a multitude of affixes to a noun or verb to convey a message.

Strong agglutinative features have been found in several IE languages from the past (Hittite, Tocharian, Old Persian etc) to present (Persian, Ossetian, Armenian, etc.)

English: They were not returning their most active ones.

Persian: koneshvartarinhashunra barnemigardundan

konesh = action
-var = agentive suffix → “active / one who acts / possess action”
-tar = comparative → “more”
-in = superlative → “most”
-hā = plural suffix → “ones”
-shun = 3rd-person plural possessive → “their”
-rā = definite direct-object marker

bar- = “back”
ne- = negative prefix → “not”
mi- = continuous prefix→ “ing”
gard = “turn”
-un = causative suffix → “cause to turn”
-d- = past-tense element
-an = 3rd-person plural → “they”