Arabic: أستاذ

Madeeha719

Madeeha719

Member
Bahasa Melayu
Hello

The word for teacher in Arabic is أستاذ. Is it originally from Persian أستاد? Why did the d change to dh?

Thank you
 
    • I can’t say I know for sure but I can make a couple of guesses(

    Up to my knowledge the original pronunciation in Persian was with a TH sound but it is now archaic. So perhaps when it was borrowed it was still pronounced أستاذ in Persian.

    It could have also reached Arabic through Syriac or Aramaic or another intermediate language and the change may have happened there.
     
    Mahaodeh said:
    Up to my knowledge the original pronunciation in Persian was with a TH sound but it is now archaic. So perhaps when it was borrowed it was still pronounced أستاذ in Persian.
    Click to expand...
    There is at least one Persian word that started off with a د but the modern version is pronounced/spelt with ذ, so the opposite way round, example:گذشتن/to pass, and گدار/godâr "pass" a derivative of this verb, has maintained its archaic spelling and in modern times, it is only used within a proverb meaning "taking a reckless risk": بی گدار به آب زدن/stepping into river with no ford (with the knowledge there's no ford)
     
    Last edited:
    PersoLatin said:
    There is at least one Persian word that started off with a د but the modern version is pronounced/spelt with ذ, so the opposite way round, example:گذشتن/to pass, and گدار/godâr "pass" a derivative of this verb, has maintained its archaic spelling and in modern times, it is only used within a proverb meaning "taking a reckless risk": بی گدار به آب زدن/stepping into river with no ford (with the knowledge there's no ford)
    Click to expand...
    But why? Did Persian phonology contain the sound represented by the Arabic ذ (the th in the English word this) at the time? I know modern Persian lacks this sound.
     
    PersoLatin said:
    but the modern version is pronounced/spelt with ذ
    Click to expand...
    Apologies, the above statement has confused the issue, it should read "But the modern version is spelt with ذ", in modern mainstream Iranian Persian, the 3 Arabic z's are pronounced the same, i.e. as ز

    Ali Smith said:
    But why? Did Persian phonology contain the sound represented by the Arabic ذ (the th in the English word this) at the time? I know modern Persian lacks this sound.
    Click to expand...
    The answer to this is most probably a yes, but let's hope one of our resident experts will provide a qualified answer to this.
     
    In Classical Persian, د is pronounced as [ð] postvocalically. So استاد was pronounced as /ustɑːð/ when Arabic borrowed it.

    Other examples:

    Persian بادنگان => Arabic باذنجان
    Persian پولاد => Arabic فولاذ
    Persian ناخدا => Arabic ناخوذاة
     
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