Persian: کدو" دال مشدد یا غیر مشدد"، شعر سعدیؒ kadu v. kaddu, Sa'di couplet

[marrish]

Hi,

The general question is, is the word کدو usually pronounced with a geminated 'd' or not since the Classical/Indo-Persian dictionary by Steingass suggests both.

کدو kadū, kaddū, A gourd; a cup, a goblet; a cupping-glass; membrum virile.

Further to this, how is the word deemed to be pronounced in this she3r from Bustan, chapter 4 by Sa'di.
حکایت توبه کردن ملک زادهٔ گنجه
(ganjoor.net)

بہ میخانہ در سنگ بردن زدند

کدو را نشاندند و گردن زدند
(Sa'di)

I bumped into this couplet working on something about Urdu but nevertheless, I think there might be a situation of scansion which requires a gemination or just the opposite, makes it impossible.

Lastly, I'd like to know in which meaning the word is used here exactly.

Thanks.

 

[PersoLatin]

كدو in modern Persian & in the above couplet, is pronounced with one d (should rhyme with 'ragu')

I think the couplet should read as:

bé meyxânédar sang berdan zadand (read ميخانه در as one word, a variation of درِ ميخانه)
kadu râ nešândand o gerdan (gardan) zadand

Here berdan- بِردن means, harshly, quickly or hard, so 'they knocked on the door of ميخانه, hard' and كدو can only be a wine container, in the context, 'they then opened the wine container'. Judging by the manner of knocking on the door, 'they' may have broken/cut the neck of the wine container to get to it.

 

[marrish]

It's a very detailed answer to my questons. I didn't know it was berdan, I thought of bordan/burdan. Thank you very much.

 

[PersoLatin]

BTW - I don't believe there are any Persian words with تشديد/شده. So where has kaddū come from?

There are some inflected words like سوم/دوم - second/third (dovvom, sevvom) which have an apparent تشديد on و but these are caused by the joining of the ordinal م - m, to a word that ends in a vowel, namely سه/دو - do/sé. My grandfather always pronounced these as doyom & seyom, which is the correct way anyway, but are no longer formal.

There are other situations but I can't think of them now.

 

[marrish]

Well, just think of the word for "a child" or "a saw". Besides there are many words there with Arabic etymology with tashdiid.

BTW These forms - doyom etc have been previously discussed also for Urdu and they are quite persistent in that language.

 

[PersoLatin]

Well, just think of the word for "a child" or "a saw". Besides there are many words there with Arabic etymology with tashdiid

You are correct, I should have said 'pure' Persian, or Arabic loans excepted.

In fact بچه, in many parts of Iran, is pronounced without a stressed 'ch', I think that's the case is Afghan & Tajik Persian. These I believe have developed because of presence and abundance of tashdid in loans, and once you learn how it works, you tend to apply it to difficult Persian words that didn't have any, like دوم or بچه, or other inflected ones. Try & get an avarage European speaker to say 'Mohammad'.