همزه

[Psi-Lord]

I'm not sure if this is going to make much sense, but well…

The threads on Arabic همزة in the Arabic forum made me think of the situation of Persian همزه… I've seen many, many examples of it being used with ی in the form of ئ, as in امریکائی and کانادائی, or even in transcriptions of (foreign) names, such as رافائل, and I'm (probably) fine with that. But I was wondering—is it ever used on its own (ء) or combined with و in the form of ؤ, or even combined with ا as أ or إ? And, in case it is, is it used only for borrowings such as those from Arabic, or also in Persian native words? Which would be the rules behind those for Persian?

By the way, I'm comfortable with its combination with mute ه in اضافه constructions (such as [r]خانهٔ مریم[/r]), so that's not a problem.

[zhiguli]

hamze is never used at the beginning of a word as far as i know.
other than that, it is used in arabic loans:
تألیف
متأسف
سؤال
but in my experience, it is not written consistently.
hamze at the ends of words also tends to be left off, or elided. سوء (evil) with ezafe almost always gets written/pronounced as سوی and not سوءِ, though some may make the distinction to avoid confusion with سو (direction)
as for hamze ye, in most cases it can and is replaced by a regular ye, even where it really shouldn't be (arabic loans, etc).
the hamze in ۀ also tends to get replaced by ye or left off altogether.

[DM]

hamze is never used at the beginning of a word as far as i know.
other than that, it is used in arabic loans:
تألیف
متأسف
سؤال
but in my experience, it is not written consistently.
hamze at the ends of words also tends to be left off, or elided. سوء (evil) with ezafe almost always gets written/pronounced as سوی and not سوءِ, though some may make the distinction to avoid confusion with سو (direction)
as for hamze ye, in most cases it can and is replaced by a regular ye, even where it really shouldn't be (arabic loans, etc).
the hamze in ۀ also tends to get replaced by ye or left off altogether.

What you have mentioned in your message is perfectly correct; hamze is not Persian and has come to Farsi from Arabic, it is not used in the beginning of the words, it can occur anywhere in the words (except the beginning) as shown in the examples in your message, and it is usually elided (even in the same examples indicated in your message). The only point in your message that I have doubts about is the replacement of hamze with ye in the word سوء (evil, bad). I have seen it always written with hamze:

[rp]سوء ظن (suspicion)

سوء رفتـار(bad behavior, evil behavior)

سوء استـفاده (misuse)

سوء هـاضمـه (indigestion)[/rp]

And so it may not be mistaken with the word سو (direction). Can you give an example of سوء written with ی instead of hamze?

[Psi-Lord]

Since I got a copy of John Mace's Persian Grammar since I started this thread, I thought it might be interesting to copy its section on همزه and see what others might have to add, correct or just comment.

1 - Writing

24. ء hamze

ء, called hamze, is a letter not listed in the alphabet. It is never joined to anything. It never stands at the beginning of a word. Its basic form is as shown here, but it appears and sounds differently according to whether it is used in Persian words, or in words taken from Arabic.

hamze in Persian words. In Persian words hamze may be written over silent final ه […], to represent ye (the ezāfe […]):

خانهٔ ایشان   xāneye išān   his/her/their house
میوهٔ تازه   miveye tāze   fresh fruit

The hamze representing ye (the ezāfe) is usually written only when extra clarity is wanted; otherwise it is often left unwritten:

خانه ایشان   xāneye išān
میوه تازه   miveye tāze

We also encounter the form ئ (now little used) for -iye, showing the ezāfe after words ending in ی i:

(صندلئ راحتی) for صندلی راحتی   sandaliye rāhati   easy chair

In older Persian, including some dictionaries, we find the combination ئیـ\ئی instead of ییـ\یی […], for i after ā or u:

شیمیایی (earlier شیمیائی)   šimiāi   chemical
بگویید (earlier بگوئید)   beguid   say

and هٔ… instead of modern ه‌ای… -ei/-e i at the end of a word […]:

جمله‌ای (earlier جملهٔ)   jomlei   a sentence
قهوه‌ای رنگ (earlier قهوهٔ رنگ)   qahvei rang   brown
خسته‌ای (earlier خستهٔ)   xaste i   you are tired

In a few words taken from other languages the form ئـ is used to mark the transition from one vowel to another:

ژوئن   žuan   June (from French juin)
گازوئیل   gāzuil   fuel oil, diesel
ایدئولوژیست   ideoložist   ideologist

hamze in words taken from Arabic. In words taken from Arabic, hamze may occur before or after any letter in the middle or at the end of a word:

- in the middle, أ a’/’a, ؤ o’, ئو ’u, ئـ ’:

متأسف   mota’assef   sorry
تأسیس   ta’sis   foundation
مؤمن   mo’men   believer
مسئول   mas’ul   responsible
مسأله\مسئله   mas’ale/masale   problem

Middle أ is often written ا:

متاسف   mota’assef
مساله   masale

- at the end, it is normally written by itself, and is usually silent in Persian:

جزء   joz   part

Some words written with final ا… -ā can still be found with their original Arabic spelling اء…. The pronunciation is the same, as the ء is silent:

ابتدا   ebtedā   beginning (formerly ابتداء)

[…]

[Psi-Lord]

Heh, I've just bumpted into an example of why students of Persian can benefit from a written hamze…

I was just studying and reading bits here and there, and found the word ra's, romanised. So I just went to the dictionary to find out how it was spelt, and, to my surprise, I found out it's راس. I sat back, confirmed in one or two other sources, and started to analyse why it just wasn't pronounced râs then. That's when I remembered, though, about what John Mace mentions in his grammar book (and which I quoted in my previous post in this thread)— that 'middle أ is often written ا', so I got an Arabic dictionary and bingo, there I found it spelt رأس! If it wasn't for my having run into the word romanised at first, I'd have probably taken forever to figure out why I couldn't find any râs in dictionaries, hehe.

[doost]

The official instruction of Persian Academy(فرهنگستان زبان و ادب پارسي) about Persian dictation is so useful.You can read about hamzeh on page 21 of the booklet(The text is in Persian).Download it from here:
http://www.persianacademy.ir/books/Dast ... 0khatt.pdf

[Psi-Lord]

The official instruction of Persian Academy(فرهنگستان زبان و ادب پارسي) about Persian dictation is so useful.You can read about hamzeh on page 21 of the booklet(The text is in Persian).Download it from here:
http://www.persianacademy.ir/books/Dast ... 0khatt.pdf

Ah, thanks a lot, doost! I'd heard of the 'دستور خطّ فارسی', but I was yet to find a copy of it (I should've imagine one could find it in the page of the Persian Academy). Besides the discussion about the همزه, I'm hoping the section on ترکیبات will be especially helpful regarding the spelling of compounds (something I've discussed with DM here and there in the forum).

Incidentally, I've noticed that they use the Arabic ye (ي) instead of the Persian ye (ی), and Arabic-Indic numbers (١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠) instead of their Eastern equivalents (۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹۰), in some sections of the Academy website. Any possible special reasons for that other than a possible lack of proper support? I mean, my materials are always so adamant on how one should pay attention to such details that I think it's curious the Persian Academy itself doesn't follow such guidelines in their website.