# Etymology of Persian تنها/tanhâ (alone)



## PersoLatin

What is the etymology of Persian تنها/tanhâ (alone) please?


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## Torontal

As i read it is coming from تن body, stature (same meaning in Avestan and Sanskrit _tanu_), though i haven't found explanation on what is the function/meaning of the ها suffix here, any ideas?


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## PersoLatin

Torontal said:


> As i read it is coming from تن body, stature (same meaning in Avestan and Sanskrit _tanu_), though i haven't found explanation on what is the function/meaning of the ها suffix here, any ideas?


 ها is a plural marker, making the meaning of تن ها or تنها as 'bodies' which is odd for 'lonely', but I don't believe _hâ_ in _tanhâ_ is the plural marker maybe _tanu _has changed to _tanhâ_.


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## Treaty

MP _īhā _or _ihā_ is also an adverb maker suffix. So, MP _tanīhā _(> NP _tanhā_) meant something like "individually" or "by self" and then expanded to "alone" as both adverbs and adjective.


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## Derakhshan

-_hā_ comes from MP -_īhā_, which was originally used to form adverbs before it was a plural marker. Thus _tanhā_ < MP _tanīhā_ "alone". Other MP examples: _dādīhā_ "justly", _adādīhā_ "unjustly".

There was also _xwēšīhā_ which also meant "alone, by himself". I guess _tanīhā_ can be translated like "by his own body (only)" and thus "alone".

Does this useage of -_hā_ survive in NP, besides _tanhā_?

I don't know if this counts as a survival, but in Lari we say _avvaliâ_ and it means "previously, in old times" (formed with plural suffix -_iâ_).


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## Treaty

Colloquial Persian does have قدیما (in old days) and اولا (initially) and probably more, made by ها suffix, but I suspect it is rather resulted by omitting a preposition (e.g. در قدیمها).


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## bearded

Treaty said:


> Colloquial Persian does have قدیما (in old days) and اولا (initially) and probably more, made by ها suffix


 ''Made by -ha suffix''?They don't seem to possess a -ha suffix to me.  Aren't those just Arabic-originated adverbs (pron. qadiiman, awwalan) already having an adverbial -an suffix (originally indefinite accusative..)?


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## Treaty

bearded said:


> ''Made by -ha suffix''?They don't seem to possess a -ha suffix to me.  Aren't those just Arabic-originated adverbs (pron. qadiiman, awwalan) already having an adverbial -an suffix (originally indefinite accusative..)?


No. The Aarbic _tanwīn _doesn't change to _ā_ in colloquial Persian. However, the _hā _suffix is often pronounced _ā_. Anyway, the term _avval(h)ā_ has its broken plural counterpart _avāyel_ (from Arabic _awā'il_ اوائل) with the exact adverbial usage (there is also _āxar(h)ā = [īn] avāxer _"lately").


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## PersoLatin

Derakhshan said:


> I don't know if this counts as a survival, but in Lari we say _avvaliâ_ and it means "previously, in old times" (formed with plural suffix -_iâ_).


That surely is not the same thing, there are all sorts of these, including _avvaliâ,_ used in modern colloquial Persian, e.g.  دومیها, بدی ها, خوبی ها the seconds (e.g. those in the second row), in current times, دهه شصتی ها or دهه هفتا دی ها, those associated with sixties or seventies (decades), those born in sixties seventies (Iranian calendar), plus those mentioned by Treaty. These are basically: a noun + associative ی + plural marker hâ (Coll. â)


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## PersoLatin

Derakhshan said:


> Does this useage of -_hā_ survive in NP, besides _tanhā_?


I found more MP words of the type which might help find some in NP.
(tanihâ - alone)
_  borzwangihâ _- aloud
_  hameihâ _- eternally
_  amaragânihâ - _generally
_  aŝnawâgihâ - _hearing (n.)


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## Derakhshan

PersoLatin said:


> That surely is not the same thing, there are all sorts of these, including _avvaliâ,_ used in modern colloquial Persian, e.g.  دومیها, بدی ها, خوبی ها the seconds (e.g. those in the second row), in current times, دهه شصتی ها or دهه هفتا دی ها, those associated with sixties or seventies (decades), those born in sixties seventies (Iranian calendar), plus those mentioned by Treaty. These are basically: a noun + associative ی + plural marker hâ (Coll. â)


The -_iâ_ is a plural marker though. Its equivalent in Persian would be اول‌ها, not اولی‌ها.

It seems -_hâ_ is still productive in New Persian in forming adverbs but only temporally, as in قدیما, and also spacially, as in:

اینجاها "hereabouts"
اونجاها "thereabouts"

But, as mentioned, this seems to derive from its meaning as a plural marker anyway (they can be thought of as در قدیم‌ها or در اونجاها but with the prepositions omitted), and I can't find non-temporal/spacial examples.


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## PersoLatin

Derakhshan said:


> The -_iâ_ is a plural marker though. Its equivalent in Persian would be اول‌ها, not اولی‌ها.


In modern Persian both -_iâ_ & -_ihâ_ in the examples below are plural markers:
*اول ها/اولا* پیاده می‌رفت - avvalâ & avvalhâ, she used to walk *in* *early days/old times*
*اولی ها/اولیا* را/رو بده - avvaliâ & avvalihâ - give me *the first ones*

It seems that Lari *avvaliâ* and the Persian *avvalâ*, both mean 'in old times'

In the following, آخریا at the first glance can be taken to mean lately (-iâ as a adverbial prefix) but iâ  = -i + -â, with -i making 'the late times' indefinite and -â a colloquial plural marker.
این آخریا خیلی خوشحال بود - in âxariâ xeyli xoŝhâl bud - he was very happy lately.

Slightly different version, -â is definitely a plural marker
 این اواخر/آخرا خیلی خوشحال بود - in avâxer /âxarâ xeyli xoŝhâl bud - he was very happy these last time*s*


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## Derakhshan

PersoLatin said:


> I found more MP words of the type which might help find some in NP.
> (tanihâ - alone)
> _  borzwangihâ _- aloud
> _  hameihâ _- eternally
> _  amaragânihâ - _generally
> _  aŝnawâgihâ - _hearing (n.)


It seems -_īhā_ as an adverbial ending simply doesn't survive in NP. اول‌ها، اینجاها and the like are obviously the plural marker, and furthermore they are temporal/spatial. Nothing in the manner of _dād-īhā_ "justly" has survived.

Apparently, only two instances of the -_īhā_ adverbial ending occur in the Early Judaeo-Persian corpus (besides _tanīhā_), and these are the earliest written instances of NP. So I think its safe to say none have made it to the NP of today, except _tanhâ_, the only one to have come down to us for some reason.


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## fdb

For the semantics you could compare Vietnamese một mình "one body" = "alone".


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## marrish

تنِ تنها _tan-e-tanhâ_ is an emphasized form, from which this sense is apparent within Persian.


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## PersoLatin

marrish said:


> تنِ تنها _tan-e-tanhâ_ is an emphasized form


I have not heard that combination much before, تک و تنها yes, of course I know what it means.


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