# Russian & Persian Similarities



## MohdKK

As I have started learning Russian, I noticed some very interesting similarities between two languages.

For example:

Persian word for 200 is "Dvist" and the Russian word is "Двести" (Dvesti)
Persian word for Winter is "Zemestan" and the Russian word "зима" (zima)
 - "Zem/Zim/Zam" in Persian seems to mean cold
Persian word for New is "Now/Nov" and the Russian word is "новый" (novyy)
Persian word for Know is "Danestan" and the Russian word is "знать" (znat')
 - in some Iranian dialects you may also find the word "Zanut" like in Kurdish
Persian word for Give is "Dadan" and the Russian word is "дать" (dat')

What other words you may suggest?

If any mistakes above please correct me.


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## killerbee256

Common Slavic borrowed many words from nomadic Iranian tribes who inhabited the stepps during antiquity. Proto-Slavic borrowings - Wikipedia


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## fdb

Russian and Persian are both Indo-European (IE) languages and thus share a large amount of inherited vocabulary. It is true that Common Slavic seems to have borrowed some words from one or more Old Iranian languages, but the examples quoted in no. 1 do not belong to that category; they are all inherited IE. For completeness, one could add that Persian has borrowed a number of Russian words as well, especially in the 19th century.


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## ilocas2

Western European linguists in the 19th century wanted to cut off Slavic languages from Romance, Germanic, Celtic and Greek languages so they chose one isoglosses and made the big Centum-Satem divide (edit: for OP - Centum and satem languages - Wikipedia). There is no significant number of Slavic and Indo-Iranian cognates that are not present in other IE branches.


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## MohdKK

killerbee256 said:


> Common Slavic borrowed many words from nomadic Iranian tribes who inhabited the stepps during antiquity. Proto-Slavic borrowings - Wikipedia



Well, I don't think these maybe borrowed from Iranian Nomad Tribes since these words has Proto-Slavic origins.
Linguistically, I am trying to compare the cognates.
According to history the Slavic and Iranic languages are from same root/origin/family.


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## MohdKK

fdb said:


> Russian and Persian are both Indo-European (IE) languages and thus share a large amount of inherited vocabulary. It is true that Common Slavic seems to have borrowed some words from one or more Old Iranian languages, but the examples quoted in no. 1 do not belong to that category; they are all inherited IE. For completeness, one could add that Persian has borrowed a number of Russian words as well, especially in the 19th century.



This is also probable and I also agree.


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## MohdKK

ilocas2 said:


> Western European linguists in the 19th century wanted to cut off Slavic languages from Romance, Germanic, Celtic and Greek languages so they chose one isoglosses and made the big Centum-Satem divide (edit: for OP - Centum and satem languages - Wikipedia). There is no significant number of Slavic and Indo-Iranian cognates that are not present in other IE branches.



Unfortunately, researches on Iranic-Slavic languages are not enough and needs more investigation.


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## MohdKK

Also check following words:
Want= in Persian "Xwästan" (Xwäheş) / Russian "Хотите" (Khotite)
Door= in Persian "Dar" / Russian "дверь" (dver')
Tree= Persian "Deraxt" / Russian "Дерево" (Derevo)
Jump= Persian "Paridan" (Pareş) / Russian "Прыжки" (Pryzhki)
 - Paridan also means to fly in Persian


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## wiiiilmaaaa

Here are a couple more:

"Mur" both in Persian and in Russian means ant (the insect).
"Topor" in both languages means axe.
"Pensod" = 500 in both languages.
"Dvistpenja" = 250 sounds almost the same in both languages. In Polish these mentioned numbers are also sounding almost the same. I don't know about other Slavic languages.
"Zan" (woman) is "žona" in Polish and "žena" in Russian.


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## Ahuramazda

Because the origin of Russian verb "znat" (знать) is Old Iranian verb "Chinasti", that "ch" becomes "z" during the time. Like how Old Iranian "Hacha" (from) becomes "iz" in Russian (totally in Slavic) and "Aus" in German.

Iran is the mother culture, we shouldn't compare mother with son.


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## scythian_horseman

the word ,Buran has the same meaning in both russian and persian , although it's most likely a russian loanword . not the other way around .
the russian ,Blyat is essentially the same as persian Bale . 
the russian Nyat is persian Na. 

although russian is more akin to what people of eastern iran speak . like the russian Koche appears in eastern iran too , people of western iran would say Tooleh Sag , but here most people say Koche Sag.


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## Awwal12

scythian_horseman said:


> the word ,Buran has the same meaning in both russian and persian , although it's most likely a russian loanword .


It is a Turkic loanword in the both languages. It entered standard Russian through the steppe dialects; the word is generally unfamiliar to other Russian dialects (and, mind you, in the Central Russia there is nothing like the intense and often even life-threatening snowstorms of the more southern areas).


scythian_horseman said:


> Blyat is essentially the same as persian Bale


I'm sorry, what?..


scythian_horseman said:


> like the russian Koche


I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about.


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## MohdKK

scythian_horseman said:


> the word ,Buran has the same meaning in both russian and persian , although it's most likely a russian loanword . not the other way around .



Buran is a Persian word derived from Barf (Snow) and Baran (Rain) and does not have Turkic origin.


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## MohdKK

And here are some other words:

Lamb (noun)= in Persian "Barre'h" / Russian "баранина" (Baranina)
Earth (noun)= in Persian "Zamin" / Russian "Земля" (Zemlya)
Ask (verb)= in Persian "Porsidan" (Porseş) / Russian "спросить" (Sprosit')
Die (verb)= in Persian "Mordan" / Russian "умереть" (umeret')
Speak (verb)= in Persian "Goftan" (guyeş) / Russian "говорить" (govorit')

Please tell me your idea about them and suggest any words you may know.


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## berndf

MohdKK said:


> Buran is a Persian word derived from Barf (Snow) and Baran (Rain) and does not have Turkic origin.


Do you have any source for that? All dictionaries seem to agree it is a loan from Turkic languages.


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## Awwal12

MohdKK said:


> Lamb (noun)= in Persian "Barre'h" / Russian "баранина" (Baranina)


Why do you need to compare derivates?  The original forms are Middle Persian ba:ra:n/wara:n "ram" vs. Russian baran "ram" (< proto-Slavic *baranŭ; cf. BCS baran, Czech beran, Polish baran, id.). The exact connection is unclear, though. The Middle Persian form seemingly comes from proto-Aryan (cf. Sanskrit úraṇa "ram", "a lamb"). The proto-Slavic form, however, obviously cannot come directly from Middle Persian. The Sarmatian form was apparently *wara (by Abayev, based on glosses in Greek sources; cf. also Ossetian fyr), which leaves b- unexplained. A Turkic medium was proposed to fix that, but still the connection isn't proved (no traces in modern Turkic langauges in the first place, Tatar and Yakut forms must come from Russian themselves); alternative etymologies imply a coincidence.


MohdKK said:


> Earth (noun)= in Persian "Zamin" / Russian "Земля" (Zemlya)


From Proto-Indo-European everywhere. Cf. also Latin humus, ancient Greek xtʰon, Latvian zeme (all from PIE *dʰéǵʰōm). In Russian it comes through proto-Slavic *zemja (cf. Polish ziemia, BCS zèmlja etc.).


MohdKK said:


> Ask (verb)= in Persian "Porsidan" (Porseş) / Russian "спросить" (Sprosit')


All from PIE again (< *preḱ-). Cf. undoubtedly related Latin poscere "to ask smb for sth", German fragen (< Proto-Germanic *frehnaną) "to ask a question" etc.


MohdKK said:


> Die (verb)= in Persian "Mordan" / Russian "умереть" (umeret')


All from PIE (*mer-). I hope you'll spare me the necessity to bring up dozens of descendant forms in modern and old IE languages (including English "murder").


MohdKK said:


> Speak (verb)= in Persian "Goftan" (guyeş) / Russian "говорить" (govorit')


Likely all from PIE (<< *gewH ). The Slavic form is in line with the Baltic, Greek, Germanic and Italic cognates, having in mind the PIE morphology. The connection of those with the Iranian forms seems somewhat problematic.


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## Awwal12

MohdKK said:


> Buran is a Persian word derived from Barf (Snow) and Baran (Rain) and does not have Turkic origin.


Derived how exactly?
Russian has the native "burya" ['buɾʲə] - "a storm", but it isn't related to "buran" either. The word "buran" is clearly eastern (present in Tuvan, Khakas and in Mongolian languages as well), which, though not completely excluding an IE/Iranian etymology, would then demand a very solid grounding from such.


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## MohdKK

Awwal12 said:


> Derived how exactly?
> Russian has the native "burya" ['buɾʲə] - "a storm", but it isn't related to "buran" either. The word "buran" is clearly eastern (present in Tuvan, Khakas and in Mongolian languages as well), which, though not completely excluding an IE/Iranian etymology, would then demand a very solid grounding from such.


It seems that I was mistaken.


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## MohdKK

After a while, I could collect some new words showing closer connection between Slavic and Iranic languages:

*Eyebrow*
*Persian: Abru*
From Middle Persian blwk' (brūg), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *bʰrū-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰruH-.
*Russian:  бровь*
From Old East Slavic бръвь (brŭvĭ), from Proto-Slavic *bry.

*Dog*
*Persian: Sag*
From Middle Persian (sag), from Old Persian (çaka-), from West Iranian *spaka "dog-like, relating to dogs" (compare Old Median σπάκα, Kurdish se, seg, and Old Armenian ասպակ (aspak, “dog”), a borrowing from Median), from Proto-Iranian *cwā́ (compare Avestan spā), Pashto spëy, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćwā́ (compare Sanskrit श्वन् (śvā́)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ.
*Russian: собака*
From Middle Iranian; compare Zoroastrian Dari (sabah), Old Median σπάκα (spā́kəʰ) [the source of Old Armenian ասպակ (aspak, “dog”)], Avestan (spaka, “dog-like”).

*Grow
Persian: Rostan [ rosˈtæn ]*
From Proto-Indo-European _*h₃er- _or_ *h₁lewdʰ-_ (“to grow”).
*Russian: расти*
From Proto-Slavic _*orsti_, from Proto-Indo-European _*h₃er- _or_ *h₁lewdʰ-_


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