Background

The Farsi language contains a significant number of Arabic origin words. As any learner of Farsi as a second language knows, these words can be some of the most difficult to remember; the repeated patterns of recurring affixes, ( م، ت، ا، و، ی، است etc.), can make Arabic origin words blend together in a student’s mind. Fortunately, the morphological patterns that make these words tricky can also be used to aide vocabulary retention. With few exceptions, Arabic origin words are based on a tri-consonant root which is modified by anywhere from zero to three affixes. The utility in this is that a given set of affixes often has a similar effect on the meaning of different roots. Likewise, words derived from the same root but modified by different affix sets also often retain some semantic connection. Of course this morphological to semantic correlation is not absolute and many exceptions do exist, but the correlations are pervasive enough to be useful.

Basic Description

The Parsarabica web-app contains ~3000 Farsi Arabic-origin words, displayed with their tri-consonant root or their morphological pattern. You can filter the Words from the Words page and click a Word to see its Root, Pattern, a ranking metric that indicates its prevalence, as well as some links to external resources. The Roots page shows all the roots that are represented in the Words. Click on a Root to see all the other words that share the Root. The Patterns page shows all the Patterns that are represented in the Words. Click on a Pattern to see all the other words that share the Pattern.

Check it out: https://parsarabica.com/