The Tehrani accent, or Tehrani dialect (گویش تهرانی), is a dialect of Persian spoken in Tehran and the most common colloquial variant of Western Persian. Compared to literary standard Persian, the Tehrani dialect lacks original Persian diphthongs and tends to fuse certain sounds. The Tehrani accent should not be confused with the Old Tehrani dialect, which was a Northwestern Iranian dialect, belonging to the central group. Some of the words used in the Tehrani accent may derive from the northwestern Iranian language of Razi, such as sūsk "beetle; cockroach", jīrjīrak "cricket", zālzālak "haw(thorn)", and vejīn "weeding".

History

The Tehrani dialect in its current form has existed since the Qajar period and is different from the language of the natives of Tehran; the old Tehrani dialect still exists in areas like Shemiran and Damavand, although it is subject to extinction. In every part of Tehran, this dialect was influenced by the neighboring cities. The northern regions such as Vanak, Shemiran, and Tajrish had the Mazandarani dialect. The southern regions of Tehran, which are adjacent to the city of Ray, had the Raji (Razi) dialect. The western regions of Tehran towards Karaj were also affected from Tati.

Differences between Standard Persian and Tehrani dialect

The following are some of the main differences between colloquial Tehrani Persian and standard Iranian Persian: Iranians can interchange colloquial Tehrani and standard Persian sociolects in conversational speech.

Sources