About Us

To conduct various projects, the linguistics department of Cultural Research Bureau

enjoys the cooperation of linguists, experts of Persian language and literature, and experts of teaching Persian to non-natives. The main aim of the department is to conduct research in different areas of linguistics in general and projects for promotion and development of the Persian language in particular. The current activities of this department can be divided into two major fields:

1.    Investigations on social and historical aspects of Persian.

2.    Investigations in the field of teaching Persian to non-natives.

A Dictionary of Qajar Terminology

This first part of an extensive project addressing terminology and expressions in use during the Qajar era (1798-1925), is a compilation of military and police terms extracted from mainly military dossier of the époque. Each entry is accompanied by information with regard to variations in spelling, pronunciation, word etymology, meaning, and different contexts of usage.

A Study of Foreign Loan-Words in Persian

Examination of the use of foreign words in printed media, specifically newspapers, has been the goal of this project. Three hundred texts selected from four different newspapers during a specific period of time were examined. Over 1300 foreign terms (with a total frequency of usage: 16000), simple or compound words, were identified, classified and analyzed.

Local dialects in Iranian Films

Filmmakers’ approach, before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to various Persian and non-Persian dialects in Iranian films is critically examined.

Teaching Persian Language to Non-Natives

The aim of this project is to provide non-natives interested in learning Persian as a second or foreign language, with teaching materials in different levels and skills.           Two main projects have been conducted in this area, the outcomes of which can be useful for the second generation Iranians living in other countries, and non–natives interested in learning Persian (with various motivations), as well as researchers, instructors, authors of textbooks and producers of other teaching materials (audio and video tapes, CDs, etc.).

Spoken Persian

This project aims at teaching standard spoken Persian in an intermediate/advanced level. To achieve this goal, selected language materials are included in a number of different dialogues occurred in different socio-cultural contexts.

          The teaching materials, available as video tape or CD, are composed of 15 lessons, each includes three sections: linguistic rules and points, dialogues, and idioms and vocabulary. Thus, in each lesson, one or two rules in spoken Persian are introduced, then comes a dialogue in which the rules or points are used and in the final section, new words and idioms introduced in the dialogue, are listed and explained.

Teaching Persian Bibliography

The main goal of the project is to prepare a complete list of sources in the area of teaching Persian to non-natives. Such a bibliographic list would be useful for learners, instructors, researchers and all those interested in this field. The list includes materials for teaching Persian (such as books, films, video/audio tapes and CDs), as well as research works (such as dissertations, papers, etc.) on teaching Persian to non-natives. Bibliographical information and an abstract for each source is presented both in Persian and English, though the textbook itself might have been originally written in German, French, Russian, Kazakh, Italian, Chinese, etc.