Comparative Study of the Marfūʿāt in Arabic and Their Differences with Persian

Abstract

The world’s living languages possess their own particular grammatical rules and systems, and depending on their origins and roots, they generally share certain commonalities. In this regard, there are numerous similarities between Arabic and Persian, although in some cases they diverge. These similarities and differences, in addition to the lexical level, are also evident in the syntactic domain, particularly in relation to the marfūʿāt. Accordingly, the present study conducts a comparative investigation of the marfūʿāt in Persian and Arabic. The findings of this descriptive–analytical study indicate that examining the marfūʿāt in Arabic and Persian helps us understand why Persian has no need for iʿrāb (case inflection), whereas in Arabic this system is essential for maintaining grammatical structure. Iʿrāb in Arabic serves as a method for indicating the syntactic role of words within a sentence, while in Persian word order holds greater importance. Unlike Arabic, in Persian the syntactic functions of words are not expressed through phonological alternations at the end of words.