The Necessity of Considering Spoken Persian Spellings in Dictionaries

Many men of letters and linguists have been inattentive to colloqual elements of language, especially to spoken spelling in as much as that there is no exact definition of the latter. Spoken spelling is first defined in this paper. Persian dictionaries are then evaluated regarding to its inclusion. Since Persian dictionaries ere negligent of spoken language, the reasons underlying the fact are investigated. To shed the light on this problem in Persian lexicography, the paper tries to study spoken language as a whole. The relations between written and spoken Persian are then discussed, relating the arguement to its reflection in Pahlavi (Middle Persian) and Dari (the earliest stage of Modern Persian). It follows with examining the differences between viewpoints of European and Iranian writers on the subject. Finally linguistic and sociolinguistic arguments are given for the study and inclusion of spoken language in dictionaries.