Journal Entry 2
I am just starting to get off the ground so to speak with learning Persian. It is a bit difficult via Skype because, while the issues with sound quality are not a problem when speaking English, when learning Farsi, the slight graininess and transmission errors makes it hard to understand things like word stress and differences between certain phonemes, like /v/ or /w/ or /s/ and /z/. My work-around for this is to use programs like Mango Languages (and, if it ever develops a Persian component, Duolingo) and Byki (although I have issues with it) to hear pronunciation more clearly than over Skype. Additionally, wiktionary has IPA transcripts and an English phonetic transcription for all Persian words. Hopefully these can supplement my Skype lessons.
Cultural Post 2
Persian is very much a diglossic language with multiple different registers (I guess this makes it a polyglossic, not diglossic language). Tajik, Dari, and Farsi all have a very formal way of speaking, as well as more casual ways of speaking. Persian in Use, the textbook I am using, provides both the formal written, educated form, as well as the more colloquial form of Farsi with a Tehrani dialect. Aside from simplifications in the grammar and pronunciation, the colloquial form tends to cause the vowel /ɒ/ to turn into /u/.
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