Enclitics

 What is an enclitic?
 How are enclitics written in Persian?

Enclitics are words that do not have any stress and are phonologically dependent on their
preceding word. In English, de nite and inde nite articles (the, a, an) are examples for an enclitic.

Persian's inde nite article is also an enclitic. Enclitics form part of the syllable of their host word
and change its normal syllable structure (syllabi cation). For example, in "pedar" (father), the
syllabi cation is pe-DAR, but in "pedar i" (a father), the syllabi cation becomes pe-DA-ri. That is, it
become a three-syllable word with the stress on the penultimate syllable. Compare the enclitic "i"
with the suf x "i" in "pedari" (paternal), where the syllabi cation is pe-da-RI: a three-syllable word
with the stress on the last syllable, as is regular in Persian.

Although phonologically dependent, enclitics have a distinct grammatical role and are
syntactically independent from their preceding word. Therefore, they should be written
separately. Languages like English and French, write their enclitics separately. In Middle Persian,
enclitics were written as separate words as well but in New Persian, the majority of enclitics are
written attached to their host word. As a result, "pedar i" (a father) and "pedari" (paternal) are
written identically as ‫ﭘﺪری‬.

For educational purposes, the following enclitics are separated from their host word with a
hyphen:

genitive preposition: dust-e man, khâne-ye man

inde nite article: mard-i, sedâ-yi
bound personal pronouns: ketâb-ash, didam-ash

 Stress Position Phoneme Reduction 