Expert: Mojtaba Parsa - 11/2/2009

Question
Hi Mojtaba,

I’m reading the Turkish-language autobiography of Meltem Vural [Şu dağın ardı İran i.e. Iran is (just) behind that mountain], a Turkish woman who married an Iranian dentist and went to live in Iran at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution.

There are a couple of names I'm not sure how to write in Persian: Khoshmand, Khoshang (she spells them Huşmand and Huşeng - “sh” is “ş” in Turkish – I think I’ve mentioned before that Turkish, albeit not as consistently as Urdu, usually takes the forms of its loanwords from Dari rather than Iranian Persian). Please could you write these two names, and let me know their meanings if you are aware of them (or if they haven’t been lost in the mists of time).

Meltem Vural also talks about a famous surgeon called “Golaga” – is this name recognizable to you? How should I write it, I wonder.

All the best,

Simon

PS Re پی نوشت how do you actually pronounce it? What does it mean literally?

PPS A good example of the way in which Urdu uses the Dari form of its Persian loanwords is that, unlike Farsi, it makes the distinction between milk "shir" and lion "sher", though both are, of course, written سیر.

Answer
Hi Simon,

Khoshmand and Khoshang don't have meanings in Persian. But they might be 'Hushmand' and 'Hushang'. If so, they have meaning. 'Hushmand' (هوشمند) means someone intelligent, clever and wise. 'Hushang' (هوشنگ) is a name meaning someone who makes nice houses and homes. It also means something which has the biggest priority. It was the name of one of Adam's sons or grandsons.
'Golaga' reminds me 'Gholagha' which is گل آقا. I'm not sure about the origin of this name. I think it was the name of a lake in Iran. گل آقا is known for Kiumars Saberi whose epithet was گل آقا - an Iranian satirist who recently has died.

پی نوشت /pey nevesht/
پی is the opposite word for پس. It means something which comes in the following. Of course the word پی is not mostly used by itself. پی نوشت means a نوشتار which comes in the پی. It is almost like that Post Script.

Unlike Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese or some other languages, the way we write Persian words using Latin script is manually invented. Persian words must be written using Persian alphabet. Therefore you might see many various types of writing since there are no general rules about it and it is absolutely done due to people's own desire.

Hope this helps.
With Best Regards, Mojtaba Parsa