In the transition of Persian from Old to Middle Persian and finally to New Persian, there is a significant phonemic change: the reduction of vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) sequence to either of the vowels. During this process, the consonant and the other vowel are omitted.
| Avestan / Old Persian |
Middle Persian | New Persian |
|---|---|---|
| šîyâtî | šâtî | šâdî |
| čavant | čant | čand |
| duvar | dar | dar |
| xšâyaθîya | šâha → šâh | šâh |
Dialects of New Persian
VCV phoneme reduction has occurred within New Persian as well. There are many reductions both in standard dialect and regional dialects. Interestingly, in some dialects, a different vowel has left the sequence, resulting in having, for example, both “mînam” and “monam” as the reduced forms of “mîkonam”.
| Full Form | Reduced Form |
|---|---|
| pîrâhan | pîran |
| nevardebâm | nardebâm |
| xwâhar | xwâr |
| barâdar | barâr |
| xodemûn | xomûn |
Reduction in Conjugation
VCV reduction is extensively found in the conjugation of verbs in spoken Persian:
| Full Form | Reduced Form |
|---|---|
| mîšavam | mîšam |
| mîravam | mîram |
| mîxwâham | mîxwâm |
| mîdaham | mîdam |
| mîtavânam | mîtânam → mîtûnam |
| mîgûyam | mîgam, mîgûm |
| mîyâvaram | mîyâram |
| mîyâyam mîgâyad mîzâyad |
mîyâm mîgâd mîzâd |
| mîgozâram | mîzâram |
| mîkonam | mînam, monam |
| mîbînam | mînam |
| mîdânam | mînam |
| rafte bûdam | raftûdam |