جات

Persian

Etymology

An extended form of (-ât), from Arabic ـَات (-āt). The /dʒ/ goes back to the Middle Persian /ɡ/ that also resurfaces with the plural suffix (-ân), as in (parande) → (parandegân).^[1] Before the Arabic suffix, this /ɡ/ was Arabised to /dʒ/ by analogy with Persian loanwords in Arabic; compare بَرْنامَج (barnāmaj) vis-à-vis Persian (barnâme) etc.

Pronunciation

(Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɑːt]

(Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɑːt̪]
- (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɑːt̪]
- (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɔːt̪]

(Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɒːt̪]

(Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒɔt̪]

Readings
Classical reading^?	jāt
Dari reading^?	jāt
Iranian reading^?	jât
Tajik reading^?	jot

Suffix

جات • (-jât)

Forms the plural of some nouns, mostly ending in (-e), less often in other vowels. Such plurals often have a collective sense, e.g. referring to products or plants.
‎ (sabzi, “vegetable”) + ‎ → ‎ (sabzijat, “vegetables”)

‎ (ruznâme, “newspaper”) + ‎ → ‎ (ruznâmejat, “the print media”)

Usage notes

Sometimes a half-space is used when it follows a terminal (h). For example, one may come across rather than .

References

^ Gernot Windfuhr, John R. Perry (2009) “Persian and Tajik” (chapter 8), in The Iranian Languages‎^[1] (in English), page 430:
Related, but irregular and rare, is suffixation of the generalizing plural suffix -j-āt to final vowel: ruz-nāme 'newspaper' > ruz-nāme-j-āt 'the printing media', sabzi 'greens, vegetable' > sabzi-j-āt 'vegetables' in the generic sense. (...) The alternation -i ~ -i-j-āt originates in Middle Persian suffix -īg, which was loaned early into Arabic, with Pers. j > g, and, with the abstract feminine plural marker -āt, was later re-loaned into Persian, where it is moderately productive, where g thus still underlies the stem form.

[1] Gernot Windfuhr, John R. Perry (2009) “Persian and Tajik” (chapter 8), in The Iranian Languages‎^[1] (in English), page 430:
Related, but irregular and rare, is suffixation of the generalizing plural suffix -j-āt to final vowel: ruz-nāme 'newspaper' > ruz-nāme-j-āt 'the printing media', sabzi 'greens, vegetable' > sabzi-j-āt 'vegetables' in the generic sense. (...) The alternation -i ~ -i-j-āt originates in Middle Persian suffix -īg, which was loaned early into Arabic, with Pers. j > g, and, with the abstract feminine plural marker -āt, was later re-loaned into Persian, where it is moderately productive, where g thus still underlies the stem form.

[1]

جات

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