راه

Persian

Alternative forms

• ره (rah)

Etymology

From Middle Persian lʾs (/⁠rāh⁠/, “road, way”) from Proto-Iranian *Hrāθáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hrātʰás, from Proto-Indo-European *Hret-. Compare Old Armenian ռահ (ṙah), borrowed from Middle Iranian.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ɾɑːh]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [rɑːʱ]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [rɑːʱ]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [rɑː]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [rɔː]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [ɹɒːʱ]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [ɾɔʱ]

Readings
Classical reading?	rāh
Dari reading?	rāh
Iranian reading?	râh
Tajik reading?	roh

• Audio (Iran):

  (file)

Noun

Dari	راه
Iranian Persian
Tajik	роҳ

راه • (râh) (plural راه‌ها (râh-hâ))

1. road
2. way
3. path
4. intellect, mind

Derived terms

• شاهراه (šâhrâh)

Related terms

• راهی (râhi)
• راه رفتن (râh raftan)
• راه بردن (râh bordan)
• راه‌آهن (râh-âhan)
• راه شیری (râh-e širi)

Descendants

• → Hindi: राह (rāh)
• → Urdu: راہ (rāh)
• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਰਾਹ (rāh)

  Shahmukhi script: راه (rāh)

References

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “rāh”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 70
• Edelʹman, D. I. (2020) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (in Russian), volume 6, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, page 388