خیلی

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Persian

Etymology

From خیل (xayl／xeyl, “squadron of cavalry; (by extension) army”) +‎ ـی (-ē／-i, indefinite article), literally “an army of”. First usage meaning "very much, many" was in Gulistan in 1058.[1]

Pronunciation

 
 

Readings
Classical reading? xaylē
Dari reading? xēlī, xaylē
Iranian reading? xeyli
Tajik reading? xele
Dari بسیار
Iranian Persian خیلی
Tajik бисёр, хеле

Adverb

خیلی • (xaylē／xeyli)

  1. very

Adjective

خیلی از • (xaylē az／xeyli az)

  1. many of
    خیلی از دوستام فیلمای آمریکایی رو دوست دارن.
    xeyli az dustâm filmâye âmrikâi ro dust dâran.
    A lot of my friends like American movies.

Usage notes

  • بسیار and خیلی are both used in all dialects. In Iranian Persian خیلی (xeyli) is used most of the time and بسیار (besyâr) acts as a more emphatic version of خیلی (xeyli). The opposite is true in Tajik Persian. In Dari بسیار (bisyār) is slightly more common but neither word is more emphatic than the other.[2]
  • The classical pronunciation of خَیْلی (xaylē) has been lost in most dialects. While the classical pronunciation is still official in Standard Dari,[3] the pronunciation /xeːliː/ is much more frequent in normal speech.
  • In the Tehran dialect, it assumes the variant form خیله (xeyle) when used in the phrase خیله خب (xeyle xob, “OK”), but otherwise remains خیلی (xeyli).[4]

Descendants

References

  1. ^ According to Dehkhoda, the semantic shift is from Saadi Shirazi's Gulistān:
    1258, Saadi Shirazi, Gulistan:
    اندک اندک خیلی شود و قطره قطره سیلی گردد
    andak-andak xaylē šawad wa qatra-qatra saylē gardad
    (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. ^ “Intro to Tajik Persian”, in Persian Language Online‎, 2020 June 12: “Tajik хеле/ḫele may be more intense than бисёр/bisyār, where as the Iranian خیلی/ḫeylī is less intense than بسیار/besyār. The classical pronunciation of خیلی is ḫaylē, which has not been retained by the common pronunciation of either varieties.”
  3. ^ “خیلی”, in قاموس کبیر افغانستان (in Persian), Afghan Dictionary, 2023
  4. ^ “خیله خب”, in Vajehyab Multilingual dictionary‎, (Can we date this quote?)
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