ABSTRACT
Although Persian speakers in each corner of Iran have their own accent, which is easily recognizable and betrays exactly where they come from when they talk, what is meant by colloquial Persian in a more general sense is Tehrani, that is, Persian as spoken in Tehran, the capital. This accent is not only understood all over Iran – and beyond – thanks to the media, but threatens to assimilate all local vernaculars in the course of time. This chapter focuses on the major differences between formal, standard Persian and the colloquial Persian, the Tehrani accent, and how the pronunciation changes from standard to Tehrani. These changes only occur if the words are common enough at the colloquial level. In the present perfect tense, in its formal version, learners have the -e of the past participle followed by the a- / i- of the verb 'to be.' The Tehrani accent tries to get rid of one of the two vowels.