The divergence between spoken and written Persian manifests across three linguistic levels: grammatical, lexical, and phonetic. These differences are hierarchically ordered in significance, with grammatical distinctions outweighing lexical ones and lexical distinctions superseding phonetic variations, although native speakers of the language often perceive phonetic shifts—such as colloquial contractions in speech—as more salient than grammatical or lexical differences. Many translators similarly prioritize phonetic reduction (e.g., contractions) when rendering dialogues, thereby neglecting grammatical and lexical divergences. This overemphasis leads to a tendency to treat phonetic simplification as the primary—or even sole—method of distinguishing spoken and written registers. This study critically examines Persian translations of dramatic dialogues, specifically focusing on translators’ adherence to grammatical and lexical norms of spoken Persian and their use of colloquial lexical forms. For analysis, a segment from Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame has been selected. Six published Persian translations of this text are compared, with direct quotations retaining the translators’ original orthography and punctuation. The evaluation highlights shortcomings arising from inattention to grammatical and lexical conventions of spoken Persian, as well as inappropriate lexical truncation.
