Prepositions are the unnoticed and underappreciated workhorses of language. They are “grammar words” that indicate relationships. Essentially, their job is to connect other words with bigger and more important meanings. Because their meanings are fairly general, prepositions rarely change, and they rarely move from one language to another.
Despite being ordinary and unremarkable, a little Persian preposition has caught international attention over the past three months: “baraye” (“برای”), which means “for, because of, for the sake of.”
What makes “baraye” special?
As you might have guessed, the sudden explosion of “baraye” onto the global stage is connected to the ongoing protest movement in Iran, and its brutal repression – similar to the...
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