Persian (Fārsī/فارسی)

The Persian language has been written with a number of different scripts, including Old Persian Cuneiform, Pahlavi, Aramaic, and Avestan. After the Islamic conquest of the Persian Sassanian Empire in 642 AD, Arabic became the language of government, culture and especially religion.

Modern Persian appeared during the 9th century. It is written in a version of the Arabic script and is full of words of Arabic origin. There are also two methods of writing Persian with the Latin alphabet.

Under Mongolian and Turkish rulers, Persian was adopted as the language of government in Turkey, central Asia and India, where it was used for centuries, and until after 1900 in Kashmir.

Persian is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. There are a number of closely-related varieties of Persian, including:

Persian (فارسی), is spoken by about 40 million people, mainly in central and south central Iran. There are a further 2 million speakers in many other countries including Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, the UAE and the USA.
Dari (درى) is spoken by about 7 million people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tajiki (Тоҷики / تاجيكى) is spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Ukraine by about 4.4 million people.

Persian, Farsi or Parsi?

The official language of Iran is sometimes called Farsi in English and other languages. This is a correct transliteration of the native name of the language, however many, including the ISO and the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, prefer the name Persian for the language. Some speakers use the older local name: Parsi (پارسی). There is some discussion about this topic at: www.iranian.com and wikipedia.

Iran or Persia?

Until 1935, the official name of the country currently known as Iran was Persia, though the Persian people have called their country Iran since the Sassanid period (226 - 651 AD). There's further discussion about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_naming_dispute

Persian alphabet (الفبای فارسی) and pronunciation

Persian alphabet and pronunciation

Listen to recording of the Persian alphabet by Bahaareh Asghari (بهاره اصغرى)

Numerals

Persian numerals

Note

The symbols for 4,5 and 6 are different from the standard numerals used for Arabic.

Hear a recording of these numbers by Bahaareh Asghari (بهاره اصغرى)

UniPers/Pârsiye Jahân

UnisPers, or Universal Persian, is a method of writing Persian with the Latin alphabet developed in Iran during the 1950s and popularized by Mohamed Keyvan. The chart below shows the letters used to write UniPers, toghether with their equivalent Persian letters.

UniPers alphabet

Pársik

Pársik or IPA2 (International Persian Alphabet) is another method of writing Persian with the Latin alphabet developed recently, mainly by A. Moslehi, a comparative linguist.

Pársik alphabet

Sample text in Persian

Transliteration
Tamām-e afrād-e bashar āzād be-donyā miyāyand va az lehāż-e heis̱īyat-o hoqūq bāham barābarand. Hame dārā-ye ʿaql-o vejdān mībāshand va bāyad nesbat be-yekdīgar bā rūh-e barābarī raftār konand.

Listen to recording of this text by Bahaareh Asghari (بهاره اصغرى)

UniPers version of the above text

Tamâme afrâde bašar âzâd be donyâ miyâyand va az lahâze heysiyyat va hoquq bâ ham barâbarand, hame dârâye aqlo vejdân mibâšand va bâyad nesbat be yekdigar bâ ruhe barâdari raftâr nemâyand.

Pársik/IPA2 version of this text

Tamám e afrád e bascar ázád be donya mi áyand va az leház e heysiyat o hoquq ba ham barábar'and. Hame dára e aql o vejdán mi báscand o báyad nesbat be yekdigar ba ruh e barábari raftár konand.

Sample text in Persian

This text, supplied by Sahand Nasr, has fewer Arabic loanwords.

Sample text in Persian (with fewer Arabic loanwords and in Shekaste style)

UniPers version of the above text

Hameye ensânhâ âzâd pâ be jahân migozârand va az didgâhe bozorgi va bahrehâyešân bâ ham barâbarand. Be ânân hušo vejdan baxšide šode ast va bâyad bâ yekdigar barâdarâne raftâr nemâyand.

Listen to recording of this text by Bahaareh Asghari (بهاره اصغرى)

UniPers texts provided by Sahand Nasr

Pársik/IPA2 provided by Daniel Ben-David

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Persian

Language learning materials for Persian (Farsi, Dari & Tajik)