Persian Language (Fārsī / فارسی)

Classification and Language Family

The Persian language—known endonymically as Fārsī (فارسی) in Iran, Dari (دری) in Afghanistan, and Tajik (Тоҷикӣ) in Tajikistan—is a member of the Indo-European language family, within the Indo-Iranian branch, and specifically the Iranian group of languages. Within the Iranian languages, Persian belongs to the Southwestern Iranian subgroup, closely related to Luri, Bakhtiari, and Tat, and more distantly to Kurdish (Northwestern Iranian) and Pashto (Eastern Iranian).

Related Languages and Mutual Intelligibility

Modern Persian is largely mutually intelligible among its three major standardized varieties:

• Iranian Persian (Fārsī), spoken primarily in Iran;

• Dari Persian, spoken in Afghanistan;

• Tajik Persian, spoken in Tajikistan (written in Cyrillic script).

Speakers of these varieties can generally understand one another, though differences exist in pronunciation, vocabulary, and, in the case of Tajik, orthography. Mutual intelligibility with other Iranian languages such as Kurdish, Pashto, or Balochi is limited.

---

Origins and Historical Development

Persian is one of the world’s oldest continuously used languages, with a documented history stretching over 2,500 years. Its development is traditionally divided into three stages:

1. Old Persian (6th–4th centuries BCE):
   The language of the Achaemenid Empire, recorded in cuneiform inscriptions such as those at Behistun.

2. Middle Persian (3rd century BCE–9th century CE):
   Also called Pahlavi, it was the official language of the Sasanian Empire and the ancestor of Modern Persian.

3. New Persian (from 9th century CE onward):
   Developed after the Islamic conquest of Iran and written in the Arabic script. The earliest New Persian texts appeared under the Samanid Empire in Transoxiana (modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).

By the 10th century, New Persian became a prestigious lingua franca across much of the Islamic world, adopted by Turkic dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Ottomans, and later the Mughals in India.

---

Geographical Distribution and Number of Speakers

Today, Persian is spoken by over 120 million people as a first or second language.

• Iran: ~85 million speakers (official language)

• Afghanistan: ~15–20 million speakers (officially recognized as Dari)

• Tajikistan: ~10 million speakers (officially Tajik)
  Significant diaspora communities also exist in the United States, Europe, and the Persian Gulf states.

---

Cultural and Literary Significance

Persian has a rich literary heritage, producing some of the most celebrated works in world literature. Key figures include:

• Ferdowsi (c. 940–1020): author of the Shāhnāmeh (“Book of Kings”), a national epic of over 50,000 couplets.

• Rūdakī (9th–10th century): often regarded as the “father of Persian poetry.”

• Omar Khayyam (1048–1131): poet, mathematician, and author of the Rubāʿiyāt.

• Hāfez (1325–1389): master of the ghazal form; his Divān remains a staple in Persian households.

• Saʿdī of Shiraz (1210–1291): author of Būstān (The Orchard) and Gulistān (The Rose Garden).

• Rūmī (Jalāl al-Dīn Balkhī) (1207–1273): Sufi poet whose Masnavi is a cornerstone of Persian mystical thought.

Persian served as a court and literary language in Mughal India, Ottoman Turkey, and Central Asia for centuries, shaping the literary traditions of Urdu, Turkish, and many Turkic languages.

---

Dialects and Varieties

In Iran

Persian dialects include Tehrani Persian (standard), Esfahani, Shirazi, Mashhadi, and others, differing mainly in phonology and intonation.

Dari Persian (Afghanistan)

Dari retains more archaic features and distinctions lost in Iranian Persian, such as certain vowel contrasts. It is spoken in Kabul, Herat, and the central highlands.

Tajik Persian (Tajikistan)

Influenced by Russian and Turkic languages, Tajik Persian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet and has undergone vocabulary and phonetic changes, yet remains intelligible to speakers of Iranian Persian.

 

---

Grammar

Articles

Persian has no definite article (“the”). Indefiniteness is marked by the suffix -i attached to nouns:

• ketāb (book) → ketābi (a book)
  Example:

• Ketāb ruye miz ast. – “The book is on the table.”

• Ketābi ruye miz ast. – “There is a book on the table.”

Demonstrative Pronouns

Example:

• In ketāb khub ast. – “This book is good.”

• Ān dokhtar dustam ast. – “That girl is my friend.”

Relative Pronouns

The main relative pronoun is ke (که), meaning “who,” “that,” or “which.”

• Mardi ke āmad dust-e man ast. – “The man who came is my friend.”

---

Verb System

Persian verbs inflect for person, number, and tense, but not for gender. There are two stems: present and past. Compound tenses are formed with the auxiliary verb budan (“to be”).

Common Tenses

Present Conjugation of “raftan”

---

Syntax

Persian is an SOV (Subject–Object–Verb) language:

• Man ketāb rā khāndam. – “I read the book.”
  The object marker -rā marks definite, specific objects.

Adjectives follow nouns:

• mard-e bozorg – “the big man.”
  Prepositions precede nouns:

• dar khāneh – “in the house.”

---

Phonology

Persian has six vowels and about 23 consonants. Stress typically falls on the final syllable of a word.
Vowel inventory: /æ/, /e/, /i/, /ɒː/, /o/, /u/.

Distinctive sounds include /ʒ/ (as in “measure”) and uvular /ɣ/.

Example sentence:

• Man be madrase miravam. – “I go to school.”

---

Vocabulary and Loanwords

Persian vocabulary is predominantly of Iranian origin but has absorbed many Arabic loanwords since the Islamic period, as well as Turkic, French, and English terms in modern times.
Examples:

• ketāb (book – from Arabic kitāb)

• telefon (telephone – from French)

• dowlat (government – Arabic)

• bāzār (market – Persian origin, borrowed widely into other languages)

---

Influence on Other Cultures

From the 10th to 19th centuries, Persian functioned as the prestige language of administration, literature, and culture across the Islamic world. It was the official language of the Mughal Empire in India and served as a literary language among Turkic empires such as the Seljuks, Ottomans, and Timurids. Persian vocabulary and poetic style profoundly influenced Urdu, Turkish, and Hindi.

---

Conclusion

The Persian language stands as one of the world’s great literary and cultural languages, with deep historical roots and wide influence across Asia. Its flexible grammar, melodic phonology, and rich literary corpus have ensured its enduring prestige from the Achaemenid kings to modern-day poets and filmmakers.

1. Afrikaans, click on this link.
2. Albanian, click on this link.
3. Amharic, click on this link.
4. Arabic, click on this link
5. Armenian,  click on this link.
6. Assamese, click on this link.
7. Aymara, click on this link.
8. Azeri,click on this link.
9. Bambara, click on this link.
10. Basque, click on this link.
11. Belarusian, click on this link.
12. Bengali, click on this link.
13. Bosnian, click on this link.
14. Bulgarian, click on this link.
15. Catalan, click on this link.
16. Cebuano, click on this link.
17. Chewa, click on this link.
18. Chinese, click on this link.
19. Corsican, click on this link.
20. Croatian, click on this link.
21. Czech, click on this link.
22. Danish, click on this link.
23. Dhivehi, click on this link.
24. Dogri, click on this link.
25. Dutch, click on this link.
26. Estonian, click on this link.
27. Ewe, click on this link.
28. Faroese, click on this link.
29. Fijian, click on this link.
30. Filipino, click on this link.
31. Finnish, click on this link.
32. Fon, click on this link.
33. French, click on this link.
34. Frisian, click on this link.
35. Fulani, click on this link.
36. Ga, click on this link.
37. Galician, click on this link.
38. Georgian, click on this link.
39. German, click on this link.
40. Greek, click on this link.
41. Guarani, click on this link.
42. Hausa, click on this link.
43. Hawaiian, click on this link.
44. Hindi, click on this link.
45. Hunsrick, click on this link.
46. Hungarian, click on this link.
47. Icelandic, click on this link.
48. Igbo, click on this link.
49. Ilocano, click on this link.
50. Indonesian, click on this link.
51. Inuktut, click on this link.
52. Irish, click on this link.
53. Portuguese, click on this link.
54. Spanish, click on this link.
55. Turkish, click on this link.
56. Russian, click on this link.
57. Urdu, click on this link.
58. Korean, click on this link.