| Persian
(or Farsi in Persian) refers to an Indo-European
language that was spoken in the old Persian Empire. It
is spoken in today's Iran, parts of Afghanistan, and
parts of the old southern Soviet states such as
Tajikistan. There are numerous dialects of Persian
language, such as Dari, Gilaki, etc. The standard and
modern Persian is spoken in today's Iran.
Persian
alphabet has 32 letters (as compared to 28 in Arabic and
26 in English) and is written from right to left. Some
of the letters can be connected to from both left and
right and some can only be connected from right.
Therefore, each letter may have two or three different
shapes based on connectivity and its occurrence at the
beginning, middle or the end of a word. It means that
memorizing less than 100 visual icons is sufficient to
read and write Persian words.
As compared
to Latin scripts, there is no limitation on the width of
the letters and this brings a great variability in form
and writing style. Letters can be expanded, curved and
angled to fit the width.
Many have an
image that Persian and Arabic alphabet are the same.
Persian alphabet includes but not restricted to Arabic
letters. Arabic alphabet belongs to the group of Semitic
scripts in which the consonants are actually written and
vowels are placed in between the lines. Arabic script is
derived from the Aramaic Nabataean alphabet and has 28
letters derived from 18 shapes, distinguished by one (10
cases) or two dots (3 cases) placed above or below the
letter or three dots place above the letter only (2
cases).
Persian
has 32 letters derived from 18 shapes. Letters are
distinguished by one (10 cases), two (3 cases) or three
dots (5 cases) placed above or below the letter. Three
long vowels, AA, EE and OO are also represented by
letters. Short vowels for A, E and O have no letters and
may be shown by small diagonal underbar stroke (for E)
and overbar stroke (for A) or small comma (for O).
|
Long vowels |
|
pronounced like English Arch |
AA |
 |
|
pronounced like English Iran |
EE |
 |
|
pronounced like English occUr |
UU |
 |
Those letters exclusive to Persian,
that are not found in Arabic, are:
|
Exclusive Persian
letters |
|
pronounced like English push |
pe |
 |
|
pronounced like English change |
che |
 |
|
pronounced like French John |
je |
 |
|
pronounced like English groove |
gaf |
 |
Again many
people have a wrong image that Persian and Arabic
scripts are the same. There are six script styles, named
Shesh Ghalam:
Nasta-ligh (Farsi), Kufi, Deewani, Naskh, Req'aa and
Thuluth.
The most common Persian script is called Nasta-ligh,
that is a lighter and much more elegant version of
Taligh or hanging script. The basic rules of Nasta-ligh
were developed over centuries and were revised in the
Safavi (~1500 A.D.) period. Nasta-ligh is different from
Naskh which is common in Arabic, roughly, due to shape
of letters and style of writing.
Persian Alphabet
|
Pronunciation |
Position in a word |
Character
(stand alone) |
char.
no. |
Shape
no. |
|
end |
middle |
beginning |
|
alef |
 |
 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
a |
|
|
|
be |
 |
 |
 |
 |
2 |
2 |
|
pe |
 |
 |
 |
|
3 |
|
te |
 |
 |
 |
 |
4 |
|
the |
 |
 |
 |
 |
5 |
|
jim |
 |
 |
 |
 |
6 |
3 |
|
che |
 |
 |
 |
|
7 |
|
he |
 |
 |
 |
 |
8 |
|
khe |
 |
 |
 |
 |
9 |
|
dal |
 |
 |
|
10 |
4 |
|
zal |
 |
 |
|
11 |
|
re |
 |
 |
|
12 |
5 |
|
ze |
 |
 |
|
13 |
|
je |
 |
|
|
14 |
|
sin |
 |
 |
 |
 |
15 |
6 |
|
shin |
 |
 |
 |
 |
16 |
|
sad |
 |
 |
 |
 |
17 |
7 |
|
zad |
 |
 |
 |
 |
18 |
|
teyn |
 |
 |
 |
19 |
8 |
|
zeyn |
 |
 |
 |
20 |
|
eyn |
 |
 |
 |
 |
21 |
9 |
|
gheyn |
 |
 |
 |
 |
22 |
|
fe |
 |
 |
 |
 |
23 |
10 |
|
qaf |
 |
 |
 |
 |
24 |
11 |
|
kaf |
 |
 |
 |
 |
25 |
12 |
|
gaf |
 |
 |
 |
|
26 |
|
lam |
 |
 |
 |
 |
27 |
13 |
|
mim |
 |
 |
 |
 |
28 |
14 |
|
nun |
 |
 |
 |
 |
29 |
15 |
|
waw |
 |
|
|
30 |
16 |
|
he |
 |
 |
 |
 |
31 |
17 |
|
ye |
 |
 |
 |
|
32 |
18 |
|
hamze |
 |
 |
 |
|
