Persian (Farsi/Dari)

Spoken in: Iran (Persia), Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

Region: Middle East, Central Asia

Total speakers: est. 110 million

Genetic Classification: Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Southwestern Modern Persian

Official language of: Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan

Persian (Farsi) is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that family the language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. Due to technological developments, new words and idioms are created and enter into Persian like any other language. In Tehran the Academy Of Persian Language and Literature is a centre that evaluates the new words in order to initiate and advise its Persian equivalent. In Afghanistan, the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan does the same for Afghan Persian.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the three versions of the modern Persian have been on increasingly divergent paths. Russian words have entered Tajiki Persian, and Pashtu words have been introduced into the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan.

The grammatical structure of modern Persian is very close to that of Dari. The vocabulary has gone through a tremendous upheaval. Many old and pure Persian words have been abandoned and given way to foreign borrowed words. These foreign languages include Arabic, Turkish, Mongolian, and more recently French and English.

Persian (Farsi) is written in the Arabic script with 5 additional letters. This alphabet is also known as, Perso-Arabic. In the 19th century, and then again in the 1920's, unsuccessful attempts were made to simplify Perso-Arabic or replace it with a Latin-based alphabet. The Perso-Arabic alphabet has many basic shortcomings. In order to find a solution to these problems, scholars and enthusiasts have recently revived the commitment to introduce alternate alphabets for Persian.

Currently SSWAHS Health Care Interpreter Service employs 0.8 FTE Farsi/Persian and 3 sessional interpreters.