Persian language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Farsi" redirects here. For other uses, see Farsi (disambiguation). Persian Fārsi فارسی Fārsi written in Persian (Nastaʿlīq script) Pronunciation [fɒːɾˈsiː] [1] Native to Iran Afghanistan[1] (as Dari) Tajikistan[1] (as Tajik) Uzbekistan (as Tajik) Iraq[2] Russia[3][4] Azerbaijan[5] Native speakers 45 million (2007)[6] – 60 million (2009)[5] (110 million total speakers)[5] Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Southwestern Iranian Persian Early forms Old Persian Middle Persian Standard forms Western Persian Dari Tajik Dialects Western Persian Dari Tajik Bukhori Pahlavani Hazaragi Aimaq Judeo-Persian Dehwari Judeo-Tat[5] Caucasian Tat[5] Armeno-Tat[5] Writing system Persian alphabet (Iran and Afghanistan) Tajik alphabet (Tajikistan) o Hebrew o Persian Braille Official status Official language in Iran (as Persian) Afghanistan (as Dari) Tajikistan (as Tajik) Regulated by Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Iran) Language codes ISO 639-1 fa ISO 639-2 per (B) fas (T) ISO 639-3 fas – inclusive code Individual codes: pes – Western Persian prs – Dari language (Afghan Persian) tgk – Tajiki aiq – Aimaq dialect bhh – Bukhori dialect haz – Hazaragi dialect jpr – Judeo-Persian phv – Pahlavani deh – Dehwari jdt – Judeo-Tat ttt – Caucasian Tat [7] Glottolog fars1254 Linguasphere 58-AAC (Wider Persian) > 58-AAC-c (Central Persian) Areas with significant numbers of Persian speakers (including dialects) Countries where Persian is an official language This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicodecharacters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. This article contains Persian text.Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. ,((fārsi [fɒːɾˈsiː] ( listen فارسی) Persian (/ˈpɜːrʒən/ or /ˈpɜːrʃən/), also known by its endonym Farsi is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan (officially known as Dari since 1958),[8] and Tajikistan (officially known as Tajiki since the Soviet era),[9] and some other regions which historically were Persianate societies and considered part of Greater Iran. It is written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. The Persian language is classified as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire.[10][11][12]Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages.[13] Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis (modern-day Fars Province), hence the name Persian (Farsi).[14] A Persian- speaking person may be referred to as Persophone.[15] There are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a prestigious cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia by the various empires based in the regions.[16] Persian has had a considerable (mainly lexical) influence on neighboring languages, particularly the Turkic languages in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Anatolia, neighboring Iranian languages, as well as Armenian, Georgian, and Indo-Aryan languages, especially Urdu (a register of Hindustani). It also exerted some influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic,[17] while borrowing much vocabulary from it after the Arab conquest of Iran.[10][13][18][19][20][21][22] With a long history of literature in the form of Middle Persian before Islam, Persian was the first language in the Muslim world to break through Arabic's monopoly on writing, and the writing of poetry in Persian was established as a court tradition in many eastern courts.[16] Some of the famous works of Persian literature are the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the works of Rumi, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi, the Divān of Hafez and the two miscellanea of prose and verse by Saadi Shirazi, the Gulistan and the Bustan. Contents [hide] 1Classification 2Etymology o 2.1Persian language name in Persian o 2.2Persian language name in English 3History o 3.1Old Persian o 3.2Middle Persian o 3.3New Persian . 3.3.1Early New Persian . 3.3.2Classical Persian . 3.3.3Use in Asia Minor . 3.3.4Use in South Asia . 3.3.5Contemporary Persian 4Varieties 5Phonology o 5.1Vowels o 5.2Consonants 6Grammar o 6.1Morphology o 6.2Syntax 7Vocabulary o 7.1Native word formation o 7.2Influences 8Orthography o 8.1Persian alphabet . 8.1.1Additions . 8.1.2Variations o 8.2Latin alphabet o 8.3Tajik alphabet 9Examples 10See also 11References 12Sources 13Further reading 14External links Classification[edit] Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family. Other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, and Luri.[23] Etymology[edit] Persian language name in Persian[edit] In Persian, the language is known by several names: zabān-e fārsi) has زبان فارسی fārsi or فارسی) pārsi) or Farsi پارسی) Western Persian, Parsi been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. In recent decades some authors writing in English have referred to the variety of Persian spoken in Iran as Farsi;[24][25]although the name Persian is also still widely used.[26][27][28] fārsi-ye dari) was originally a synonym فارسی دری darī or دری) Eastern Persian, Dari Persian for Fārsi but since the latter decades of the 20th century has become the name for the variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan, where it is one of the two official languages; it is sometimes called Afghan Persian in English.[29] zabon-i tojiki) is the variety of فارسی تاجیکی / tojikī or забони тоҷикӣ تاجیکی , Tajiki (тоҷикӣ Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks. Persian language name in English[edit] Persian, the historically more widely used name of the language in English, is an anglicized form derived from Latin *Persianus < Latin Persia < Greek Περσίς Persís"Persia",[30] a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa.[31] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century.[32] Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi.[33] Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic (i.e., the /p/ was replaced with an /f/).[34][35][36] The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs.[34][35][36] In English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some linguistic literature as a name for the language, used both by Iranian and by foreign authors.[37] In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi (or Parsee) describes Zoroastrians, particularly in South Asia. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has declared that the name Persian is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity.[38] Some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of "Farsi" in their articles.[39][40] The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa , as its coding system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name "Persian" (code fas ) for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari (Afghan Persian) and Iranian Persian.[41] Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty use "Persian Service" for their broadcasts in the language. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan (Dari) service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and many of the leading scholars of the Persian language.[42] History[edit] History of the Persian language Proto-Iranian (c. 1500 BCE) Western Iranian languages Old Persian (c. 525 – 300 BCE) Old Persian cuneiform Middle Persian (c. 300 BCE – 800 CE) Pahlavi scripts • Manichaean alphabet • Avestan alphabet Modern Persian (from 800) Persian alphabet • Tajiki Cyrillic alphabet Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. In general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New (Modern) periods. These correspond to three eras in Iranian history; Old era being the period from sometime before Achaemenids, the Achaemenid era and sometime after Achaemenids (that is to 400–300 BC), Middle era being the next period most officially Sassanid era and sometime in post-Sassanid era, and the New era being the period afterwards down to present day.[43] According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language"[10] for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent[10][44]one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian.[44] The known history of the Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: Old Persian[edit] Main articles: Old Persian and Persian verbs Old Persian As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions.