Persian, also known as Farsi, is spoken in parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. It has over 60 million native speakers and is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. The Arabic script is used, with slight modifications, in most Persian-speaking areas, while Tajik uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Persian is an ancient language and has contributed many words to English, including bronze, caravan, and sugar.
Persian is a language spoken in parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. It is also known to many people as Farsi and less commonly as Dari or Tajik. Persian has over 60 million native speakers, with another 50 million speaking it in addition to their first language.
Persian is the official language of the nations of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan and is spoken in parts of Iraq, Armenia and Russia. While various Persian dialects are in use around the world, they are all mutually intelligible, unlike some widespread languages such as Arabic and Mandarin. The differences in speech are not drastic between dialects like Tajik and Dari, for example, although the alphabets used are completely different.
The original alphabets of Persian – one a derivative of the Aramaic alphabet, the other an Iranian script – were phased out in the 9th century in favor of the Arabic script. This was a direct result of the conversion of the region then known as Persia to the religion of Islam and the subsequent widespread use of Arabic in all religious and many secular writings. The Arabic alphabet used in Iran and other Persian-speaking parts of the Middle East is slightly modified from the standard Arabic alphabet, however, most notably with the addition of four new letters to add sounds not found in Arabic. Indeed, without one of these – peh – Persian would not be able to write the word Persian, instead having to rely on Farsi Arabic spelling and pronunciation.
The Persian dialect of Tajik, the official language of the nation of Tajikistan, uses the Cyrillic alphabet, rather than the Arabic alphabet. This makes sense, given Tajikistan’s close relationship with Russia—indeed, many believe that Tajik is a Russo-Persian dialect. In parts of Afghanistan where Tajik is spoken, however, the Arabic alphabet is still used.
Persian is an ancient language, used in its modern form for more than 1100 years, and in the ancient forms for much longer. In the past, it was spoken in a much larger area of the world and was even a major language of India up until the time of the British conquest. The Hindi language has been heavily influenced by Persian and traces also occur in a number of regional languages and dialects.
Persian has also contributed many words to English throughout its history. These words include: bronze, caravan, caviar, chess, guitar, India, jasmine, khaki, lemon, lilac, magic, mummy, orange, pagoda, pajama, paradise, peach, pistachio, rose, saffron, scimitar, sherry, sugar, tambourine, tapestry and tiger. Since the Greeks had substantial contact with Persia in early times, many English words come to us from Latin, Greek, and originally Persian.
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