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Persian (also known as Farsi or Parsi) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Gorjestan (Georgia), part of India and part of Pakistan. It has over 46 million native speakers. It belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is of the Subject Object Verb type.
Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that family, it belongs to the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) branch, within which, the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: Avestan/Old Persian -> Middle Persian (Pahlavi) -> Modern Persian.
The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. Due to technological developments new words and idioms are created and enter into Farsi like any other language. In Iran the Academy of Persian language and literature is a center that evaluates the new words in order to initiate and advise its Persian equivalent.
Although it uses the same Alphabet than the Arabic language, the Persian is a language completly different, with different Phonology and Grammar.
Is the name of the language Persian or Farsi? To answer this question you can ask is it Spanish or Español? In other words, Persian is an English word, and Farsi or Parsi are Persian words.
However, both terms have made their way into the English language by different routes. Persian is the Hellenized form of the native term Parsi and is more widely recognized. Farsi is the Arabicized form and its use in the English language is very recent.
Native Iranians typically call it Farsi and Parsi in modern usage.
- Judeo-Persian was a language spoken by the Jews living in Persia.
- Dari is a dialect of Farsi, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.
- Tajik is considered as dialect of Farsi by some linguists.
Persian phonology -- adapted from this Structural Sketch of Persian.
| front | back | |
| high | i: | u: |
| mid-high | E | o |
| low | ae | A: |
| labial | dentals |
palatals | velars |
|
| voiceless stops | p | t | tS | k |
| voiced stops | b | d | dZ | g |
| voiceless fricatives | f | s | S | x |
| voiced fricatives | v | z | Z | Y |
| nasals | m | n | ||
| liquids | l, r | |||
| glides | y | h |
The functional contrast for vowels appears to be between long {/i:/, /u:/, /A:/} and short {/E/, /O/, /a/}. Therefore, it seems possible to represent the phonology as {/i:/, /u:/, /a:/} and {/i/, /u/, /a/}. Also note that /tS/ and /dZ/ are affricates, not stops.
Persian syntax
Normal sentences are structured: (S) (PP) (O) V
If the object is definite, then the order is (S) (O + "rA:") (PP) V