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Persian alphabet

For other scripts that have been used to write the Persian language, seePersian language § Orthography.

ThePersian alphabet(Persian:الفبای فارسی,romanized:Alefbâ-ye Fârsi), also known as thePerso-Arabic script,is theright-to-leftalphabetused for thePersian language.It is a variation of theArabic scriptwith five additional letters:پ چ ژ گ(the sounds 'g', 'zh', 'ch', and 'p', respectively), in addition to the obsoleteڤthat was used for the sound/β/.This letter is no longer used in Persian, as the[β]-sound changed to[b],e.g. archaicزڤان/zaβɑn/>زبان/zæbɒn/'language'.[1][2]

Persian alphabet
الفبای فارسی
Alefbâ-ye Fârsi
"Fârsi" written in the Persian alphabet inNastaliqstyle
Script type
Abjad
DirectionRight-to-left scriptEdit this on Wikidata
LanguagesPersian
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
This article containsPersian text.Without properrendering support,you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols.
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It was the basis of manyArabic-based scriptsused in Central and South Asia. It is used for theIranianandDaristandard varietiesof Persian; and is one of twoofficialwriting systemsfor the Persian language, alongside theCyrillic-basedTajik alphabet.

The script is mostly but not exclusivelyright-to-left;mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right. The script iscursive,meaning most letters in a word connect to each other; when they are typed, contemporaryword processorsautomatically join adjacent letter forms.

History

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The Persian alphabet is directly derived and developed from theArabic alphabet.The Arabic alphabet was introduced to the Persian-speaking world after theMuslim conquest of Persiaand the fall of theSasanian Empirein the 7th century. Following which, theArabiclanguage became the principal language of government and religious institutions inPersia,which led to the widespread usage of the Arabic script. ClassicalPersian literatureand poetry were affected by this simultaneous usage ofArabicandPersian.A new influx ofArabicvocabulary soon entered thePersianlanguage.[3]In the 8th century, theTahirid dynastyandSamanid dynastyofficially adopted the Arabic script for writing Persian, followed by theSaffarid dynastyin the 9th century, gradually displacing the variousPahlavi scriptsused for the Persian language prior. By the 9th-century, the Perso-Arabic alphabet became the dominant form of writing inGreater Khorasan.[3][4][5]

Under the influence of various Persian Empires, many languages in Central and South Asia that adopted the Arabic script use the Persian Alphabet as the basis of their writing systems. Today, extended versions of the Persian alphabet are used to write a wide variety ofIndo-Iranian languages,includingKurdish,Balochi,Pashto,Urdu(fromClassical Hindostani),Saraiki,Panjabi,SindhiandKashmiri.In the past the use of the Persian alphabet was common amongstTurkic languages,but today is relegated to those spoken within Iran, such asAzerbaijani,Turkmen,Qashqai,ChaharmahaliandKhalaj.TheUyghur languagein western China is the most notable exception to this.

During the colonization of Central Asia, many languages in theSoviet Union,including Persian, were reformed by the government. This ultimately resulted in the Cyrillic-based alphabet used in Tajikistan today. See:Tajik alphabet § History.

Letters

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Example showing theNastaʿlīqcalligraphic style's proportion rules[citation needed]

Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, initial (joined on the left), medial (joined on both sides) and final (joined on the right) of a word.[6]These include the 22 letters corresponding to a letter in thePhoenician alphabetor the Northwest Semitic abjad, 6 extra letters not in any of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet or the Northwest Semitic abjad and 4 extra letters not in any of the 28 letters of theArabic alphabet.These combined total letters is 10 last letters not corresponding to a letter in the Phoenician alphabet and also the Northwest Semitic abjad as well as the Arabic alphabet.

The names of the letters are mostly the ones used in Arabic except for the Persian pronunciation. The only ambiguous name ishe,which is used for bothحandه.For clarification, they are often calledḥä-ye jimi(literally "jim-likeḥe"afterjim,the name for the letterجthat uses the same base form) andhâ-ye do-češm(literally "two-eyedhe",after the contextual middle letterformـهـ), respectively.

Overview table

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# Name
(in Persian) 		Name
(transliterated) 		Transliteration IPA Unicode Contextual forms
Final Medial Initial Isolated
0 همزه hamze[7] ʾ Glottal stop[ʔ] U+0621 — — — ء
U+0623 ـأ أ
U+0626 ـئ ـئـ ئـ ئ
U+0624 ـؤ ؤ
1 الف ʾalef â [ɒ] U+0627 ـا ا
2 ب be b [b] U+0628 ـب ـبـ بـ ب
3 پ pe p [p] U+067E ـپ ـپـ پـ پ
4 ت te t [t] U+062A ـت ـتـ تـ ت
5 ث s̱e s̱ [s] U+062B ـث ـثـ ثـ ث
6 جیم jim j [d͡ʒ] U+062C ـج ـجـ جـ ج
7 چ če č [t͡ʃ] U+0686 ـچ ـچـ چـ چ
8 ح ḥe(ḥâ-ye ḥotti,ḥâ-ye jimi) ḥ [h] U+062D ـح ـحـ حـ ح
9 خ xe x [x] U+062E ـخ ـخـ خـ خ
10 دال dâl d [d] U+062F ـد د
11 ذال ẕâl ẕ [z] U+0630 ـذ ذ
12 ر re r [r] U+0631 ـر ر
13 ز ze z [z] U+0632 ـز ز
14 ژ že ž [ʒ] U+0698 ـژ ژ
15 سین sin s [s] U+0633 ـس ـسـ سـ س
16 شین šin š [ʃ] U+0634 ـش ـشـ شـ ش
17 صاد ṣâd ṣ [s] U+0635 ـص ـصـ صـ ص
18 ضاد zâd ż [z] U+0636 ـض ـضـ ضـ ض
19 طا tâ t [t] U+0637 ـط ـطـ طـ ط
20 ظا ẓâ ẓ [z] U+0638 ـظ ـظـ ظـ ظ
21 عین ʿayn ʿ [ʔ],[æ]/[a] U+0639 ـع ـعـ عـ ع
22 غین ġayn ġ [ɢ],[ɣ] U+063A ـغ ـغـ غـ غ
23 ف fe f [f] U+0641 ـف ـفـ فـ ف
24 قاف qâf q [q] U+0642 ـق ـقـ قـ ق
25 کاف kâf k [k] U+06A9 ـک ـکـ کـ ک
26 گاف gâf g [ɡ] U+06AF ـگ ـگـ گـ گ
27 لام lâm l [l] U+0644 ـل ـلـ لـ ل
28 میم mim m [m] U+0645 ـم ـمـ مـ م
29 نون nun n [n] U+0646 ـن ـنـ نـ ن
30 واو vâv(in Farsi) v/ū/ow/o [uː],[ow],[v],[o](only word-finally) U+0648 ـو و
wâw(in Dari) w/ū/aw/ō [uː],[w],[aw],[oː]
31 ه he(hā-ye havvaz,hā-ye do-češm) h [h],or[e]and[a](word-finally) U+0647 ـه ـهـ هـ ه
32 ی ye y/ī/á/ (Alsoay/ēin Dari) [j],[i],[ɒː]([aj]/[eː]in Dari) U+06CC ـی ـیـ یـ ی

Historically, inEarly New Persian,there was a special letter for the sound/β/.This letter is no longer used, as the/β/-sound changed to/b/,e.g. archaicزڤان/zaβān/ >زبان/zæbɒːn/'language'.[8]

Sound Isolated form Final form Medial form Initial form Name
/β/ ڤ ـڤ ـڤـ ڤـ βe

Variants

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یهونملگکقفغعظطضصشسژزرذدخحچجثتپباء
• Noto Nastaliq Urdu
• Scheherazade
• Lateef
• Noto Naskh Arabic
• Markazi Text
• Noto Sans Arabic
• Baloo Bhaijaan
• El Messiri SemiBold
• Lemonada Medium
• Changa Medium
• Mada
• Noto Kufi Arabic
• Reem Kufi
• Lalezar
• Jomhuria
• Rakkas
The alphabet in 16 fonts:Noto Nastaliq Urdu, Scheherazade, Lateef, Noto Naskh Arabic, Markazi Text, Noto Sans Arabic, Baloo Bhaijaan, El Messiri SemiBold, Lemonada Medium, Changa Medium, Mada, Noto Kufi Arabic, Reem Kufi, Lalezar, Jomhuria, and Rakkas.

Letter construction

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forms(i) isolated ء ا ى ں ٮ ح س ص ط ع ڡ ٯ ک ل م د ر و ه
start ء ا ٮـ حـ سـ صـ طـ عـ ڡـ کـ لـ مـ د ر و هـ
mid ء ـا ـٮـ ـحـ ـسـ ـصـ ـطـ ـعـ ـڡـ ـکـ ـلـ ـمـ ـد ـر ـو ـهـ
end ء ـا ـى ـں ـٮ ـح ـس ـص ـط ـع ـڡ ـٯ ـک ـل ـم ـد ـر ـو ـه
i'jam(i)
Unicode 0621.. 0627.. 0649.. 06BA.. 066E.. 062D.. 0633.. 0635.. 0637.. 0639.. 06A1.. 066F.. 066F.. 0644.. 0645.. 062F.. 0631.. 0648... 0647..
1 dot below ﮳ ب ج
Unicode FBB3. 0628.. 062C..
1 dot above ﮲ ن خ ض ظ غ ف ذ ز
Unicode FBB2. 0646.. 062E.. 0636.. 0638.. 063A.. 0641.. 0630.. 0632..
2 dots below(ii) ﮵ ی
Unicode FBB5. 06CC..
2 dots above ﮴ ت ق ة
Unicode FBB4. 062A.. 0642.. 0629..
3 dots below ﮹ پ چ
Unicode FBB9.FBB7. 067E.. 0686..
3 dots above ﮶ ث ش ژ
Unicode FBB6. 062B.. 0634.. 0698..
line above ‾ گ
Unicode 203E. 06AF..
none ء ا ی ں ح س ص ط ع ک ل م د ر و ه
Unicode 0621.. 0627.. 0649.. 06BA.. 062D.. 0633.. 0635.. 0637.. 0639.. 066F.. 0644.. 0645.. 062F.. 0631.. 0648... 0647..
maddaabove ۤ آ
Unicode 06E4.0653. 0622..
Hamzabelow ــٕـ إ
Unicode 0655. 0625..
Hamzaabove ــٔـ أ ئ ؤ ۀ
Unicode 0674.0654. 0623.. 0626.. 0624.. 06C0..

^i.Thei'jamdiacritic characters are illustrative only; in most typesetting the combined characters in the middle of the table are used.

^ii.Persianyēhas 2 dots below in the initial and middle positions only. Thestandard Arabicversionي يـ ـيـ ـيalways has 2 dots below.

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Seven letters (و,ژ,ز,ر,ذ,د,ا) do not connect to the following letter, unlike the rest of the letters of the alphabet. The seven letters have the same form in isolated and initial position and a second form in medial and final position. For example, when the letterاalefis at the beginning of a word such asاینجاinjâ( "here" ), the same form is used as in an isolatedalef.In the case ofامروزemruz( "today" ), the letterرretakes the final form and the letterوvâvtakes the isolated form, but they are in the middle of the word, andزalso has its isolated form, but it occurs at the end of the word.

Diacritics

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Persian script has adopted a subset ofArabic diacritics:zabar/æ/(fatḥahin Arabic),zēr/e/(kasrahin Arabic), andpēš/ou̯/or/o/(ḍammahin Arabic, pronouncedzammeinWestern Persian),tanwīne nasb/æn/andšaddah(gemination). Other Arabic diacritics may be seen in Arabic loanwords in Persian.

Short vowels

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Of the four Arabic diacritics, the Persian language has adopted the following three for short vowels. The last one,sukūn,which indicates the lack of a vowel, has not been adopted.

Short vowels
(fullyvocalizedtext) 		Name
(in Persian) 		Name
(transliterated) 		Trans.(a) Value(b)

(Farsi/Dari)

064E
◌َ‎ 		زبر
(فتحه) 		zebar/zibar a /æ/ /a/
0650
◌ِ‎ 		زیر
(کسره) 		zer/zir e;i /e/ /ɪ/;/ɛ/
064F
◌ُ‎ 		پیش
(ضمّه) 		peš/piš o;u /o/ /ʊ/

^a.There is no standard transliteration for Persian. The letters 'i' and 'u' are only ever used as short vowels when transliterating Dari or Tajik Persian. SeePersian Phonology

^b.Diacritics differ by dialect, due to Dari having 8 distinct vowels compared to the 6 vowels of Farsi. SeePersian Phonology

In Farsi, none of these short vowels may be the initial or final grapheme in an isolated word, although they may appear in the final position as aninflection,when the word is part of a noun group. In a word that starts with a vowel, the first grapheme is a silentalefwhich carries the short vowel, e.g.اُمید(omid,meaning "hope" ). In a word that ends with a vowel, lettersع,هandوrespectively become the proxy letters forzebar,zirandpiš,e.g.نو(now,meaning "new" ) orبسته(bast-e,meaning "package" ).

Tanvin (nunation)

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Main article:Nunation

Nunation (Persian:تنوین,tanvin) is the addition of one of three vowel diacritics to a noun or adjective to indicate that the word ends in an alveolar nasal sound without the addition of the letter nun.

Nunation
(fullyvocalizedtext) 		Name
(in Persian) 		Name
(transliterated) 		Notes
064B
َاً، ـاً، ءً‎ 		تنوین نَصْبْ Tanvine nasb
064D
ٍِ‎ 		تنوین جَرّ Tanvine jarr Never used in the Persian language.

Taught inIslamicnations to

complementQuraneducation.

064C
ٌ‎ 		تنوین رَفْعْ Tanvine rafʿ

Tašdid

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Main article:Shadda
Symbol Name
(in Persian) 		Name
(transliteration)
0651
ّ‎ 		تشدید tašdid

Other characters

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The following are not actual letters but different orthographical shapes for letters, a ligature in the case of thelâm alef.As toﺀ(hamza), it has only one graphical form since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes 'seated' on avâv,yeoralef,and in that case, the seat behaves like an ordinaryvâv,yeoralefrespectively. Technically,hamzais not a letter but a diacritic.

Name Pronunciation IPA Unicode Final Medial Initial Stand-alone Notes
alef madde â [ɒ] U+0622 ـآ — آ آ The final form is very rare and is freely replaced with ordinaryalef.
he ye -eyeor-eyeh [eje] U+06C0 ـۀ — — ۀ Validity of this form depends on region and dialect. Some may use the two-letterـهیorهیcombinations instead.
lām alef lā [lɒ] U+0644 (lām) and U+0627 (alef) ـلا — — لا
kašida U+0640 — ـ — — This is the medial character which connects other characters

Although at first glance, they may seem similar, there are many differences in the way the different languages use the alphabets. For example, similar words are written differently in Persian and Arabic, as they are used differently.

Unicode has acceptedU+262B☫FARSI SYMBOLin theMiscellaneous Symbolsrange.[9]In Unicode 1.0 this symbol was known asSYMBOL OF IRAN.[10] It is a stylization ofالله(Allah) used as theemblem of Iran. It also a part of theflag of Iran,which is the typical rendering of "🇮🇷", theregional indicator symbolfor Iran.

The Unicode Standard has a compatibility character definedU+FDFC﷼RIAL SIGNthat can representریال,the Persian name of thecurrency of Iran.[11]

Novel letters

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The Persian alphabet has four extra letters that are not in the Arabic alphabet:/p/,/t͡ʃ/(chinchair),/ʒ/(sinmeasure),/ɡ/.An additional fifth letterڤwas used for/β/(v inSpanishhuevo) but it is no longer used.

Sound Shape Name Unicode code point
/p/ پ pe U+067E
/t͡ʃ/(ch) چ če U+0686
/ʒ/(zh) ژ že U+0698
/ɡ/ گ gâf U+06AF

Deviations from the Arabic script

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Persian uses theEastern Arabic numerals,but the shapes of the digits 'four' (۴), 'five' (۵), and 'six' (۶) are different from the shapes used in Arabic. All the digits also have different codepoints inUnicode:[12]

Name Persian Unicode Arabic Unicode
0 ۰ U+06F0 ٠ U+0660
1 ۱ U+06F1 ١ U+0661
2 ۲ U+06F2 ٢ U+0662
3 ۳ U+06F3 ٣ U+0663
4 ۴ U+06F4 ٤ U+0664
5 ۵ U+06F5 ٥ U+0665
6 ۶ U+06F6 ٦ U+0666
7 ۷ U+06F7 ٧ U+0667
8 ۸ U+06F8 ٨ U+0668
9 ۹ U+06F9 ٩ U+0669
ye ی U+06CC ي[a] U+064A
kāf ک U+06A9 ك U+0643
  1. ^However, the Arabic variant continues to be used in its traditional style in theNile Valley,similarly as it is used in Persian and Ottoman Turkish.

Comparison of different numerals

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See also:Eastern Arabic numerals § Numerals
Western Arabic 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Eastern Arabic[a] ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ ١٠
Persian[b] ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ ۱۰
Urdu[c] ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ ۱۰
Abjad numerals ا ب ج د ه و ز ح ط ي
  1. ^U+0660 through U+0669
  2. ^U+06F0 through U+06F9.The numbers 4, 5, and 6 are different from Eastern Arabic.
  3. ^Same Unicode characters as the Persian, but language is set to Urdu. The numerals 4, 6 and 7 are different from Persian. On some devices, this row may appear identical to Persian.

Word boundaries

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Typically, words are separated from each other by a space. Certain morphemes (such as the plural ending '-hâ'), however, are written without a space. On a computer, they are separated from the word using thezero-width non-joiner.

Cyrillic Persian alphabet in Tajikistan

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As part of therussificationofCentral Asia,the Cyrillic script was introduced in the late 1930s.[13][14][15][16]The alphabet remained Cyrillic until the end of the 1980s with the disintegration of theSoviet Union.In 1989, with the growth inTajiknationalism, a law was enacted declaring Tajik thestate language.In addition, the law officially equated Tajik withPersian,placing the wordFarsi(the endonym for the Persian language) after Tajik. The law also called for a gradual reintroduction of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][excessive citations]

The Persian alphabet was introduced intoeducationand public life, although the banning of theIslamic Renaissance Partyin 1993 slowed adoption. In 1999, the wordFarsiwas removed from the state-language law, reverting the name to simplyTajik.[1]As of 2004thede factostandard in use is theTajik Cyrillic alphabet,[2]and as of 1996only a very small part of the population can read the Persian alphabet.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"PERSIAN LANGUAGE i. Early New Persian".Iranica Online.Retrieved18 March2019.
  2. ^Orsatti, Paola (2019)."Persian Language in Arabic Script: The Formation of the Orthographic Standard and the Different Graphic Traditions of Iran in the First Centuries of the Islamic Era".Creating Standards (Book).
  3. ^abLapidus, Ira M. (2012).Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History.Cambridge University Press. p. 256.ISBN978-0-521-51441-5.
  4. ^Lapidus, Ira M. (2002).A History of Islamic Societies.Cambridge University Press. p. 127.ISBN978-0-521-77933-3.
  5. ^Ager, Simon."Persian (Fārsī / فارسی)".Omniglot.
  6. ^"ویژگىهاى خطّ فارسى".Academy of Persian Language and Literature.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-09-07.Retrieved2017-08-05.
  7. ^"??"(PDF).Persianacademy.ir. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2015-09-24.Retrieved2015-09-05.
  8. ^"PERSIAN LANGUAGE i. Early New Persian".Iranica Online.Retrieved18 March2019.
  9. ^"Miscellaneous Symbols".p. 4.The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0.Unicode.org
  10. ^"3.8 Block-by-block Charts"§ Miscellaneous Dingbats p. 325 (155 electronically).The Unicode Standard Version 1.0.Unicode.org
  11. ^For the proposal, seePournader, Roozbeh (2001-09-20)."Proposal to add Arabic Currency Sign Rial to the UCS"(PDF).It proposes the character under the name ofARABIC CURRENCY SIGN RIAL,which was changed by the standard committees toRIAL SIGN.
  12. ^"Unicode Characters in the 'Number, Decimal Digit' Category".
  13. ^Hämmerle, Christa (2008).Gender Politics in Central Asia: Historical Perspectives and Current Living Conditions of Women.Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar.ISBN978-3-412-20140-1.
  14. ^Cavendish, Marshall (September 2006).World and Its Peoples.Marshall Cavendish.ISBN978-0-7614-7571-2.
  15. ^Landau, Jacob M.; Landau, Yaʿaqov M.; Kellner-Heinkele, Barbara (2001).Politics of Language in the Ex-Soviet Muslim States: Azerbayjan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.University of Michigan Press.ISBN978-0-472-11226-5.
  16. ^Buyers, Lydia M. (2003).Central Asia in Focus: Political and Economic Issues.Nova Publishers.ISBN978-1-59033-153-8.
  17. ^Ehteshami, Anoushiravan (1994).From the Gulf to Central Asia: Players in the New Great Game.University of Exeter Press.ISBN978-0-85989-451-7.
  18. ^Malik, Hafeez (1996).Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects.St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-0-312-16452-2.
  19. ^Banuazizi, Ali; Weiner, Myron (1994).The New Geopolitics of Central Asia and Its Borderlands.Indiana University Press.ISBN978-0-253-20918-4.
  20. ^Westerlund, David; Svanberg, Ingvar (1999).Islam Outside the Arab World.St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-0-312-22691-6.
  21. ^Gillespie, Kate; Henry, Clement M. (1995).Oil in the New World Order.University Press of Florida.ISBN978-0-8130-1367-1.
  22. ^Badan, Phool (2001).Dynamics of Political Development in Central Asia.Lancers' Books.
  23. ^Winrow, Gareth M. (1995).Turkey in Post-Soviet Central Asia.Royal Institute of International Affairs.ISBN978-0-905031-99-6.
  24. ^Parsons, Anthony (1993).Central Asia, the Last Decolonization.David Davies Memorial Institute.
  25. ^Report on the USSR.RFE/RL, Incorporated. 1990.
  26. ^Middle East Monitor.Middle East Institute. 1990.
  27. ^Ochsenwald, William; Fisher, Sydney Nettleton (2010-01-06).The Middle East: A History.McGraw-Hill Education.ISBN978-0-07-338562-4.
  28. ^Gall, Timothy L.; Hobby, Jeneen (2009).Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life.Gale.ISBN978-1-4144-4892-3.
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