Persian Alphabet; Learn Farsi Language Alphabet
(الفبای زبان فارسی)
Are you interested in learning the Persian language? If yes, you should first start learning the Persian language alphabet. There are 32 letters in the Persian alphabet, including six vowels and two diphthongs.
In the Indo-European language family, Persian belongs to the Iranian branch. More than 100 million people speak the Persian language worldwide, including Iran (Mostly), Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and some in Uzbekistan, Iraq, Russia, and Azerbaijan.
Only Iran has more than 80 million Persian speakers, with millions more in other countries.
Iranian immigration to other nations is rising these days, causing the Persian language to expand more widely than ever before. Persian is known as Dari in Afghanistan, while it is known as Tajiki in Tajikistan and Farsi in Iran.
Know More About the Persian Language Alphabet
The Persian language alphabet is based on the Arabic script and has been developed from it.
Perhaps you’re asking why Arabic impacts Persian? That’s because Arabic became the dominant language in ancient Persia after the Muslim invasion of Persia in the Sasanian Empire in the 7th century. So it’s not surprising that the Persian alphabet is based on Arabic script.
Persian Language Alphabet
In this section, we prepared the Persian alphabet list with English pronunciation. So, follow us through this article.
| Number | Persian Alphabet | Letter | Sound | English pronunciation |
| 1 | آ/ا | الف (Alef) | â | [ɒ] |
| 2 | ب | ب (Be) | b | [b] |
| 3 | پ | پ (Pe) | P | [p] |
| 4 | ت | ت (Te) | T | [t] |
| 5 | ث | ث (se) | S | [s] |
| 6 | ج | جیم (Jim) | j | [dʒ] |
| 7 | چ | چ (če) | č | [tʃ] |
| 8 | ح | ح (he) | h | [h] |
| 9 | خ | خ (xe) | x | [x] |
| 10 | د | دال (dâl) | d | [d] |
| 11 | ذ | ذ (zâl) | z | [z] |
| 12 | ر | ر (re) | r | [r] |
| 13 | ز | ز (ze) | z | [z] |
| 14 | ژ | ژ (že) | ž | [ʒ] |
| 15 | س | سین (sin) | s | [s] |
| 16 | ش | شین (šin) | š | [ʃ] |
| 17 | ص | صاد (sâd) | s | [s] |
| 18 | ض | ضاد (zâd) | z | [z] |
| 19 | ط | طا (tâ) | t | [t] |
| 20 | ظ | ظا (zâ) | z | [z] |
| 21 | ع | عین (ayn) | ، | [ʔ]/[æ] |
| 22 | غ | غین (ghayn) | GH | [G] |
| 23 | ف | ف (fe) | f | [f] |
| 24 | ق | قاف (qâf) | q | [q] |
| 25 | k | کاف (kâf) | k | [k] |
| 26 | g | گاف (gâf) | g | [g] |
| 27 | ل | لام (lâm) | l | [l] |
| 28 | م | میم (mim) | m | [m] |
| 29 | ن | نون (nun) | n | [n] |
| 30 | و | واو (vâv) | v/ ow/ ū | [v]/ |
| 31 | ه | ه (he) | h | [h]/ [e] |
| 32 | ی | ی (ye) | y | [j] |
The letters we provided above are the modern Persian language alphabet.
Some notes of the Persian alphabets are:
1) The Persian script is cursive; that’s why a letter’s look changes depending on where it is: Alone, initial, middle, or at the final of a word.
2) The writing system is from right to left, but if you want to write mathematical numbers in Persian, you start from left to right.
3) Old Persian was initially written in the Old Persian Cuneiform script around 600 BC.
4) Middle Persian was written in Pahlavi script, while the Modern Persian began in 800 AD to now.
5) In Persian, you can’t see the short vowels on words, so context plays an essential role in correct pronunciation or comprehension.
6) You can find many Arabic loan words in Persian; although they are transcribed as their original spelling, they are frequently pronounced differently.
Persian Alphabet vs. Arabic Alphabet
Someone unfamiliar with both Persian and Arabic scripts will believe they are the same; this is generally true because the Persian alphabet is based on the Arabic script with a few more characters and minor phonetic alterations.
In the following, we provided a sample text of Persian with English pronunciation.
The sample
کم کم به اواخر پاییز نزدیک می شویم، درختان نارنجی و رنگ پریده شده اند؛ گمانم خودشان را برای تغییری بزرگ آماده می کنند.
Kam kam be avâkhere paeez nazdik mishavim, derakhtân nârenji shodehand; gomânam khodeshân râ barâye taghyiri bozorg âmâdeh mikonand.
English equivalence:
Autumn is coming to an end soon, and the trees are turned orange and pale; I suppose they are preparing for a significant change.
Conclusion
Maybe you’re wondering that the Persian alphabet is difficult to learn, but remember that while starting a new journey is sweet, it also has its own challenges.
Learning Persian isn’t as difficult as you may think, but it’s so much more enjoyable once you do.
Also, keep in mind that Persian is among the oldest languages still spoken, so don’t give up learning the Persian language alphabet.