Perso-Arabic

All you want to know about Perso-Arabic

This article is about the modern Persian alphabet. For other scripts that have been used to write the Persian language, see Scripts used for Persian.

Below are the 32 letters of Persian.

Name Transliteration IPA Final Medial Initial Isolated
alef ā / aa / ʼ / ʾ / ’ various, including [ɒ] ﺎ ﺎ * آ / ا * ﺍ
be b [b] ﺐ ﺒ ﺑ ﺏ
pe p [p] ﭗ ﭙ ﭙ پ
te t [t] ﺖ ﺘ ﺗ ﺕ
se s [s] ﺚ ﺜ ﺛ ﺙ
jim j [ʤ] ﺞ ﺠ ﺟ ﺝ
che c / č / ch [ʧ] ﭻ ﭽ ﭼ ﭺ
he h [h] ﺢ ﺤ ﺣ ﺡ
khe x / kh [x] ﺦ ﺨ ﺧ ﺥ
dāl d [d] ﺪ ﺪ * ﺩ * ﺩ
zāl z [z] ﺬ ﺬ * ﺫ * ﺫ
re r [ɾ] ﺮ ﺮ * ﺭ * ﺭ
ze z [z] ﺰ ﺰ * ﺯ * ﺯ
zhe ž / zh [ʒ] ﮋ ﮋ * ژ * ژ
sin s [s] ﺲ ﺴ ﺳ ﺱ
šin š / sh [ʃ] ﺶ ﺸ ﺷ ﺵ
sād s [s] ﺺ ﺼ ﺻ ﺹ
zād z [z] ﺾ ﻀ ﺿ ﺽ
tā t [t] ﻂ ﻄ ﻃ ﻁ
zā z [z] ﻆ ﻈ ﻇ ﻅ
eyn ʻ / ‘ [ʔ] ﻊ ﻌ ﻋ ﻉ
qeyn q / gh [ɣ] / [ɢ] ﻎ ﻐ ﻏ ﻍ
fe f [f] ﻒ ﻔ ﻓ ﻑ
qāf q / gh [q] / [ɢ] ﻖ ﻘ ﻗ ﻕ
kāf k [k] ﮏ ﮑ ﮐ ک
gāf g [g] ﮓ ﮕ ﮔ گ
lām l [l] ﻞ ﻠ ﻟ ﻝ
mim m [m] ﻢ ﻤ ﻣ ﻡ
nun n [n] ﻦ ﻨ ﻧ ﻥ
vāv v / u / ow [v] / [u] ﻮ ﻮ * و * و
he h [h] ﻪ ﻬ ﻫ ﻩ
ye y , i [j] , [i] ﯽ ﻴ ﻳ ﻯ

Exceptions

There are seven letters in the Persian alphabet that do not connect to other letters like the rest of the letters in the alphabet. These seven letters do not have initial or medial forms but the solo and the final forms are used instead because they do not allow for a connection to be made on the left hand side to the other letters in the word. For example when the letter ا alef is at the beginning of a word such as اینجا "injā" (here), the initial form of alef is used. Or in the case of اِمروز "emruz" (today) the letter ﺮ re uses the final form and the letter و vāv uses the initial form although they are in the middle of the word.

Other characters

The following are not actual letters, but rather different orthographical shapes for letters, and in the case of the lām alef, a ligature. As to ﺀ hamze, it has only a single graphic, since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes 'seated' on a vāv, ye or alef, and in that case the seat behaves like an ordinary vāv, ye or alef respectively. Technically, hamze is not a letter, but a diacritic.

Name Transliteration IPA Final Medial Initial Stand-alone
alef madde ā [ɒ] ﺂ — — ﺁ
he ye -eye or -eyeh [eje] ﮥ — — ۀ
lām alef lā [lɒ] ﻼ — — ﻻ

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.

The Persian alphabet adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet, [p], [g], [ʧ] (ch – chair), [ʒ] (zh – measure):

Sound Shape Unicode name
[p] پ pe
[ʧ] (ch) چ che
[ʒ] (zh) ژ zhe
[g] گ gaf

Changes from the Arabic writing system

The following is a list of differences between the Arabic writing system and the Persian writing system:

  1. A hamza (ء) is not written above an alif (ا) to denote a zabar or pesh and below to denote a zer.
  2. A hamza is not typically written in the final kaaf (ک).
  3. A hamza is not typically written in Persian to separate two vowels. For example, the word chaai (tea) is written چای. In Persian grammar, words ending in yeh versus hamza-yeh have different grammatical meanings. For example, کتابهای means "the books of," whereas کتابهائی means "some books." In Arabic, a hamza is used in words to separate two vowels. For example, the word aljazaaer (Algeria) is written الجزائر. In Persian, this convention is dropped unless the word originates from Arabic.
  4. The Arabic letter taa marbuuta (ة) is usually changed to a taa (ت) because taa marbuuta is a grammatical construct in Arabic denoting femininity. Since Persian grammar lacks gender constructs, the taa marbuuta is not necessary and is only kept to maintain fidelity to the original Arabic spelling.
  5. Two dots are removed in the final yeh (ی). Arabic differentiates the final yeh with the two dots and alif maqsura, which is written like a final yeh without two dots. Because Persian drops the two dots in the final yeh, the alif maqsura cannot be differentiated from the normal final yeh. For example, the name Musa (Moses) is written موسی. Whether the final letter in Musa denotes a Persian yeh or an alif maqsura cannot be determined.
  6. The letters cheh (چ), peh (پ), zheh/jheh (ژ), and gaaf (گ) are added because Arabic lacks these phonemes, yet they occur in the Persian language. (Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew do not have separate phonemes for P/F or J/G. These phonetic differences are required by Persian.)

Word boundaries

Typically words are separated from each other by a space. Certain morphemes (such as the plural ending '-hā') are written without a space but separated from the previous word with a zero-width non-joiner.

Languages using the Perso-Arabic script

Current Use

Former Use
A number of languages have used the Perso-Arabic script before, but have since changed.

See also

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perso-Arabic_script"

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