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at launch · Language · fa · Iranian, Southwestern

فارسي

فارسی · Arab script, written right to left. Spoken in Throughout Iran; the language of the state and of the wider diaspora.

iranians.globalThis variety

fa · Arab · right to left · at launch

Language · fa · Iranian, Southwestern · at launch

فارسي

فارسی · Arab script, written right to left. Spoken in Throughout Iran; the language of the state and of the wider diaspora.

See the courses

On the mapWhere spokenrecordedCourses17
اوس
اکاډمي126 کورسونه، تر اوسه هېڅ یو د نوم لیکنې لپاره پرانیستی نه دیمدني3 کمپاینونه، 5 پروګرامونهمیراثد لمانځلو 116 ورځې، د تاریخي لړلیک 40 لیکنېخبرونه88 تایید شوې سرچینې، تر اوسه هېڅ تایید شوې پېښه نشتهڅانګېد جوړېدو په حال کې. تر اوسه هېڅ یو په رسمیت نه دی پېژندل شوی
ScriptArabright to leftat launch

Record

fa
فارسیPersian (Farsi) · Arab
Code
fa
Family
Iranian, Southwestern
Where
په ټول ایران کې؛ د دولت او پراخ ډیاسپورا ژبه
Phase
at launch
پوښښ
not yet measured
Codes are BCP 47 language and script subtags.

Courses that teach it

17 in the catalogue
Persian script and reading (ZWNJ, nasta'liq)IDCDC-PER-01 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Persian A1IDCDC-PER-02 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Persian A2 to B1IDCDC-PER-03 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Persian B2 to C1IDCDC-PER-04 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Persian through poetryIDCDC-PER-05 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Persian for interpreters (medical, legal)IDCDC-PER-06 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Persian language 101IDCDC-PER-09 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Judeo-Persian heritageIDCDC-LNG-08 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Islamic Iran and the Persian renaissanceIDCDC-HIS-03 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
The Persianate worldIDCDC-HIS-12 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Iranians in Europe, North America and the Persian GulfIDCDC-DIA-03 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Modern Persian literatureIDCDC-LIT-05 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Persian literature and poetry 101IDCDC-LIT-08 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Persian paintingIDCDC-ART-04 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Persian cuisine and its regionsIDCDC-FOD-01 · Outline ready, not open yet
پرانیزئ
Intergenerational dialogueIDCDC-WEL-02 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Caring for elders abroadIDCDC-WEL-03 · Planned, outline not written yet
پرانیزئ
Courses from the Academy catalogue; a course opens for enrolment one by one after review.

Writing

1 script

Its own names

فارسیfārsī
right to left

لیکلړونه

Arab
Persian alphabetا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح
32 letters
  • Perso-Arabic script with پ چ ژ گ; ZWNJ (U+200C); Persian digits; nasta'liq tradition

From one script to another

Persian to Latin, ALA-LC (2012)Letter by letter. Short vowels are not written in Persian, so a full romanisation needs them supplied from a dictionary. و and ی are read as consonants at the start of a word or beside a vowel letter, otherwise as long vowels.
Persian orthography (Dastur-e khatt-e fārsi)Academy of Persian Language and Literature
د تایید لپاره
Names in the language's own writing; each sample keeps its direction.

Resources

10 resources
Loghatnameh Dehkhoda (the Dehkhoda dictionary)dictionary · Dehkhoda Lexicon Institute, University of Tehran · link not checked
د تایید لپاره
A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary (Steingass, 1892)dictionary · Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago · checked 2026-10-23
تایید شوی
Approved terms (Farhang-e vāzhe-hā-ye moṣavvab)terminology · Academy of Persian Language and Literature · link not checked
د تایید لپاره
Universal Dependencies: Persian Seraji treebankcorpus · Universal Dependencies · checked 2026-10-23
تایید شوی
Digital librarylibrary · National Library and Archives of Iran · link not checked
د تایید لپاره
Encyclopaedia Iranicareference · Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University · link not checked
د تایید لپاره
BBC Persianmedia · BBC World Service (United Kingdom) · checked 2026-10-23 · Public broadcaster.
تایید شوی
DW Persianmedia · Deutsche Welle (Germany) · checked 2026-10-23 · Public broadcaster.
تایید شوی
Radio Fardamedia · Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (United States) · checked 2026-10-23 · Publicly funded broadcaster.
تایید شوی
Glottolog: Western Farsireference · Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology · checked 2026-10-23
تایید شوی
Each resource shows whether its link was checked. A resource without a checked link is labelled to verify.

Linguistics

family, dialects, sounds and standing
Family
Indo-European, then Classical Indo-European, then Indo-Iranian, then Iranian-Nuristani, then Iranian, then Southwestern Iranian, then Middle-Modern Persian, then Modern Southwestern Iranian, then Farsic-Caucasian Tat, then Farsic
Codes
ISO 639-3 pes · macrolanguage fas · Glottolog west2369
Dialects
Western Farsi: Central Persian, Eastern Persian, Northern Persian, Southern Persian (63 listed in all)
Standing
Western Farsi: not endangered (1 (National)) ثانوي
Sounds
23 consonants and 6 vowels, after Majidi and Ternes 1991 · the inventory تایید شوی

b d d̠ʒ f ɡ ɣ h j kʰ l m n pʰ r s ʃ tʰ t̠ʃ v x z ʒ ʔ æ ɒ e i o u

Farsic
تایید شوی
تایید کړئ، سرچینه زیاته کړئ یا راپور ورکړئ
د دې ارزښت په کتلو کې مرسته وکړئ

وروسته څه کېږي. یو سرپرست ستاسو یادښت لولي او سرچینه ګوري. پاڼه یوازې له هغې وروسته بدلېږي. ستاسو نوم نه اخیستل کېږي.

Grammar in short

  • Word order is usually subject, object, verb.
  • Nouns have no grammatical gender.
  • The ezafe vowel -e links a noun to the words that describe it, as in ketāb-e man, my book.
  • A definite direct object takes rā after it.
  • The verb agrees with the subject in person and number. Subject pronouns are often left out.
  • The prefix mi- marks ongoing or habitual action. The prefix be- marks the subjunctive and the imperative.

to verify · Windfuhr (ed.). The Iranian Languages. Routledge.

Persian or Farsi

Speakers call the language fārsī. In English, ISO 639 and most libraries name it Persian. Farsi is also common in English, mostly for the language of Iran.

to verify · ISO 639-3 code tables. SIL International, registration authority.; Library of Congress. ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Persian, 2012 version.

One language, three standards

Persian of Iran, Dari of Afghanistan and Tajik of Tajikistan are mutually intelligible in their standard forms. Many linguists treat them as one pluricentric language. Glottolog and ISO 639-3 list them as three languages (pes, prs, tgk), and each state names its own standard.

to verify · Hammarström, Forkel, Haspelmath and Bank. Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.; Perry. A Tajik Persian Reference Grammar. Brill.; Windfuhr (ed.). The Iranian Languages. Routledge.

In law

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Article 15) makes Persian the official language and script. It allows regional and tribal languages in the press and media, and the teaching of their literature in schools, alongside Persian.Constitute Project. Constitutions of the world, English translations.
تایید شوی

Speakers

نامعلوم
اندازه
speakers
کال
ثبت شوی نه دی
سرچینه
تر اوسه سرچینه نشته. موږ نامعلوم ښیو، نه اټکل.
حالت
نامعلوم
تایید کړئ، سرچینه زیاته کړئ یا راپور ورکړئ
د دې ارزښت په کتلو کې مرسته وکړئ

وروسته څه کېږي. یو سرپرست ستاسو یادښت لولي او سرچینه ګوري. پاڼه یوازې له هغې وروسته بدلېږي. ستاسو نوم نه اخیستل کېږي.

No speaker figure has been verified for this platform yet. It stays unknown until a census or survey figure is checked with its measure, year and source.

Classification and standing from the sources named on each line. Where views differ, each view is shown with its sources.

زده کړه

7 courses
1
Persian script and reading (ZWNJ, nasta'liq)IDCDC-PER-01 · Outline ready, not open yet
2
Persian A1IDCDC-PER-02 · Outline ready, not open yet
3
Persian A2 to B1IDCDC-PER-03 · Planned, outline not written yet
4
Persian B2 to C1IDCDC-PER-04 · Planned, outline not written yet
5
Persian through poetryIDCDC-PER-05 · Outline ready, not open yet
6
Persian for interpreters (medical, legal)IDCDC-PER-06 · Planned, outline not written yet
7
Saturday-school teacher trainingIDCDC-PER-08 · Outline ready, not open yet
A course opens after its outline is reviewed. Until then it is listed with its state.

Key

labels and checks
  • verifiedA figure or claim read at its primary source by a steward or checkers from at least two communities.
  • secondaryA figure or claim cited through a reviewed work rather than read at its primary source.
  • to verifyA figure or claim whose source has not yet been read; it stays in the verification queue.
  • نامعلومتر اوسه سرچینه نشته. موږ نامعلوم ښیو، نه اټکل.
A steward checks the source before anything changes. You are not named.
Formats