Language/Iranian-persian/Pronunciation/Farsi-vs-Arabic
Persian is written with the letters of the Arabic alphabet and from right to left like Arabic, but the language remains very different from Arabic.
Persian is an Indo-European language, therefore from the same family as most European languages (including French). Arabic is a Semitic language, from the same family as Hebrew, Aramaic and Amharic (Ethiopia).
However Persian has been adopting a large number of loanwords from Arabic.
We can compare the situation to English, which has adopted a large number of French words, while remaining a Germanic language.
Note that modern Persian is written in the Arabic alphabet, with a few small adaptations.
Upon mastering this content, you might be interested in pursuing these relevant subjects: Alphabet and Pronunciation, Months of the Year & Accents.
Persian VS Arabic letters[edit | edit source]
Here are all the letters of the Persian and Arabic alphabets. Every letter in Arabic exists in Persian, but Persian has four additional letters, shown below:
| Name (Persian) | Letter (isolated) | Arabic/Persian |
|---|---|---|
| hamze | ء | In both |
| ʾalef | ا | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| be | ب | In both |
| pe | پ | Persian only, pronounced p |
| te | ت | In both |
| se | ث | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| jim | ج | In both |
| che | چ | Persian only, pronounced ch |
| haa-ye jimi | ح | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| khe | خ | In both |
| daal | د | In both |
| zaal | ذ | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| re | ر | In both |
| ze | ز | In both |
| zhe | ژ | Persian only |
| sin | س | In both |
| shin | ش | In both |
| saad | ص | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| zaad | ض | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| taa | ط | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| zaa | ظ | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| ʿayn | ع | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| ghayn | غ | In both |
| fe | ف | In both |
| qaff | ق | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| kaaf | ک | In both |
| gaaf | گ | Persian only, pronounced g |
| laam | ل | In both |
| mim | م | In both |
| nun | ن | In both |
| vaav | و | In both, but pronunciation is different |
| haa-ye do-cheshme | ه | In both |
| ye | ی | In both |
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]