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]