Lesson 42
The Persian Language
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Translation
Persian is the official language of Iran and Iranians speak to each other in this language. Persian is not only the language of the Iranian people, but is also the official language of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. In the past, many of the people of India and Pakistan also spoke this language.
In Iran, the people of various cities and villages speak Persian with their own specific dialects. The most prevalent Persian dialect is the Tehrani dialect, but besides that, other famous dialects such as Esfahani, Shirazi, Yazdi, Mashhadi, and so on, also exist. The standard form of this language is used in education, the news, newspapers, and official correspondence.
Throughout history, this language has been stricken with many changes and has been subject to the influence of different powers and languages in different historical eras. The Persian language of today is the remnant of the Ancient Persian language, which existed in the time of the Achaemenids and was written in the cuneiform script, and then changed to Middle Persian, which was written in the Pahlavi script. Since Islam, Middle Persian changed to Modern Persian.
The Modern Persian alphabet is taken from the Arabic alphabet, has 32 letters and is written from right to left. This script is more than one thousand, one hundred years old and its calligraphy is an Iranian art, called ‘khosh nevisi’.
Throughout history, many efforts have been undertaken to keep the Persian language alive. Many Iranian and non-Iranian writers and poets have written books and composed poetry in this language and today, as a result of these struggles, the Persian language possesses a wealth of literature. These poets and writers are famous throughout the world. Ferdowsi’s Shahname, Mowlana’s Masnavi, Sa’di’s Golestan and Bustan, Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, Hafez’ Divan and the Kelileh va Demneh are some of the most famous Persian literary works.