Farsi
Language
The Middle East is a melting pot of
language, culture, and tradition. The dialects spoken and the
alphabets used in the region for thousands of years eventually
gave way to a common language and alphabet that were influenced
by the Muslims when they conquered and converted the region.
The Farsi language, known as the Persian language today, is the
most widely spoken language in the Iranian branch of the
Indo-Irania languages. Persian is the official language of the
countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Over 100
million people speak it, with well over 61 million native
speakers of the language.
Historically, the Farsi language was spoken
in a wide geographic area, ranging from the Middle East to
parts of India. Now, it is spoken primarily in Iran and
Afghanistan, with a sizeable enough population of speakers in
Tajikistan to make it the official tongue, though there are
also considerable numbers of speakers of the language in the
United States, due to immigration there. Here are several
dialects spoken of Persian in the Middles Eastern regions,
between the Iranians, Afghans, and Tajiks. Unlike many regional
dialects of a language, these dialects are in general
reciprocally understood among the different groups.
Historically, there were three phases of the
Persian language (or Farsi language) which evolved into the
language that is spoken today: Old, Middle, and Modern Iranian.
Old Iranian is characterized by Old Persian and Avestal (a
religious language that died out before the arrival of Islam).
Middle Iranian is characterized by Middle Persian, and the
ancient Partian language. A great deal of Middle Persian
writings were translated into Arabic, upon the Islam
conversion, but the original writings were unfortunately lost
sometime in the Islamic era. Modern Persian had developed by
the 9th century AD. It is a combination of Parthian and Middle
Persian language elements. It has been the official language of
Persian (modern day Iran) since it's first emergence.
The Farsi language is an older name that was
used by regional, local speakers of the tongue. Many modern
speakers of Persian still refer to it as Farsi. However,
globally it is referred to as Persian. In fact, the Academy of
Persian Language and Literature has declared that the Farsi
language is not an appropriate term to use for the Persian
Language in English-speaking matters.
Most Persian writings are executed in a form
of the Arabic alphabet. After Persia was converted to Islam, it
took nearly 150 years for the Persian people to replace their
previous alphabet with the Arabic one. The Latin alphabet has
been employed in recent years by some factions for
technological reasons, as well as for ease of communication
with the Western world.
Farsi contains many words that were acquired
from other languages around the world, including Arabic,
English, and French. There is also no shortage of influence
from the Farsi language on other languages globally. The
Persian language has hade some bearing on many lexicons,
including English. Some examples of Persian-inspired English
vocabulary include: bazaar (Persian for "market"), bronze
(Persian "birinj"), guitar (Persian "sitaar"), paradise
(Persian "pairidaeza"), talc (Persian "talk"), and many, many
more.
The Persian Empire was a great civilization
that rivaled the mighty Greeks in architecture, art, and
technology. Though they were eventually overtaken by the
Muslims and converted to Islam, they managed to retain a great
deal of their cultural heritage, including their language. Even
though the Persian language went through many manifestations,
including heavy impact from the Arabic alphabet and tongue, it
exists today in the modern form that has been in use for nearly
2 millennia. The impact of the Persians, past and present, is
evidenced by the huge influence the Farsi language has had on
our own English vocabulary.
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