Persian writing

Persian writing possesses all the basic properties of Arabic writing , such as: the direction of the letter is from right to left, the absence of capital letters, the cursiveness of the letter, and hence the presence of a single letter of several graphic options depending on the position. Many letters with external resemblance differ only in diacritics. Multiple letters can mean one sound, just as a single letter can convey multiple sounds.

A feature of modern Persian writing, which is also preserved in the written language of the Urdu language, is the widespread use, along with the traditional naskh, of the handwriting of nastalik , which has become obsolete in Arab countries and is considered obsolete.

Alphabet Composition

Transliteration options are given through a slash, and different phonemes and allophones are separated by a comma.

All letters in a word are written together. The exception is 7 “moon” letters, which are not connected with the next, therefore they have only two graphic options (isolated and final): Aleph ( ﺍ ), Dal ( дал ), Hall ( ﺫ ), Pe ( ﺭ ), Ze ( ﺯ ) , but ( ژ ) and bav ( و ). The final version of the lunar lettering is used both at the very end of the word and in the middle if the lunar letter is preceded by any solar letter, as, for example, in the word بنده (bande - slave, servant), where the final lettering ﺩ used in the middle of the word to connect with the previous “solar” ب, or in the verb گذاشتن (Gozashtan - to set), where the median ذ is connected to the initial گ using the final style нач.

Letter Variations and Combinations

The following table shows the main variations and combinations of letters that have special styles.

The precondition for the adaptation of Arabic script to the New Persian language was the conquest of the Sasanian Empire by the Arab armies during the Islamic conquests in the 7th century and the spread of Islam among speakers of the Persian language. The use of Pahlavi writing in Bolshoi Khorasan for official needs was prohibited in the middle of the 8th century, and if the Zoroastrians continued to use it, then converts to Islam were mostly immigrants from the illiterate sections of the population, and for written needs they easily adapted the writing of the dominant Arabic language of the Caliphate . The first examples of Persian verses written in Arabic script appeared in the 9th century ^[4] .

Phonetics of the Persian language has four consonants that are absent in Arabic: [p] , [t͡ʃ] (č, h), [ɡ] , [ʒ] (ž, f). The first three were originally recorded close in sound ب (ba), ج (jim) and ك (kaf), respectively. Only since the XII century, to distinguish between these sounds, modifications of these signs became widely used, which became the new letters of the Persian alphabet, but for a long time this practice was not of a regular nature. Later, a separate letter was invented for the marginal sound [ʒ] (ž, g).

Vowels

Continuing the consonant type of Arabic writing , Persian writing in the general case allows you to fix primarily consonants, as well as long (in the modern language, stable ) vowels using the letters ا (alef) - a , و (vav) - u and ى (ya) - and . The last two letters, also expressing consonants ( in and in, respectively), are essentially a lecture mattress . For short (unstable) vowels, there is a system of Arabic characters - superscript vowels. However, as in Arabic, vocalizations are used only in educational texts or in rare cases when reading needs to be clarified. Words that differ only in short vowels do not differ in writing. For example, kerm “worm”, kӓrӓ “generosity”, kerem “cream”, and chrome “chrome” are written in the same way كرم kr-m . Also, for example, گل the “flower” gel and the “mud” gel , ده dӓh “ten” and deh “village”, دور dur “far” and dour “circle” and many other words, for which the reader should distinguish them by context.

Vowels acquire a special expression at the beginning and end of a word. A word with an initial vowel sound always begins with Aleph ا . The initial short vowels are indicated by a single aliph (over which, if necessary, a corresponding vowel is placed). The initial long a- is denoted by an aliph with a madda ( آ ) expressing elongation. The initial u- and u- , as well as diphthongs ou and hey- are denoted by a combination of an Aleph with the corresponding letter و (vav) and ی (ya): او and ای .

In contrast to the Arabic language, all finite vowels, including short ones (with the exception of isafeta ), are displayed in Persian writing. For -e , the letter ha-ye-havvaz ( ه ) is used, which in this case is called “ha dumb”. There are no differences in the mismatched letter with the final -h (s) denoted by the same letter, for example, بنده gang “slave”, “servant” ~ پانزده pandzӓh “fifteen”. The final Persian -e can often transliterate into Latin as -eh , therefore, in Russian transliterations erroneous spelling (and hence the pronunciation) -ech may appear. For example, افسانه - afsāneh - * afsaneh with the correct afsana "fairy tale". A rare final sound -o is expressed in the same way as -u , the letter و .

In some Arabic words, the final long sound a is denoted by the letter ی , which in this case is called Aleph Maksura , for example, موسی musa “Musa”, “Moses”.

Consonants

Arab borrowings retain their original spelling. Moreover, many Arabic sounds are absent in the phonetic system of the Persian language and in borrowings are replaced by close ones by education. This led to the appearance in some sounds of several graphic options. The main one is the sign for the general sound of Arabic and Persian phonetics, used both in Arabisms and in primordial words and non-Arabic borrowings. The remaining options are inherent, with few exceptions, only to Arabic borrowings, and the choice of the correct option from the point of view of traditional spelling must be remembered for each Arabic word.

The letter ein ( ع ), meaning in Arabic [ʕ] (pharyngeal approximant), is found exclusively in words of Arabic origin. At the beginning of a word and between vowels it is not read, before consonants or at the end of a word it is read as [ʔ] ( guttural bow ) or in vernacular it is replaced by lengthening of the previous vowel. For the same sound, another graphic element is also used - the so-called hamze ء (in Arabic, a special symbol for [ʔ]). Khamzeh is used as an independent or superscript in mainly Arabic words in accordance with the Arabic original words. The choice between Ein and Hamza also has to be learned for each word.

In the modern language, there are also other spelling difficulties that have arisen as a result of the historical development of phonetics. In particular, the letters غ and ق mean the same phoneme, while in the classical language they differed, as they still differ in the eastern versions of Farsi ( Tajik and Dari ). At the beginning of the word, the historical spelling for the phoneme x ^w - - خو is preserved , while in the modern language it coincided with x- : خواستن class. Persian. x ^w âstan > modern Persian. xâstan "want", but خاستن xâstan "get up."

The combination -mb- is traditionally written in Persian as -nb- ( نب ), for example, پنبه pambe “cotton”.

Differences from Arabic Writing

• At the beginning of the word hamza ( ء ) is never written either above the aliph ( ا ) to denote the vowels of the zabar or write , nor underneath to vocalize the zir .
• The final and solitary cafe ﮏ is written in a form close to the initial version, while in Arabic it looks different ( ﻚ ).
• That marbuta ( ة ) is not used, in borrowing it is replaced by ت ( -at ) or ه ( -e ). The latter is also used to write original words on -e (see above)
• The final ye ( ی ) is written without two lower points, as is done in Arabic ( ي ), therefore it graphically coincides with the Aleph of Maksur .
• Four additional letters have been added for sounds not found in Arabic: ne ( پ ), che ( چ ), same ( ژ ) and gaff ( گ ).
• The Arabic letter vav for labia-labiaral [w] ( و ) is used for labia-dental [v].
• In the Arabic alphabet, ha ( ﻩ ) stands before vav ( و ), in the Persian, on the contrary, he ( ﻩ ) comes after vav ( و ).

Features of Persian Writing in Afghanistan

The writing system of the Dari language (the Afghan version of Farsi ) is generally identical to the writing of modern Iran . The differences are manifested in the reading of letters, which is caused by the unequal historical development of two dialects (Iranian and Kabul-Tajik Farsi):

• The pronunciation of غ and ق successively differs in all positions, the first is used for [ɣ], the second for [q].
• The ultimate ha-mute is read as [a]: بنده “slave”, “servant”, Farsi [bæn'dɛ], dari [ban'da].
• The letters و (vav) and ی can denote both phonemes ū and ī , and ō and ē respectively. The latter are the so-called “majjul” readings of these letters in accordance with the etymology, lost in Iranian Farsi. Majjul reading does not stand out in writing, the student of the Dari language should memorize them for each word.

In Persian, the numbers are similar to standard Arabic . The numbers 4, 5 and 6 may differ in spelling. In official and business correspondence in Iran, modern “ European ” ones can often be used. Numbers in numbers are written from left to right.

Quite early, the Persian version of the Arabic script began to be used to write other Iranian languages , in particular, for the Khorezm and Azeri , and later also for Kurdish and Pashto ^{[5] [6]} . In Khorezmian for the East Iranian affricates [ts] and [dz], the additional letter tsim ( څ ) was invented, which was subsequently adapted into a pashto for [ts]. For [dz] in pashto, another innovative letter is used - jim ( ځ ).

The Arabic-Persian script was also widely used to record the languages ​​of peoples who were influenced by Persian culture, primarily Turkic and Indo-Aryan . To adapt the alphabet to transmit all the sounds of these languages, new letters were introduced into everyday life. At the beginning of the XX century. in Central Asia and Kurdistan , the variant of Arabic-Persian writing was widely introduced, which was completely consonant-vocal in nature and allowing all vowels to be expressed in the letter. First of all, this was achieved by using the lecture for [æ] letters ha-ye-havvaz ( ە ) as a mattress . However, from the 1930s, the translation of the languages ​​of Soviet Central Asia (including the Tajik language ) into Latin script began , and a similar type of writing was preserved only among the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan , the Uzbeks and Tajiks of Afghanistan, and among the Turks of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China .

Written languages ​​based on the Arabic-Persian alphabet:

Persian type :

• Farsi and Dari (with the exception of the Tajik language in Tajikistan)
• Gilyansky
• Luro-Bakhtiyar
• Masenderan

The Old Turkic type with minor modifications continues the Persian version. It was widely used to write Ottoman , Azerbaijani , Chagatai , through the koyne , called the Türks , spread to the territory of the Golden Horde , where the Tatar script came and then the Belarusian Arabic alphabet . At present, in most of this vast area, the Old Turkic script has been supplanted by the Latin alphabet or Cyrillic alphabet . The limited use of Arabic-Persian writing occurs among the Turks south of the former Soviet border for the following languages:

• Azerbaijani ( Iran )
• Kazakh (Xinjiang, PRC)
• Qashqai ( Iran )
• Turkmen ( Iran and Afghanistan )
• Uzbek ( Afghanistan )

The East Iranian type is distinguished by the introduction of letters for q and z

• Khorezm language †
• Pashto . Letters for recording retroflexes using a diacritical circle (for example, ټ ), velar slit, some vowels are introduced .

Indian type

• Urdu ( Urdu alphabet ). Writing is distinguished by the use of diacritics in the form of a small letter ta (for example, ٹ ) for recording retroflexes , the designation of aspirates as digraphs with the letter ہ , and the peculiarities of the transmission of final vowels. Under the influence of Urdu, the Arabic-Persian scripts of the following languages ​​developed:

• Punjabi ( Shakhmukhi script)
• Shiraiki
• Baloch
• Bragui
• Kashmiri
• Burushaski
• Khovar

• Sindhi . Sindhi has innovative writing, where aspirates are not designated by digraphs, but by diacritics.

New alphabets (with sequential recording of vowels)

• Kurdish (in Iran and Iraq )
• Uyghur (in XUAR )
• Kazakh (in XUAR )

A significantly modified version of the Arabic-Persian script is Xiaojerjin writing for writing the Chinese language , which is still used to a limited extent by Chinese Muslims ( Huizu ).

In the USSR in 1931 - 1938, the Persian alphabet was used on a Latin basis . It taught in schools, published the Bejraqe Sorx newspaper (“Red Banner”) in Ashgabat , textbooks and other literature ^[7] .

In the second half of the XX century. a different version of the Persian Latin was proposed called Unipers (Unicode + Persian) ^[8] . Unipers gained some distribution in the Iranian diaspora in Europe and the USA, however, even in the diaspora did not gain predominance over Arabica:

• Arabic letter
• Persian language
• Writing Dari

• Persian alphabet