Persian Alphabet – Overview
Contents
| Abjad script |
The Persian writing system is an Arabic script-based writing system used to write the Persian language. It is an abjad script, which means that it is a system of writing that only represents consonants and not vowels. Vowel sounds are either denoted with diacritical marks or represented by certain consonants. Therefore, Persian writing can be called a consonantal alphabet. Short vowels are denoted with diacritics and long vowels are represented with consonants. For example:
- We write پدر ⟨pdr⟩ and read it as “pedar” (father). The short vowels “e” and “a” are absent in writing. When needed, they can be denoted with diacritics: پِدَر.
- We write دوست ⟨dvst⟩ and read it as “dust” (friend). Here, the consonant “v” represents the long vowel “û”.
Advantages of abjad script
Persian has been spoken for thousands of years. It has countless dialects and diverse vowel patterns. Limiting our discussion to New Persian, an abjad writing system has allowed it to be written in a consistent form for more than 1100 years. Vowels are normally absent in writing. Readers infer or supply them according to the target dialect, era or style. For example:
- پرسیدن ⟨prsydn⟩ is pronounced “porsidan” in the standard dialect of Iran and “pursidan”, in the standard dialect of Afghanistan as well as many regional dialects inside Iran. In either case, the written form is identical. Persian speakers pronounce it with short “o” or short “u” depending on their dialect.
- کردن ⟨krdn⟩ is pronounced “kardan” in the three standard dialects of Persian but in some regional dialects including that of Kerman, Yazd and Shiraz, it is pronounced “kerdan”. There are also dialects, where it is pronounced “kordan”. In any case, the written form is identically کردن.
- رسیدن ⟨rsydn⟩ is normally pronounced “residan” in Iranian Persian but in literary speech, it is pronounced “rasidan”, which is its classical pronunciation. In either case, the written form is the same.
Disavantages of abjad script
- Require knowledge of words before you can read, or rigid grammatical rules that allow readers to infer the vowels based on the role of a word in a sentence.
- Make it harder to integrate loan words that don’t fit the mold of the language, making it hard to infer vowels
| RTL and Cursive |
The Persian writing system is written from right to left (RTL), with the letters being joined together in a cursive style. There are 32 letters in the Persian alphabet, with additional letters used for writing loanwords and Arabic words that have been adopted into Persian.
They do not have small and capital forms but positional forms. They take different forms depending on their position and neighboring letters in a word. A letter can have up to four forms: isolated, initial, medial and final:
- Isolated (Detached): When a letter does not attach to its preceding or following letter.
- Attached
- Initial: When a letter attaches to its following letter but not to its preceding letter.
- Medial: When a letter attaches both to its preceding and following letters.
- Final: When a letter attaches to its preceding letter but not to its following letter
Analogous Letters
Analogous letters share the same basic shape. For example, the letters ⟨ ب پ ت ث ⟩ derive from the same shape and only differ in the number and the place of dots. Analogous letters have identical cursive forms.
Grouping analogous letters can help you in learning their cursive forms.
| ب پ ت ث | ج چ ح خ | د ذ | ر ز ژ | س ش |
| ص ض | ط ظ | ع غ | ف ق | ک گ |
Letters that have unique shapes in Persian script are as follows:
| آ (ا) | ل | م | ن | و | ه | ی |
Disjoining Letters
Letters typically join each other on both sides but seven letters break the cursive connection and do not attach to their following letter. Disjoining letters are:
| آ (ا) | د ذ | ر ز ژ | و |
Disjoining letters have identical isolated and initial forms. Medial and final forms are also identical.
| IPA and Transliteration |
In this course, we provide students with both IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet) and ISTS “Iranian Studies Transliteration System” for each letter of the Persian language. So, you can learn how to say Persian words correctly and understand how they are pronounced by others!
- IPA: A globally recognized system for capturing sounds in any language.
- ISTS: Recommended by the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal “Iranian Studies” published by Cambridge University. This system bridges the gap between the Persian script and the Latin alphabet, using familiar English letters to represent Persian words. This makes it ideal for beginners who want to learn basic pronunciation and identify written Persian words, even without prior knowledge of the Persian alphabet.
This combination provides a comprehensive approach to mastering Persian pronunciation.
| Mastering the Music: Persian Vowels |
Persian boasts a system of six vowels, categorized into three long vowels and three short vowels, as illustrated in the following chart:
| Vowels | Name | Letter | IPA | 🎧 | Pronunciation guide | |
| Vowels | آ (ā) | آ (ā) | ɒ | Long Vowels | awesome, not, thought | |
| Vowels | ای (i) | ای (i) | i: | this, feel | ||
| Vowels | او (u) | او – و (u) | u: | do, moon | ||
| Vowels | فَتحه (Fathe) | اَ (a) | æ | Short Vowels | at, apple | |
| Vowels | کَسره (Kasre) | اِ – ـه (e) | e | egg, bed | ||
| Vowels | ضَمّه (Zamme) | اُ – و (o) | o | open, home |
Vowel Representation:
- Long vowels (/ā/, /i/, and /u/) are always represented by a consonant letter.
- Short vowels (/a/, /e/, and /o/) are partially marked with consonant letters. However, in most cases, they are diacritical: ـِ , ـَ , and ـُ. These diacritics are typically omitted and only marked with diacritics to assist the reader in pronunciation. In our core language courses, each time a new word is introduced, the diacritics are included. After that, it is expected that students have learned the spelling, so diacritics will be omitted.
- Sokun , The Silent Partner: /-ْ/ The Sokun, a tiny circle placed above a consonant, indicates the absence of a following vowel sound. Similar to short vowel markings, it’s not commonly used in everyday Persian (or Arabic) writing. While Sokun plays a vital role in fully vocalized Arabic texts like the Quran, its appearance in Persian (even in the educational materials) is quite uncommon.
So each Persian letter has four ways of being pronounced and this is determined by the diacritics that are almost always omitted. For instance, the letter “ب” can be pronounced as “b” (silent), “ba” (with ـَ), “be” (with ـِ), or “bo” (with ـُ) depending on the diacritic used.
| Letters |
The chart below shows the letters of the Persian alphabet and their pronunciation. Pay close attention to the pronunciation guide as you try reading.
Note: The first two columns (“Name” and “Letter”) also include the transliteration using the ISTS system.
| Letters | Name | Letter | IPA | 🎧 | Pronunciation guide | |
| Letters | الف (Alef) | آ (ā) | ɒ | not, thought | ||
| Letters | ب (Be) | ب (b) | b | book | ||
| Letters | پ (Pe) | پ (p) | p | pen | ||
| Letters | ت (Te) | ت (t) | t | ten | ||
| Letters | ث (Se) | ث (s) | s | rice, sad | ||
| Letters | جیم (Jim) | ج (j) | d͡ʒ | job, age | ||
| Letters | چ (Che) | چ (ch) | t͡ʃ | cheese | ||
| Letters | ح جیمی (He Jimi) | ح (h) | h | hit | ||
| Letters | خ (Khe) | خ (kh) | x | As in Spanish Julio, ojo Like ch in the Scottish loch |
||
| Letters | دال (Dāl) | د (d) | d | do | ||
| Letters | ذال (Zāl) | ذ (z) | z | zoo | ||
| Letters | ر (Re) | ر (r) | ɾ | red | ||
| Letters | ز (Ze) | ز (z) | z | zoo | ||
| Letters | ژ (Zhe) | ژ (zh) | ʒ | television | ||
| Letters | سین (Sin) | س (s) | s | rice, sad | ||
| Letters | شین (Shin) | ش (sh) | ʃ | she | ||
| Letters | صاد (Sād) | ص (s) | s | rice, sad | ||
| Letters | ضاد (Zād) | ض (z) | z | zoo | ||
| Letters | طا (Tā) | ط (t) | t | ten | ||
| Letters | ظا (Zā) | ظ (z) | z | zoo | ||
| Letters | عین (ʿiyn) | ع (ʿ) | ʔ | As in "uh-oh" (glottal stop / pause in the middle) | ||
| Letters | غین (Ghiyn) | غ (gh) | ɣ / ɢ | As in Spanish amigo It is almost exactly the sound of the very strongly rolled Parisian r in French |
||
| Letters | ف (Fe) | ف (f) | f | Food | ||
| Letters | قاف (Qāf) | ق (q) | ɣ / ɢ | As in Spanish amigo | ||
| Letters | کاف (Kāf) | ک (k) | k | cat, ask, Scheme, Quiet | ||
| Letters | گاف (Gāf) | گ (g) | ɡ | get | ||
| Letters | لام (Lām) | ل (l) | l | ball, let | ||
| Letters | میم (Mim) | م (m) | m | milk | ||
| Letters | نون (Nun) | ن (n) | n | pen | ||
| Letters | واو (Vāv) | و (v) | v | very | ||
| Letters | ه (He) | ه (h) | h | hit | ||
| Letters | ی (Ye) | ی (y) | j | yes, yet | ||
| Letters | همزه (Hamze) | ئ (ʾ) | ʔ |
Note 1: Dots Make a Difference!
The Persian (and Arabic) alphabet relies heavily on dots to differentiate between letters. Many letters share the same basic shape, but the number and placement of dots completely change their sound. These dots completely change their sound, just like ب (b), پ (p), ت (t), and ث (s) show. Mastering these tiny dots is crucial in the Persian alphabet.
Note 2: Sounds Unique to Persian
As you might have noticed in the chart, the Persian alphabet features some sounds that lack direct counterparts in the Latin alphabet. Here’s a closer look at these unique sounds:
- kh (As in Spanish Julio, ojo; equals German ch),
- gh and q (a softer version of kh; as in Spanish amigo).
- ʿ (guttural stop, but clearly pronounced from the back of the throat),
- sh (as in English she)
One letter, called hamza, is not even pronounced, other than as a glottal stop. In transcriptions it is marked with a /ʾ/ only.
Challenge Time!
| Exercisen 1. Read these country names aloud using the transliteration system we learned earlier. Can you guess which countries they are? |
- irān
- āmrikā
- kānādā
- engelis
- ālmān
- farānse
- italiyā
- espaniyā
- rusiye
- chin
- zhāpon
- koreye jonubi
- hend
- torkiye
- arabestān
- arāgh
- mesr
- berezil
- shili
- arzhāntin
| Beyond One-to-One: Sound-Letter Relationships in Persian |
The Persian alphabet might seem straightforward at first glance. But delve deeper, and sound-letter relationships become quite intriguing! Here, we’ll explore two key features that challenge the idea of a simple one-to-one correspondence:
- و: /ow/ (دولت) – /o/ (دو) – /u/ (روز) – /v/ (وام)
- ه: /e/ (خانه) – /h/ (هوا)
- ی: /ey/ (نِی) – /i/ (میز) – /y/ (یک)
- /h/: ح – ه
- /s/: ث – س – ص
- /t/: ت – ط
- /gh/: ق – غ
- /z/: ظ – ض – ذ – ز
🏁 Time to test your skills 🏁
Let’s see what you know about the Persian alphabet! Answer the following questions to test your understanding.
| E1. How do we write the Persian alphabet? |
| E2. How many letters are in the Persian Alphabet? |
| E3. True or false? |
| E4. Match the following letters with their corresponding sounds (based on ISTS “Iranian Studies Transliteration System”): |
| E5. You will hear twenty words. As you listen, select the vowel you hear.🎧 |
| E6. You will hear ten words. As you listen, select the pair of vowels you hear.🎧 |