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Perso-Arabic script

Perso-Arabic script

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Hi, Can anyone assist by translating this script to English please? It is part of an old carpet we have... Please see URL address below for the ...
Encyclopedia
For other scripts that have been used to write the Persian language, see Persian language – Orthography.


The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...

 based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, the Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...

 was adapted to the Persian language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

, adding four letters: p, t͡ʃ, ʒ, and ɡ. Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters. Besides the Persian alphabet itself, the Perso-Arabic script has been applied to the Urdu alphabet
Urdu alphabet
The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Urdu language. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet...

, Sindhi alphabet, Saraiki alphabet, Kurdish Sorani alphabet, Lurish (Luri), Ottoman Turkish alphabet
Ottoman Turkish alphabet
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script, on...

, Balochi alphabet, Punjabi Shahmukhi script
Shahmukhi script
Shahmukhi is a local variant of the Urdu alphabet, which itself is a Perso-Arabic derivation that has used to write and record the Urdu language in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Nastaʿlīq is a portmanteau word of naskh of Arabic and ta'aliq,...

, Tatar
Iske imlâ
İske imlâ is a variant of the Arabic script, used for the Tatar language before 1920 and the Old Tatar language. This alphabet can be referred to as old only to contrast it with Yaña imlâ....

, Azeri, and several others.

In order to represent non-Arabic sounds, new letters were created by adding dots, lines, and other shapes to existing letters. For example, the retroflex
Retroflex consonant
A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

 sounds of Urdu are represented orthographically by adding a small ط above their non-retroflex counterparts: [d̪] and [ɖ]. The voiceless retroflex fricative [ʂ] of Pashto
Pashto language
Pashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...

 is represented in writing by adding a dot above and below the [s] letter, resulting in . The close central rounded vowel [ʉ] of Kurdish
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

 is written by writing two [u], resulting in .

The Perso-Arabic script is exclusively written cursive
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...

ly. That is, the majority of letters in a word connect to each other. This is also implemented on computers. Whenever the Perso-Arabic script is typed, the computer connects the letters to each other. Unconnected letters are not widely accepted. In Perso-Arabic, as in Arabic, words are written from right to left while numbers are written from left to right.

A characteristic feature of this script, possibly tracing back to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

, is that vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

s are underrepresented. For example, in Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...

, of the six vowels, the three short ones are normally omitted entirely (except in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

), while the three long ones are represented ambiguously by certain consonants
Mater lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...

. Only Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

, Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...

 and Kurdish
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

, of the many languages using adaptations of this script, regularly indicate all vowels.

Letters


Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, beginning (joined on the left), middle (joined on both sides), and end (joined on the right) of a word.

The letter names are mostly identical to the ones used in Arabic, except for the Persian pronunciation of the consonants. The only ambiguous name is he used for both and . For clarification, these are often called (literally "-like " after , the name for the letter that uses the same base form) and (literally "two-eyed ", after the contextual middle letterform ), respectively.
Name DIN 31635
DIN 31635
DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1936 in Rome...

 IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

 Contextual forms
End Middle Beginning Isolated
/ [ɒ], [ʔ] * *
[b]
[p]
[t]
[s]
[d͡ʒ]
[t͡ʃ]
[h]
[x]
[d] * *
[z] * *
[ɾ] * *
[z] * *
[ʒ] * *
[s]
[ʃ]
[s]
[z]
[t]
[z]
[ʔ]
[ɣ] / [ɢ]
[f]
[ɢ] / [ɣ] / [q] (in some dialects)
[k]
[ɡ]
[l]
[m]
[n]
/ / [v] / [uː] / [o] / [ow] / [oː] (in Dari) * *
[h]
/ / [j] / [i] / [ɒː] / [eː] (in Dari)

Exceptions


There are seven letters ( – – – – – – ) in the Persian alphabet that do not connect to other letters like the rest of the letters in the alphabet. These seven letters do not have distinctive initial or medial forms but the isolated and the final forms are used instead because they do not allow for a connection to be made on the left hand side to the other letters in the word. For example, when the letter "alef" is at the beginning of a word such as "injā" (here), the initial/isolated form of "alef" is used. Or in the case of
"emruz" (today) the letter re is the final form and the letter vāv is the initial/isolated form, although they are in the middle of the word; is the initial/isolated form, although it is at the end of the word.

Other characters


The following are not actual letters but different orthographical shapes for letters, and in the case of the , a ligature. As to hamze, it has only a single graphic, since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes 'seated' on a vāv, ye or alef, and in that case the seat behaves like an ordinary vāv, ye or alef respectively. Technically, hamze is not a letter but a diacritic.
Name Transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

 Final Medial Initial Stand-alone
[ɒ] — —
or [eje] — —
[lɒ] — —
[æn] — —


Although at first glance they may seem similar, there are many differences in the way the different languages use the alphabets. For example, similar words are written differently in Persian and Arabic, as they are used differently.

The Persian alphabet adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet, [p], [ɡ], [t͡ʃ] (ch in chair), [ʒ] (s in measure):
Sound Shape Unicode name
[p] pe
[t͡ʃ] (ch) che
[ʒ] (zh) zhe
[ɡ] gaf

Changes from the Arabic writing system


The following is a list of differences between the Arabic writing system and the Persian writing system:
  1. A hamze is neither written above an alef to denote a zabar or piš nor below to denote a zir.
  2. The final kâf is typically written without a flourish, while in Arabic it would be .
  3. The Arabic letter
    {{Contains Perso-Arabic text}}
    {{Persian alphabet}}
    {{Persian language}}
    For other scripts that have been used to write the Persian language, see Persian language – Orthography.


    The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet ({{lang-fa|الفبای فارسی}}) is a writing system
    Writing system
    A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...

     based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language
    Arabic language
    Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

    , the Arabic alphabet
    Arabic alphabet
    The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...

     was adapted to the Persian language
    Persian language
    Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

    , adding four letters: {{lang|fa|پ}} p, {{lang|fa|چ}} t͡ʃ, {{lang|fa|ژ}} ʒ, and {{lang|fa|گ}} ɡ. Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters. Besides the Persian alphabet itself, the Perso-Arabic script has been applied to the Urdu alphabet
    Urdu alphabet
    The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Urdu language. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet...

    , Sindhi alphabet, Saraiki alphabet, Kurdish Sorani alphabet, Lurish (Luri), Ottoman Turkish alphabet
    Ottoman Turkish alphabet
    The Ottoman Turkish alphabet was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script, on...

    , Balochi alphabet, Punjabi Shahmukhi script
    Shahmukhi script
    Shahmukhi is a local variant of the Urdu alphabet, which itself is a Perso-Arabic derivation that has used to write and record the Urdu language in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Nastaʿlīq is a portmanteau word of naskh of Arabic and ta'aliq,...

    , Tatar
    Iske imlâ
    İske imlâ is a variant of the Arabic script, used for the Tatar language before 1920 and the Old Tatar language. This alphabet can be referred to as old only to contrast it with Yaña imlâ....

    , Azeri, and several others.

    In order to represent non-Arabic sounds, new letters were created by adding dots, lines, and other shapes to existing letters. For example, the retroflex
    Retroflex consonant
    A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

     sounds of Urdu are represented orthographically by adding a small ط above their non-retroflex counterparts: {{lang|ur|د}} [d̪] and {{lang|ur|ڈ}} [ɖ]. The voiceless retroflex fricative [ʂ] of Pashto
    Pashto language
    Pashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...

     is represented in writing by adding a dot above and below the {{lang|ps|س}} [s] letter, resulting in {{lang|ps|ښ}}. The close central rounded vowel [ʉ] of Kurdish
    Kurdish language
    Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

     is written by writing two {{lang|kur|ﻭ}} [u], resulting in {{lang|kur|ﻭﻭ}}.

    The Perso-Arabic script is exclusively written cursive
    Cursive
    Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...

    ly. That is, the majority of letters in a word connect to each other. This is also implemented on computers. Whenever the Perso-Arabic script is typed, the computer connects the letters to each other. Unconnected letters are not widely accepted. In Perso-Arabic, as in Arabic, words are written from right to left while numbers are written from left to right.

    A characteristic feature of this script, possibly tracing back to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
    Egyptian hieroglyphs
    Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

    , is that vowel
    Vowel
    In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

    s are underrepresented. For example, in Classical Arabic
    Classical Arabic
    Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...

    , of the six vowels, the three short ones are normally omitted entirely (except in the Qur'an
    Qur'an
    The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

    ), while the three long ones are represented ambiguously by certain consonants
    Mater lectionis
    In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...

    . Only Kashmiri
    Kashmiri language
    Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

    , Uyghur
    Uyghur language
    Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...

     and Kurdish
    Kurdish language
    Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

    , of the many languages using adaptations of this script, regularly indicate all vowels.

    Letters


    Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, beginning (joined on the left), middle (joined on both sides), and end (joined on the right) of a word.

    The letter names are mostly identical to the ones used in Arabic, except for the Persian pronunciation of the consonants. The only ambiguous name is he used for both {{lang|fa|ﺡ}} and {{lang|fa|ه}}. For clarification, these are often called {{transl|sem|ḥe-ye jimi}} (literally "{{transl|sem|jim}}-like {{transl|sem|ḥe}}" after {{transl|sem|jim}}, the name for the letter {{lang|fa|ج}} that uses the same base form) and {{transl|sem|he-ye do-češm}} (literally "two-eyed {{transl|sem|he}}", after the contextual middle letterform {{lang|fa|ﻬ}}), respectively.
    Name DIN 31635
    DIN 31635
    DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1936 in Rome...

    		 IPA
    International Phonetic Alphabet
    The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

    		 Contextual forms
    End Middle Beginning Isolated
    {{transl|sem|ʾalef}} {{transl|sem|ā}} / {{transl|sem|ʾ}} [ɒ], [ʔ] {{lang|fa|ـا}} {{lang|fa|ـا}} * {{lang|fa|آ}} {{transl|sem|/}} {{lang|fa|ا}} * {{lang|fa|ﺍ}}
    {{transl|sem|be}} {{transl|sem|b}} [b] {{lang|fa|ـب}} {{lang|fa|ـبـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺑ}} {{lang|fa|ب}}
    {{transl|sem|pe}} {{transl|sem|p}} [p] {{lang|fa|ـپ}} {{lang|fa|ـپـ}} {{lang|fa|ﭘ}} {{lang|fa|پ}}
    {{transl|sem|te}} {{transl|sem|t}} [t] {{lang|fa|ـت}} {{lang|fa|ـتـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺗ}} {{lang|fa|ﺕ}}
    {{transl|sem|s̱e}} {{transl|sem|s̱}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـث}} {{lang|fa|ـثـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺛ}} {{lang|fa|ﺙ}}
    {{transl|sem|jim}} {{transl|sem|j}} [d͡ʒ] {{lang|fa|ﺞ}} {{lang|fa|ـجـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺟ}} {{lang|fa|ﺝ}}
    {{transl|sem|če}} {{transl|sem|č}} [t͡ʃ] {{lang|fa|ﭻ}} {{lang|fa|ـچـ}} {{lang|fa|ﭼ}} {{lang|fa|ﭺ}}
    {{transl|sem|ḥe(-ye jimi)}} {{transl|sem|ḥ}} [h] {{lang|fa|ﺢ}} {{lang|fa|ـحـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺣ}} {{lang|fa|ﺡ}}
    {{transl|sem|ḫe}} {{transl|sem|ḫ}} [x] {{lang|fa|ﺦ}} {{lang|fa|ـخـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺧ}} {{lang|fa|ﺥ}}
    {{transl|sem|dāl}} {{transl|sem|d}} [d] {{lang|fa|ـد}} {{lang|fa|ـد}}* {{lang|fa|ﺩ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺩ}}
    {{transl|sem|ẕāl}} {{transl|sem|ẕ}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـذ}} {{lang|fa|ـذ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺫ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺫ}}
    {{transl|sem|re}} {{transl|sem|r}} [ɾ] {{lang|fa|ـر}} {{lang|fa|ـر}}* {{lang|fa|ﺭ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺭ}}
    {{transl|sem|ze}} {{transl|sem|z}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـز}} {{lang|fa|ـز}}* {{lang|fa|ﺯ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺯ}}
    {{transl|sem|že}} {{transl|sem|ž}} [ʒ] {{lang|fa|ـژ}} {{lang|fa|ـژ}}* {{lang|fa|ژ}}* {{lang|fa|ژ}}
    {{transl|sem|sin}} {{transl|sem|s}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـس}} {{lang|fa|ـسـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺳ}} {{lang|fa|ﺱ}}
    {{transl|sem|šin}} {{transl|sem|š}} [ʃ] {{lang|fa|ـش}} {{lang|fa|ـشـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺷ}} {{lang|fa|ﺵ}}
    {{transl|sem|ṣād}} {{transl|sem|ṣ}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـص}} {{lang|fa|ـصـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺻ}} {{lang|fa|ﺹ}}
    {{transl|sem|z̤ād}} {{transl|sem|z̤}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـض}} {{lang|fa|ـضـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺿ}} {{lang|fa|ﺽ}}
    {{transl|sem|ṭā}} {{transl|sem|ṭ}} [t] {{lang|fa|ـط}} {{lang|fa|ـطـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻃ}} {{lang|fa|ﻁ}}
    {{transl|sem|ẓā}} {{transl|sem|ẓ}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـظ}} {{lang|fa|ـظـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻇ}} {{lang|fa|ﻅ}}
    {{transl|sem|ʿeyn}} {{transl|sem|ʿ}} [ʔ] {{lang|fa|ـع}} {{lang|fa|ـعـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻋ}} {{lang|fa|ﻉ}}
    {{transl|sem|ġeyn}} {{transl|sem|ġ}} [ɣ] / [ɢ] {{lang|fa|ـغ}} {{lang|fa|ـغـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻏ}} {{lang|fa|ﻍ}}
    {{transl|sem|fe}} {{transl|sem|f}} [f] {{lang|fa|ـف}} {{lang|fa|ـفـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻓ}} {{lang|fa|ﻑ}}
    {{transl|sem|qāf}} {{transl|sem|q}} [ɢ] / [ɣ] / [q] (in some dialects) {{lang|fa|ـق}} {{lang|fa|ـقـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻗ}} {{lang|fa|ﻕ}}
    {{transl|sem|kāf}} {{transl|sem|k}} [k] {{lang|fa|ـک}} {{lang|fa|ـکـ}} {{lang|fa|ﮐ}} {{lang|fa|ک}}
    {{transl|sem|gāf}} {{transl|sem|g}} [ɡ] {{lang|fa|ـگ}} {{lang|fa|ـگـ}} {{lang|fa|ﮔ}} {{lang|fa|گ}}
    {{transl|sem|lām}} {{transl|sem|l}} [l] {{lang|fa|ـل}} {{lang|fa|ـلـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻟ}} {{lang|fa|ﻝ}}
    {{transl|sem|mim}} {{transl|sem|m}} [m] {{lang|fa|ـم}} {{lang|fa|ـمـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻣ}} {{lang|fa|ﻡ}}
    {{transl|sem|nun}} {{transl|sem|n}} [n] {{lang|fa|ـن}} {{lang|fa|ـنـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻧ}} {{lang|fa|ﻥ}}
    {{transl|sem|wāw}} {{transl|sem|w}} / {{transl|sem|ū}} / {{transl|sem|ow}} [v] / [uː] / [o] / [ow] / [oː] (in Dari) {{lang|fa|ـو}} {{lang|fa|ـو}}* {{lang|fa|و}}* {{lang|fa|و}}
    {{transl|sem|he(-ye do-češm)}} {{transl|sem|h}} [h] {{lang|fa|ـه}} {{lang|fa|ـهـ}} {{lang|fa|هـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻩ}}
    {{transl|sem|ye}} {{transl|sem|y}} / {{transl|sem|ī}} / {{transl|sem|á}} [j] / [i] / [ɒː] / [eː] (in Dari) {{lang|fa|ﯽ}} {{lang|fa|ـیـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻳ}} {{lang|fa|ﻯ}}

    Exceptions


    There are seven letters ({{lang|fa|و}} – {{lang|fa|ژ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺯ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺭ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺫ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺩ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺍ}}) in the Persian alphabet that do not connect to other letters like the rest of the letters in the alphabet. These seven letters do not have distinctive initial or medial forms but the isolated and the final forms are used instead because they do not allow for a connection to be made on the left hand side to the other letters in the word. For example, when the letter {{lang|fa|ا}} "alef" is at the beginning of a word such as {{lang|fa|اینجا}} "injā" (here), the initial/isolated form of "alef" is used. Or in the case of {{lang|fa|امروز}}
    "emruz" (today) the letter {{lang|fa|ﺮ}} re is the final form and the letter {{lang|fa|و}} vāv is the initial/isolated form, although they are in the middle of the word; {{lang|fa|ﺯ}} is the initial/isolated form, although it is at the end of the word.

    Other characters


    The following are not actual letters but different orthographical shapes for letters, and in the case of the {{transl|sem|lām alef}}, a ligature. As to {{Nastaliq|ﺀ}} hamze, it has only a single graphic, since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes 'seated' on a vāv, ye or alef, and in that case the seat behaves like an ordinary vāv, ye or alef respectively. Technically, hamze is not a letter but a diacritic.
    Name Transliteration
    Transliteration
    Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

    		 IPA
    International Phonetic Alphabet
    The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

    		 Final Medial Initial Stand-alone
    {{transl|sem|alef madde}} {{transl|sem|ā}} [ɒ] {{lang|fa|ﺂ}} — — {{lang|fa|ﺁ}}
    {{transl|sem|he ye}} {{transl|sem|-eye}} or {{transl|sem|-eyeh}} [eje] {{lang|fa|ﮥ}} — — {{lang|fa|ۀ}}
    {{transl|sem|lām alef}} {{transl|sem|lā}} [lɒ] {{lang|fa|ﻼ}} — — {{lang|fa|ﻻ}}
    {{transl|sem|tanvin nasb}} {{transl|sem|-an}} [æn] {{lang|fa|ـاً}} — — {{lang|fa|اً}}


    Although at first glance they may seem similar, there are many differences in the way the different languages use the alphabets. For example, similar words are written differently in Persian and Arabic, as they are used differently.

    The Persian alphabet adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet, [p], [ɡ], [t͡ʃ] (ch in chair), [ʒ] (s in measure):
    Sound Shape Unicode name
    [p] {{lang|fa|پ}} pe
    [t͡ʃ] (ch) {{lang|fa|چ}} che
    [ʒ] (zh) {{lang|fa|ژ}} zhe
    [ɡ] {{lang|fa|گ}} gaf

    Changes from the Arabic writing system


    The following is a list of differences between the Arabic writing system and the Persian writing system:
    1. A hamze ({{lang|fa|ء}}) is neither written above an alef ({{lang|fa|ا}}) to denote a zabar or piš nor below to denote a zir.
    2. The final kâf {{lang|fa|ﮏ}} is typically written without a flourish, while in Arabic it would be {{lang|ar|ﻚ}}.
    3. The Arabic letter
      {{Contains Perso-Arabic text}}
      {{Persian alphabet}}
      {{Persian language}}
      For other scripts that have been used to write the Persian language, see Persian language – Orthography.


      The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet ({{lang-fa|الفبای فارسی}}) is a writing system
      Writing system
      A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...

       based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language
      Arabic language
      Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

      , the Arabic alphabet
      Arabic alphabet
      The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...

       was adapted to the Persian language
      Persian language
      Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

      , adding four letters: {{lang|fa|پ}} p, {{lang|fa|چ}} t͡ʃ, {{lang|fa|ژ}} ʒ, and {{lang|fa|گ}} ɡ. Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters. Besides the Persian alphabet itself, the Perso-Arabic script has been applied to the Urdu alphabet
      Urdu alphabet
      The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Urdu language. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet...

      , Sindhi alphabet, Saraiki alphabet, Kurdish Sorani alphabet, Lurish (Luri), Ottoman Turkish alphabet
      Ottoman Turkish alphabet
      The Ottoman Turkish alphabet was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script, on...

      , Balochi alphabet, Punjabi Shahmukhi script
      Shahmukhi script
      Shahmukhi is a local variant of the Urdu alphabet, which itself is a Perso-Arabic derivation that has used to write and record the Urdu language in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Nastaʿlīq is a portmanteau word of naskh of Arabic and ta'aliq,...

      , Tatar
      Iske imlâ
      İske imlâ is a variant of the Arabic script, used for the Tatar language before 1920 and the Old Tatar language. This alphabet can be referred to as old only to contrast it with Yaña imlâ....

      , Azeri, and several others.

      In order to represent non-Arabic sounds, new letters were created by adding dots, lines, and other shapes to existing letters. For example, the retroflex
      Retroflex consonant
      A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

       sounds of Urdu are represented orthographically by adding a small ط above their non-retroflex counterparts: {{lang|ur|د}} [d̪] and {{lang|ur|ڈ}} [ɖ]. The voiceless retroflex fricative [ʂ] of Pashto
      Pashto language
      Pashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...

       is represented in writing by adding a dot above and below the {{lang|ps|س}} [s] letter, resulting in {{lang|ps|ښ}}. The close central rounded vowel [ʉ] of Kurdish
      Kurdish language
      Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

       is written by writing two {{lang|kur|ﻭ}} [u], resulting in {{lang|kur|ﻭﻭ}}.

      The Perso-Arabic script is exclusively written cursive
      Cursive
      Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...

      ly. That is, the majority of letters in a word connect to each other. This is also implemented on computers. Whenever the Perso-Arabic script is typed, the computer connects the letters to each other. Unconnected letters are not widely accepted. In Perso-Arabic, as in Arabic, words are written from right to left while numbers are written from left to right.

      A characteristic feature of this script, possibly tracing back to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
      Egyptian hieroglyphs
      Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

      , is that vowel
      Vowel
      In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

      s are underrepresented. For example, in Classical Arabic
      Classical Arabic
      Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...

      , of the six vowels, the three short ones are normally omitted entirely (except in the Qur'an
      Qur'an
      The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

      ), while the three long ones are represented ambiguously by certain consonants
      Mater lectionis
      In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...

      . Only Kashmiri
      Kashmiri language
      Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

      , Uyghur
      Uyghur language
      Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...

       and Kurdish
      Kurdish language
      Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

      , of the many languages using adaptations of this script, regularly indicate all vowels.

      Letters


      Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, beginning (joined on the left), middle (joined on both sides), and end (joined on the right) of a word.

      The letter names are mostly identical to the ones used in Arabic, except for the Persian pronunciation of the consonants. The only ambiguous name is he used for both {{lang|fa|ﺡ}} and {{lang|fa|ه}}. For clarification, these are often called {{transl|sem|ḥe-ye jimi}} (literally "{{transl|sem|jim}}-like {{transl|sem|ḥe}}" after {{transl|sem|jim}}, the name for the letter {{lang|fa|ج}} that uses the same base form) and {{transl|sem|he-ye do-češm}} (literally "two-eyed {{transl|sem|he}}", after the contextual middle letterform {{lang|fa|ﻬ}}), respectively.
      Name DIN 31635
      DIN 31635
      DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1936 in Rome...

      		 IPA
      International Phonetic Alphabet
      The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

      		 Contextual forms
      End Middle Beginning Isolated
      {{transl|sem|ʾalef}} {{transl|sem|ā}} / {{transl|sem|ʾ}} [ɒ], [ʔ] {{lang|fa|ـا}} {{lang|fa|ـا}} * {{lang|fa|آ}} {{transl|sem|/}} {{lang|fa|ا}} * {{lang|fa|ﺍ}}
      {{transl|sem|be}} {{transl|sem|b}} [b] {{lang|fa|ـب}} {{lang|fa|ـبـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺑ}} {{lang|fa|ب}}
      {{transl|sem|pe}} {{transl|sem|p}} [p] {{lang|fa|ـپ}} {{lang|fa|ـپـ}} {{lang|fa|ﭘ}} {{lang|fa|پ}}
      {{transl|sem|te}} {{transl|sem|t}} [t] {{lang|fa|ـت}} {{lang|fa|ـتـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺗ}} {{lang|fa|ﺕ}}
      {{transl|sem|s̱e}} {{transl|sem|s̱}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـث}} {{lang|fa|ـثـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺛ}} {{lang|fa|ﺙ}}
      {{transl|sem|jim}} {{transl|sem|j}} [d͡ʒ] {{lang|fa|ﺞ}} {{lang|fa|ـجـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺟ}} {{lang|fa|ﺝ}}
      {{transl|sem|če}} {{transl|sem|č}} [t͡ʃ] {{lang|fa|ﭻ}} {{lang|fa|ـچـ}} {{lang|fa|ﭼ}} {{lang|fa|ﭺ}}
      {{transl|sem|ḥe(-ye jimi)}} {{transl|sem|ḥ}} [h] {{lang|fa|ﺢ}} {{lang|fa|ـحـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺣ}} {{lang|fa|ﺡ}}
      {{transl|sem|ḫe}} {{transl|sem|ḫ}} [x] {{lang|fa|ﺦ}} {{lang|fa|ـخـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺧ}} {{lang|fa|ﺥ}}
      {{transl|sem|dāl}} {{transl|sem|d}} [d] {{lang|fa|ـد}} {{lang|fa|ـد}}* {{lang|fa|ﺩ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺩ}}
      {{transl|sem|ẕāl}} {{transl|sem|ẕ}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـذ}} {{lang|fa|ـذ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺫ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺫ}}
      {{transl|sem|re}} {{transl|sem|r}} [ɾ] {{lang|fa|ـر}} {{lang|fa|ـر}}* {{lang|fa|ﺭ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺭ}}
      {{transl|sem|ze}} {{transl|sem|z}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـز}} {{lang|fa|ـز}}* {{lang|fa|ﺯ}}* {{lang|fa|ﺯ}}
      {{transl|sem|že}} {{transl|sem|ž}} [ʒ] {{lang|fa|ـژ}} {{lang|fa|ـژ}}* {{lang|fa|ژ}}* {{lang|fa|ژ}}
      {{transl|sem|sin}} {{transl|sem|s}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـس}} {{lang|fa|ـسـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺳ}} {{lang|fa|ﺱ}}
      {{transl|sem|šin}} {{transl|sem|š}} [ʃ] {{lang|fa|ـش}} {{lang|fa|ـشـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺷ}} {{lang|fa|ﺵ}}
      {{transl|sem|ṣād}} {{transl|sem|ṣ}} [s] {{lang|fa|ـص}} {{lang|fa|ـصـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺻ}} {{lang|fa|ﺹ}}
      {{transl|sem|z̤ād}} {{transl|sem|z̤}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـض}} {{lang|fa|ـضـ}} {{lang|fa|ﺿ}} {{lang|fa|ﺽ}}
      {{transl|sem|ṭā}} {{transl|sem|ṭ}} [t] {{lang|fa|ـط}} {{lang|fa|ـطـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻃ}} {{lang|fa|ﻁ}}
      {{transl|sem|ẓā}} {{transl|sem|ẓ}} [z] {{lang|fa|ـظ}} {{lang|fa|ـظـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻇ}} {{lang|fa|ﻅ}}
      {{transl|sem|ʿeyn}} {{transl|sem|ʿ}} [ʔ] {{lang|fa|ـع}} {{lang|fa|ـعـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻋ}} {{lang|fa|ﻉ}}
      {{transl|sem|ġeyn}} {{transl|sem|ġ}} [ɣ] / [ɢ] {{lang|fa|ـغ}} {{lang|fa|ـغـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻏ}} {{lang|fa|ﻍ}}
      {{transl|sem|fe}} {{transl|sem|f}} [f] {{lang|fa|ـف}} {{lang|fa|ـفـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻓ}} {{lang|fa|ﻑ}}
      {{transl|sem|qāf}} {{transl|sem|q}} [ɢ] / [ɣ] / [q] (in some dialects) {{lang|fa|ـق}} {{lang|fa|ـقـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻗ}} {{lang|fa|ﻕ}}
      {{transl|sem|kāf}} {{transl|sem|k}} [k] {{lang|fa|ـک}} {{lang|fa|ـکـ}} {{lang|fa|ﮐ}} {{lang|fa|ک}}
      {{transl|sem|gāf}} {{transl|sem|g}} [ɡ] {{lang|fa|ـگ}} {{lang|fa|ـگـ}} {{lang|fa|ﮔ}} {{lang|fa|گ}}
      {{transl|sem|lām}} {{transl|sem|l}} [l] {{lang|fa|ـل}} {{lang|fa|ـلـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻟ}} {{lang|fa|ﻝ}}
      {{transl|sem|mim}} {{transl|sem|m}} [m] {{lang|fa|ـم}} {{lang|fa|ـمـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻣ}} {{lang|fa|ﻡ}}
      {{transl|sem|nun}} {{transl|sem|n}} [n] {{lang|fa|ـن}} {{lang|fa|ـنـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻧ}} {{lang|fa|ﻥ}}
      {{transl|sem|wāw}} {{transl|sem|w}} / {{transl|sem|ū}} / {{transl|sem|ow}} [v] / [uː] / [o] / [ow] / [oː] (in Dari) {{lang|fa|ـو}} {{lang|fa|ـو}}* {{lang|fa|و}}* {{lang|fa|و}}
      {{transl|sem|he(-ye do-češm)}} {{transl|sem|h}} [h] {{lang|fa|ـه}} {{lang|fa|ـهـ}} {{lang|fa|هـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻩ}}
      {{transl|sem|ye}} {{transl|sem|y}} / {{transl|sem|ī}} / {{transl|sem|á}} [j] / [i] / [ɒː] / [eː] (in Dari) {{lang|fa|ﯽ}} {{lang|fa|ـیـ}} {{lang|fa|ﻳ}} {{lang|fa|ﻯ}}

      Exceptions


      There are seven letters ({{lang|fa|و}} – {{lang|fa|ژ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺯ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺭ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺫ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺩ}} – {{lang|fa|ﺍ}}) in the Persian alphabet that do not connect to other letters like the rest of the letters in the alphabet. These seven letters do not have distinctive initial or medial forms but the isolated and the final forms are used instead because they do not allow for a connection to be made on the left hand side to the other letters in the word. For example, when the letter {{lang|fa|ا}} "alef" is at the beginning of a word such as {{lang|fa|اینجا}} "injā" (here), the initial/isolated form of "alef" is used. Or in the case of {{lang|fa|امروز}}
      "emruz" (today) the letter {{lang|fa|ﺮ}} re is the final form and the letter {{lang|fa|و}} vāv is the initial/isolated form, although they are in the middle of the word; {{lang|fa|ﺯ}} is the initial/isolated form, although it is at the end of the word.

      Other characters


      The following are not actual letters but different orthographical shapes for letters, and in the case of the {{transl|sem|lām alef}}, a ligature. As to {{Nastaliq|ﺀ}} hamze, it has only a single graphic, since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes 'seated' on a vāv, ye or alef, and in that case the seat behaves like an ordinary vāv, ye or alef respectively. Technically, hamze is not a letter but a diacritic.
      Name Transliteration
      Transliteration
      Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

      		 IPA
      International Phonetic Alphabet
      The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

      		 Final Medial Initial Stand-alone
      {{transl|sem|alef madde}} {{transl|sem|ā}} [ɒ] {{lang|fa|ﺂ}} — — {{lang|fa|ﺁ}}
      {{transl|sem|he ye}} {{transl|sem|-eye}} or {{transl|sem|-eyeh}} [eje] {{lang|fa|ﮥ}} — — {{lang|fa|ۀ}}
      {{transl|sem|lām alef}} {{transl|sem|lā}} [lɒ] {{lang|fa|ﻼ}} — — {{lang|fa|ﻻ}}
      {{transl|sem|tanvin nasb}} {{transl|sem|-an}} [æn] {{lang|fa|ـاً}} — — {{lang|fa|اً}}


      Although at first glance they may seem similar, there are many differences in the way the different languages use the alphabets. For example, similar words are written differently in Persian and Arabic, as they are used differently.

      The Persian alphabet adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet, [p], [ɡ], [t͡ʃ] (ch in chair), [ʒ] (s in measure):
      Sound Shape Unicode name
      [p] {{lang|fa|پ}} pe
      [t͡ʃ] (ch) {{lang|fa|چ}} che
      [ʒ] (zh) {{lang|fa|ژ}} zhe
      [ɡ] {{lang|fa|گ}} gaf

      Changes from the Arabic writing system


      The following is a list of differences between the Arabic writing system and the Persian writing system:
      1. A hamze ({{lang|fa|ء}}) is neither written above an alef ({{lang|fa|ا}}) to denote a zabar or piš nor below to denote a zir.
      2. The final kâf {{lang|fa|ﮏ}} is typically written without a flourish, while in Arabic it would be {{lang|ar|ﻚ}}.
      3. The Arabic letter {{transl ({{lang|ar|ة}}), unless used in a direct Arabic quotation, is usually changed to a te ({{lang|fa|ت}}) or he {{lang|fa|ه}} because tāʾ marbūṭa is a grammatical construct in Arabic denoting femininity. Since Persian grammar lacks gender constructs, the tāʾ marbūṭa is not necessary and is only kept to maintain fidelity to the original Arabic spelling.
      4. Two dots are removed in the final ye ({{lang|fa|ی}}). Arabic differentiates the final {{transl|ar|DIN|yāʾ}} with the two dots and the alif maqsura (except in Egyptian Arabic
        Egyptian Arabic
        Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect ....

        ), which is written like a final yāʾ without two dots. Because Persian drops the two dots in the final ye, the alif maqsura cannot be differentiated from the normal final ye. For example, the name Musâ (Moses) is written {{lang|fa|موسی}}. In the final letter in Musâ, Persian does not differentiate between ye or an alif maqsura.
      5. The letters pe ({{lang|fa|پ}}), che ({{lang|fa|چ}}), že ({{lang|fa|ژ}}), and gâf ({{lang|fa|گ}}) are added because Arabic lacks these phonemes, yet they occur in the Persian language.
      6. Arabic letter waw ({{lang|ar|و}}) is used as vâv for [v], because Arabic has no [v] and standard Iranian Persian has [w] only within the diphthong
        Diphthong
        A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...

         [ow].
      7. In the Arabic alphabet {{transl ({{lang|ar|ﻩ}}) comes before {{transl|ar|DIN|wāw}} ({{lang|ar|و}}), however in the Persian alphabet, he ({{lang|fa|ﻩ}}) comes after vâv ({{lang|fa|و}}).

      Word boundaries


      Typically words are separated from each other by a space. Certain morphemes (such as the plural ending '-hâ') are written without a space but separated from the previous word with a zero-width non-joiner.

      Languages using the Perso-Arabic script


      Current Use
      • Azerbaijani
        Azerbaijani language
        Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

         (Iran)
      • Balochi
        Balochi language
        Balochi is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the principal language of the Baloch of Balochistan, Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It is also spoken as a second language by some Brahui. It is designated as one of nine official languages of Pakistan.-Vowels:The Balochi vowel...

      • Brahui
      • Dari
        Dari (Eastern Persian)
        Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...

         (Eastern Persian)
      • Gilaki
        Gilaki language
        The Gilaki language is a Caspian language, and a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Iran's Gīlān Province.The language is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and Galeshi . Furthermore, the Gilaki language is closely related to Mazanderani, and the...

      • Kashmiri
        Kashmiri language
        Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

      • Kazakh
        Kazakh language
        Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....

         {{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} In China and Iran
      • Kurdish
        Kurdish language
        Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

         (Kurmanji dialect
        Kurmanji
        Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...

         in Iran and Iraq, Soranî dialect
        Soranî
        Soranî is the name of a Kurdish language that is spoken in Iran and Iraq. Soranî is one of the main Kurdish languages, which are a branch of the Iranian languages.- Name :...

        )
      • Kyrgyz
        Kyrgyz language
        Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...

         in China and Afghanistan
      • Laki
        Laki language
        Laki is a Northwestern Iranian language. Although it is usually grouped with Southern Kurdish dialects, Ethnologue classifies it as a fourth subgroup of Kurdish....

      • Luri
      • Pashto language
        Pashto language
        Pashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...

      • Marwari
        Marwari language
        The Marwari language , also variously Marvari, Marwadi, Marvadi), is spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighboring state of Gujarat and Haryana and in Eastern Pakistan...

         also known as Rajasthani
        Rajasthani language
        Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...

      • Mazandarani
        Mazandarani language
        Mazandarani or Tabari is an Iranian language of the Northwestern branch, spoken mainly in Iran's Mazandaran, Gilan and Golestan provinces...

      • Persian
        Persian language
        Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

        , except when it appears as Tajik
        Tajik language
        Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

      • Western Punjabi
        Punjabi language
        Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

         (Shahmukhi script
        Shahmukhi script
        Shahmukhi is a local variant of the Urdu alphabet, which itself is a Perso-Arabic derivation that has used to write and record the Urdu language in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Nastaʿlīq is a portmanteau word of naskh of Arabic and ta'aliq,...

        )
      • Qashqai
        Qashqai language
        Qashqai is a Turkic language spoken by the Qashqai people, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars region of Iran. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary. Ethnologue gives a figure of one and a half million...

      • Sindhi
        Sindhi language
        Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

      • Saraiki
        Saraiki language
        Saraiki , transliterated as Sirāikī and sometimes spelled Seraiki and Saraiki, is a standardized written language of Pakistan belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages. It is a language spoken in the heart of Pakistan...

      • Tajik
        Tajik language
        Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

         in Afghanistan by ethnic Tajiks
      • Turkmen
        Turkmen language
        Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...

         in İran and Afghanistan
      • Urdu
      • Burushaski
        Burushaski language
        The Burushaski or Burushko language , is a language isolate . It is spoken by some 87,000 Burusho people in the Hunza, Nagar, Yasin, and Ishkoman valleys, and some parts of the Gilgit valley, in Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan and by about 300 Burusho people in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India...

      • Uzbek
        Uzbek language
        Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...

         in China and Afghanistan
      • Uyghur
        Uyghur language
        Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...

         (used different writing systems, cf. Uyghur alphabet
        Uyghur alphabet
        Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, administered by China, by the Uyghur people. It is a language with a long literary tradition, and has been written using numerous writing systems through time...

        )
      • Chinese Xiaoerjin, a modified Perso Arabic script


      Former Use

      A number of languages have used the Perso-Arabic script before, but have since changed.
      • Azerbaijani
        Azerbaijani language
        Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

         in the Republic of Azerbaijan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic, and switched back to Latin recently)
      • Chaghatay Turkic (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic)
      • Kazakh
        Kazakh language
        Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....

         in the Republic of Kazakhstan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic)
      • Kyrgyz
        Kyrgyz language
        Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...

         in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic)
      • Turkish
        Ottoman Turkish language
        The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

         (changed to Latin)
      • Tajik
        Tajik language
        Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

         in the Republic of Tajikistan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic)
      • Turkmen
        Turkmen language
        Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...

         in the Republic of Turkmenistan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic, and switched back to Latin recently)
      • Uzbek
        Uzbek language
        Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...

         in the Republic of Uzbekistan (changed first to Latin, then Cyrillic, and switched back to Latin recently)

      Arguments and discussions on use of Perso-Arabic


      In almost all countries which use Perso-Arabic script, there have been discussions between parties about replacing it, often raising the concept of romanization
      Romanization
      In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...

      . For example:
      • Tajikistan
        Tajikistan
        Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

         has implemented a Cyrillic alphabet instead of Perso-Arabic
      • Turkish
        Turkey
        Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

         people have chosen a Latin-Based Turkish alphabet
        Turkish alphabet
        The Turkish alphabet is a Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy...

        , in part because the eight vowels of Turkish were ambiguously represented by only three symbols
      • Azerbaijan
        Azerbaijan
        Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

         and Uzbek
        Uzbek language
        Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...

         implemented Cyrillic, but have since switched to Latin alphabets.
      • In Iran, methods of romanizations like desphilic and Unipers have been invented.
      • Kurdish language
        Kurdish language
        Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

         has utilized a Kurdish Latin alphabet
        Kurdish alphabet
        The Kurdish language is written either using a variant of the Latin alphabet, according to a system introduced by Jeladet Ali Bedirkhan in 1932 , or using a variant of the Persian alphabet, the so-called Sorani alphabet, named for the city of Soran, Iraq.The Hawar is used in Turkey, Syria and...


      Relation to Islamic culture


      Perso-Arabic script in some Islamic countries is being promoted and defended as a sign of Islamic culture. People and governments in some Islamic countries have an interest in this script because of its relation to Islam
      Islam
      Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

       and because it has been utilized to write the Koran. Therefore the concept of Perso-Arabic script and Romanization in these countries is not a politically or socially neutral subject.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}

      Other Arabic-derived alphabets


      There are many Arabic-derived alphabets which were not influenced by the Perso-Arabic script, including Jawi (used for Malay
      Malay language
      Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

      ), Sorabe
      Sorabe
      Sorabe, or Sora-be, is an alphabet based on Arabic used to transcribe the Malagasy language and the Antemoro Malagasy dialect in particular dating from the 15th century ....

       (Malagasy
      Malagasy language
      Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...

      ), and many alphabets used in Northern Africa. These alphabets used other innovations for writing such common sounds as [p] and [ɡ], instead of the Perso-Arabic letters {{lang|fa|پ}} and {{lang|fa|گ}}, although the Jawi script does use the same symbol for [t͡ʃ] ({{script|Arab|چ}}).

      See also

      • Scripts used for Persian
      • Persian language
        Persian language
        Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

      • Persian phonology
        Persian phonology
        The Persian language has six vowel phonemes and twenty-three consonant phonemes. It features contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters.-Vowels:...

      • Ajami script
        Ajami script
        The term Ajami , or Ajamiyya , which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign" or "stranger," has been applied to Arabic alphabets used for writing African languages....

      • Ottoman Turkish language
        Ottoman Turkish language
        The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

      • Arabic script
      • History of the Arabic alphabet
        History of the Arabic alphabet
        The history of the Arabic alphabet shows that this abjad has changed since it arose. It is thought that the Arabic alphabet is a derivative of the Nabataean variation of the Aramaic alphabet, which descended from the Phoenician alphabet, which among others gave rise to the Hebrew alphabet and the...

      • List of languages using Arabic script
      • Nastaʿlīq
      • Shahmukhi
      • Urdu alphabet
        Urdu alphabet
        The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Urdu language. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet...

      • Xiaoerjin

      External links



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