Persian, Iranian

Print

A language of Iran

ISO 639-3
pes
Alternate Names
New Persian, Parsi, Persian, West Persian
Population

45,000,000 in Iran (2011), increasing. 800,000 Eastern Farsi in Khorasan speak dialects which are transitional with Iranian Persian. Population total all countries: 47,045,100.

Location

Widespread. Most concentrated in central, south central, and northeast. Also in Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iraq, Israel, Netherlands, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan.

Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1979, Constitution, Article 15).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western, Southwestern, Persian
Dialects

Abadani, Araki, Bandari, Basseri, Esfahani, Kashani, Kermani, Ketabi, Mahalhamadani, Mashadi (Meshed), Old Shirazi, Qazvini, Sedehi, Shahrudi Kazeruni, Shirazi, Shirazjahromi, Tehrani, Yazdi. Literary language virtually identical in Iran and Afghanistan, with very minor lexical differences. Dialect shading into Dari [prs] in Afghanistan and Tajiki [tgk] in Tajikistan. Many dialects may be separate languages.

Typology

SOV

Language Use

Vigorous. All domains. All ages. Some also use English [eng] or Azerbaijani [azb].

Language Development
Taught in primary and secondary schools. Fully developed. Bible: 1838–1995.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Persian, Iranian
Writing
Arabic script.
Other Comments

Muslim (Shi’a), Baha’i, Christian.

Also spoken in:

Expand All Collapse All