The Islamic Republic of Iran is a multinational state with a population of almost 80 million. More than 60% of them speak the state language of Iran - Persian. Otherwise, the Persian language is called Farsi, and it belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.
Some statistics and facts
- The country's constitution enshrines the Persian language and the Persian alphabet as the means of official correspondence and document production, textbook publishing, and school teaching. But also the languages of minorities in Iran are freely used both in the press and in educational institutions.
- The second most common language is Azerbaijani. At least 15 million inhabitants of the republic speak it.
- Two minority languages in Iran are endangered. It's New Aramaic and Browie.
- In addition to the state language of Iran and Azerbaijani, one can hear Kurdish and Turkmen, Arabic and Pashto, Armenian and Gilan in the country.
- Modern Farsi has three closely related variants, which are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.
Farsi: history and modernity
For many centuries, starting from the 10th century, Persian was the language of international communication in the vast area of the eastern part of the Islamic world. He exerted a considerable influence on the formation and development of the languages of various peoples and his influence extended from Turkey to India. Many Turkic and New Indian languages borrowed words from Farsi.
The Persian script was created on the basis of Arabic, but some signs were introduced into the Farsi alphabet for sounds that are absent in Arabic.
In addition to Iran, Farsi is widespread in the Gulf countries and can be heard in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Yemen. Persian is spoken in its own version in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and adjacent regions of Uzbekistan.
In modern Farsi, there are standard or book-written, national colloquial and laid-back non-standardized variants, each of which can be found while communicating with the people of Iran.
Tourist notes
Iran is a country that is not very adapted to travel if you do not speak its state language. English-speaking Iranians are rare and can only be found in Tehran. That is why for a trip to Iran it is better to use the services of agencies offering tours with licensed guides who speak at least English.
