The Persian alphabet, or the Persian-Arabic alphabet, is the writing system used for the Persian language. This article will talk about the features and general characteristics of this alphabet. The second name of the Persian language is Farsi.
Alphabet Features
The replacement of the Pahlavian letter with the Persian alphabet for the recording of Farsi was carried out during the dynasty of Tahirid rulers in the 9th century AD. e. Persian writing has many similarities with other writing systems based on the Arabic alphabet. One of the features of the Persian and Arabic alphabet is the system of consonant writing, in which only consonants are recorded. The recording direction is exclusively from right to left. Writing in Persian is italic. This means that most letters in a word are connected to each other. When typing in Farsi, the computer automatically joins adjacent alphabetic characters. However, some syllables are not added, and the Persian adds four letters to the main set. How many letters are in the Persian alphabet? It consists of a total of 32 characters.
Italic writing
Since the letter is italic, the appearance of the letter varies depending on its position. There are four types of arrangement of letters in Persian writing:
- isolated, in which the letters do not join each other;
- initial (letters are connected to the left);
- median (connection occurs on both sides);
- final (letters are connected to the right).
Seven letters (و, ژ, ز, ر, ذ, د, ا) are not combined with the next, unlike the rest of the letters of the alphabet. These 7 characters have the same shape in an isolated and initial position, another shape in the middle and final position. Almost all letters have Arabic names.
The history of the Arabic alphabet
The reason for using the Arabic script to write the Persian language was the conquest of Persia by the Arab Caliphate during the Muslim conquests in the 7th century and the spread of Islam among native speakers of Farsi. The use of Pahlavi writing on Persian territory for state needs was banned at the end of the 8th century, and if the adherents of Zoroastrianism continued to use it, then converts to Islam were representatives of poorly educated layers of the people, and to write simple texts they easily used the writing system of the dominant language of the Caliphate - Arabic. The first examples of Farsi verses written in Arabic appear in the 9th century.