Farsi and the Arabic Alphabet
Disclaimers
Almost everything I write about here I learned from Modern Persian: A Complete Course for Beginners by John Mace. Another great resource is Persian Language Online. These two sources are much more valuable than this article will be.
I'll number the letters here so I can easily keep track of which ones I've documented. There are 32 letter total.
I've used the word "alphabet" in the title of this article, but the Arabic script isn't really an alphabet in the strictest linguistic sense. It's an impure "abjad". More on that here.
This may not the order in which the Arabic letters are typically taught, and there are likely more logical groupings than I've assigned here. But this article is for me, not you :)
1. Âlef: ا
The first letter of the Arabic alphabet (or at least the first one that John Mace introduces) is âlef: ا. It is not equivalent to the letter A in English pronunciation. John Mace describes the pronunciation of this vowel as something between "ah" and "oh". Listen to any Persian speak and you'll hear this sound a lot, such as in the words آب (âb: water) or آره (âreh: yeah).
When beginning a word, âlef is capitalized with a hat: آ. It will join to letters before it, as in با (bâ: with), but does not join to the letters after it, as in آب.
2. B: ب
The letter ب is pronounced like the letter B in English and is used in words such as آب (âb: water) and بابا (bâbâ: dad).
ب will shorten when at the beginning of a word, as in با, but will stay in it's longer form when ending a word, as in آب. In the middle of a word, it is a small peak, with only its dot below to indicate its presence, as in سبد (sabad: basket).
3. N: ن
The letter ن is pronounced like the letter N in English and is used in words like نان (nân: bread) and نام (nâm: name).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ب, with only the dot placement changed.
4. T: ت
The letter ت is pronounced like the letter T in English and is used in words like تا (tâ: until) and پسته (pesteh: pistachio).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ب, with only the dot placement changed.
5. P: پ
The letter پ is pronounced like the letter P in English and is used in words like پسته and پنج (panj: five).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ب, with only the dot placement changed.
6. S: ث
The letter ث is pronounced like S in English. It's used in words like ثبت (presumably pronounced sabat: record).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ب, with only the dot placement changed.
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Besides âlef, all of the letters I've mentioned so far have been of the ب form, i.e., they behave like the letter B within words. Now we'll move on to letters of a different category.
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7. D: د
The letter د is pronounced like D in English, and is used in words like بد (bad: bad) and دو (doe: two).
د will not connect to letters following it but will connect to letters proceeding it, similar to âlef.
8. R: ر
The letter ر is pronounced like the Spanish R, which is rolled. It's used in words like آره and روز (rooz: day).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter د.
9. Z: ز
The letter ز is pronounced like the English Z. It's used in words like روز and زن (zan: woman).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter د.
10. V, -oo, -oh: و
The letter و can either be pronounced as the English V, the long vowel sound "oo", or the short vowel sound "oh". It's used in words like و (va: and), روز, and دو.
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter د.
11. Z: ذ
The letter ذ is pronounced like the English Z. It's used in words like ذرت (zorat: corn).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter د.
12. Zh: ژ
The letter ژ is pronounced like the "ge" at the end of the word "beige" in English. It's used in words like ژله (zheleh: jelly).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter د.
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The following letters are grouped as similar in shape and behavior to ح.
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13. H: ح
The letter ح is pronounced like the letter H in English. It's used in words like صبح (sobh: morning) and حوله (holeh: towel).
This letter connects to letter preceding and following it, which can be seen in the two example words above.
14. J: ج
The letter ج is pronounced like the letter J in English and is used in words like ثنج.
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ح and only differs in dot placement.
15. Kh: خ
The letter خ doesn't have an English equivalent. It's a commonly-used sound in Farsi, in words such as خوب (khoob: good).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ح and only differs in dot placement.
16. Ch: چ
The letter چ is pronounced like "ch" in English, as in "change". In Farsi, it's often used in interrogatory words, such as چی (chee: what) and چرا (cherâ: why).
This letter's behavior within words mimics the letter ح and only differs in dot placement.
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The following letters are grouped as similar in shape and behavior to س.
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17. S: س
The letter س is pronounced like S in English and is used in words like سن (senn: age), بس (bas: enough), and سگ (sag: dog).
س connects to letters before and after it, and loses it's tail when not at the end of a word.
18. Sh: ش
The letter ش is pronounced like "sh" in English and is used in words like شام (shâm: dinner) and شوما (shomâ: you).
This letter follows the same behavioral rules within words as س.
19. S: ص
The letter ص is pronounced like the English S and is used in words like صد (sad: one hundred).
This letter follows the same behavioral rules within words as س.
20. Z: ض
The letter ض is pronounced like the English Z and is used in words like ضد (zed: opposite) and مریض (mareez: sick).
This letter follows the same behavioral rules within words as س.
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The following three letters are grouped together in John Mace's book, so I've also grouped them here.
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21. K: ک
The letter ک is pronounced like K in English and is used in words like کادو (kâdo: gift) and کریسمس (krees-mas: Christmas).
It does connect to letters before and after it, but generally always maintains the same shape.
22. G: گ
The letter گ is pronounced like the English G and is used in words like گرم (garm: warm) and سنگ (presumably sang with a hard g: stone).
This letter's behavior matches that of ک exactly.
23. L: ل
The letter ل is pronounced like the letter L in English and is used in words like گل (gol: flower) and لباس (lebâs: film).
The letter ل may resemble ا, but it differs from âlef in that it connects to letters following it.
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The following three letters are fairly unique in my opinion, so I've ironically grouped them together for being special.
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24. M: م
The letter م is pronounced like the English M and is a very commonly used consonant in Farsi. We can see it used in words like شوما and نم.
It joins with letters before and after it, and it maintains a tail when ending a word.
25. H, -eh: ه
The letter ه can represent an H consonant sound, or it can represent the vowel sound -eh at end of a word. We can see ه is used in words like اره as a vowel and in words like هوا (havâ: air, weather) and بهار (bahâr: spring) as a consonant.
This letter joins with letters before and after it, and it has a unique for in the middle of a word, e.g., بهار.
26. -ee, -ya: ی
The letter ی represents a long vowel sound -ee, found in English words like "Greek" or "eager". In Farsi, it's used in words like اینجا (een-jâ: here) and ایرانی (ee-râ-nee: Iranian).
This letter connects to letters preceding and following it. At the beginning or middle of a word, ی takes on two dots below it, e.g., اینجا. Note that if the ی begins a word, we must place a dummy âlef before it. At the end of a word, ی maintains its tail.
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27. F: ف
The letter ف sounds like F in English. It's used in the words فارسی (fârs-ee: Farsi) and کیف (keef: bag).
The ف links with preceding and subsequent letters.
28. Gh: ق
The letter ق doesn't have an English equivalent. It's similar to the French R sound. It's used in words such as قفل (ghofl: lock).
It mimics the letter ف in behavior within words.
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29. T: ط
The letter ط is pronounced like the English T and is used in words like طلا (talâ: gold) and خط (khat: script, line).
It connects with letters preceding and following it, and it looks the same at all points within a word.
30. Z: ظ
The letter ظ is pronounced like the English Z. It's used in words like کدا هافظ (kodâ hâfez: goodbye).
It mimics the behavior of its sibling, ط.
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31. 'ain: ع
The letter ع represents a glottal stop, such as in the phrase "wa'er bo'le" in the Cockney accent. In Farsi, it can be found in words like معلم (mo'alem: teacher).
It takes on a unique form at the beginning, middle, and end of words.
32. ghain: غ
There is no English equivalent to the letter غ. It's pronounced similar to a G, but further back in the throat. It's used in words like تیغ (teegh: razor).
It mirrors its sibling, 'ain, in behavior within words.
Conclusion
I wrote this descriptive article as 1) an exercise to myself to go through all the letters used in written Persian, and 2) a resource for myself as I continue to learn Farsi.
P.S., The things I don't understand are:
- Where to use which consonant letter where, e.g., there are four letters for the Z sound. Which one goes where?
- How to infer from reading which short vowel to use? For example, is بد pronounced "bad", "bed" or "bid"? Maybe it just comes with practice.
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