The Persian language continues to evolve today, with over 110 million native speakers worldwide. Persian is the official language of Iran and spoken in Afghanistan (as Dari) and Tajikistan (as Tajik).
Persian is an important language of the Middle East and Central Asia. It is known as Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan. It has about 62 million native speakers, ranking it among the world's 20 most widely spoken first languages; another 50 million or more speak it as a second language.
The Language
Persian is an important language of the Middle East and Central Asia, spoken by over 100 million people and ranked among the world's top 20 most widely spoken languages. It is known as Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan, and Tajik in Tajikistan.
Today, Almost 150 million people worldwide speak Persian. This number includes people who speak Persian (Farsi or Dari or Tajik) as a native speaker, a second language, and students who do not live in Persian-speaking countries. It is ranked among the world's top Twenty-five most widely spoken languages.
So, which name do linguists use themselves? Modern specialists in Iranian studies overall prefer “Persian” over “Farsi”.
Compared to Turkish, Persian has been more heavily influenced by Arabic, but like Turkish, the language structure and grammar hasn't been affected by Arabic, and the speakers of Persian cannot communicate with Arabic speakers using Persian language and vice versa.
Reading Persian is actually easier than Arabic. Although the Persian and Arabic alphabets share many similar letters, not all the letters are pronounced exactly the same as in Arabic. For example ( ث , ص , س ) all sound different in Arabic. But in Persian they are all pronounced as the English “s” sound as in sand.
Persian is a very poetic, soft and song-like language and has been described as one of the most beautiful languages of the world.
Persian is a subgroup of West Iranian languages that include the closely related Persian languages of Dari and Tajik; the less closely related languages of Luri, Bakhtiari, and Kumzari; and the dialects of Fars Province.
Combine all that with the serious calligraphic skills needed to master writing the right-to-left Perso-Arabic script and Persian easily drops in as one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
World's oldest language is Sanskrit. The Sanskrit language is called Devbhasha. All European languages seem inspired by Sanskrit. All the universities and educational institutions spread across the world consider Sanskrit as the most ancient language.
Farsi is one of the oldest languages spoken on earth today, but that doesn't mean people can't understand it. In fact, Farsi speakers today are able to read and understand the Persian language of 1700 years ago with more ease than an English speaker might have reading an English text of even 500 years ago.
The Persian language is heavily influenced by French words of science and technology. Similarly, many English and Russian words have been integrated into the language.
As for the question that which of them is older, then Persian takes the prize if we include the history of its earliest version. The Old Persian had been around since 550-330 BC until it transitioned into the Middle version of the tongue in 224 CE. Old Arabic, on the other hand, emerged in the 1st century CE.
Some believe why Iranians so beautiful is because of their big, captivating, and usually dark eyes. The typical appearance of an Iranian includes thick black/brown hair that may be straight, wavy, or curly, pale to the tan body with olive tints, and, of course, huge, generally dark eyes.
One of the most common is the conflation of Middle Eastern ethnic groups. Many people continue to believe that “Persian” and “Arab” are interchangeable terms, when, in reality, they are labels for two distinct ethnicities. That is to say, Persians are not Arabs.
Persian is one of those languages that are relatively difficult to begin but easier to master. Although it looks very exotic at first glance, its grammar and structure are familiar for the people speaking a European language.
The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik, after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars", Old Persian Parsa, New Persian Fars. This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian.
Farsi is spoken today primarily in Iran and Afghanistan, but was historically a more widely understood language in an area ranging from the Middle East to India.
Iran and Turkey are not Arab countries and their primary languages are Farsi and Turkish respectively. Arab countries have a rich diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities.
Ethnicity and ancestry
With the exception of various minority ethnic groups in Iran (one of which is Arab), Iranians are Persian.