Persçe

Persçe, also known as Persian, is an Indo-Iranian language belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, where it holds official status. Persian has a rich literary and cultural history, dating back over two millennia. The language is written in a modified Arabic script, known as Perso-Arabic script.

The modern Persian language is a descendant of Middle Persian (Pahlavi), which in turn evolved from Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire. Old Persian is known from inscriptions such as those at Behistun. Over centuries, Persian has borrowed vocabulary from Arabic, and to a lesser extent, from Turkic and European languages.

There are several dialects of Persian, with the most prominent being Iranian Persian (Farsi), spoken in Iran; Dari, spoken in Afghanistan; and Tajiki, spoken in Tajikistan. While these varieties are mutually intelligible to a large extent, they exhibit differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and some grammatical features. Dari and Tajiki, in particular, have been influenced by neighboring Turkic languages and Russian, respectively.

Persian literature is renowned for its poets such as Rumi, Hafez, Saadi, and Ferdowsi, whose works continue to be studied and appreciated worldwide. The language plays a significant role in the cultural identity of the Iranian people and its diaspora.