Persian Language

Persian, or Farsi, is a language of Central Asia.

It is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikstan. The Tajik variant is quite different than the Persian/Farsi spoken to its south. Ancient Persian used different alphabets, but during the 7th Century Islamic conquest of Central Asia, the Arabic alphabet came into use and by the end of the 8th Century it had become the standard writing system. Tajik Persian has been written in the Roman alphabet, but today is written in Cyrillic, due to 20th Century Soviet control over the country. The Arabic alphabet has been modified in Iran and Afghanistan to account for sounds in the language that do not exist in Arabic, such as a letter for the "P" sound.