Recognize the similarities, differences, and effects of Persian vs Arabic languages on each other
Since Iran neighbors Iraq and many other Arab nations, the question for many foreign tourists is whether or not Persian and Arabic are related.
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The Origin of the Formation of Persian and Arabic Languages
The answer to this question is that the two languages are not directly related but have influenced each other. Persian and Arabic languages come from two completely separate families and origins. The Arabic language belongs to the “Semitic languages” family, which includes languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic. But the Persian language is a family of Indo-European languages that includes the languages of northern India and Europe, such as English, French, and German. Because of this, the two languages have very different “grammar” and “vocabulary”.
There are differences between the two languages, which shows that Persian has a simpler grammar than Arabic. One of these differences is that there is no gender in Persian grammar. That is, names are not divided into “masculine”, “feminine” and “neutral”, which makes learning easier.
The Effect of Arabic Words on Persian
In Persian literature, about 40% are Arabic words, but in colloquial Persian, the percentage of Arabic is much lower. Although many Arabic words have entered Persian, their Arabic structure has not entered the Persian language. Of course, words from Persian are also included in Arabic, although there are fewer of them. There are few in standard Arabic and more in the regional dialect, especially “Iraqi Arabic”.
Recognizing Persian words in Arabic is more complicated. Because when they entered this language, these words were broken down into root letters and placed in the chapters of the Arabic language and became Arabic words.
The Difference Between Persian and Arabic
Remember that all the languages of the world have traded and will trade words. The existence of Arabic words in Persian is natural, just as there are hundreds of Persian words in Arabic. Although it is difficult for someone who is not fluent in two languages, there are simple ways to tell the difference that could be interesting to know.
Among the 32 letters of the Persian alphabet, some letters are only for Arabic words.
The Letter (ث): Any word that has ث is undoubtedly Arabic and has no Persian roots (except for (“کیومرث” (Kiomars), which means wise man), (“تَهمورث” (Tahmurth), which means the owner of a strong male dog) and Latin words such as بلوتوث (Bluetooth) or names like “ادوارد ثورندایک” (Edward Thorndike) and…, which are very obviously Latin names, not Arabic or Persian).
The Letter (ح): Any word that has the letter “ح” is undoubtedly Arabic and has no Persian roots. Except for the word “حوله” (towel), which is precisely “هوله” and is almost certainly of Turkish origin and means feathered.
The Letter (ذ): In ancient Persian, the pronunciation of this letter is similar to its Arabic pronunciation. More than 95% of words with “ذ” have Arabic roots except for words like “گذر”, which means passage, and “پذیرش”, which means acceptance.
The Letter (ص): Every word that has “ص” is undoubtedly Arabic, except for the number “شصت” (sixty) and the number “صد” (one hundred).
The Letters (ض / ظ / ع): Without exception, it is only for words with Arabic roots, and in Persian, there is no such expanse of letters.
The Letter (ط): The most controversial letter in spelling words. This letter is only for Arabic words and we do not have “ط” in Persian, and the words written with “ط” are either Arabic or if not, they are misspelled. Like “طهران” (Tehran).
The Letter (ق): Also controversial. We do not have this letter in Persian, and it is specifically for Arabic words in 90% of cases.
The letters (گ/ چ/ پ/ ژ): These letters do not exist in Arabic language, and any word that has one of these four letters is surely not Arabic and most likely has Persian roots.
Languages usually borrow words from each other and lend to each other. Meanwhile, the Arabic language has introduced the most borrowed words in Persian over the past centuries and European languages in the last hundred years.
Here, after examining the similarities and differences between Persian vs Arabic languages, it is better to get useful information about each of them and their antiquity.
Persian Language
Persian is one of the Indo-European languages in the branch of southwestern Iranian languages spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; A language that, because of its importance, has a special day dedicated to its preservation. It is the official language of Iran and Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (along with Pashto). One of the official languages of northern India was Persian before the arrival of British colonization.
Persian is officially Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan. In 1872, at a meeting of European writers and linguists in Berlin, Greek, Persian, Latin, and Sanskrit were chosen as the world’s classical languages. According to this definition, Persian is considered an ancient classical language, which has rich literature and has changed little in the last millennium of its life.
Persian is among the top three languages in the world in terms of the number and variety of sayings. With the introduction of words from Arabic (and other languages such as Greek, Aramaic, Turkish, etc.) into Persian, this language has become one of the richest languages in terms of the number of words. Persian is the ninth most widely used language in web content, ahead of Arabic, Turkish, and other Middle Eastern languages.
Arabic Language
The Arabic language and its history can be divided into Pre-Islamic and Post-Islamic eras. In Pre-Islamic times, the Arabic language was divided into two branches, Southern Arabic and Northern Arabic. Southern Arabic was spoken around present-day Yemen and was influenced by its connection to the ancient Egyptian and Phoenician civilizations. With the growth of Islam, Southern Arabic (which forms the basis of Modern Arabic) was gradually forgotten, and the new Arabic prevailed throughout Saudi Arabia. This language is now also called Classical Arabic.
The History of the Arabic Language
Hundreds of years ago, nomadic tribes called the Samians lived on the Arabian Peninsula, and the ancient language spoken by the Samians was called Sami. Although some Samians still live in remote areas of Saudi Arabia, over time, many of them gradually left the peninsula. They migrated to the surrounding regions, mixing in language and culture with the people of their new homes.
During these migrations, great civilizations emerged in the surrounding areas, including the Babylonian, Aramaic, Sumerian, Canaanite, and Hebrew civilizations. The ancient languages created in each region have apparent differences, but they are all considered to be Semitic languages.
The Semitic languages are classified according to their relation to the Arabian Peninsula: Eastern languages (such as Babylonian and Assyrian), Western languages (such as Canaanite, Hebrew, and Aramaic), and Southern languages (such as Arabic and Abyssinian).
