Practically every major city in the Western world has a strong Iranian community thanks to waves of migration during the 20th century. ![]() Nothing could be further from the truth.Īs well as its widespread use in the Middle East, Persian is still used throughout the Iranian diaspora, which is enormous. I once believed that learning Persian would be pointless because of the limited opportunities to use it. That’s about the same number of people who speak German. It’s also spoken in communities the world over, and the majority of its 100 million or so native speakers call it ‘Farsi’. That’s because these countries were once part of the Persian Empire, and have since developed their own dialects.Ĭonfused yet? All you really need to know is that Persian is the language of modern-day Iran, as well as a fair bit of the surrounding area. To complicate matters further, Persian is known as Farsi (فارسی) to its native speakers in Iran, Dari (دری) to those in Afghanistan, and Tajik (тоҷикӣ) to those in Tajikistan. ”Iranian”, on the other hand, refers to the nationality of Iran’s people. So the official language of Iran, to the English-speaking world, is still Persian. (Hands up if you thought Persia and Iran were two different places? I’ll admit that I did until quite recently.)īut the old name of the language stuck. But Persia hasn’t officially existed since about 80 years ago, when the King of Persia, Reza Shah, demanded that his country be referred to henceforth as Iran. Persian refers, logically, to the language of Persia. Let’s start by looking at three common myths about Persian… Persian has remained unchanged for centuries, so unlike in many other languages, you can experience world-famous Persian literature in the exact language it was written. Learning Persian won't just enhance your travels within the Persian-speaking world and its global diaspora, as it has done for me.
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