Romanization of Persian explained

pronounced as /notice/Romanization or Latinization of Persian (Persian: لاتین‌نِویسی فارسی|Lâtin-Nēvisiyē Fârsi|link=no, in Persian pronounced as /lɒːtiːn.neviːˌsije fɒːɾˈsiː/) is the representation of the Persian language (Iranian Persian, Dari and Tajik) with the Latin script. Several different romanization schemes exist, each with its own set of rules driven by its own set of ideological goals.

Also in Iran being named = "Finglish" Being a combination of Farsi and English.

Romanization is familiar to many Persian speakers.Many use an ad hoc romanization for text messaging and email;[1] road signs in Iran commonly include both Persian and English (in order to make them accessible to foreigners);[2] and websites use romanized domain names.

Romanization paradigms

Because the Perso-Arabic script is an abjad writing system (with a consonant-heavy inventory of letters), many distinct words in standard Persian can have identical spellings, with widely varying pronunciations that differ in their (unwritten) vowel sounds. Thus a romanization paradigm can follow either transliteration (which mirrors spelling and orthography) or transcription (which mirrors pronunciation and phonology).

Transliteration

Transliteration (in the strict sense) attempts to be a complete representation of the original writing, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. Transliterations of Persian are used to represent individual Persian words or short quotations, in scholarly texts in English or other languages that do not use the Arabic alphabet.

A transliteration will still have separate representations for different consonants of the Persian alphabet that are pronounced identically in Persian. Therefore, transliterations of Persian are often based on transliterations of Arabic.[3] The representation of the vowels of the Perso-Arabic alphabet is also complex, and transliterations are based on the written form.

Transliterations commonly used in the English-speaking world include BGN/PCGN romanization and ALA-LC Romanization.

Non-academic English-language quotation of Persian words usually uses a simplification of one of the strict transliteration schemes (typically omitting diacritical marks) and/or unsystematic choices of spellings meant to guide English speakers using English spelling rules towards an approximation of the Persian sounds.

Transcription

Transcriptions of Persian attempt to straightforwardly represent Persian phonology in the Latin script, without requiring a close or reversible correspondence with the Perso-Arabic script, and also without requiring a close correspondence to English phonetic values of Roman letters.

Main romanization schemes

Comparison table

Persian
letter
IPA DMG (1969) ALA-LC (1997) BGN/PCGN (1958) EI (1960) EI (2012) UN (1967) UN (2012)Pronunciation
U+0627 Persian: ا pronounced as /ʔ, ∅/ ʾ, — ʼ, — ʾ_____
U+0628 Persian: ب pronounced as /b/ bB as in Bob
U+067E Persian: پ pronounced as /p/ pP as in pet
U+062A Persian: ت pronounced as /t/ tT as in tall
U+062B Persian: ث pronounced as /s/ t͟h sS as in sand
U+062C Persian: ج pronounced as /dʒ/ ǧ j j d͟j j jJ as in jam
U+0686 Persian: چ pronounced as /tʃ/ č ch ch č č ch čCh as in Charlie
U+062D Persian: ح pronounced as /h/ ḩ/ḥ hH as in holiday
U+062E Persian: خ pronounced as /x/ kh kh k͟h kh xSpanish J (as in jalapeño)
U+062F Persian: د pronounced as /d/ dD as in Dave
U+0630 Persian: ذ pronounced as /z/ d͟h zZ as in zero
U+0631 Persian: ر pronounced as /r/ rR as in rabbit
U+0632 Persian: ز pronounced as /z/ zZ as in zero
U+0698 Persian: ژ pronounced as /ʒ/ ž zh zh z͟h ž zh žS as in television or G as in genre
U+0633 Persian: س pronounced as /s/ sS as in Sam
U+0634 Persian: ش pronounced as /ʃ/ š sh sh s͟h š sh šSh as in sheep
U+0635 Persian: ص pronounced as /s/ ş/ṣ ş sS as in Sam
U+0636 Persian: ض pronounced as /z/ ż ż zZ as in zero
U+0637 Persian: ط pronounced as /t/ ţ/ṭ ţ tt as in tank
U+0638 Persian: ظ pronounced as /z/ z̧/ẓ zZ as in zero
U+0639 Persian: ع ə ʿ ʻ ʼ ʻ ʻ ʿ ʿ- as in uh-oh
U+063A Persian: غ pronounced as /ɢ~ɣ/ ġ gh gh g͟h gh qsomewhat resembling French R
U+0641 Persian: ف pronounced as /f/ fF as in Fred
U+0642 Persian: ق pronounced as /ɢ~ɣ/ q qsomewhat resembling French R
U+06A9 Persian: ک pronounced as /k/ kC as in card
U+06AF Persian: گ pronounced as /ɡ/ gG as in go
U+0644 Persian: ل pronounced as /l/ lL as in lamp
U+0645 Persian: م pronounced as /m/ mM as in Michael
U+0646 Persian: ن pronounced as /n/ nN as in name
U+0648 Persian: و pronounced as /v~w/ v v, w vV as in vision
U+0647 Persian: ه pronounced as /h/ h h h h h h hH as in hot
U+0629 Persian: ة pronounced as /∅, t/ h t h
U+06CC Persian: ی pronounced as /j/ yY as in Yale
U+0621 Persian: ء pronounced as /ʔ, ∅/ ʾ ʼ ʾ
U+0623 Persian: أ pronounced as /ʔ, ∅/ ʾ ʼ ʾ
U+0624 Persian: ؤ pronounced as /ʔ, ∅/ ʾ ʼ ʾ
U+0626 Persian: ئ pronounced as /ʔ, ∅/ ʾ ʼ ʾ
Vowels
Unicode Final Medial Initial Isolated IPA DMG (1969) ALA-LC (1997) BGN/PCGN (1958) EI (2012) UN (1967) UN (2012)Pronunciation
U+064E Persian: ـَ Persian: ـَ Persian: اَ Persian: اَ pronounced as /æ/ a a a a a aA as in cat
U+064F Persian: ـُ Persian: ـُ Persian: اُ Persian: اُ pronounced as /o/ o o o u o oO as in go
U+0648 U+064F Persian: ـوَ Persian: ـوَ pronounced as /o/ o o o u o oO as in go
U+0650 Persian: ـِ Persian: ـِ Persian: اِ Persian: اِ pronounced as /e/ e i e e e eE as in ten
U+064E U+0627 Persian: ـَا Persian: ـَا Persian: آ Persian: آ pronounced as /ɑː~ɒː/ ā ā ā ā ā āO as in hot
U+0622 Persian: ـآ Persian: ـآ Persian: آ Persian: آ pronounced as /ɑː~ɒː/ ā, ʾā ā, ʼā ā ā ā āO as in hot
U+064E U+06CC Persian: ـَی pronounced as /ɑː~ɒː/ ā á á ā á āO as in hot
U+06CC U+0670 Persian: ـیٰ pronounced as /ɑː~ɒː/ ā á á ā ā āO as in hot
U+064F U+0648 Persian: ـُو Persian: ـُو Persian: اُو Persian: اُو pronounced as /uː, oː/ ū ū ū u, ō ū uU as in actual
U+0650 U+06CC Persian: ـِی Persian: ـِیـ Persian: اِیـ Persian: اِی pronounced as /iː, eː/ ī ī ī i, ē ī iY as in happy
U+064E U+0648 Persian: ـَو Persian: ـَو Persian: اَو Persian: اَو pronounced as /ow~aw/ au aw ow ow, aw ow owO as in go
U+064E U+06CC Persian: ـَی Persian: ـَیـ Persian: اَیـ Persian: اَی pronounced as /ej~aj/ ai ay ey ey, ay ey eyAy as in play
U+064E U+06CC Persian: ـیِ pronounced as /–e, –je/ –e, –ye –i, –yi –e, –ye –e, –ye –e, –ye –e, –yeYe as in yes
U+06C0 Persian: ـهٔ pronounced as /–je/ –ye –ʼi –ye –ye –ye –yeYe as in yes

Notes:

Pre-Islamic period

In the pre-Islamic period Old and Middle Persian employed various scripts including Old Persian cuneiform, Pahlavi and Avestan scripts. For each period there are established transcriptions and transliterations by prominent linguists.

IPAOld PersianMiddle Persian
(Pahlavi)
Avestan
Consonants
pp
ff
bb
β~ʋ~wββ/w
ttt, t̰
θθ/
dd
ð(δ)δ
θrç/ʳθʳ/ʳ
ss
zz
ʃšš, š́, ṣ̌
ʒž
c~tʃc/č
ɟ~dʒj/ǰ
kk
xxx, x́
ggg, ġ
ɣɣ/γ
hh
mmm, m̨
ŋŋ, ŋʷ
ŋʲŋ́
nnn, ń, ṇ
rr
ll
w~ʋ~vvwv
jyy, ẏ
Vowels
Short
aa
ãą, ą̇
əə
e(e)e
ii
o(o)o
uu
Long
ā
ɑː~ɒːå/ā̊
əə̄
əːē
ī
ō
ū
Notes:A sample romanization (a poem by Hafez):

Other romanization schemes

Baháʼí Persian romanization

See main article: Baháʼí orthography. Baháʼís use a system standardized by Shoghi Effendi, which he initiated in a general letter on March 12, 1923.[4] The Baháʼí transliteration scheme was based on a standard adopted by the Tenth International Congress of Orientalists which took place in Geneva in September 1894. Shoghi Effendi changed some details of the Congress's system, most notably in the use of digraphs in certain cases (e.g. s͟h instead of š), and in incorporating the solar letters when writing the definite article al- (Arabic: ال) according to pronunciation (e.g. ar-Rahim, as-Saddiq, instead of al-Rahim, al-Saddiq).

A detailed introduction to the Baháʼí Persian romanization can usually be found at the back of a Baháʼí scripture.

ASCII Internet romanizations

PersianFingilish
a, ā
b
p
t
s
j
ch, č
h
kh, x
d
z
r
z
zh, ž
s
sh, š
s
z
t
z
a, e, ā
gh, q
f
gh, q
k
g
l
m
n
o, u, v, w
h
i, y

It is common to write Persian language with only the Latin alphabet (as opposed to the Persian alphabet) especially in online chat, social networks, emails and SMS. It has developed and spread due to a former lack of software supporting the Persian alphabet, and/or due to a lack of knowledge about the software that was available. Although Persian writing is supported in recent operating systems, there are still many cases where the Persian alphabet is unavailable and there is a need for an alternative way to write Persian with the basic Latin alphabet. This way of writing is sometimes called Fingilish or Pingilish (a portmanteau of Farsi or Persian and English).[5] In most cases this is an ad hoc simplification of the scientific systems listed above (such as ALA-LC or BGN/PCGN), but ignoring any special letters or diacritical signs. ع may be written using the numeral "3", as in the Arabic chat alphabet (though this is rarely done). The details of the spelling also depend on the contact language of the speaker; for example, the vowel pronounced as /[u]/ is often spelt "oo" after English, but Persian speakers from Germany and some other European countries are more likely to use "u".

Tajik Latin alphabet

See main article: Tajik alphabet.

The Tajik language or Tajik Persian is a variety of the Persian language. It was written in the Tajik SSR in a standardized Latin script from 1926 until the late 1930s, when the script was officially changed to Cyrillic. However, Tajik phonology differs slightly from that of Persian in Iran. As a result of these two factors romanization schemes of the Tajik Cyrillic script follow rather different principles.[6] However, Google Translate still uses this alphabet .

The Tajik alphabet in Latin (1928-1940)[7]
A a B ʙ C c Ç ç D d E e F f G g H h I i Ī ī
pronounced as //a// pronounced as //b// pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //dʒ// pronounced as //d// pronounced as //e// pronounced as //f// pronounced as //ɡ// pronounced as //ʁ// pronounced as //h// pronounced as //i// pronounced as //ˈi//
J j K k L l M m N n O o P p Q q R r S s Ş ş T t
pronounced as //j// pronounced as //k// pronounced as //l// pronounced as //m// pronounced as //n// pronounced as //o// pronounced as //p// pronounced as //q// pronounced as //ɾ// pronounced as //s// pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //t//
U u Ū ū V v X x Z z ʼ
pronounced as //u// pronounced as //ɵ// pronounced as //v// pronounced as //χ// pronounced as //z// pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //ʔ//

Variation proposed by Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani

A variation (that is sometimes called "Pârstin") proposed by linguist Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani in 1976[8] has seen some use by other linguists, such as David Neil MacKenzie for the transliteration of the Perso-Arabic scripture.

The letters of this variation of the Latin alphabet are the basic Latin letters: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz, plus the additional letters to support the native sounds: Ââ, Čč, Šš, Žž (the latter three from Slavic alphabets, like the Czech one).

Besides being one of the simplest variations proposed for the Latinization of the Persian alphabet, this variation is based on the Alphabetic principle. Based on this principle, each individual speech sound is represented by a single letter and there is a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letters that represent them. This principle, besides increasing the clarity of the text and preventing confusion for the reader, is specifically useful for representing the native sounds of the Persian language, for which there are no equivalents in most other languages written in a Latin-based alphabet. For instance, compound letters used in the other variations, such as kh and gh, in addition to sh and zh are respectively represented by x, q, š and ž.

See also

References

  1. Akbari . Mohsen . 2013 . A preliminary linguistic analysis of Romanized Persian SMS messages . Journal of Novel Applied Sciences.
  2. Web site: Beam . Christopher . 2009-06-17 . Why do Iranian police uniforms say "police" in English? . 2022-03-09 . Slate Magazine . en.
  3. Book: Joachim. Martin D.. Languages of the world: cataloging issues and problems. 1993. Haworth Press. New York. 1560245204. 137.
  4. Book: Effendi, Shoghi . Shoghi Effendi . 1974 . Baháʼí Administration . Baháʼí Publishing Trust . Wilmette, Illinois, USA . 0-87743-166-3 . 43 . registration .
  5. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of 'lishes': The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 10. DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
  6. Web site: Pedersen. Thomas T.. Tajik. Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts.
  7. Book: Perry, John R.. A Tajik Persian Reference Grammar. limited. Brill. 2005. 34–35. 9789004143234 .
  8. Book: Adib-Soltani, Mir Shamsuddin. Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani . 1976 . An introduction to the writing of the Persian script. Amirkabir Publications . Tehran, Iran.

[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

External links