Persian Alphabet - Letters

Letters

Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, beginning (joined on the left), middle (joined on both sides), and end (joined on the right) of a word.

The letter names are mostly identical to the ones used in Arabic, except for the Persian pronunciation of the consonants. The only ambiguous name is he used for both ﺡ and ه. For clarification, these are often called ḥe-ye jimi (literally "jim-like ḥe" after jim, the name for the letter ج that uses the same base form) and he-ye do-češm (literally "two-eyed he", after the contextual middle letterform ﻬ), respectively.

Name DIN 31635 IPA Contextual forms
End Middle Beginning Isolated
ʾalef ā / ʾ , ـا ـا * آ / ا *
be b ـب ـبـ ب
pe p ـپ ـپـ پ
te t ـت ـتـ
s̱e ـث ـثـ
jim j ـجـ
če č ـچـ
ḥe(-ye jimi) ـحـ
khe x ـخـ
dāl d ـد ـد* ﺩ*
ẕāl ـذ ـذ* ﺫ*
re r ـر ـر* ﺭ*
ze z ـز ـز* ﺯ*
že ž ـژ ـژ* ژ* ژ
sin s ـس ـسـ
šin š ـش ـشـ
ṣād ـص ـصـ
z̤ād ـض ـضـ ﺿ
ṭā ـط ـطـ
ẓā ـظ ـظـ
ʿeyn ʿ ـع ـعـ
ġeyn ġ / ـغ ـغـ
fe f ـف ـفـ
qāf q / / (in some dialects) ـق ـقـ
kāf k ـک ـکـ ک
gāf g ـگ ـگـ گ
lām l ـل ـلـ
mim m ـم ـمـ
nun n ـن ـنـ
vāv v / ū / ow / / / / (in Dari) ـو ـو* و* و
he(-ye do-češm) h ـه ـهـ هـ
ye y / ī / á / / / (in Dari) ـیـ

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Famous quotes containing the word letters:

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    Clara Barton (1821–1912)

    Denotation by means of sounds and markings is a remarkable abstraction. Three letters designate God for me; several lines a million things. How easy becomes the manipulation of the universe here, how evident the concentration of the intellectual world! Language is the dynamics of the spiritual realm. One word of command moves armies; the word liberty entire nations.
    Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)

    ... all my letters are read. I like that. I usually put something in there that I would like the staff to see. If some of the staff are lazy and choose not to read the mail, I usually write on the envelope “Legal Mail.” This way it will surely be read. It’s important that we educate everybody as we go along.
    Jean Gump, U.S. pacifist. As quoted in The Great Divide, book 2, section 10, by Studs Terkel (1988)