By Quick facts
- Name in Persian (Iranian)
- فارسی (fārsi)
- Language family
- Indo-European › Iranian
- Writing system
- Persian alphabet (Perso-Arabic) — abjad (consonants), right to left
- Where it began
- Fars, southwest Iran
- Main countries
- Iran
- ISO 639-3 code
pes
Where Persian (Iranian) ranks
Persian (Iranian) is the 27th most-spoken language in the world by total speakers [1,2]. Here it is among its neighbours in the ranking, on one scale.
- 24Tamil86M
- 25Cantonese (Yue Chinese)86M
- 26Wu Chinese83M
- 27Persian (Iranian)82M
- 28Korean82M
- 29Amharic78M
- 30Thai71M
“How are you?” in Persian (Iranian)
حال شما چطور است؟
hāl-e shomā chetor ast?
Formal; colloquial: حالتون چطوره؟ (hāletun chetore?)
How are you?
Phrases: Omniglot — Useful phrases in Persian [6]. Other languages' phrases come from the sources on their own pages. Synthetic voice (ElevenLabs Eleven v3, voice “Sia”). Pronunciation is approximate and may not match a native speaker; Cantonese and Wu Chinese are not voiced because the model reads Chinese characters with Mandarin sounds.
A short history
Persian (Farsi) belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian family; it is the official language of Iran, and the closely related Dari and Tajik are official in Afghanistan and Tajikistan[3].
Old Persian was written in a cuneiform script under the Achaemenid kings[4]. After the Arab conquest, New Persian adopted the Arabic alphabet, adding letters for sounds Arabic lacked, and took in many Arabic words[3,5].
The design of Persian alphabet
The Arabic script with four extra letters for sounds Arabic lacks: پ (p), چ (ch), ژ (zh) and گ (g). It keeps Arabic's right-to-left cursive joining[5,3].
Abjad (consonants). Letters write consonants; short vowels are optional marks.
- Kind
- Abjad (consonants)
- Direction
- Right to left (numbers left to right)
- Took shape
- In the 9th–10th centuries CE, after the Arab conquest of Iran
- Line of descent
- Phoenician → Aramaic → Nabataean → Arabic → Perso-Arabic
- Traditional surface
- Paper
- Own digits
- ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹
- Also writes
- No other language among the 38 is written mainly in Persian alphabet.
- Phoenician
- Aramaic
- Nabataean
- Arabic
- Perso-Arabic
Four letters made from dots
Persian did not invent new shapes; it added dots and a stroke to existing ones. پ is ب with three dots, چ is ج with three, ژ is ز with three and گ is ک with a second line[5].
Persian digits
Persian uses its own forms of the Eastern Arabic digits, which differ from Arabic ones for 4, 5 and 6[5].
Explore the letters
pe (p)
Persian addition: ب with three dots
1 / 12 · playing — pick a letter to stop
Numbers in Persian alphabet
Persian (Iranian)'s relatives among the 38
Persian (Iranian) belongs to the Indo-European family (Iranian). These are the other languages with 50 million or more speakers in the same family; the closest — in the same branch — come first.
- EnglishEnglishGermanic · 1.5B
- हिन्दीHindiIndo-Aryan · 611M
- españolSpanishRomance · 561M
- françaisFrenchRomance · 334M
- বাংলাBengaliIndo-Aryan · 274M
- portuguêsPortugueseRomance · 269M
- اُردُوUrduIndo-Aryan · 246M
- русскийRussianBalto-Slavic · 210M
- DeutschGermanGermanic · 133M
- मराठीMarathiIndo-Aryan · 99M
- پنجابیWestern PunjabiIndo-Aryan · 90M
- italianoItalianRomance · 66M
- ગુજરાતીGujaratiIndo-Aryan · 62M
- भोजपुरीBhojpuriIndo-Aryan (Bihari) · 53M
Persian (Iranian) across the hub
The main page compares all 38 languages. Each link opens it on Persian (Iranian).
- Preview it in the explorer →with all 38 side by side
- Hear it in the voice tour →“How are you?” in every language, spoken in turn
- Trace its script's family tree →from the first alphabets and Chinese oracle bones
- Compare its digits →ten ways to write 0–9
- See its share of speakers →an interactive breakdown by script, family and region
Frequently asked questions
How many people speak Persian (Iranian)?
About 82 million people speak Persian (Iranian): 65 million as a first language and 17 million as a second, according to Ethnologue's 2026 figures. That makes it the 27th most-spoken language in the world by total speakers.
What script is Persian (Iranian) written in?
Persian (Iranian) is written in the Persian (Perso-Arabic) alphabet, an abjad: letters write consonants; short vowels are optional marks. It runs right to left.
How do you say "How are you?" in Persian (Iranian)?
In Persian (Iranian), "How are you?" is حال شما چطور است؟ (hāl-e shomā chetor ast?). Formal; colloquial: حالتون چطوره؟ (hāletun chetore?)
Where is Persian (Iranian) spoken?
Persian (Iranian) is spoken mainly in Iran. It began in Fars, southwest Iran.
How old is the Persian (Iranian) script?
Persian has been written in the Arabic alphabet, with four added letters, since the 9th–10th centuries CE. Its family line runs Phoenician → Aramaic → Nabataean → Arabic → Perso-Arabic.
Sources
- Ethnologue — What are the top 200 most spoken languages? (2026)
- Wikipedia — List of languages by total number of speakers (Ethnologue 2026 figures, retrieved October 2026)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Persian language
- Omniglot — Old Persian cuneiform
- The Unicode Standard 17.0, chapter 9: Middle East-I (Arabic)
- Omniglot — Useful phrases in Persian
Checked October 25, 2026. Speaker numbers are Ethnologue's 2026 estimates, which count each language separately (Arabic and Chinese varieties are listed one by one). Maps shade whole countries, not regions within them. Found an error? Tell us.
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