Which Language Is Older, Persian or Arabic (2024)

On April 18, 2020 / Language Translation

This post was last updated on November 6th, 2023 at 10:19 am

Which Language Is Older, Persian or Arabic (1)

(Last Updated On: November 6, 2023)

Sometimes, a person may share more traits with their cousins than with their siblings. It is all about who you spend the most time with. The same happens with cultures and languages. Even if it doesn’t make sense for two otherwise different cultures to have similar features, proximity can make it happen. In order to study something, dividing it into categories is the best course of action. We have done the same with languages so we can understand their connections with each other. But since there are over seven thousand discovered vernaculars in the world, some of them may share no features despite being in the same family. While some, on the other hand, may have similarities despite belonging to separate families.

The Arabic Language:

One of the world’s most popular and influential vernaculars is the lingua franca of the Arab World. Arabic has been around for a long time and has affected different tongues. When Muslims conquered the Iberian Peninsula, their language ended up affecting the vernacular of the natives. Even today, there are plenty of Arabic words in the Spanish language. But the influence of the vernacular did not remain limited to Spanish. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century.

During the Middle Ages, Muslim thinkers and philosophers were making all kinds of discoveries. They were making progress in all fields, from Mathematics to Astronomy. But all of their findings were recorded in Arabic. Anyone who wanted to access that information needed to learn the language. When the Europeans wanted to learn more about the modern sciences, they turned to the texts written by Muslim thinkers. This is how they brought Arabic to their land. Some of them learned the tongue to be able to understand the texts and ended up adding Arabic words in their everyday language.

Which Language Is Older, Persian or Arabic (2)

The influence of Arabic can also be seen in Africa. When Muslims went to the continent for trading, they ended up sharing their vernacular with the natives. This is why speakers of the tongue can be found in Africa. There are also Arabic pidgins that are spoken on the continent.

The Persian Language:

Another famous tongue in Asia that has been around for thousands of centuries is Persian language. Also Persian is common language in Middle East. Basically Persian is official language of Iran. It has different standard versions in Iran, Afghanistan , and Tajikistan. All the versions are quite similar, and their speakers can understand each other without much difficulty. The name of the vernacular comes from the region where it originated. It was the Fars region of Iran where Persian had its birth, which is why it is known as Farsi.The Persian language rose to prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts across the subcontinent, eventually becoming the sole “official language” under the Mughal emperors. During the Mughal emperors’ reign, the Bengal Sultanate saw an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics.

Interestingly, Persian language shares a lot of features with European languages. Particularly the grammar of the language has a lot of European features, which is why it was placed in the Indo-European Family. It has influenced a lot of vernaculars in the region. There are many words of Persian language origin in Urdu. Even Hindi has a few words from this tongue. It is an important part of the Iranian and Afghani culture. It continues to evolve as an important vernacular of the region and has over a hundred million speakers in the world. Iranian languages in general, and Persian in particular, have a very rich history.Iranian language, and Persian in particular, have a long and illustrious history. Kurdish, Baluchi, Pashtu and Osetic are the other modern Iranian language.

Which Language is Older, Persian, or Arabic?

There are many factors common between the two famous vernaculars of Asia. For a long time, Arabic was the language of sciences. It helped society move forward and paved the way for future discoveries. Persian is written in the Perso Arabic script, which is similar to Arabic script but with a few more letters and subtle pronunciation changes. The script is cursivee, which means that most letters in a word connect to each other when typed; modern word processors join neighbouring letters automatically. But as it was changing the world of sciences, Persian was redefining literature. It broke the monopoly that Arabic had over the Muslim world. It became the popular tongue for many people. It was even favored by the Mughals when they were the rulers of India. As a result, the two vernaculars came side by side to change the way the world thinks. Even today, the Persian books are considered an important part of literature and inspire many writers and poets.

Which Language Is Older, Persian or Arabic (3)

As for the question that which of them is older, then Persian takes the prize if we include the history of its earliest version. The Old Persian had been around since 550-330 BC until it transitioned into the Middle version of the tongue in 224 CE. Old Arabic, on the other hand, emerged in the 1st century CE. It took some time to develop into its current version. The reason behind its popularity is its value to Muslims. It is valued and loved by the followers of Islam everywhere in the world, which is why it has managed to become more popular than Persian, a language that has been around for a lot longer. But it is also remarkable for Persian to have survived even after all these centuries. It continues to grow even today and is not limited to Iran, where it originated.

The two vernaculars have influenced the same languages. Due to the connection with Islam, they have managed to influence Urdu, Pashto, and other tongues of the Muslim countries. They are quite unique in their grammar and alphabet. Arabic is particularly considered a difficult to learn language. And interestingly, most of its speakers do not like learning foreign tongues. So, if anyone were to do business in the Arab world, they will need linguistic help. Due to the complexity of the language, it is better to get a native expert’s help. And if you can’t find a native expert on your own, getting in touch with an agency is the best idea. They can connect you with the right expert and provide you results on time.

Modern Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian are written in the Persian alphabet, which is a modified variant of the Arabic alphabet that uses different pronunciation and additional letters not found in Arabic alphabet. Modern Persian appeared during the 9th century after this adoption of the alphabet and the borrowing of many Arabic words. West Iran is one of the two subgroups of the Indo-Iranian family of languages. Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in a wide area stretching from portions of eastern Turkey and eastern Iraq to western India.

In Afghanistan Persian is known as Dari (درى) or Dari-Persian, while in Tajikistan it’s known as Tajiki. Tajiks are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Is spoken as native language in north and west of Afghanistan. Under Mongolian and Turkish rulers, Persian was adopted as the language of government in Turkey, central Asia and India, where it was used for centuries, and until afteFr 1900 in Kashmir. Dari, Farsi, and Pashto are all Aryan (Iranian) languages belonging to the Indo-European language family. Despite the fact that Persian (Farsi) is the dominant and official language of Iran, a variety of languages and Iranian dialect/Persian dialect from three language families—Indo-European, Altaic, and Afro-Asian—are spoken. Approximately three-fourths of Iranians speak an Indo-European language.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a Central Eurasian country and is one of the world’s oldest civilizations. The language of the country is Persian which dates back to the 6th century, and it has three distinct periods:

  1. Old Persian which has an inflected grammar which is subject to case, number, and gender.
  2. Middle Persian with different written and oral forms.
  3. New Persian which was marked by the Islamic conquest of Persia. During this time, it was the official language of several Islamic dynasties and produced world-class literary works.

Is Arabic and Persian script are same?

The Persian script is directly derived and developed from the Arabic language.

Is Dari is same as Farsi?

Dari and Farsi languages are two accents of the same language. Dari Persian is also called Farsi in Afghanistan while it is mostly referred to as Farsi in Iran. Farsi language is also called Persian in the English language. In the beginning of the 20th century, all speakers of Persian called their language “Farsi”.

How old is Persian civilization?

Persian is one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC.

How similar are the Kurdish and Persian languages?

Kurdish and Persian are linguistically sister languages in the Iranian branch, similar to how English and German are sister languages in the Germanic branch. Persian is not linguistically related to Arabic because it is an Indo-European language.

Can Persian speakers understand Kurdish?

Simply no, Persian speaker don’t understand the Kurdish. Moreover Persian speaker and Kurdish speaker cannot fully understand their languages.

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Which Language Is Older, Persian or Arabic (2024)
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