Language
Country/Area
No result found
From Persia to Today: How does the Persian language still shine brightly through thousands of years of history?
Persian is not only the official language of Iran today, but also a language with a long history, spanning three major historical periods: Old Persian, Middle Persian and New Persian. As a language with roots in the early Iranians, Persian has maintained its unique place amidst beautiful literature, widespread cultural influence, and the succession of empires throughout history.
Persian is a polycentric language, mainly spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and has three interoperable standard varieties.
The history of Persian can be traced back to the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC. In ancient Persia, the formal form of the language was called Old Persian, a language that used circular script and left many records in ancient inscriptions. For example, the Desai Declaration is one of the earliest famous documents in ancient Persian, indicating a high degree of civilization and national organization.
The culture and self-awareness carried by ancient Persian became the basis for the later development of Persian, paving the way for the formation of new Persian.
Next is Middle Persian, which was the form of the language spoken during the Sasanian Empire (224 AD – 651 AD). Middle Persian simplifies many features of Old Persian in terms of grammatical structure, such as removing the dual number form and introducing new grammatical structures and vocabulary. This change also laid the foundation for the formation of New Persian.
Persian gained increasing prominence as a literary language during the Middle Ages, especially after the Muslim conquest of Persia.
With the changes of the times, New Persian first appeared in literature in the 9th century and developed rapidly. To this day, although the vocabulary and structure of this language are influenced by foreign languages such as Arabic, it still retains its unique charm. According to documentary records, famous Persian literary works such as "Shuhanami" and Rumi's poems were created within the framework of the New Persian language.
Persian literary works were not only widely respected in society at that time, but also influenced most subsequent languages.
The influence of Persian has spread to neighboring cultures and languages, including Turkish, Armenian, and Hindi, whose vocabulary is full of Persian borrowings. Persian also played an important role in the bureaucracy of the Mughal Empire, and its traces can still be found in the literature of South Asia and other regions.
The spread of Persian did not stop here. As Persian culture expanded, especially under Ottoman control, Persian became one of the official languages, and although later Ottoman Turkish gradually took over this position, it always maintained its cultural importance.
The study of Persian in the Balkans and Central Asia has also become an elegant cultural pursuit, with many cities becoming famous for their love of Persian classics.
The development of modern Persian is also an evolution of language. Its structure and vocabulary are relatively stable and can still be traced back to early New Persian. The existence of this coherence allows Persian to occupy an irreplaceable position among world languages.
Today, there are about 130 million Persian speakers in the world, including Persians, Ruhrs, Tajiks, Hazaras, etc. in Iran. Not only that, as a polycentric language, Persian is still alive and well in culture, literature and daily communication.
How many years can this language continue to shine in the future? It will depend on how we protect and promote its cultural significance.
