History of the Farsi language

The Farsi language, also known as Persian, dates back to the year 550 B.C. through the rule of the Achaemenid dynasty. Some veteran history scholars’ claim that the inscription on some Emperors’ tombs during this period (550B.C. to 330 B.C.) prove claims regarding the first known instance of the Farsi language. These inscriptions were found in the form of cuneiform script. The Achaemenid dynasty is believed to have ruled the Kingdom of Aryans, (present-day Iran) up to the time that Alexander the Great conquered it. The Farsi language of this period is also called Old Farsi/Persian.

After Old Farsi, the Middle Farsi language came into existence during the period of 250 B.C. to 700 A.D. Middle Farsi was used in the Pahlavi writing system and for this reason many called it Pahlavi. Middle Farsi was the official language of the Sassanid dynasty and the Zoroastrian priesthood. In comparison to Old Farsi, Middle Farsi underwent several developments related to grammar in the written form and the written form, in turn, influenced the spoken form, which was not the case with Old Farsi.

Modern Farsi was a branch of Middle Farsi, which came into use starting in the 10th century. The variations between Modern Farsi and Middle Farsi were comparatively lesser than those between Old Farsi and Middle Farsi. Also, the variations between Middle Farsi and Modern Farsi, though distinct, took place gradually, steadily and continuously. Following the Sassanid dynasty, the Arabs ruled the Sassanid Empire after the 9th century.

During Arab rule the official language was changed to Arabic and Farsi was only used to maintain court records. During this time, Farsi was heavily influenced by Arabic and several features of the Arabic language were attached to Farsi to the effect that Farsi script became Arabic script. In later years Farsi also borrowed some Turkic words.

Languages derived from or influenced by Farsi

Farsi has influenced several languages from different parts of the world. Some of the languages influenced by Farsi include: Assyrian, Arabic, Armenian, Brahui, English, Georgian, Hindi, Telugu, Malaysian-Malay, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu and Uzbek.

The Urdu language is highly influenced by Farsi as well as by Arabic. There are several words in Urdu that resemble words in Farsi. This common resemblance between Urdu and Farsi enables Urdu speakers to understand around 85-90 % of information provided in Farsi.