Parsi or Persian was the language of the Parsa people who ruled Iran between 550 - 330 BCE. It belongs to the Indo-Iranian group of languages. It became the language of the Persian Empire and was widely spoken in the ancient days ranging from the borders of India in the east, Russian in the north, the southern shores of the Persian Gulf to Egypt and the Mediterranean in the west.
Arabic version of Parsi is called Farsi since Arabs do not have P in their alphabet.
Persian language ranks in the top ten languages in literature and poetry and poets such as Omar Khayyam's book Rubaiyat has been translated into over 150 languages.
Persian language and history goes back to at least 5,000 years ago.
Thanks to Hakim Ferdowsi, Iranians speak Persian whereas countries such as Egypt with great civilization were forced to speak Arabic. Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is the most popular and influential national epic in Iran and other Persian-speaking nations. The Persians regard Ferdowsi as the greatest of their poets.
Kurdish has a great similarity with the Persian language. In fact, they both come from the same family.
People in Iran have lived with Kurds for several thousand years, some estimate it to be 7000 years. They eat similar food, and we have had similar celebrations for New Year (Nowruz) for thousands of years. Iranians consider Kurds Iranians. We understand their dialect. They have suffered, as have many of us in West Asia because of invaders who came to our region to loot.
Article: Historical Facts about Kurds | OpEdNews
Persian language at present time is spoken in more than twenty countries and many scholars of language read Persian literature in more than one hundred countries as far as Lima, Peru where Khayyam's poems are in their elementary books.
British and Europeans tried to reduce the Persian language and its influence in Central and West Asia. For example, in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent where Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus all had a common connection through Persian language and literature, British banned the use of Persian language.
In the Caucasus, Russia promoted pan-Turkism even though they fought the Ottomans. After separating many provinces of Iran such Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan from Iran less than 200 years ago, Russia have tried to reduce the Persian language influence in Tajikistan where they speak a dialect similar to Iran and Afghan people.
There are other languages that have a close resemblance to Persian and can be classified as dialects. These languages include Luri (which is spoken in the southwest of Iran in places like Fars Province and Lorestan) and Tat (spoken in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Transcaucasia). The language has also had considerable influence on other languages like the Turkic languages as well as Armenian, Indo-Aryan, and Georgian languages.
In European languages, including English today, there are words with Persian roots and there are hundreds of common words between Persian and European languages, such as: better (better) - good (good) - bad - brother - father - mother - The father (Fader) of the caravan-caravanserai-bazaar-day, and these can be extended to more than 700 words, is due to the ancient Sanskrit language, which is the mother tongue of all Indo-European languages.
Many geographical names and places in the West Asia and North Africa are from Persian, such as: Baghdad - Anbar - Oman (Homan) - Rustaq - Ceyhan - Basra (back road) - Rafdin - Hindu Kash - Hyderabad
This writing is a small part of the historical power of the Persian language, which has shined throughout history and those who speak it have enjoyed the richness of literature and poetry.
Hopefully one day Iran will unite with its provinces which Russia and British separated and revive its ancient scripts, culture and way of life.
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