Romanization of Persian

Romanization of Persian or Latinization of Persian (Persian: لاتین‌نویسی فارسی, romanized: Lâtin-Nevisi-ye Fârsi, pronounced [lɒːtiːn.neviːˌsije fɒːɹˈsiː]) is the representation of the Persian language (Iranian Persian, Dari and Tajik) with the Latin script. Several different romanization schemes exist, each with its own set of rules driven by its own set of ideological goals.

Romanization is familiar to many Persian speakers. Many use an ad hoc romanization for text messaging and email;^[1] road signs in Iran commonly include both Persian and English (in order to make them accessible to foreigners);^[2] and websites use romanized domain names.

A sign shows the name of a station
with both Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts at Varzeshgah-e Azadi Metro Station.

Romanization paradigms

Because the Perso-Arabic script is an abjad writing system (with a consonant-heavy inventory of letters), many distinct words in standard Persian can have identical spellings, with widely varying pronunciations that differ in their (unwritten) vowel sounds. Thus a romanization paradigm can follow either transliteration (which mirrors spelling and orthography) or transcription (which mirrors pronunciation and phonology).

Transliteration

Transliteration (in the strict sense) attempts to be a complete representation of the original writing, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. Transliterations of Persian are used to represent individual Persian words or short quotations, in scholarly texts in English or other languages that do not use the Arabic alphabet.

A transliteration will still have separate representations for different consonants of the Persian alphabet that are pronounced identically in Persian. Therefore, transliterations of Persian are often based on transliterations of Arabic.^[3] The representation of the vowels of the Perso-Arabic alphabet is also complex, and transliterations are based on the written form.

Transliterations commonly used in the English-speaking world include BGN/PCGN romanization and ALA-LC Romanization.

Non-academic English-language quotation of Persian words usually uses a simplification of one of the strict transliteration schemes (typically omitting diacritical marks) and/or unsystematic choices of spellings meant to guide English speakers using English spelling rules towards an approximation of the Persian sounds.

Transcription

Transcriptions of Persian attempt to straightforwardly represent Persian phonology in the Latin script, without requiring a close or reversible correspondence with the Perso-Arabic script, and also without requiring a close correspondence to English phonetic values of Roman letters.

Main romanization schemes

• DMG (1969), a strict scientific system by the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft). It corresponds to Deutsches Institut für Normung standard DIN 31635.^[4]
• ALA-LC (1997), the ALA-LC romanization.^[5]
• BGN/PCGN (1958), the BGN/PCGN romanization.^[6]
• EI (1960), the system used in early editions of Encyclopædia Iranica.^[4]
• EI (2012), its contemporary modification.^[7]
• UN (1967), the Iranian national system (1966), that was approved by the UNGEGN in 1967.^[8][9]
• UN (2012), its contemporary modification.^[8][10]

Comparison table

Consonants

Unicode	Persian letter	IPA	DMG (1969)	ALA-LC (1997)	BGN/PCGN (1958)	EI (1960)	EI (2012)	UN (1967)	UN (2012)	Pronunciation
U+0627	ا	ʔ, ∅^[a]	ʾ, —^[b]	ʼ, —^[b]				ʾ		_____
U+0628	ب	b	b							B as in Bob
U+067E	پ	p	p							P as in pet
U+062A	ت	t	t							T as in tall
U+062B	ث	s	s̱	s̱	s̄	t͟h	ṯ	s̄	s	S as in sand
U+062C	ج	dʒ	ǧ	j	j	d͟j	j	j		J as in jam
U+0686	چ	tʃ	č	ch	ch	č	č	ch	č	Ch as in Charlie
U+062D	ح	h	ḥ	ḥ	ḩ/ḥ^[c]	ḥ	ḥ	ḩ	h	H as in holiday
U+062E	خ	x	ḫ	kh	kh	k͟h	ḵ	kh	x	____
U+062F	د	d	d							D as in Dave
U+0630	ذ	z	ẕ	ẕ	z̄	d͟h	ḏ	z̄	z	Z as in zero
U+0631	ر	r	r							R as in rabbit
U+0632	ز	z	z							Z as in zero
U+0698	ژ	ʒ	ž	zh	zh	z͟h	ž	zh	ž	S as in television or G as in genre
U+0633	س	s	s							S as in Sam
U+0634	ش	ʃ	š	sh	sh	s͟h	š	sh	š	Sh as in sheep
U+0635	ص	s	ṣ	ṣ	ş/ṣ^[c]	ṣ	ṣ	ş	s	S as in Sam
U+0636	ض	z	ż	z̤	ẕ	ḍ	ż	ẕ	z	Z as in zero
U+0637	ط	t	ṭ	ṭ	ţ/ṭ^[c]	ṭ	ṭ	ţ	t	t as in tank
U+0638	ظ	z	ẓ	ẓ	z̧/ẓ^[c]	ẓ	ẓ	z̧	z	Z as in zero
U+0639	ع	∅	ʿ	ʻ	ʼ^[b]	ʻ	ʻ	ʿ	ʿ	- as in uh-oh
U+063A	غ	ɢ~ɣ	ġ	gh	gh	g͟h	ḡ	gh	q	French R
U+0641	ف	f	f							F as in Fred
U+0642	ق	ɢ~ɣ	q			ḳ	ḳ	q		French R
U+06A9	ک	k	k							C as in card
U+06AF	گ	ɡ	g							G as in go
U+0644	ل	l	l							L as in lamp
U+0645	م	m	m							M as in Michael
U+0646	ن	n	n							N as in name
U+0648	و	v~w^[a]^[d]	v				v, w^[e]	v		V as in vision
U+0647	ه	h^[a]	h	h	h^[f]	h	h	h^[f]	h^[f]	H as in hot
U+0629	ة	∅, t	—	h^[g]	—	t^[h]	h^[g]	—	—
U+06CC	ی	j^[a]	y							Y as in Yale
U+0621	ء	ʔ, ∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0623	أ	ʔ, ∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0624	ؤ	ʔ, ∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0626	ئ	ʔ, ∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ

Vowels^[i]

Unicode	Final	Medial	Initial	Isolated	IPA	DMG (1969)	ALA-LC (1997)	BGN/PCGN (1958)	EI (2012)	UN (1967)	UN (2012)	Pronunciation
U+064E	ـَ	ـَ	اَ	اَ	æ	a	a	a	a	a	a	A as in cat
U+064F	ـُ	ـُ	اُ	اُ	o	o	o	o	u	o	o	O as in go
U+0648 U+064F	ـوَ	ـوَ	—	—	o^[j]	o	o	o	u	o	o	O as in go
U+0650	ـِ	ـِ	اِ	اِ	e	e	i	e	e	e	e	E as in ten
U+064E U+0627	ـَا	ـَا	آ	آ	ɑː~ɒː	ā	ā	ā	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+0622	ـآ	ـآ	آ	آ	ɑː~ɒː	ā, ʾā^[k]	ā, ʼā^[k]	ā	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+064E U+06CC	ـَی	—	—	—	ɑː~ɒː	ā	á	á	ā	á	ā	O as in hot
U+06CC U+0670	ـیٰ	—	—	—	ɑː~ɒː	ā	á	á	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+064F U+0648	ـُو	ـُو	اُو	اُو	uː, oː^[e]	ū	ū	ū	u, ō^[e]	ū	u	U as in actual
U+0650 U+06CC	ـِی	ـِیـ	اِیـ	اِی	iː, eː^[e]	ī	ī	ī	i, ē^[e]	ī	i	Y as in happy
U+064E U+0648	ـَو	ـَو	اَو	اَو	ow~aw^[e]	au	aw	ow	ow, aw^[e]	ow	ow	O as in go
U+064E U+06CC	ـَی	ـَیـ	اَیـ	اَی	ej~aj^[e]	ai	ay	ey	ey, ay^[e]	ey	ey	Ay as in play
U+064E U+06CC	ـیِ	—	—	—	–e, –je	–e, –ye	–i, –yi	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	Ye as in yes
U+06C0	ـهٔ	—	—	—	–je	–ye	–ʼi	–ye	–ye	–ye	–ye	Ye as in yes

Notes:

1. Used as a vowel as well.
2. Hamza and ayn are not transliterated at the beginning of words.
3. The dot below may be used instead of cedilla.
4. At the beginning of words the combination ⟨خو⟩ was pronounced /xw/ or /xʷ/ in Classical Persian. In modern varieties the glide /ʷ/ has been lost, though the spelling has not been changed. It may be still heard in Dari as a relict pronunciation. The combination /xʷa/ was changed to /xo/ (see below).
5. In Dari.
6. Not transliterated at the end of words.
7. In the combination ⟨یة⟩ at the end of words.
8. When used instead of ⟨ت⟩ at the end of words.
9. Diacritical signs (harakat) are rarely written.
10. After ⟨خ⟩ from the earlier /xʷa/. Often transliterated as xwa or xva. For example, خور /xor/ "sun" was /xʷar/ in Classical Persian.
11. After vowels.

Pre-Islamic period

In the pre-Islamic period Old and Middle Persian employed various scripts including Old Persian cuneiform, Pahlavi and Avestan scripts. For each period there are established transcriptions and transliterations by prominent linguists.^{[11][12][13][14]}

IPA	Old Persian^[i]^[ii]	Middle Persian (Pahlavi)^[i]	Avestan^[i]
Consonants
p	p
f	f
b	b
β~ʋ~w	—	β	β/w
t	t		t, t̰
θ	θ/ϑ
d	d
ð	—	(δ)	δ
θr	ç/ϑʳ	θʳ/ϑʳ
s	s
z	z
ʃ	š		š, š́, ṣ̌
ʒ	ž
c~tʃ	c/č
ɟ~dʒ	j/ǰ
k	k
x	x		x, x́
xʷ	xʷ/xᵛ
g	g		g, ġ
ɣ	ɣ/γ
h	h
m	m		m, m̨
ŋ	—		ŋ, ŋʷ
ŋʲ	—		ŋ́
n	n		n, ń, ṇ
r	r
l	l
w~ʋ~v	v	w	v
j	y		y, ẏ
Vowels
Short
a	a
ã	—		ą, ą̇
ə	—		ə
e	—	(e)	e
i	i
o	—	(o)	o
u	u
Long
aː	ā
ɑː~ɒː	—		å/ā̊
ə	—		ə̄
əː	—	ē
iː	ī
oː	—	ō
uː	ū

Notes:

1. Slash signifies equal variants.
2. There exist some differences in transcription of Old Persian preferred by different scholars:
   • ā = â
   • ī, ū = i, u
   • x = kh, ḵ, ḥ, ḫ
   • c/č = ǩ
   • j/ǰ = ǧ
   • θ = ϑ, þ, th, ṯ, ṭ
   • ç = tr, θʳ, ϑʳ, ṙ, s͜s, s̀
   • f = p̱
   • y, v = j, w.

A sample romanization (a poem by Hafez):

Persian Rūmi	Perso-Arabic script	English
Yusef-e gomgašte bâz âyad be Kan'ân qam maxor kolbe-ye ahzân šavad ruzi golestân qam maxor	یوسف گم گشته باز آید به کنعان غم مخور کلبه‌ی احزان شود روزی گلستان غم مخور	The lost Joseph will get back to Canaan, don't be sad The hut of madness will become a garden one day, don't be sad

Other romanization schemes

Baháʼí Persian romanization

Main article: Baháʼí orthography

Baháʼís use a system standardized by Shoghi Effendi, which he initiated in a general letter on March 12, 1923.^[15] The Baháʼí transliteration scheme was based on a standard adopted by the Tenth International Congress of Orientalists which took place in Geneva in September 1894. Shoghi Effendi changed some details of the Congress's system, most notably in the use of digraphs in certain cases (e.g. s͟h instead of š), and in incorporating the solar letters when writing the definite article al- (Arabic: ال) according to pronunciation (e.g. ar-Rahim, as-Saddiq, instead of al-Rahim, al-Saddiq).

A detailed introduction to the Baháʼí Persian romanization can usually be found at the back of a Baháʼí scripture.

ASCII Internet romanizations

Persian	Fingilish
آ،ا‎	a, aa, â
ب‎	b
پ‎	p
ت‎	t
ث‎	s
ج‎	j
چ‎	ch, č
ح‎	h
خ‎	kh, x
د‎	d
ذ‎	z
ر‎	r
ز‎	z
ژ‎	zh, ž
س‎	s
ش‎	sh, š
ص‎	s
ض‎	z
ط‎	t
ظ‎	z
ع،ء‎	a, e, â, æ
غ‎	gh, q
ف‎	f
ق‎	gh, q
ک‎	k
گ‎	g
ل‎	l
م‎	m
ن‎	n
و‎	o, u, v, w
ه‎	h
ی‎	i, y

It is common to write Persian language with only the Latin alphabet (as opposed to the Persian alphabet) especially in online chat, social networks, emails and SMS. It has developed and spread due to a former lack of software supporting the Persian alphabet, and/or due to a lack of knowledge about the software that was available. Although Persian writing is supported in recent operating systems, there are still many cases where the Persian alphabet is unavailable and there is a need for an alternative way to write Persian with the basic Latin alphabet. This way of writing is sometimes called Fingilish or Pingilish (a portmanteau of Farsi or Persian and English).^[16] In most cases this is an ad hoc simplification of the scientific systems listed above (such as ALA-LC or BGN/PCGN), but ignoring any special letters or diacritical signs. ع may be written using the numeral "3", as in the Arabic chat alphabet (though this is rarely done). The details of the spelling also depend on the contact language of the speaker; for example, the vowel [u] is often spelt "oo" after English, but Persian speakers from Germany and some other European countries are more likely to use "u".

Tajik Latin alphabet

Main article: Tajik alphabet

The Tajik language or Tajik Persian is a variety of the Persian language. It was written in the Tajik SSR in a standardized Latin script from 1926 until the late 1930s, when the script was officially changed to Cyrillic. However, Tajik phonology differs slightly from that of Persian in Iran. As a result of these two factors romanization schemes of the Tajik Cyrillic script follow rather different principles.^[17] However, Google Translate still uses this alphabet^[ambiguous].

The Tajik alphabet in Latin (1928-1940)^[18]

A a	B ʙ	C c	Ç ç	D d	E e	F f	G g	Ƣ ƣ	H h	I i	Ī ī
/a/	/b/	/tʃ/	/dʒ/	/d/	/e/	/f/	/ɡ/	/ʁ/	/h/	/i/	/ˈi/
J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	Ş ş	T t
/j/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/p/	/q/	/ɾ/	/s/	/ʃ/	/t/
U u	Ū ū	V v	X x	Z z	Ƶ ƶ	ʼ
/u/	/ɵ/	/v/	/χ/	/z/	/ʒ/	/ʔ/

Variation proposed by Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani

A variation (that is sometimes called "Pârstin") proposed by linguist Mir Shamsuddin Adib-Soltani in 1976^[19] has seen some use by other linguists, such as David Neil MacKenzie for the transliteration of the Perso-Arabic scripture.

The letters of this variation of the Latin alphabet are the basic Latin letters: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz, plus the additional letters to support the native sounds: Ââ, Čč, Šš, Žž (the latter three from Slavic alphabets, like the Czech one).

Besides being one of the simplest variations proposed for the Latinization of the Persian alphabet, this variation is based on the Alphabetic principle. Based on this principle, each individual speech sound is represented by a single letter and there is a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letters that represent them. This principle, besides increasing the clarity of the text and preventing confusion for the reader, is specifically useful for representing the native sounds of the Persian language, for which there are no equivalents in most other languages written in a Latin-based alphabet. For instance, compound letters used in the other variations, such as kh and gh, in addition to sh and zh are respectively represented by x, q, š and ž.

See also

•  Iran portal
•  Languages portal

• Persian alphabet
• Persian phonology
• Romanization of Arabic
• Romanization of Syriac

References

1. Akbari, Mohsen (2013). "A preliminary linguistic analysis of Romanized Persian SMS messages". Journal of Novel Applied Sciences.
2. Beam, Christopher (2009-06-17). "Why do Iranian police uniforms say "police" in English?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
3. Joachim, Martin D. (1993). Languages of the world: cataloging issues and problems. New York: Haworth Press. p. 137. ISBN 1560245204.
4. Pedersen, Thomas T. "Persian (Farsi)" (PDF). Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts.
5. "Persian" (PDF). The Library of Congress.
6. "Romanization system for Persian (Dari and Farsi). BGN/PCGN 1958 System" (PDF).
7. "Transliteration". Encyclopædia Iranica.
8. "Persian" (PDF). UNGEGN.
9. Toponymic Guidelines for map and other editors – Revised edition 1998. Working Paper No. 41. Submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran. UNGEGN, 20th session. New York, 17–28 January 2000.
10. New Persian Romanization System. E/CONF.101/118/Rev.1*. Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 31 July – 9 August 2012.
11. Bartholomae, Christian (1904). Altiranisches Wörterbuch. Strassburg. p. XXIII.
12. Kent, Roland G. (1950). Old Persian. New Heaven, Connecticut. pp. 12–13.
13. MacKenzie, D. N. (1971). "Transcription". A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London. ISBN 9781136613951.
14. Hoffmann, Karl; Forssman, Bernhard (1996). Avestische Laut- und Flexionslehre. Innsbruck. pp. 41–44. ISBN 3-85124-652-7.
15. Effendi, Shoghi (1974). Baháʼí Administration. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 43. ISBN 0-87743-166-3.
16. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of 'lishes': The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 10. DOI: 10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
17. Pedersen, Thomas T. "Tajik" (PDF). Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts.
18. Perry, John R. (2005). A Tajik Persian Reference Grammar. Brill. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9789004143234.
19. Adib-Soltani, Mir Shamsuddin (1976). An introduction to the writing of the Persian script. Tehran, Iran: Amirkabir Publications.

External links

• Comparison of DMG, UN, ALA-LC, BGN/PCGN, EI, ISO 233-3 transliterations
• Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts
• Iranian Committee on the Standardization of Geographical Names (ICSGN)