Romanization of Persian

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Persian alphabet
ﺍ    ﺏ    پ    ﺕ    ﺙ     ﺝ    چ
ﺡ    ﺥ    ﺩ    ﺫ    ﺭ    ﺯ    ژ
ﺱ    ﺵ     ﺹ    ﺽ    ﻁ    ﻅ
ﻉ    ﻍ    ﻑ    ﻕ    ک    گ
ﻝ    ﻡ    ﻥ    ﻭ    ه    ی
History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration

Contents 1 Transliteration 2 Transcription 2.1 Comparison of proposed Persian and neighboring Latin-based scripts 3 Romanization schemes 3.1 UniPers 3.2 Baha'i Persian romanization 3.3 ASCII Internet romanizations 3.4 Tajik Latin alphabet 3.5 Turco-Persian Romanization 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] 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. Persian-alphabet vowel representation 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.

[edit] Transcription

It has been suggested that Persian transcription be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Transcriptions of Persian attempt to straightforwardly represent Persian phonology in the Roman alphabet, without requiring a close or reversible correspondence with the Perso-Arabic script, and also without requiring a close correspondence to English-language phonetic values of Roman letters; for example, letters such as X, Q, C may be reused for Persian-language phonemes that are not present in English phonology or do not have a consistent or single-letter English spelling.

Proposed Roman-alphabet scripts intended to be a primary representation of Persian, for use by Persian speakers as an alternative to the Perso-Arabic script, fall into this category. Some of these proposed scripts are described at Omniglot.

[edit] Comparison of proposed Persian and neighboring Latin-based scripts

IPA	Pk	UP	EF	tm	az	tk	ku	ASCII[1]	English
/æ/	A a			Ä ä	Ə ə	E e [2]		a	cat
/ɒː/	Á á	Â â	Ã ã	A a [3]				aa	father[4]
/ʃ/	Sc sc	Š š		Ş ş				sh	ship
/ʒ/	Zc zc	Ž ž			J j			zh[5]	vision
/tʃ/	C c[6]			Ç ç				ch	church
/dʒ/	J j				C c			j	judge
/ɣ/[7]	Q q[8]				Ğ ğ			gh[5]	none
/χ/	X x[9]				X x			kh[5]	none
/ʔ/	[10]	'						' [5]	uh-oh

One common theme is that in transcriptions of Persian, the unmarked letter a is used for the front vowel /æ/, while accented or doubled versions of the letter are used for the back vowel /ɒː/; this is opposite to the conventions in Latin alphabets of Turkic languages, although similar to some romanizations of Arabic.

[edit] Romanization schemes

[edit] UniPers

UniPers, also called Pârsiye Jahâni (literally, "Universal Persian") by its creators, is a proposed Latin-based alphabet for the Persian language. The system combines the basic Latin alphabet plus a few modified letters (Â/â, Š/š, Ž/ž, and an apostrophe).UniPers provide the Persian language with a standard phonemic Latin-based script that is clear, simple, and consistent. To make reading and writing of the Persian language readily accessible to most users, regardless of their national origin and/or education level

The creators of the system have mentioned that they have the following criteria for their design of the system: serving the Persian language and no other, only using the Latin script, simplicity and ease of use by using a minimal number of diacritical letters and rules, one-to-one correspondence between the sound values of the language and the letters in the system (which may be relaxed in case of š and ž), and conformance with standard pronunciation of the language.^[1]

Vowel	as in	Vowel	as in
A a	/æ/	I i	/i/
 â	/ɑː/	O o	/o/
E e	/e/	U u	/u/
Consonant	as in	Consonant	as in
B b	/b/	Q q	/ɣ/
C c	/tʃ/	R r	/ɾ/
D d	/d/	S s	/s/
F f	/f/	Š š	/ʃ/
G g	/ɡ/	T t	/t/
H h	/h/	V v	/v/
J j	/dʒ/	W w	/w/; only used in diphthong ow and digraph xw
K k	/k/	X x	/χ/
L l	/l/	Y y	/j/
M m	/m/	Z z	/z/
N n	/n/	Ž ž	/ʒ/
P p	/p/	'	/ʔ/
Digraph	as	Diphthong	as in
xw	x	ow	/oʊ/

[edit] Baha'i Persian romanization

Bahá'ís use a particular and fairly precise system standardized by Shoghi Effendi, which he initiated in a general letter on March 12, 1923.^[2] The Bahá'í 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. sh 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).

This transliteration differs significantly from UniPers, especially in vowel presentation. For example, what is in UniPers "Tehran" is presented in many Bahá'í translations as "Tihiran". The name of the Bahá'í women's right activist and martyr "Táhirih" would be pronounced in Persian according to the UniPers translation "Tahereh", but never printed as "Tahereh" in Bahá'í books. The use of "i" in the case of "Tahereh", illustrates the Bahá'í system's emphasis on literal correspondence with the Persian script, rather than the pronunciation of the modern national language of Iran. A detailed introduction to the Bahá'í Persian romanization can usually be found at the back of a Bahá'í scripture.

[edit] ASCII Internet romanizations

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008)

It is common to write Persian language with only English letters especially when commenting in weblogs or when using cellphones to send SMS. One form of such writing is as below

A a	AA aa	B b	CH ch	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i
/æ/	/ɑː/	/b/	/tʃ/	/d/	/e/	/f/	/ɡ/	/h/	/i/
J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	GH gh	R r	S s
/dʒ/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/p/	/ɣ/	/ɾ/	/s/
SH sh	T t	U u	V v	W w	KH kh	Y y	Z z	ZH zh	'
/ʃ/	/t/	/u/	/v/	/w/	/χ/	/j/	/z/	/ʒ/	/ʔ/

[edit] Tajik Latin alphabet

The Tajik language or Tajik Persian is a variety of the Persian language. It was written in Tajik SSR in a standardized Latin script from 1926 until late 1930s, when the script was officially changed to Cyrillic. However, Tajik phonology differs slightly from that of Persian in Iran; see Persian phonology#Historical shifts.

The Tajik alphabet in Latin

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	'
/u/	/ɵ/	/v/	/χ/	/z/	/ʒ/	/ʔ/

[edit] Turco-Persian Romanization

"Turco-Persian", among its many definitions, can refer to the code-switching to Persian expressions, Persian literary mannerisms, and heavy use of Persian vocabulary in Anatolian Turkish or Azerbaijani Turkish, especially Ottoman Turkish, which has a long history of subscribing to the Persian language classical literature. Even though Modern Standard Turkish is ostensibly more pure, it nonetheless retains many Persian mannerisms, Persian vocabulary from Ottoman Turkish, and has maintained its peculiar way of transcribing Persian words that is "Turkified" in pronunciation and is quite removed from modern standard pronunciation of Farsi.

Following are some examples taken from the Turkish Wikipedia [1] in explaining differences in spelling between standard Farsi transliterated with Turkish Latin Alphabet, and Turco-Persian orthography in the same alphabet:

Sayılar	Farsça Rakamlar	Farsça	Türkçe Telaffuzu	Farsi	Sıra Sayıları Farsça	Türkçe Telaffuzu	Farsi
0	۰	sefr	Sefr	صفر		Seferom	صفرم
1	۱	yek	Yek	يك	avval, yekom	Evvel, Yekom	اول‌، يكم
2	۲	do	Do	دو	dovvom	Devvom	دوم
3	۳	se	Se	سه	sevvom	Sevvom	سوم
4	۴	çahār	Çehar	چهار	çehārom	Çeharom	چهارم
5	۵	panc	Penc	پنج	pancom	Pencom	پنجم
6	۶	şeş	Şeş	شش	şeşom	Şeşom	ششم
7	۷	haft	Heft	هفت	haftom	Heftom	هفتم
8	۸	haşt	Heşt	هشت	haştom	Heştom	هشتم
9	۹	noh	Noh	نه	nohom	Nohom	نهم
10	۱۰	dā	Deh	ده	dāhom	Dehom	دهم
11	۱۱	yāzda	Yazdeh	يازده	yāzdahom	Yazdehom	يازدهم
12	۱۲	davāzda	Devazdeh	دوازده	davāzdahom	Devazdehom	دوازدهم
13	۱۳	sīzda	Sizdeh	سيزده	sīzdahom	Sizdehom	سيزدهم
14	۱۴	çahārda	Çehardeh	چهارده	çahārdahom	Çehardehom	چهاردهم
15	۱۵	pānzda (punzda)	Panzdeh	پانزده	pānzdahom (punzdahom)	Panzdehom	پانزدهم
16	۱۶	şānzda	Şanzdeh	شانزده	şānzdehom(şunzdehom)	Şanzdehom	شانزدهم
17	۱۷	hefda	Hifdeh	هفده	hefdahom	Hifdehom	هفدهم
18	۱۸	hecda	Hicdeh	هجده	hecdahom	Hicdehom	هجدهم
19	۱۹	nūzda	Nuzdeh	نوزده	nūzdahom	Nuzdehom	نوزدهم
20	۲۰	bīst	Bist	بيست	bīstom	Bistom	بيستم
30	۳۰	sī	Si	سی	sīyom	Siyom	سی ام
40	۴۰	çehel	Çehel	چهل	çehelom	Çehelom	چهلم
50	۵۰	pancā	Pencah	پنجاه	pancāhom	Pencahom	پنجا هم
60	۶۰	şast	Şest	شصت	şastom	Şestom	شصتم
70	۷۰	haftād	Heftad	هفتاد	haftādom	Heftadom	هفتادم
80	۸۰	haştād	Heştad	هشتاد	haştādom	Heştadom	هشتادم
90	۹۰	navad	Neved	نود	navadom	Nevedom	نودم
100	۱۰۰	sad	Sed	صد	sadom	Sedom	صدم
200	۲۰۰	devīst	Divist	دويست	devīstom	Divistom	دويستم
300	۳۰۰	sīsad	Sised	سيصد	sīsadom	Sisedom	سيصدم
400	۴۰۰	çahār sad	Çehar sed	چهارصد	çahār sadom	Çehar sedom	چهار صدم
500	۵۰۰	pānsad (punsad)	Pansed	پانصد	pānsadom (punsadom)	Pansedom	پانصدم
600	۶۰۰	şeş sad	Şeş sed	شش صد	şeş sadom	Şeş sedom	شش صدم
700	۷۰۰	haft sad	Heft sed	هفت صد	haft sadom	Heft sedom	هفت صدم
800	۸۰۰	haşt sad	Heşt sed	هشت صد	haşt sadom	Heşt sedom	هشت صدم
900	۹۰۰	noh sad	Noh sed	نه صد	noh sadom	Noh sedom	نه صدم
1000	۱۰۰۰	hazār	Hezar	هزار	hazārom	Hezarom	هزارم
Milyon	۱۰۰۰۰۰۰	melyūn	Milyon	میلیون	melyūnom	Milyonom	میليونم
Milyar	۱۰۰۰۰۰۰_	mīlyārd	Milyard	مليارد	mīlyārdom	Milyardom	ملياردم

Following are some lines of Persian poems from the Azeri Wikipedia, with the Azeri Turco-Persian transliteration in bold [2][3][4][5]:

1.

Vüsalını diləram kam ilən ze fəzli-ilah

Məni-şikəstəyə kami-vüsal beylə gərək.

Ey xətin səb'ül-məsani, vey ləbin mai-təhur,

Vey cəmalın pərtövindən sərbəsər aləmdə nur.

2.

Mən on zəmini guhərbari-paki İranəm,

Bə hər bəlayi-cəhalət nişəgəh əst təni mən...

3.

Məkatib cilvəgahi -tələəti-fəyyazi-qüdrətdir,

Məkatib pərtövü-ənvari-şəmsi-sübhi-vəhdətdir

...

Ey dəsti-sitəmkar, ayə pənceyi-mənhus!..

4.

Mara şәst salәst kәz xake-İran

Bovәd şanzdәh ta be Şirvan fetadәm.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Fingilish (Persian chat alphabet )
• Persian alphabet
• Persian phonology
• Romanization
• Transliteration
• Romanization of Arabic

[edit] External links

• Comparison of DMG, UN, ALA-LC, BGN/PCGN, EI, ISO 233-3 transliterations
• UN Romanization of Persian for Geographical Names
• Library of Congress/American Library Association Romanization of Persian
• Cataloguing Issues and Problems
• UniPers homepage
• Eurofarsi
• eiktub: web-based Arabic transliteration pad, with support for Persian characters

1. ^ UniversalPersian [UniPers]
2. ^ Effendi, Shoghi (1974). Bahá'í Administration. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. p. 43. ISBN 0877431663. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/BA/ba-33.html.