Farsi Is One of the Most Important Languages in Central Asia
Farsi or Persian is spoken by 70 million people as their native language and by another 60 million as a second language. The majority of the speakers live in Iran (40 million), in Afghanistan (15 million) and in Central Asia (15 million), as well as on the Indian subcontinent. In addition, there are significant Persian-speaking communities in Iraq and in the Gulf states (primarily in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and in Kuwait).
Traditionally, the language is designated as Persian - named after the ancient ancestral seat of the classical kings of the Persians. The proper name of the language reads Pārsī (پارسی) and, since the Arab-Islamic conquest of Persia, Fārsī (فارسی), as the Arabic language does not recognise the P phoneme. In Afghanistan, India and Central Asia it is usually called Darī (درى), which reflects the enormous significance of Farsi for literature and culture in the Islamic world.
A large part of the modern Farsi vocabulary comes from the Arabic. There are Persian counterparts for many words to be sure, but they have to be classed in part with another stylistic level or are simply used much less frequently. The influence of the Arabic is particularly evident in the case of the compound verbs which frequently consist of an Arabic substantive and a Persian verb having a comparatively unspecific meaning.
As with many languages, Farsi has regional and national differences too, with the result that a translation can vary depending on the target country.
