by CERTIFIED TRANSLATION

Is Persian different from Arabic? Well, many people think that they are the same. It is probably due to three major misconceptions i.e. both are written with the Arabic script, they’re spoken in the Middle East and they’re spoken by peoples who are, for the most part, Muslim. 

The reality is that Arabic and Persian belong to two different language groups. They have completely different grammar and pronunciation, and while Persian has a lot of Arabic loan words, most words are very different. Persian is much similar to other foreign languages i.e. English. But on the other hand, Arabic belongs to the branch of Semitic languages. Let’s further differentiate these two languages by enlightening some other areas! 

History and Origin Persian and Arabic are two languages that people of two different cultures speak. From the 9th century, the Arabic language replaced the Middle Persian language in the administration and government, and with the introduction of Islam to Persian lands, it became the all-dominating language of religion. By the late 10th century, the majority of the Persians became Muslims. Later, in the 11th century, the language spread geographically and was medium among Central Asia. 

In the current 20th century, the Middle Persian became more prominent. While ordinary Persians still speak a form of Middle Persian, a vast number of Arabic loan words are new, especially in religious vocabulary. The grammatical structure of Middle Persian is different from the previous one. And Arabic words can well adept with Persian grammar. 

Grammar Structure Arabic and Persian are extremely different grammar-wise and have almost nothing in common. In terms of morphology, Arabic is famous for its trilateral root system. Conjugation of verbs, noun declension and another kind of word inflection follow strict rules, and the language, while extremely complicated, is very logical. Persian doesn’t use this system and each word is just a word in a way that seems much more organic than it’s the case with Arabic. 

The Persian language does have a lot of suffixes and prefixes that it uses to form new words, and it’s possible to form a great variety of words based on these principles. In terms of word order, both are different. Arabic shares the same word as English i.e. Subject-Object-Verb. But on the other hand, Persian builds up the sentences in the Subject-Verb-Object order. There are two Arabian genders but Persian language families have no gender. At some places, Persian vocabulary has some synonyms that can be used in multiple foreign languages. Arabic vocabulary has many things common with Persian. Moreover, the Persian alphabet has four extra letters to the Arabian alphabet. But to this day, a significant amount of Persian vocabulary still has Arabic roots.