What are the official languages of Iran?
Literature in Iran
Persian is Iran's official language and the language of the country's ethnic majority (i.e., the Persians), and Persian literature has been the country's most influential literary tradition. Apart from Iran, Persian literature was used and developed further through several medieval Persianate societies in Asia Minor, Central Asia, and South Asia, and the language is still used widely in Central Asia (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Afghanistan.
Central Asia
Middle Iranian languages were once spoken throughout Central Asia, such as the once prominent Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Bactrian and Scythian, which are now extinct and belonged to the Eastern Iranian family. The Eastern Iranian Pashto language is still spoken in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. Other minor Eastern Iranian languages such as Shughni, Munji, Ishkashimi, Sarikoli, Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetic are also spoken at various places in Central Asia. Varieties of Persian are also spoken as a major language in the region, locally known as Dari (in Afghanistan), Tajik (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), and Bukhori (by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia).
Religion in Iran
Iran is an Islamic republic. Its constitution mandates that the official religion is Islam (see: Islam in Iran), specifically the Twelver Ja'fari school of Islam, with other Islamic schools being accorded full respect. Followers of all Islamic schools are free to act in accordance with their own jurisprudence in performing their religious rites. The constitution recognizes Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians as religious minorities.
List of countries where Arabic is an official language
The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes the Arabic language as the language of Islam, giving it a formal status as the language of religion, and regulates its spreading within the Iranian national curriculum. The constitution declares in Chapter II: (The Official Language, Script, Calendar, and Flag of the Country) in Article 16 ""Since the language of the Qur`an and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, ..., it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study.""
Languages of Iran
Different publications have reported different statistics for the languages of Iran. There have been some limited censuses taken in Iran in 2001, 1991, 1986 and 1949–1954.
The following are the languages with the greatest number of speakers (data from the CIA World Factbook):
Arasbaran
The spoken language is Azerbaijani. It has a high degree of intelligibility with Anatolian Turkish. Most inhabitants are familiar with Persian language, which is the official language of Iran and the sole language of education. Until 1980, the elders of four villages (Chay Kandi, Kalasor, Khoynarood, and Arazin) were communicating in Tati, a language which was the Iranian language of Azerbaijan before the arrival of speakers of Turkish in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni (around 1000 AD).
Iran
Percentages of spoken language continue to be a point of debate, as many opt that they are politically motivated; most notably regarding the largest and second largest ethnicities in Iran, the Persians and Azerbaijanis. Percentages given by the CIA's World Factbook include 53% Persian, 16% Azerbaijani Turkish, 10% Kurdish, 7% Mazenderani and Gilaki, 7% Lurish, 2% Turkmen, 2% Balochi, 2% Arabic, and 2% the remainder Armenian, Georgian, Neo-Aramaic, and Circassian.
Education in Iran
Most teaching of English starts in middle school (age 12-14), but before 2018, some primary schools (age 12 and below) also taught English. However, in January 2018, a senior educational official announced on state television that teaching English is banned in primary schools, including non-government primary schools.
Media of Iran
A number of foreign broadcasts into the country exist, including Persian language programmes from Kol Israel and Radio Farda; however, these broadcasts tend to encounter occasional radio jamming. The government engages in censorship programs to anything divergent from the country's regulations. The majority of Iranians- upwards of 80 percent- get their news from government-owned media. Attempts to establish private, independent media outlets in Iran have been restricted or banned, and Reporters Without Borders has declared Iran to have the highest number of jailed journalists in the Middle East. According to the 1979 Iranian Constitution, all broadcasting must exclusively be government-operated, and in 1994 the Islamic Republic banned the use of satellite television. Yet, over 30 percent of Iranians watch satellite channels.
Outline of Iran
Iran – sovereign country located in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. Iran is bound by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Caspian Sea to its north. Shi'a Islam is the official religion, and Persian is the official language. The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at , Iran has a population of over seventy million. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. Throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and is a regional power. The political system of Iran, based on the 1979 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is the Supreme Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Geography of Iran
Languages in censuses
The majority of the population speaks the Persian language, which is also the official language of the country, as well as other Iranian languages or dialects. Turkic languages and dialects, most importantly Azerbaijani language, are spoken in different areas in Iran. In southwestern and southern Iran, the Luri language and Lari language are spoken. In Kurdistan Province and nearby area's Kurdish is widely spoken. In Khuzestan, many distinct Persian dialects are spoken. Arabic is also spoken in Khuzestan. Notable minority languages in Iran include Armenian, Georgian, and Neo-Aramaic. Circassian was also once widely used by the large Circassian minority, but due to assimilation over the many years no sizable number of Circassians speak the language anymore.
Indo-Aryan migration
In Central Asia, the Turkic languages have marginalized Iranian languages as a result of the Turkic migration of the early centuries CE. In Eastern Europe, Slavic and Germanic peoples assimilated and absorbed the native Iranian languages (Scythian and Sarmatian) of the region. Extant major Iranian languages are Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, and Balochi, besides numerous smaller ones.
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages all descend from a common ancestor: the so-called Proto-Iranian which itself evolved from Proto-Indo-Iranian. This ancestor language is speculated to have origins in Central Asia and the Andronovo Culture is suggested as a candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture around 2000 BC.
Gozaar
Gozaar includes commentary pieces on issues of democracy and human rights in Iran. Gozaar also incorporates articles and reviews of Iranian art, film, and literature, as well as satire and cartoons available only in Persian, though the language of art is universal.
Demographics of Iran
The largest linguistic group comprises speakers of Iranian languages, like modern Persian, Kurdish, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Luri, Talysh, and Balochi. Speakers of Turkic languages, most notably Azerbaijanis, which is by far the second-most spoken language in the country, but also the Turkmen, and the Qashqai peoples, comprise a substantial minority. The remainder are primarily speakers of Semitic languages such as Arabic and Assyrian. There are small groups using other Indo-European languages such as Armenian, Russian, Pashto; Georgian (a member of the Kartvelian language family), spoken in a large pocket only by those Iranian Georgians that live in Fereydan, Fereydunshahr. Most of those Georgians who live in the north Iranian provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Isfahan, Tehran Province and the rest of Iran no longer speak the language but keep a Georgian conscience.
The Circassians in Iran, a very large minority in the past and speakers of the Circassian language, have been strongly assimilated and absorbed within the population in the past few centuries. However, significant pockets do exist spread over the country, and they are the second-largest Caucasus-derived group in the nation after the Georgians.
Tajiks
In an interview to Iranian news media in May 2008, Tajikistan's deputy culture minister said that Tajikistan would study the issue of switching its Tajik alphabet from Cyrillic to the Persian script used in Iran and Afghanistan when the government feels that "the Tajik people became familiar with the Persian alphabet". More recently, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan seeks to have the nation's language referred to as "Tajiki-Farsi" rather than "Tajik." The proposal has drawn criticism from Russian media since the bill seeks to remove the Russian language as the mode of interethnic communication. In 1989, the original name of the language (Farsi) was added to its official name in brackets. However, Rahmon's government renamed the language to simply 'Tajiki' in 1994. On October 2009, Tajikistan adopted the law that removes Russian as the "language for interethnic communication."
Iranian Azerbaijanis
Iranian Azerbaijanis (), also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks, Azeri Turks, Azerbaijani Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani language as their first language.
Greater Iran
During medieval ages, Mesopotamian and Iranian peoples knew each other's languages because of trade, and because Arabic was the language of religion and science at that time. The Timurid historian Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru (d. 1430) wrote of Iraq:
Iraqis share religious and certain cultural ties Iranians. The majority of Iranians are Twelver Shia (an Islamic sect established in Iraq), although the majority of Iranians were Sunni Muslims and did not convert to Shia until the Safavids forced Shi'ism in Iran.
Gilan Province
Persian is also spoken in the province of Gilan as it is Iran's officials language, requiring everyone to know Persian.
Languages of Iran
Perceiving multilingualism as a threat to the nation’s unity and Territorial integrity, and seeing the need to restrict minority languages’ use and to advance the Persian language’s hegemony, Iran’s language policy consists of a non-translation outline as well: all government, administration and educational settings are obliged to use merely Persian for any written communication. That includes political institutions (i.e. the Iranian Parliament), official bureaucratic communication (forms, signage etc.) and schooling (all children from the age of six and up are exposed only to Persian as the language of teaching and learning and of textbooks within the public school system). In other words, the Iranian authorities holds that minorities needs to learn the Iranian vernacular to an extent that will allow them to communicate with state institutions.
Ethnic minorities in Iran
The Constitution of Iran guarantees freedom of cultural expression and linguistic diversity. Many Iranian provinces have radio and television stations in local language or dialect. School education is in Persian, the official language, but use of regional languages is allowed under the constitution of the Islamic Republic, and Azeri language and culture is studied at universities and other institutions of higher education. Article 15 of the constitution states:
Iranian peoples
There are an estimated 150 to 200 million native speakers of Iranian languages, the six major groups of Persians, Lurs, Kurds, Tajiks, Baloch, and Pashtuns accounting for about 90% of this number. Currently, most of these Iranian peoples live in Iran, Afghanistan, the Caucasus (mainly Ossetia, other parts of Georgia, Dagestan, and Azerbaijan), Iraqi Kurdistan and Kurdish majority populated areas of Turkey, Iran and Syria, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. There are also Iranian peoples living in Eastern Arabia such as northern Oman and Bahrain.
Freedom of religion in Iran
Freedom of religion in Iran is marked by Iranian culture, major religion and politics. Iran is officially and in practice an Islamic republic—the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran mandates that the official religion of Iran is Shia Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school, and also mandates that other Islamic schools are to be accorded full respect, and their followers are free to act in accordance with their own jurisprudence in performing their religious rites. Iran recognizes Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian religious minorities, among others. The continuous presence of the country's pre-Islamic, non-Muslim communities, such as Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians, had accustomed the population to the participation of non-Muslims in society. However, despite official recognition of such minorities by Iran's government, the actions of the government create a "threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities".
Salas-e Babajani County
The spoken language in the city is Kurdish, but the language which is used in schools and offices is Farsi, since the official language in Iran is Persian Almost everyone in the city are fluent in Farsi.
Semnan, Iran
The city also has its own language known as "Zaban e Semnani" in Persian or "Semani Zefön" in the Semnani language of the locals. The Iranian Constitution recognizes the use of regional dialects and languages, and permits their usage second to the Persian language.
Islamization of Iran
Persian language, because of its strong support from Abassid rulers condoning the language became one of the universal Islamic languages, next to Arabic.
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples, or the Iranic peoples, are a diverse Indo-European ethno-linguistic group that comprise the speakers of the Iranian languages.
Languages of Afghanistan
Afghanistan is a multilingual country in which two languages – Dari and Pashto – are both official and most widely spoken. Dari is the official name of the Persian language in Afghanistan. It is often referred to as the "Afghan Persian". Both Persian and Pashto are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family. Other regional languages, such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi and Nuristani are spoken by minority groups across the country.
Freedom of religion in Iran
Some issues dealing with Christianity in Iran deal more directly with the Armenian ethnic minorities. For example, in early 1983 the MET specifically requested that the Armenian religious schools teach religion in Persian and time allocated to the Armenian languages must be reduced or eliminated. While the community responded to these orders issues raised in discussions included if the Armenians could speak/teach their own language other minorities would demand the same but also if Persian was used it would make proselytization easier as facility with Persian language use of religious issues improved. At the end of the 1983 academic year the MET requested the questions that were to be included in the final exam and the questions had to be sent in Persian and were ordered to be used in Persian as the final exam. Most fifth grade students refused to take the test and 3rd grade students handed in blank pages. The authorities then failed all the students. Some schools ignored the demands on languages, others did limit teaching to 2 hrs and others removed it entirely. Some continued religious classes and some dropped them all together. Observance of these rules on Armenian language teaching was most strict in Tehran while 6 to 8 hrs per week were common beyond. However, in 1995 the limit on languages was raised from 2 hrs to 5 hrs per week in Tehran as well. Circa 1996 a settlement was reached; during the first two months of each school year, the ministry-provided Persian book on religious ethics is taught in Armenian schools while Armenian-approved religious lessons are taught in Armenian for the rest of the year. This was not a totally satisfactory settlement of the issue for both sides, but it settled the issue.
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages are divided into the following branches:
Bashu, the Little Stranger
Throughout the film, linguistic differences make Bashu’s journey more difficult. Persian was standardized as the official language of Iran in 1935. It became the predominant method through which educated Iranians of diverse ethnicities, predominantly men, would communicate with one another. The standardization of Persian coincided with a dramatic increase in ethnocentric Persian nationalism, characterized by an increase in the ostracization of Arab culture and language, as well as all others which deviated from the newly defined Persian norms. As seen in the film, this ethnocentric nationalistic standardization had a consequence for gender relations within the nation; the state language held little value in local villages and often left women barred from places of power within the nation-state structure.
Gilaks
The Gilaki language is a member of the Northwestern branch of the Iranian languages. It is the main language spoken amongst the Gilaki people, although various regional and local dialects of the Gilaki language are common. Gilak people are fluent in both the Gilaki language and standard Persian. Persian is the official language of education in Iran, and since teachers are discouraged from using regional dialects and accents in class, the Gilaki language is taught to children at home.
Languages of Azerbaijan
He then reports that Dari is the official language of the royal courts, and is from Khorasan and Balkh and eastern Iran; Parsi is the language of the Zoroastrian Moobeds, and is from Fars; Khuzi is the unofficial language of royalty and is from Khuzestan; and Seryani originates from Mesopotamia.
Languages of Iran
The first legislation which granted the Persian language its status was initiated back in 1906, as part of an electoral law that positioned it as the official language of the state of Iran, its government, its political institutions and its legal system. In the course of time this enactment followed by others, which eventually lead to a monolingual policy by the Iranian regime.
Iran (newspaper)
"Iran" was launched in 1995. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) owns and publishes "Iran". Iran's affiliated website is Iran Network. IRNA also publishes "Iran Daily", an English language daily newspaper, "Alvefagh", an Arabic newspaper, "Irane varzeshi", a sport daily newspaper, and "Irane Sepid" for blind people. The newspaper supports the policies of the government and is described as a pro-government conservative daily.
Literature in Iran
The Turkic Azerbaijani language, which developed as a branch of the Oghuz Turkic languages through the 5th to the 11th and the 6th to the 12th century in and around Azerbaijan and is today the native language of Iran's second-largest ethnic group (i.e., the Azerbaijanis), has a literary tradition originating from the time of the 13th-century Mongol conquest of Iran, incorporating both Turkic and Iranian influences. Azerbaijani literature was developed highly after Iran's reunification under the Safavid Empire, whose rulers themselves wrote poetry, as well as under the reign of the Qajar dynasty. Chagatai, the prestigious and influential Turkic language that was itself influenced remarkably by Iranian languages (Sogdian and Persian), was also used, apart from its predominant location in Central Asia's Transoxiana, by writers in Shiraz, Isfahan, and Qazvin. Many poets from Azerbaijan wrote both in Azerbaijani and in Persian, although printing in Azerbaijani and other native languages of Iran except Persian was banned for a period under the reign of the Pahlavi ruler Reza Shah. Of Old Azeri, the Iranic language that was used in Azerbaijan prior to the development of Turkic, a few literary works also remain.
Ethnic minorities in Iran
Further, Article 19 of the Iranian constitution adds:
There is in fact, a considerable publication (book, newspaper, etc.) taking place in the two largest minority languages in the Azerbaijani language and Kurdish, and in the academic year 2004–05 B.A. programmes in the Azerbaijani language and literature (in Tabriz) and in the Kurdish language and literature (in Sanandaj) are offered in Iran for the very first time. In addition, Payame Noor University, which has 229 campuses and nearly 190000 students throughout the country, in 2008 declared that Arabic will be the "second language" of the university, and that all its services will be offered in Arabic, concurrent with Persian.
Pluricentric language
The Persian language has three standardized varieties with official status in Iran, Afghanistan (officially named Dari) and Tajikistan (officially named Tajik). The standard dialect of Iran is based on Tehrani dialect, the standard dialect of Dari based on Kabuli dialect, and the standard dialect of Tajik based on Dushanbe dialect. Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian equally utilize the Perso-Arabic script in writing. Tajik Persian as used in Tajikistan utilizes a modified form of the Cyrillic alphabet, although attempts at re-introducing Perso-Arabic script are being made.
List of countries where Arabic is an official language
There are several TV channels in Arabic language broadcasting from Iran, namely, Al-Alam, Al-Kawthar TV as well as IFilm. Currently, the sole newspaper in Arabic language published in Iran is Kayhan Al Arabi out of 23 Persian dailies and three English dailies newspapers in Iran.
Azerbaijan (Iran)
Azerbaijanis, a Turkic speaking people, have been culturally influenced by the Iranian peoples and have influenced them in turn, as they have been part of historic Iran for centuries, if not the cornerstone of it. At the same time, they have influenced and been influenced by their non-Iranian neighbors, especially the Turkish people and the Russians. Azerbaijanis in both Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan are mostly Shiite Muslims, unlike the other Turkic peoples, who are mostly Sunni Muslims. Azerbaijanis in Iran and in the republic of Azerbaijan celebrate Novruz, the Iranian new year celebrated at the arrival of spring. Azerbaijan has a distinct music that is tightly connected to Persian music, Turkish traditional music, Kurdish music, and the music of the Caucasian peoples. Despite severe restrictions and oppression, Azerbaijani dances and Azerbaijani folk music continue to survive in Iranian Azerbaijan. Although the Azerbaijani language is not an official language of Iran it is widely used, mostly orally, among the Iranian Azerbaijanis.
Media of Iran
Most Iranian newspapers are published in Persian, but newspapers in English and other languages also exist. The most widely circulated periodicals are based in Tehran. Popular daily and weekly newspapers include "Iran", "Ettelaat", "Kayhan", "Hamshahri" and "Resalat". "Iran Daily" and "Tehran Times" are both English language papers. Iran’s largest media corporation is the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). "Financial Tribune" is the main English language (online) economic journal. Iran Front Page ( IFP News ) is an English News website which provides its audiences with the English version of the latest news and views from Iran published by the Iranian Persian media.
Culture of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani Literature refers to the literature written in Azerbaijani, which currently is the official state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan and is spoken by about a quarter of the population of Iran. Its closest relatives are Turkish and Turkmen.
Azeri is a dialect of Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, and as such, is mutually intelligible with other Oghuz dialects spoken in Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East.
Persian language
Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family. Other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, and Luri.
Culture of Iran
Several languages are spoken in different regions of Iran. The predominant language and national language is Persian, which is spoken across the country. Azerbaijani is spoken primarily and widely in the northwest, Kurdish primarily in the west as well as Luri, Mazandarani and Gilaki at the Caspian Sea coastal regions, Arabic primarily in the Persian Gulf coastal regions, Balochi primarily in the desolate and remote far southeast, and Turkmen primarily in northern border regions. Smaller languages spread in other regions notably include Talysh, Georgian, Armenian, Assyrian, and Circassian, amongst others.
Ravansar
The spoken language in the city is Kurdish, but the language which is used in schools and offices is Persian, since the official language in Iran is Persian Almost everyone in the city are fluent in Persian.
List of official languages
Persian:
Iran
Of the various modern languages used in Iran, Persian, various dialects of which are spoken throughout the Iranian Plateau, has the most influential literature. Persian has been dubbed as a worthy language to serve as a conduit for poetry, and is considered one of the four main bodies of world literature. In spite of originating from the region of Persis (better known as "Persia") in southwestern Iran, the Persian language was used and developed further through Persianate societies in Asia Minor, Central Asia, and South Asia, leaving massive influences on Ottoman and Mughal literatures, among others.
National language
Persian (or Farsi) is recognised as the national language of Iran.
Persian language
There are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a prestigious cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia by the various empires based in the regions.
Ethnic minorities in Iran
Regional and local radio programmes are broadcast in Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bandari, Georgian, Persian, Kurdish, Mazandarani, Turkoman, and Turkish.
Semnan, Iran
The Persian language is the official language of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus within the city of Semnan. Every literate person in Semnan knows how to communicate in the Persian language.
Iran
Iran's first newspapers were published during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in the mid-19th century. Most of the newspapers published in Iran are in Persian, the country's official language. The country's most widely circulated periodicals are based in Tehran, among which are "Etemad", "Ettela'at", "Kayhan", "Hamshahri", "Resalat", and "Shargh". "Tehran Times", "Iran Daily", and "Financial Tribune" are among English-language newspapers based in Iran.
Arab world
Iran has about 1.5 million Arabic speakers. Iranian Arabs are mainly found in Ahvaz, a southwestern region in the Khuzestan Province; others inhabit the Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces and the city of Qom. Mali and Senegal recognize Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect of the Moorish ethnic minority, as a national language. Greece and Cyprus also recognize Cypriot Maronite Arabic under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Additionally, Malta, though not part of the Arab world, has as its official language Maltese. The language is grammatically akin to Maghrebi Arabic.
Persian language
Modern Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian are written using a modified variant of the Arabic alphabet, which uses different pronunciation and additional letters not found in Arabic. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, it took approximately 150 years before Persians adopted the Arabic script in place of the older alphabet. Previously, two different scripts were used, Pahlavi, used for Middle Persian, and the Avestan alphabet (in Persian, Dīndapirak or Din Dabire—literally: religion script), used for religious purposes, primarily for the Avestan but sometimes for Middle Persian.
Blogging in Iran
More recently, Persian has become just one of many Iranian blog languages. English in particular is used. This is both because it is a relatively well known second language due to high education levels, and to expose the outside world to the goings on in Iran. Several influential bloggers made a plea to other bloggers to use this medium to increase international outrage at the Iranian regime. It also seeks to provide a lens from which to see the Iranian people as separate from their repressive government. Additionally, many blogs being read are written abroad by diasporic communities of Iranians throughout the globe. Many of their families left during the Brain-drain following the Islamic revolution in 1979 and after, creating a dedicated politically motivated and educated author base. These people use their native or adopted languages in addition to Persian.
Languages of Iran
With regard to the Iranian Language Planning, among the institutions accountable for advancing the Iranian Language Planning (e.g. Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science, Research and Technology) is the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, which was established on 1991. Constantly seeking to revise and elaborate the nation’s official language, this institute focuses on the linguistics of the Persian language and on the internal aspects of Language Planning, rather than on minority languages use within the Iranian society. Other aspects of Language Planning (e.g. sociolinguistic or functional literacy) have not been assigned to a formal institute and are currently handled free of any official master plan, by the educational ministries.
Persian Sign Language
Persian Sign Language is the sign language used by Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Iran. It is a true sign language, unlike the Baghcheban phonetic hand alphabet, which is a form of cued speech.
Iranian languages
The multitude of Middle Iranian languages and peoples indicate that great linguistic diversity must have existed among the ancient speakers of Iranian languages. Of that variety of languages/dialects, "direct" evidence of only two have survived. These are:
"Indirectly" attested Old Iranian languages are discussed below.
Persian studies
The coming of Islam announced the end of the world of Antiquity and the replacement of Zoroastrianism with Islam as the most important faith of the Iranian plateau. Iran became part of the great Islamic community, the Ummah, and saw the rise of Arabic as the new language of literature and learning. Iranian-born grammarians, rhetoricians, scientists, philosophers, theologians, contributed to the intellectual vitality of this new and vibrant civilization alongside other Muslims from other nationalities. Among the most prominent are:Many regions of this Arab Empire saw the almost total replacement the indigenous language by Arabic: the pre-Islamic languages of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa exist only in isolated communities and have been largely replaced by Arabic. Not so in Iran, where the Persian language continued, albeit with an infusion of Arabic vocabulary, and thrived as the courtly language of the Islamic Orient. In fact it was in the Eastern reaches of the Caliphate, far from the seat of Arab power in Baghdad, where New Persian reemerged as a literary and courtly language.
Sarpol-e Zahab
The spoken language in the city is Kurdish, but the language which is used in schools and offices is Farsi, since the official language in Iran is Persian. Almost everyone in the city is fluent in Farsi.
Middle East
Persian is the second most spoken language. While it is primarily spoken in Iran and some border areas in neighbouring countries, the country is one of the region's largest and most populous. It belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Other Western Iranic languages spoken in the region include Achomi, Daylami, Kurdish dialects, Semmani, Lurish, amongst many others.
Education in Iran
Persian is officially the national language of Iran. Arabic, as the language of Koran, is taught grades 7-12. In addition to Arabic, students are required to take one foreign language class in grades 7-12. Although other foreign languages such as German, French, Spanish and Chinese are offered in most urban schools, English continues to be the most desired language.
Demographics of Iran
The CIA World Factbook (which is based on 2013 statistics) gives the following numbers for the languages spoken in Iran today: Persian, Luri, Gilaki and Mazandarani 66%; Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages 18%; Kurdish 10%; Arabic 2%; Baloch 2%; others 1% (Armenian, Georgian, Circassian, Assyrian, etc.).
Iraq
Prior to the invasion in 2003, Arabic was the sole official language. Since the new Constitution of Iraq approved in June 2004, both Arabic and Kurdish are official languages, while Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and the Turkmen/Turkoman dialect of Turkish (referred to as respectively "Syriac" and "Turkmen" in the constitution) are recognised regional languages. In addition, any region or province may declare other languages official if a majority of the population approves in a general referendum.
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi ( "" ), is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan (officially known as "Dari" since 1958), and Tajikistan (officially known as "Tajiki" since the Soviet era), Uzbekistan and some other regions which historically were Persianate societies and considered part of Greater Iran. It is written right to left in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script, which itself evolved from the Aramaic alphabet.
Ethnicities in Iran
2% of Iran's citizens are Arabs. The historically large and oil-rich cities of Mahshahr, Behbahan, Masjed Soleyman, Izeh, Dezful, Shushtar, Andimeshk, Shush, Ramhormoz, Baghemalak, Gotvand, Lali, Omidieh, Aghajari, Hendijan, Ramshir, Haftkel, Bavi are inhabited by people who speak either Luri, Bakhtiari and Persian languages. There are smaller communities in Qom where there are a significant number of Arabs being of Lebanese descent, as well as Razavi Khorasan and Fars provinces. Iranian Arab communities are also found in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Languages of Iran
Classification categories of the spoken languages:
Sarvabad
The spoken language in the city is Kurdish, but the language which is used in schools and offices is Persian, as the official language of Iran in which almost everyone in the city is fluent.
Isfahan Province
Isfahan province encompasses various sects today. The majority of the people in the province are Persian speakers, but Bakhtiari Lurs, Georgians, Armenians, Qashqais and Persian Jews also reside in the province. The official language of the province is Persian, though different ethnic groups and tribes abide by their own language such as Judeo-Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Qashqai Turkic or Bakhtiari Lurish. Isfahan province is noted for its reputed personalities such as writers, poets and other eminent figures who have been born and brought up or have lived in this territory.Several well-known Islamic Azad University campuses in Iran are located in the province:
Greater Iran
As an example, the Persian language (referred to, in Persian, as "Farsi") was the main literary language and the language of correspondence in Central Asia and Caucasus prior to the Russian occupation, Central Asia being the birthplace of modern Persian language. Furthermore, according to the British government, Persian language was also used in Iraqi Kurdistan, prior to the British Occupation and Mandate in 1918-1932.
Zaza–Gorani languages
The area of the Northwestern Iranian languages was largely overrun by speakers of Turkic languages, subsequently known as Azeri or Azerbaijani, introduced in the 11th century. By the 16th century, this language had ousted the indigenous Iranian languages except from the peripheral area along the Caspian coast. Two of these northwestern dialects, however, survive outside the area; they are Zaza and Gorani. The Gorani moved south, but their language, now much declined, survives only in the neighbourhood of Kermanshah.
Tehran
The city of Tehran has a population of approximately 10 million in 2016. With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The present-day dominant language of Tehran is the Tehrani variety of the Persian language, and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persians. However, before, the native language of the Tehran–Ray region was not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in Fars, but a now extinct Northwestern Iranian language.
Iranian languages
The Iranian or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples.
Iranian peoples
Later, during the 2nd millennium CE, the Iranian peoples would play a prominent role during the age of Islamic expansion and empire. Saladin, a noted adversary of the Crusaders, was an ethnic Kurd, while various empires centered in Iran (including the Safavids) re-established a modern dialect of Persian as the official language spoken throughout much of what is today Iran and the Caucasus. Iranian influence spread to the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, where Persian was often spoken at court (though a heavy Turko-Persian basis there was set already by the predecessors of the Ottomans in Anatolia, namely the Seljuks and the Sultanate of Rum amongst others) as well to the court of the Mughal Empire. All of the major Iranian peoples reasserted their use of Iranian languages following the decline of Arab rule, but would not begin to form modern national identities until the 19th and early 20th centuries (just as Germans and Italians were beginning to formulate national identities of their own).
Languages of Iraq
Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages, while the Turkmen/Turkoman dialect and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic are recognized regional languages. In addition, any region or province may declare other languages official if a majority of the population approves in a general referendum.
Proto-Iranian language
Proto-Iranian, or Proto-Iranic, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Iranian languages branch of Indo-European language family and thus the ancestor of the Iranian languages such as Pashto, Persian, Sogdian, Zazaki, Ossetian, Mazandarani, Kurdish, Talysh and others. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the early 2nd millennium BC, and they are usually connected with the Proto-Indo-Iranians and early Andronovo archaeological horizon.
Bactrian language
Bactrian (Αριαο, "Aryao", ]) was an Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria (present-day Afghanistan and Tajikistan) and used as the official language of the Kushan and the Hephthalite empires.
Iranian languages
Conventionally, Iranian languages are grouped in "western" and "eastern" branches. These terms have little meaning with respect to Old Avestan as that stage of the language may predate the settling of the Iranian peoples into western and eastern groups. The geographic terms also have little meaning when applied to Younger Avestan since it isn't known where that dialect (or dialects) was spoken either. Certain is only that Avestan (all forms) and Old Persian are distinct, and since Old Persian is "western", and Avestan was not Old Persian, Avestan acquired a default assignment to "eastern". Confusing the issue is the introduction of a western Iranian substrate in later Avestan compositions and redactions undertaken at the centers of imperial power in western Iran (either in the south-west in Persia, or in the north-west in Nisa/Parthia and Ecbatana/Media).
Afghanistan–Iran relations
Despite these event of the past, there are cultural ties between the two nations extending thousands of years. As a result, an eastern dialect of Persian, Dari is one of the official language of Afghanistan. Many in Afghanistan celebrate Nowruz, a pre-Islamic Iranian spring celebration celebrated in many countries and regions in the world, of which the main representative is Balkh (a province in the north of Afghanistan).
Urmia
The majority of the population can speak the official language of Iran, Persian, in addition to their own native tongue.
Eastern Iranian languages
The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. The largest living Eastern Iranian language is Pashto, with some 50–60 million speakers between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dialects, the Middle Eastern Iranian preserves word-final syllables.
Ethnicities in Iran
According to the CIA World Factbook, Persians in Iran constitute up to 61% of the country's population.
Another source, Library of Congress states Iran's Persians compose 65% of the country's population. However, other sources mention that Persians only comprise 50.5%, or 55.3%. All these numbers include the Mazandaranis and Gilakis as Persian people, though the CIA World Factbook makes a distinction between the Persian language and the Mazandarani and Gilaki language, respectively.
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Article 15 states that the "Official language and writing script (of Iran)... is Persian...[and]... the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.
Per Article 16, "Since the language of the Qur'an and Islamic texts ... is Arabic it must be taught ... in school from elementary grades until the end of high school."
Greater Iran
Because the Achaemenid Empire or "First Persian Empire" was the successor state to the empires of Assyria and Babylonia based in Iraq, and because Elam is part of Iran, the ancient people of Iran were ruled by ancient Mesopotamians, which explains the close proximity between the people of south western Iran and the Iraqis even in modern days, in fact, the people of that part of Iran speak Mesopotamian Arabic and were put under the rule of modern Iran by the British. The ancient Persians adopted the Babylonian cuneiform script and modified it to write their language, along with adopting many other facets of ancient Iraqi culture, including the Aramaic language which became the official language of the Persian Empire.
List of countries where Arabic is an official language
The local dialects of Arabic spoken by Arab minorities in Iran (like Ahwazi Arabs, Khamseh Arabs, Marsh Arabs as well as Arabs in Khorasan) are Khuzestani Arabic and Mesopotamian Arabic, (also known as Iraqi Arabic) mainly in Khuzestan Province as well as Khorasani Arabic especially in Khorasan Province.
Azerbaijanis
Resentment came with Pahlavi policies that suppressed the use of the Azerbaijani language in local government, schools, and the press. However, with the advent of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, emphasis shifted away from nationalism as the new government highlighted religion as the main unifying factor. Within the Islamic Revolutionary government there emerged an Azerbaijani nationalist faction led by Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, who advocated greater regional autonomy and wanted the constitution to be revised to include secularists and opposition parties; this was denied. Islamic theocratic institutions dominate nearly all aspects of society. The Azerbaijani language and its literature are banned in Iranian schools. There are signs of civil unrest due to the policies of the Iranian government in Iranian Azerbaijan and increased interaction with fellow Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan and satellite broadcasts from Turkey and other Turkic countries have revived Azerbaijani nationalism. In May 2006, Iranian Azerbaijan witnessed riots over publication of a cartoon depicting a cockroach speaking Azerbaijani that many Azerbaijanis found offensive. The cartoon was drawn by Mana Neyestani, an ethnic Azerbaijani, who was fired along with his editor as a result of the controversy. One of the major incidents that happened recently was Azeris protests in Iran (2015) started in November 2015, after children's television programme "Fitileha a"ired on 6 November on state TV that ridiculed and mocked the accent and language of Azeris and included offensive jokes. As a result, hundreds of ethnic Azeris have protested a program on state TV that contained what they consider an ethnic slur. Protestors chanted "stop racism against Azeri Turks", "long live Azerbaijan", and "end the Persian racism". Demonstrations were held in Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil, and Zanjan, as well as Tehran and Karaj. Police in Iran have clashed with protesting people, fired tear gas to disperse crowds, and many demonstrators were arrested. One of the protesters, Ali Akbar Murtaza, reportedly "died of injuries" in Urmia. There were also protests held in front of Iranian embassies in Istanbul and Baku. The head of the country's state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Mohammad Sarafraz has apologized for airing the program, whose broadcast was later discontinued.
2005 Ahvaz unrest
The Constitution of Iran guarantees freedom of cultural expression and linguistic diversity. Khūzestān Province has radio and television stations in Arabic. School education is in Persian, the official language, but use of Arabic is allowed under the constitution of the Islamic Republic. Article 15 of the constitution states:
However, some human rights groups have accused the Iranian government of discrimination and other human rights violations against Iranian Arabs and violating the constitutional guarantees of equality. Amnesty International says:
According to the US Department of State: 
According to Article 16 of Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Arabic is taught in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study including universities.
International Union of Virtual Media
International Union of Virtual Media or IUVM is Iranian internet group that aims and seeks to influence the internet users and behind big misinformation campaign. The group operates in more than 11 important languages including English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto and Turkish.
Tajik language
In the table below, Persian refers to the standard language of Iran, which differs somewhat from the Dari Persian of Afghanistan. Another Iranian language, Pashto, has also been included for comparative purposes.
Western Iranian languages
The Western Iranian languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Iran
Notable minority languages in Iran include Armenian, Georgian, Neo-Aramaic, and Arabic. Khuzi Arabic is spoken by the Arabs in Khuzestan, as well as the wider group of Iranian Arabs. Circassian was also once widely spoken by the large Circassian minority, but, due to assimilation over the many years, no sizable number of Circassians speak the language anymore.
Languages of Azerbaijan
The primary and official language of Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani, Azeri, a Turkic language closely related to and partially mutually intelligible with Modern Turkish. Together with Turkish, Turkmen and Gagauz, Azerbaijani is a member of Oghuz branch of southwestern group Turkic language family. Although Azerbaijani is used in the Republic of Azerbaijan, South Russia (Dagestan) and Northern Iran, the dialects are different. Furthermore, Azerbaijan is recognized as an official medium of instruction in Dagestan and in the Republic of Azerbaijan, however, it is not an official language in Northern Iran where the number of Azerbaijanis exceed the ones in the Republic of Azerbaijan itself. The Azerbaijani language spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan is quite different than the one spoken in North Azerbaijan and instead of promoting the use of language, the Iranian government has discouraged and even banned it for several decades.
Javanrud
The spoken language in the city is Kurdish, but the language which is used in schools and offices is Persian, as the official language of Iran in which almost everyone in the city is fluent.
Elam
The Elamite language may have survived as late as the early Islamic period (roughly contemporary with the early medieval period in Europe). Among other Islamic medieval historians, Ibn al-Nadim, for instance, wrote that "The Iranian languages are Fahlavi (Pahlavi), Dari (not to be confused with Dari Persian in modern Afghanistan), Khuzi, Persian and Suryani (Assyrian)", and Ibn Moqaffa noted that "Khuzi" was the unofficial language of the royalty of Persia, "Khuz" being the corrupted name for Elam.
Iranian literature
Pashto, one of Afghanistan's two official languages and the second-largest regional language of Pakistan that is spoken natively by the Pashtuns, has developed a literature since the 17th or possibly the 11th century, producing works mainly through its prestigious coastal dialects.
Iranian languages
Following the Islamic Conquest of Persia (Iran), there were important changes in the role of the different dialects within the Persian Empire. The old prestige form of Middle Iranian, also known as Pahlavi, was replaced by a new standard dialect called Dari as the official language of the court. The name Dari comes from the word "darbâr" (دربار), which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished. The Saffarid dynasty in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Dari may have been heavily influenced by regional dialects of eastern Iran, whereas the earlier Pahlavi standard was based more on western dialects. This new prestige dialect became the basis of Standard New Persian. Medieval Iranian scholars such as Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (8th century) and Ibn al-Nadim (10th century) associated the term "Dari" with the eastern province of Khorasan, while they used the term "Pahlavi" to describe the dialects of the northwestern areas between Isfahan and Azerbaijan, and "Pârsi" ("Persian" proper) to describe the Dialects of Fars. They also noted that the unofficial language of the royalty itself was yet another dialect, "Khuzi", associated with the western province of Khuzestan.
Kurds
Kurdish (Kurdish: "Kurdî" or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language.
Indo-European migrations
In Central Asia, the Turkic languages have marginalized Iranian languages as a result of the Turkic expansion of the early centuries CE. In Eastern Europe, Slavic and Germanic peoples assimilated and absorbed the native Iranian languages (Scythian and Sarmatian) of the region. Extant major Iranian languages are Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, and Balochi, besides numerous smaller ones.
Persian and Urdu
The Persian language historically influenced many of the modern languages and dialects of the Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and South Asia including the standard register Urdu, the national language of Pakistan and an official language in seven states/territories of India. The relationship extends back to around the 3rd millennium BCE, as they both descend from the Proto-Indo-Iranian language.
Iranian languages
Middle Persian (Pahlavi) was the official language under the Sasanian dynasty in Iran. It was in use from the 3rd century CE until the beginning of the 10th century. The script used for Middle Persian in this era underwent significant maturity. Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian were also used as literary languages by the Manichaeans, whose texts also survive in various non-Iranian languages, from Latin to Chinese. Manichaean texts were written in a script closely akin to the Syriac script.
Ali Khamenei
In February 2011, Ali Khamenei supported the Egyptian uprising against their government, describing it as Islamic awakening instead of Arab Spring. Trying to communicate with Arab people, he addressed Egypt's protesters in Arabic. (Iranians are not Arabs, and Iran's official language is Persian) He introduced himself as "your brother in religion", while praising the "explosion of sacred anger". Later, in "Islamic Awakening conferences" which were held in Tehran, Khamenei praised the Muslim youths of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain for what he described as Islamic awakening. He also paralleled these events with Islamic revolution in Iran during his Nowruz oration in 2011. However, major protests against the Iranian regime also broke out throughout Iran in 2011, and they became known as the 2011–12 Iranian protests.