Heyo! So I've been learning Persian for 7 months now, and while my actual language skills are pretty meh, I'd say I'm decently proficient in the script, and one of the biggest hurdles that new learners have to jump through is learning it. So, I decided to take it into my own hands and teach it here. First I'll cover the consonants here and in one or two other posts, then later I'll cover vowels and finally diacritics/punctuation/miscellaneous stuff. Alright, let's get to the consonants!
So, first off, let's talk about the REALLY basic stuff you need to know. So Persian uses a variation of the Arabic script, but there are some key differences which I probably won't teach, seeing as this is focused on Persian and not Arabic, but if you already can read and write Arabic than a decent amount of the core stuff is similar. Now for the introduction if you know absolutely nothing about either one.
So, the really important stuff. First off, Persian is written right to left, not left to right. Second, Persian is similar to cursive in that the letters connect with each other. As such, Persian letters have 4 forms: isolated (not connected to anything, like just writing the letter "a" without anything else), initial (first letter of a word), medial (in the middle of a word), and final (coming at the end). Now this may sound scary, but trust me in saying that nearly all of these forms are predictable.
Alright, let's cover our first letter, ب, called "beh". This makes the "b" sound, as in "bat" or "bite". [Here are the different forms] (http://i.imgur.com/kERnyWU.jpg).
Alright, now we move onto پ, called "peh". This makes the "p" sound, like in "pit". [Here are the forms for that] (http://i.imgur.com/wJfQdxn.jpg).
Now you may notice that beh and peh are the exact same except that beh has 2 dots and peh has 3. These two aren't the only letters that follow this pattern, actually. Here are the others, just replace the dots and you're good:
Teh: ت (makes the "t" sound, like in "tip".)
Seh: ث (makes the "s" sound, like in "sick")
Now, there's one more important one in this category, and that's noon, which looks like this: ن, and makes the "n" sound, as in "nap". [Once again, here are the forms] (http://i.imgur.com/8rUVVqK.jpg). These are very similar to the form we covered above, except that the isolated and final forms are a bit fatter and thinner.
So those are the main letters in that form, now we move onto a new set of letters. First, let's introduce ourself to the letter ح.
ح, pronounced "heh" makes the sound "h", as in "happy". [These are the forms] (http://i.imgur.com/UiMVsXc.jpg).
Next up, we have خ, called "kh". Kheh is pronounced with the "kh" in words like "loch" or "Bach", or the German word "nach". [Here are the forms] (http://i.imgur.com/8Sy5nYH.jpg).
As you can see, this is another common letter shape where the only differences are the dots. Heh has none, kheh has one above. There are 2 other letters in this pattern:
There's ج, called "jim", which is pronounced like the "j" in "jam". [Forms (forgot the dot in the isolated form, sorry!)] (http://i.imgur.com/RBBL9E6.jpg)
Then there's چ, called "cheh", pronounced like kinda the "ch" in "chip", with one small difference. Hold out your hand when you say a "t", so say "tip" or something. You may notice that you feel a puff of air (this is called aspiration). Now do the same thing, but say "chip", and you notice that the "ch" isn't aspirated here, but in Persian, "cheh" is aspirated. So try and get that puff of air when you say it. [Forms] (http://i.imgur.com/sILR7Sa.jpg).
Now let's cover 4 letters in one fell swoop. daal, zaal, re, and ze.
First, we'll cover daal. Daal makes the "d" sound in "dip". Now, what's interesting about the letter daal is that unlike the letters we've learned so far, it does NOT connect to the letter coming after it, though it does connect to the letter before it, so because of this the medial and final forms are the exact same. [Hopefully this can clear it up.] (http://i.imgur.com/CWgwUIg.jpg).
Next up is ذ zaal, prounounced like the "z" in "zap". I'm too lazy to write the forms out again, but it's identical to daal besides the dot above.
Alright, next up is ر reh. If you happen to speak American English, reh is pronounced like the "dd" in "middle". The technical term for this sound is an alveolar flap. It's not a trilled r, it's shorter than that. [It sounds like this] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abakkV2pl34). Alright, now the forms. Like daal and zaal, reh does not connect to the letters coming after it, which you can see [here] (http://i.imgur.com/4ZnRunl.jpg).
Next up is zeh, which is pronounced the exact same as zaal. Why are there 2 letters? Skip to the end of this post to find out. The forms are the exact same as reh, just add the dot at the top.
I'll end this post on س and ش, I guess,
س, called "sin", is pronounced as the "s" in "sick", same as ث. Once again, go to the bottom of this post for an explanation. [Here are the forms] (http://i.imgur.com/0HOvoiu.jpg).
And then there's the final letter of this post, ش, called "shin". This makes the "sh" sound, as in "ship". Once again, exact same forms as sin, just add the dots.
Alright, so you may have noticed that there are a couple letters with the exact same pronunciations: the two pairs we've learned so far are س ث and ز ذ. The reason for this is that seeing as Persian uses the Arabic alphabet, it writes Arabic words as they are in the original language, but because Arabic has more sounds than Persian, certain sounds were simplified when loaning the words. In Arabic, س ث and ذ ز all make different sounds, but not here. So, when do you know when to use which one? There's no real way to tell, honestly. But it's worth knowing that س and ز are FAR more common than ث and ذ.
Alright, that's all the energy I have for today. Hopefully I'll be able to do the second part soon, and sorry for how goddamn long this ended up being. Bye!
