Perso-Arabic Alphabet - Letters

Letters

Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet. Since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position: isolated, beginning (joined on the left), middle (joined on both sides), and end (joined on the right) of a word.

The letter names are mostly identical to the ones used in Arabic, except for the Persian pronunciation of the consonants. The only ambiguous name is he used for both ﺡ and ه. For clarification, these are often called ḥe-ye jimi (literally "jim-like ḥe" after jim, the name for the letter ج that uses the same base form) and he-ye do-češm (literally "two-eyed he", after the contextual middle letterform ﻬ), respectively.

Name DIN 31635 IPA Contextual forms
End Middle Beginning Isolated
ʾalef ā / ʾ , ـا ـا * آ / ا *
be b ـب ـبـ ب
pe p ـپ ـپـ پ
te t ـت ـتـ
s̱e ـث ـثـ
jim j ـجـ
che č ـچـ
ḥe(-ye jimi) ـحـ
khe x ـخـ
dāl d ـد ـد* ﺩ*
ẕāl ـذ ـذ* ﺫ*
re r ـر ـر* ﺭ*
ze z ـز ـز* ﺯ*
že ž ـژ ـژ* ژ* ژ
sin s ـس ـسـ
šin š ـش ـشـ
ṣād ـص ـصـ
z̤ād ـض ـضـ ﺿ
ṭā ـط ـطـ
ẓā ـظ ـظـ
ʿeyn ʿ ـع ـعـ
ġeyn ġ / ـغ ـغـ
fe f ـف ـفـ
qāf q / / (in some dialects) ـق ـقـ
kāf k ـک ـکـ ک
gāf g ـگ ـگـ گ
lām l ـل ـلـ
mim m ـم ـمـ
nun n ـن ـنـ
vāv v / ū / ow / / / / (in Dari) ـو ـو* و* و
he(-ye do-češm) h ـه ـهـ هـ
ye y / ī / á / / / (in Dari) ـیـ

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