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 * ﺍ
be b ـب ـبـ ﺑ ب
pe p ـپ ـپـ ﭘ پ
te t ـت ـتـ ﺗ ﺕ
s̱e s̱ ـث ـثـ ﺛ ﺙ
jim j ﺞ ـجـ ﺟ ﺝ
che č ﭻ ـچـ ﭼ ﭺ
ḥe(-ye jimi) ḥ ﺢ ـحـ ﺣ ﺡ
khe x ﺦ ـخـ ﺧ ﺥ
dāl d ـد ـد* ﺩ* ﺩ
ẕāl ẕ ـذ ـذ* ﺫ* ﺫ
re r ـر ـر* ﺭ* ﺭ
ze z ـز ـز* ﺯ* ﺯ
že ž ـژ ـژ* ژ* ژ
sin s ـس ـسـ ﺳ ﺱ
šin š ـش ـشـ ﺷ ﺵ
ṣād ṣ ـص ـصـ ﺻ ﺹ
z̤ād z̤ ـض ـضـ ﺿ ﺽ
ṭā ṭ ـط ـطـ ﻃ ﻁ
ẓā ẓ ـظ ـظـ ﻇ ﻅ
ʿeyn ʿ ـع ـعـ ﻋ ﻉ
ġeyn ġ / ـغ ـغـ ﻏ ﻍ
fe f ـف ـفـ ﻓ ﻑ
qāf q / / (in some dialects) ـق ـقـ ﻗ ﻕ
kāf k ـک ـکـ ﮐ ک
gāf g ـگ ـگـ ﮔ گ
lām l ـل ـلـ ﻟ ﻝ
mim m ـم ـمـ ﻣ ﻡ
nun n ـن ـنـ ﻧ ﻥ
vāv v / ū / ow / / / / (in Dari) ـو ـو* و* و
he(-ye do-češm) h ـه ـهـ هـ ﻩ
ye y / ī / á / / / (in Dari) ﯽ ـیـ ﻳ ﻯ

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