The other name of the Islamic Republic of Iran is Persia. It is situated in the Western region of Asia. Iran is bordered by countries like Turkey, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf. The population of this country is around 79.92 million and it consists of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities.
Although the population of Iran is diverse still they have only a single official language which is Persian. The other name of Persian is Farsi. This language is from the Indo-European language family and its subgroup is Indo-Iranian. Persian or Farsi was developed by the old version of Persian used by the later Middle Persians of the Sasanian Empire and the Achaemenid Empire.
The constitution of Iran has declared Persian the official language of the country. Therefore, this language is used in schools and in running the operations of the country. 53% of the Iranian population speaks this language. To know the culture of any country, you must know their native language. Therefore, you should take the assistance of Farsi translation services to know the culture of Iran.
Languages Spoken in Iran
Apart from the official language, the people of Iran also speak other languages. Let’s have a look at them.
Azerbaijani
People of Iran speak Azerbaijani widely. This language is from the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. Moreover, it is associated with Crimean Tatar and Turkish. The majority of the people that speak this language are from Iranian Azerbaijan and the Northwestern region of Iran. These people live in Iranian Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are divided into two regions when Russia is defeated.
Kurdish
Kurds speak this language. The Kurdish language is from the Northwestern Iranian subgroup of the Indo-European language family. The people that speak this language are residing in the Northwestern region of the country. It is similar to the Farsi language and people of Southwestern people speak it. To differentiate Kurdish from Farsi, you must go for a professional Farsi Translation.
Turkish/Azeri
People living in the Northwest province of Iran speak this language. This language is spoken in different dialects in different regions of the country. Many Turkish/Azeri speakers have migrated to Tehran. So don’t be surprised to see people speaking Turkish/Azeri in Tehran. Approximately, 15-20 million people, speak this language in Iran.
Baluchi
Baluchi is the Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Iran. People living in the Eastern half of Iran speak this language and it also shows the influence of the Northwestern Iranian language. Eastern Balochi is influenced by Sindhi whereas Western Balochi is influenced by Farsi. Pronunciation is also different because of a different dialect.
Armenian
This language is also known as Armenian Hayeren and it is spelled as Haieren. It is from the group of the Indo-European family. Armenian is considered a dialect of Iranian. Around 100,000 people speak this language in Iran and it has globally 6.7 million speakers.
Arabic
A small population of Iran is Arabic. Iranian people do learn the Arabic language in schools because of their religion but many few cannot communicate in the Arabic language. If they need to converse in Arabic for business reasons then they take the assistance of professional Arabic translation services. People of Iran give due respect to the Arabic language because the holy book of their religion Islam is in this language. People living outside Arab can’t speak the Arabic language. Therefore, they go for Arabic translation services to understand their Holy book.
English
Iran wants to modernize itself. Therefore, for the last two decades, they are giving English education to the people. You will be surprised to know that the English proficiency of younger people is high. Tourists that visit Iran get amazed to see the English-speaking skills of the people. Do you know that until 1950, the second official language of Iran was French? Therefore, you will find many loan words of French in Farsi
Minority languages Spoken in Iran
There are several minority languages spoken in Iran. These languages include Assyrian, Georgian, Circassian, and Hebrew. People less than 1% of the total population speak these languages. Assyrian is an Afro-Asiatic language just like Hebrew and it belongs to the Northeastern Aramaic subgroup.
People living in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran speak this language. Georgia is a Kartvelian language. People that are migrated from Georgia to Iran speak this language. Circassian is a Northwest Caucasian language.
This language is immersed in the Farsi language and now you do not find a considerable number of Circassian speakers. Hebrew is from the group of Afro-Asiatic language families and it is spoken by the Jewish community in Iran.
Conclusion
Languages depict the culture of any country. If you want to get an understanding of different cultures of the world, it’s important to understand their language first. Here, we have covered different languages spoken in Iran.
In case you are planning to go to Iran or expand your business to that market, it’s important to consider localizing your business into these languages. For good quality translations, it’s better to hire a reputed language service provider.
Also Read: 5 Tips To Choose The Best Translation Agency.
