Today’s spotlight language is Farsi. Find background information and interesting facts about the language, as well as information to help you find Farsi children’s books. Interested in learning about even more languages? Check out our series of posts on world languages, including French, Hindi, Russian and Japanese!

Where is Farsi spoken?

Farsi, also known as Persian, Dari or Tajiki, is the national language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. It is also spoken in other parts of the Middle East and India. There are around 60 to 80 million native speakers around the world.

How Many People Speak Farsi in the US?

According to the most recent US Census data, there are about 400,000 people who speak Farsi in the US. There are large Farsi speaking populations in California, New York, and Washington, DC.

Interesting Facts About Farsi

Farsi has twenty-three consonants and six vowel sounds. It is written from right to left. (Numerals are written from left to right.)

In Farsi, nouns have no gender, and there are no articles. Farsi is considered to have a relatively simple grammatical structure.

The first handwritten book in Farsi was a medical book written in 1055.

Farsi Books – Bilingual Children’s Books

If the kids in your life speak Farsi , or are learning the language, you may want suggestions on some of the best bilingual Farsi books and audio books for kids.  Some culturally relevant stories with text in both English and the Farsi language include: Journey Through Islamic Arts, The Swirling Hijaab and Samira’s Eid.  Other engaging story books include Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pandora’s Box, and The Giant Turnip.  You may also want to check out the illustrated Farsi-English dictionary with audio for children.

Do you speak Farsi, or are you learning the language? Comment below and share your interesting language facts!

“Dr. Bashi Persian alphabet wood blocks” by Dr. Bashi via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/ixx4uf