Iranian Language

Article 15 of the Iranian constitution states that the “Official language (of Iran)… is Persian. The use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.” Persian serves as a lingua franca in Iran and most publications and broadcastings are in this language. Next to Persian, there are many publications and broadcastings in other relatively popular languages of Iran such as Azeri, Kurdish and even in less popular ones such as Arabic and Armenian. Many languages originated in Iran, but Persian is the most used language. Persian belongs to Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The oldest records in Old Persian date to the Achaemenid Empire, and examples of Old Persian have been found in present-day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt.

In the late 8th century, Persian was highly Arabized and written in a modified Arabic script. This caused a movement supporting the Persian. Iran’s national epic, Shahnameh, which is said to have been written entirely in native Persian gave rise to a strong reassertion of Iranian national identity, and is in part credited for the continued existence of Persian as a separate language.