Permic Finno-Ugric permutation [Lat. permutare ‘to exchange’]

Largest Iranian language (about 50 million speakers), official language of Iran, in addition approx. 5 million speakers in Afghanistan (Dari dialect) and 2.2 million speakers in Tajikistan. Modern Persian, of which the first documentation occurs in the eighth century, is not a direct descendant of a Middle Iranian dialect. The lexicon was strongly

developed with a comprehensive literature; it was the court language of both the Ottoman Empire and northern India (Mogul Dynasty). Arabic script is used with a few additional characters.