ABSTRACT
Using the Arabic script, Persian is an Indo-European language, one of the main languages in the Indo-Iranian branch of this large family. Now the official language of Iran and Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, Persian is known to and spoken by millions of others scattered in Central Asia as well as in Western diaspora. Linguists refer to the language as Modern Persian, to distinguish it from its older, pre-Islamic stages, but it has changed very little after Islam, so it can be said to be an almost 1400-year old modern language. Earliest examples of poetry and prose from the 9th and 10th Centuries ce can still be read, understood and enjoyed by Iranians, in spite of some archaic features. This Modern Persian has been very simplified. No gender and no declension of nouns and adjectives for different persons or cases. Verbs can be conjugated easily after learning one set of conjugational suffixes.
