Hello everyone, I am Imad from Glossika.
I wanna show you how you can easily tell the difference between some languages are written
in the Arabic script.
For this video we will only discuss the differences between Arabic, Persian, and Kurdish.
And By the end this video you will be able to the difference between Arabic, Persian and Kurdish scripts
and next time you can tell your friends which language is which even you don’t speak any
of these languages.
The Arabic script is used in many more languages, major ones of which include Pashtu and Urdu.
During the Ottoman Empire, Turkish language was also written in Arabic up until
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the change to Latin script in 1928.
You might ask Why recognize these languages?
For some people, it’s important for their job, especially if they work in text or book
processing such as google and other internet startups.
For people who are learning a language that’s written in Arabic script,
it’s also important to know what you might be looking at, doesn’t belong to the language
you’re learning.
Otherwise, it is a fun task to be able to rely on your own instinct to determine which
language something is written in.
If a person is not familiar with the Arabic alphabet, these three languages might look
very similar at first,
for example, take a look at the following sentences:
First of all let’s look at the alphabetic list of all the letters in Arabic, Persian,and Kurdish.
Notice how some langugae have more letters than the others
Central Kurdish (Sorani)
First, we should clarify that we're talking about Central Kurdish which is spoken in Iraqi
Kurdistan and West of Iran, which is also my mother tongue.
(Hi mom and dad in Kurdish)
Kurdish and Persian are Indo-European languages and have more in common with English and Greek
than they do with Arabic.
The easiest way to recognize a Kurdish text is by searching for the small “v” shapes
above or below the letters.
Notice the small “v” shapes above or below the words — a clear sign that this is Kurdish.
Some more examples:
Ok, Can you guess which sentence is written in Kurdish?
Good job.
Next language, Standard Arabic
Arabic is very easy to distinguish when written with tashkeel (the phonetic guide).
Almost every letter will have a symbol above or below, rendering it quite different from Kurdish and Persian.
Can you tell which one is Arabic?
Unfortunately, most of the time, Arabic texts are written without tashkeel,
making it harder for foreigners to distinguish or read correctly.
This is why our Glossika courses include tashkeel for you to learn to recognize the spelling
and pronunciation more easily.
there is an easy way to know if a text is Arabic by visually searching for the ي the
letter “y” at the end of words
and the “tāʾ marbūṭa” at endings of words: ـة ة , — all clear signs that
this is Arabic.
These two letters are enough to be sure the text you are seeing is written in Arabic.
Some more examples:
Just Keep in mind that sometimes you might have a complete sentence without these letters
( ي ة ـة ), for example:
In this case, another quick way to know is the presence of the “الـ” which is
the Arabic word for “the” that attach to the nouns.
This is a clear sign of Arabic language. Now let’s take a look at more examples.
Persian
In English we should always refer to the language of Iran as Persian.
This is the English name.
If you were speaking in Persian, then you call it Farsi?
Farsi baladi“can you speak Persian?”
The Persian language is a lingua franca across several countries: Persian in Iran, Dari in
Afghanistan and Tajiki in Tajikistan
Persian is more challenging to recognize since it incorporates both features of Kurdish and Arabic.
Take a look at these Persian sentences: Here are some tips on how to recognize if something
is written in Persian:
If you see these letters “گ چ پ”, it’s obvious the text is not Arabic, but it could
still be Kurdish.
You also have to look out for the lack of “v” above or below letters.
Let’s see a few examples.
Unfortunately, some complete sentences might not contain any of these letters
Well, if you didn’t see the “v” shapes below or above any letters, then it’s not
Kurdish, and if you didn’t see (ي (ة ـة,
then the text you’re looking at could be Persian.
Now, let’s test your skills, can you guess which sentence is written in Persian?
Good job.
One last bonus tip
If you ever see this letter ط written smaller above other letters as a superscript ( ڈ ڑ ),
then you're looking at Urdu language.
Try to to find this ط letter in this urdu script.
You are welcome.
I hope these tips will help you tell Arabic, Persian, and Sorani Kurdish apart.
If you decide to start studying any of these languages, then one day you will find it much easier
to recognize all the other languages that use the Arabic script.
If you like the video please give it a like and share the video with your friends
and don't forget to subscribe our Glossika channel to see more
Thank you for watching and See you in the next video.