Indo-European · ISO 639-3 pes
Iranian Persian Language
Iranian Persian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 53 million people in 6 countries. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Iranian Persian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Iranian Persian
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Southwestern Iranian
- Middle-Modern Persian
- Modern Southwestern Iranian
- Farsic-Caucasian Tat
- Farsic
- Iranian Persian
Writing system
Perso-Arabic script
Related languages
About the Iranian Persian language
Iranian Persian is spoken by about 53 million people, which makes it the 33rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Thai (55 million) and ahead of Bhojpuri (52 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Farsic group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Iranian Persian spoken?
Iranian Persian is used in 6 countries. The largest communities live in Afghanistan (2.0 million), Azerbaijan (2.0 million), Iraq (2.0 million), Iran (2.0 million) and Turkmenistan (2.0 million).
Share of the population that speaks Iranian Persian: Afghanistan 5% (2.0 million), Azerbaijan 19% (2.0 million), Iraq 4.8% (2.0 million), Iran 2.3% (2.0 million), Turkmenistan 35% (2.0 million) and Türkiye 2.4% (2.0 million).
Iranian Persian is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Iranian Persian is written in the Perso-Arabic script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Tajik, Dari, Hazaragi, Northern Luri, Bakhtiari, Southern Luri and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 pes.
Frequently asked questions about Iranian Persian
How many people speak Iranian Persian?
Where is Iranian Persian spoken?
What language family does Iranian Persian belong to?
Is Iranian Persian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.