Wiktionary:Persian transliteration

These are the rules concerning transliteration in Persian entries.

This page focuses on Iranian Persian, for transliteration rules concerning Classical Persian or Dari Persian see Persian transliteration/Dari. For transliteration rules concerning Tajik, see Wiktionary:Tajik transliteration.

Persian transliteration

Systems for Romanizing Persian

Persian	Wiktionary	IPA	Others (dispreferred)
ا (word-initial)	a, o, e	(ʔ)æ, (ʔ)o, (ʔ)e
ا (other positions)	â	ɒː	ā
آ	â (word-initial) 'â (other positions)	(ʔ)ɒː (word-initial) ʔɒː (other positions)	ʼā
ب	b	b
پ	p	p
ت	t	t
ث	s	s	th, s̱, ṯ, s̄
ج	j	dʒ	ǧ
چ	č	tʃ	ch, c
ح	h	h	ḥ, ḩ
خ	x	x	kh, k͟h, ḫ, ḵ
د	d	d
ذ	z	z	dh, d͟h, ẕ, ḏ
ر	r	r
ز	z	z
ژ	ž	ʒ	zh, z͟h
س	s	s
ش	š	ʃ	sh, s͟h
ص	s	s	ṣ
ض	z	z	ḍ, ż, ẕ
ط	t	t	ṭ, ţ
ظ	z	z	ẓ, z̧
ع	'	ʔ, ː	ʻ
غ	ğ	ɣ, ɢ	q, gh, g͟h, ġ
ف	f	f
ق	ğ	ɣ, ɢ	q, gh, g͟h, ḳ
ک	k	k
گ	g	g
ل	l	l
م	m	m
ن	n	n
و (consonant)	v	v	w
و (long vowel)	u, ô	uː, oː	ū, ō
و (diphthong)	ow	ow	au, aw
خوا (e.g. خواندن etc.)	xâ	xɒː	xwā-, khwā-
خوی (e.g. خوید etc.)	xi	xiː
ه (consonant)	h (may appear in final position after a vowel, e.g. ده (dah))	h
ـه (word-final vowel)	e	e, æ	eh, a, ah
ی (consonant)	y	j	j
ی (long vowel)	i, ê	iː, eː	ī, ē
ی (diphthong)	ey	ej	ai, ay
یٰ (always word-final)	â	ɒː	ā, á

Other symbols or combinations

1. ـاً (-an), ءً ('an) (always word-final) – an (The position of [fatHatan] is after the alef, not before, as is the current practice with Arabic)
2. ء – ' (others: ʼ)
3. ؤ – ' (others: ʼ)
4. ئ – ' (others: ʼ)
5. ـِ (-e) (ezâfe) (always word-final, unmarked in regular writing) – -e
6. یِ (-ye) (ezâfe) (after long vowels ا (â) or و (u), unmarked in regular writing) - -ye

   آفْریقایِ جُنوبی ― âfriğâ-ye jonubi ― South Africa

7. یِ (-ye) (ezâfe) (always word-final with ی (i), unmarked in regular writing) - i-ye

   جُمْهوریِ تاجیکِسْتان ― jomhuri-ye tâjikestân ― Republic of Tajikistan

8. ـهٔ (-h-ye) (U+0647 U+0654), sometimes written as ـه‌ی (-h-i) (always word-final) – e-ye. (Articles don't contain the hamze above "he", it is considered a diacritic and only used in the dsplay using |head=. Templates link to words without the hamze.)

   خانِهٔ بُزُرْگ (spelled with a hamze diacritic) ― xâne-ye bozorg ― a big house

   خانِه‌ی بُزُرْگ (spelled with a a non-connecting ye) ― xâne-ye bozorg ― a big house

9. ـه‌ای (-h-i) - e-yi
10. نه (“no, not”) - na (an exception)
11. ـّ (tashdid) – geminate consonant (Arabic shadda)
12. ـَ (-a) (fathe/zor) – a (Arabic fatha)
13. ـِ (-e) (kasre/zir) – e (in modern Iranian, to check cases where it's "i") (Arabic kasra)
14. ـُ (-o) (zamme/pish) – o (in modern Iranian, to check cases where it's "u") (Arabic damma). Used after consonants to make a short "o" sound. If used before و (o) produces a diphthong "ow":

    نُوْروز (nowruz)

15. ـّ (shadda) – geminate consonant
16. ـ۟ (sukūn/sokun) - marks absence of a vowel. Rarely used in popular Persian vocalisations, especially on final consonants. It may be necessary to use consistently in strict vocalisations to avoid any misreadings, allow automation and signalling that a word IS vocalised.
17. ـه (-h) (in the word-final position after consonants for a large number of words) - e (no hyphen) (note with ezâfe the preferred spelling is ـهٔ (-h-ye))

    هَفْتِه ― hafte ― week

18. ـه (-h) - when used as a colloquial copula in the 3rd person singular (he/she/it is) - -e (with a hyphen)

    تِهْرون پایْتَخْتِ ایرونِه. (colloquial) ― tehrun pâytaxt-e irun-e. ― Tehran is the capital of Iran.

19. ZWNJ – - (hyphen)
20. The use of hyphens for etymological reasons - suffixes, compound words, etc. when no ZWNJ is used is to be discussed. E.g. currently plural form suffix ها (hâ) is transliterated as "-hâ" regardless if ZWNJ is present or not. (Apart from cases described above and ZWNJ, the use of hyphen is otherwise dispreferred. A space is transliterated as a space and the absence of space or ZWNJ is transliterated as nothing.)

    Below are transliteration examples to contrast the use of ZWNJ on connecting letters, space, nothing and non-connecting letters:

    ZWNJ on joining letters کتاب‌ها (ketâb-hâ) (plural of کتاب (ketâb))

    Space کتاب ها (ketâb hâ)

    Nothing (joining letters are connected) کتابها (ketâbhâ)

    Non-joining letters (no ZWNJ is used) اتوها (otuhâ) (plural of اتو (otu))

Arabic loanwords

1. ـة (-h) (always word-final) – a(t) (rare, only in unadapted borrowings from Arabic, normally adapted into Persian as ـت (at) or ـه (e))
2. الـ - al (normally), can be "al-" (with a hyphen), if identified as the Arabic definite article. "l" can change to the following consonant if it's a "sun letter","a" can change to "o" (Arabic "u") in ezâfe, e.g.

   فارِغ‌ُالتَّحْصیل (fâreğ-ot-tahsil) - here "l" is assimilated to "t" and "a" is changed to "o" following Arabic grammar rules (technically, Arabic "u" belongs to the previous word: "fāriḡu t-taḥṣīli").

3. الـ - l or the next consonant (assimilated for Arabic "sun letters"). The alef is silent.

   بِٱلْفِعْل (belfe'l) from Arabic بِٱلْفِعْلِ (bi-l-fiʕli) where the alif is silent (أَلِف الوَصْل (ʔalif al-waṣl))