{"id":55,"date":"2011-01-09T21:41:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T02:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2011-01-09T22:09:46","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T03:09:46","slug":"why-study-persian","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/persian\/why-study-persian\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Study Persian?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Persian  is an important language of the Middle East and Central   Asia.  It is known as Farsi in Iran,  Dari in Afghanistan and  Tajik in  Tajikistan.  It has about 62 million native speakers, ranking it among  the world\u2019s 20 most  widely spoken first languages; another 50 million  or more speak it as a second  language.<\/p>\n<p>Persian  is not related to Arabic, though it is written in a variety  of the same  alphabet. Its relatives are the languages of northern India  and, more  distantly, the major European languages including English.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_61\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61\" style=\"width: 434px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/ecpt\/files\/2011\/01\/persian_clip_image0022.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61\" title=\"persian_clip_image002\" src=\"\/ecpt\/files\/2011\/01\/persian_clip_image0022.jpg\" alt=\"Areas where Persian is the predominant language\" width=\"424\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-61\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Areas where Persian is the predominant language<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Studying  Persian provides an entry into a rich and  diverse culture that produced major  epic and Sufi poets such as  Ferdowsi, Rumi and Hafez, exquisite miniature  painting, fine carpets  and world-class films. Since Persian has not changed  significantly in  over a millennium, the basic grammar for the classical and  modern forms  of the language is virtually the same and is relatively easy to  learn.  After one year, students can begin to read both classical poets and  modern  short stories and poetry in the original, and watch Iranian  films without  subtitles. Both BBC and VOA have extensive Persian  programs and reports online  that allow students to practice their  listening and reading skills and become  acquainted with the three main  varieties of the language.<\/p>\n<p>Until  just a century ago, Persian was also the cultural  lingua franca in South Asia and is thus important for the study of the   history of that region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Persian is an important language of the Middle East and Central Asia. It is known as Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan. It has about 62 million native speakers, ranking it among the world\u2019s 20 most widely spoken first languages; another 50 million or more speak it as a second language. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2569,"featured_media":0,"parent":35,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2569"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions\/57"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ecpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}