Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What are the official languages of Iran?
The current Language Policy of Iran is addressed on chapter two of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Articles 15 & 16). It asserts that the Persian language is the Lingua Franca of the Iranian nation and as such, bound to be used through all official government communications and schooling system. In addition, the constitution also recognizes the Arabic language as the language of Islam, giving it a formal status as the language of religion, and regulates its spreading within the Iranian national curriculum.
Kurdish (Kurdish: "Kurdî" or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language.
Persian literature (, "Adabiyât-i fârsi") comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and it is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan) and South Asia where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For instance, Rumi, one of best-loved Persian poets born in Balkh (in what is now the modern-day Afghanistan) or Vakhsh (in what is now the modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya, then the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, western parts of Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia. Not all Persian literature is written in Persian, as some consider works written by ethnic Persians in other languages, such as Greek and Arabic, to be included. At the same time, not all literature written in Persian is written by ethnic Persians or Iranians, as Turkic, Caucasian, and Indic poets and writers have also used the Persian language in the environment of Persianate cultures.
In response to these remarks, an Israeli government official said that these remarks were a "reaffirmation of what we continually hear from the Iranian leadership" and that Israel was taking the Iranian threat seriously. The official said that the continual announcement of these remarks show how Iran's leaders believes in them, and that Iran's leadership must end these comments to reduce international pressure.
Persian is Iran's official language and the language of the country's ethnic majority (i.e., the Persians), and Persian literature has been the country's most influential literary tradition. Apart from Iran, Persian literature was used and developed further through several medieval Persianate societies in Asia Minor, Central Asia, and South Asia, and the language is still used widely in Central Asia (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Afghanistan.
According to many scholars, the New Persian language (which subsequently evolved into the Persian forms spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan) developed in Transoxiana and Khorasan, in what are today parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. While the New Persian language was descended primarily from Middle Persian, it also incorporated substantial elements of other Iranian languages of ancient Central Asia, such as Sogdian.
Arabic is a recognized minority language of Iran. In addition, the constitution recognizes the Arabic language as the language of Islam, giving it a formal status as the language of religion, and regulates its spreading within the Iranian national curriculum. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Arabic (as the language of Quran) became mandatory for pupils in Iran. Arabic courses are mandatory starting from 6th year of schooling (1st year of Middle School) until the 11th year (penultimate year of High School).
Because the Achaemenid Empire or "First Persian Empire" was the successor state to the empires of Assyria and Babylonia based in Iraq, and because Elam is part of Iran, the ancient people of Iran were ruled by ancient Mesopotamians, which explains the close proximity between the people of south western Iran and the Iraqis even in modern days, in fact, the people of that part of Iran speak Mesopotamian Arabic and were put under the rule of modern Iran by the British. The ancient Persians adopted the Babylonian cuneiform script and modified it to write their language, along with adopting many other facets of ancient Iraqi culture, including the Aramaic language which became the official language of the Persian Empire.
Persian is officially the national language of Iran. Arabic, as the language of Koran, is taught grades 7-12. In addition to Arabic, students are required to take one foreign language class in grades 7-12. Although other foreign languages such as German, French, Spanish and Chinese are offered in most urban schools, English continues to be the most desired language.
The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes the Arabic language as the language of Islam, giving it a formal status as the language of religion, and regulates its spreading within the Iranian national curriculum. The constitution declares in Chapter II: (The Official Language, Script, Calendar, and Flag of the Country) in Article 16 ""Since the language of the Qur`an and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, ..., it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study.""
On 3 March, the United Nations Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions against Iran, due to its refusal to end uranium enrichment and heavy-water-related projects, as it was required to under United Nations resolutions. The Security Council affirmed an earlier decision that Iran must immediately end its uranium enrichment and heavy-water-related projects, and called for "vigilance and restraint" from all members of the United Nations regarding entry of people engaged in providing support for Iran's nuclear activities, and also extended the suspension of financial assets of people/entities who support Iran's nuclear activities. In addition, the council called on United Nations members to "exercise vigilance" regarding the activities of financial institutions in these member states with banks located in Iran, and also to inspect cargo to and from Iran . U.S. officials told "The New York Times" that the new sanctions went beyond the nuclear issue. "The new language was written to rein in what they [U.S. officials] see as Tehran's ambitions to become the dominant military power in the Persian Gulf and across the Middle East."
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region comprises the countries of Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), West Bank and Gaza, Israel and Yemen. Despite that Israel is geographically situated in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, this article focuses on the countries that are bounded by Arabic language majority, except Iran where Persian is the official language and Turkey where Turkish is the official language.
Due to the nation's unique social and ethnic diversity, the constitution also acknowledges and permits the use of minority languages in the mass media as well as within the schools, in order to teach their literature. The minority languages of Iran do not receive a formal status and are not officially regulated by the authorities.[2]
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi ( "" ), is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan (officially known as "Dari" since 1958), and Tajikistan (officially known as "Tajiki" since the Soviet era), Uzbekistan and some other regions which historically were Persianate societies and considered part of Greater Iran. It is written right to left in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script, which itself evolved from the Aramaic alphabet.
The first legislation which granted the Persian language its status was initiated back in 1906, as part of an electoral law that positioned it as the official language of the state of Iran, its government, its political institutions and its legal system. In the course of time this enactment followed by others, which eventually lead to a monolingual policy by the Iranian regime.
The Academy of Persian Language and Literature (acronym: APLL) () is the official regulatory body of the Persian language, headquartered in Tehran, Iran. Formerly known as the Academy of Iran (), it was founded on May 20, 1935 by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi, a former monarch of the country.
Nevertheless, in 2007, "New York Times" columnist Nicholas Kristoff and others popularized the notion that "hard-liners in the Bush administration killed discussion" of an Iranian "Grand Bargain" that "could have saved lives in Iraq, isolated Palestinian terrorists and encouraged civil society groups in Iran," with Kristoff concluding: "The record indicates that officials from the repressive, duplicitous government of Iran pursued peace more energetically and diplomatically than senior Bush administration officials—which makes me ache for my country." Kristoff claimed "Iran also sent its own master text of the proposal to the State Department and, through an intermediary, to the White House." However, available evidence casts doubt on the genuineness of this proposal, which may have merely been an invention of Guldimann, who sought to promote US-Iran rapprochement. For example, Michael Rubin noted that "Guldimann told different people different things about the document's origin," while "the Swiss Foreign Ministry refused to back up Guldimann's account." Iranian and US officials were engaged in a series of secret, high-level negotiations during 2003, and Iran's UN ambassador Mohammad Javad Zarif had met with US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad on May 3—one day prior to the State Department receiving the alleged "Grand Bargain." Glenn Kessler asked "If Iran was serious, why would such an important diplomatic undertaking be transmitted in such a haphazard way through the Swiss ambassador when one of the supposed co-authors was already holding senior-level talks with U.S. officials?" Similarly, Rubin declared: "Guldimann's ignorance of these ongoing discussions exposed his fraud." Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage recounted that US officials "couldn't determine what was the Iranians' and what was the Swiss ambassador's" and "nothing that we were seeing in this fax was in consonance with what we were hearing face to face," former National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley called the "Grand Bargain" "the result of freelancing by a Swiss diplomat hoping to be the one to make peace between Iran and the United States," and a State Department spokesman described the document as "a creative exercise on the part of the Swiss ambassador." In a March 30, 2006 email to Trita Parsi, Zarif confessed: "The claims and counter claims about the source of the proposals and motivations of intermediaries remain a mystery for me. What I think is important is the fact that Iran was prepared."
The primary and official language of Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani, Azeri, a Turkic language closely related to and partially mutually intelligible with Modern Turkish. Together with Turkish, Turkmen and Gagauz, Azerbaijani is a member of Oghuz branch of southwestern group Turkic language family. Although Azerbaijani is used in the Republic of Azerbaijan, South Russia (Dagestan) and Northern Iran, the dialects are different. Furthermore, Azerbaijan is recognized as an official medium of instruction in Dagestan and in the Republic of Azerbaijan, however, it is not an official language in Northern Iran where the number of Azerbaijanis exceed the ones in the Republic of Azerbaijan itself. The Azerbaijani language spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan is quite different than the one spoken in North Azerbaijan and instead of promoting the use of language, the Iranian government has discouraged and even banned it for several decades.
Besides those languages categorized under Judeo-Persian, there are also several other spoken languages that belong under the Iranian stock of languages that are associated with Jewish populations in Iran. What Habib Borjian refers to as “Judeo-Median,” are a number of languages that have their center in central Iran and are/were spoken by the Jewry of Isfahan, Kashan, Yazd, and outlying western towns (Habib Borjian, 117). All of these varieties are on the verge of extinction, both in their original motherland and around the world. While Judeo-Median is categorized from the Northwest part of Iran, it differs from Persian, a Southwest language, not only in location but also in vocabulary and grammar.
Under the Qajar dynasty the Persian character of Iran was not very explicit. Although the country was referred to as Persia by westerners, and the dominant language in court and administration was Persian the dichotomy between pure Persian and Turkic elements had remained obvious until 1925. The Pahlavi rule was instrumental in Iran's nationalisation in line with Persian culture and language which, amongst other ways, was achieved through the official ban on the use minority languages such as Azerbaijani and successful suppression of separatist movements. Reza Pahlavi is credited for reunification of Iran under a powerful central government. The use of minority languages in schools and newspapers was not tolerated. The succeeding regime – the Islamic Republic of Iran – has adopted a more inclusive approach in relation to the use of ethnic minorities and their language, however the issues as to Azeris, the Iran's largest ethnic minority, remain and pose considerable challenges for the unity and territorial integrity of Iran.
Iran – sovereign country located in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. Iran is bound by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Caspian Sea to its north. Shi'a Islam is the official religion, and Persian is the official language. The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at , Iran has a population of over seventy million. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. Throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and is a regional power. The political system of Iran, based on the 1979 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is the Supreme Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Geography of Iran
The Constitution of Iran guarantees freedom of cultural expression and linguistic diversity. Many Iranian provinces have radio and television stations in local language or dialect. School education is in Persian, the official language, but use of regional languages is allowed under the constitution of the Islamic Republic, and Azeri language and culture is studied at universities and other institutions of higher education. Article 15 of the constitution states:
The Persian language has three standardized varieties with official status in Iran, Afghanistan (officially named Dari) and Tajikistan (officially named Tajik). The standard dialect of Iran is based on Tehrani dialect, the standard dialect of Dari based on Kabuli dialect, and the standard dialect of Tajik based on Dushanbe dialect. Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian equally utilize the Perso-Arabic script in writing. Tajik Persian as used in Tajikistan utilizes a modified form of the Cyrillic alphabet, although attempts at re-introducing Perso-Arabic script are being made.
The academy acts as the official authority on the language, and contributes to linguistic research on Persian and other languages of Iran.
The Persian language is the official language of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus within the city of Semnan. Every literate person in Semnan knows how to communicate in the Persian language.