learn_persian: Typing Persian words with Roman (English) letters

اسکندر (

wiped) wrote in

learn_persian,
@ 2006-09-17 21:23:00

Typing Persian words with Roman (English) letters
Typing Persian words using an English keyboard can be confusing, because the two writing systems do not match up precisely. Therefore, I have provided a short guide for typing Persian words with an English character set. You're not required to use it with this community, but it would be helpful if you did! Many letters are obvious (for instance, ﺱ and ﺹ are both written as s), so I have only provided the equivalents for the less-obvious letters.

آ = ā or â [â]
چ = ch
ﺥ = kh
ژ = zh
ﺵ = sh
ﻉ = ʻ
ﻍ = gh
ﻕ = gh
و = v in words like و (va)
و = u in words like او (u)
ى = i in words like ایرانى (irani)
ى = y in words like یا (ya)

In addition, the vowel َ should be written as a, and the ezafe ِ should be written as e. So پدر should be written pedar.

I hope this all makes sense, and that this guide is useful. If anything is confusing, please leave a comment and I will try to clear it up!

(Post a new comment)

	fereshtehevikil 2006-09-18 03:37 pm UTC (link)
	This is a helpful review for me, but what would really help is learning to type on my keyboard: I have persian script: هخثحصهثخعقحث, but I don't know which letter is where!!! :( (Reply to this)(Thread)

	wiped 2006-09-18 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	is this page any helpful to you? since my computer is not configured to type in persian, i use this website, but it's cumbersome at best. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shekar 2006-09-19 09:58 am UTC (link)
	I can help you, but I do not know how :-? I know where every letter is. I suggest you ask one of your family to buy you a keyboard from Iran and send it to wherever you live :-P lol okay it sounds stupid... . I can find a picture of a keyboard on the net, and write the Persian letters on it. how does it sound? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	muckefuck 2006-09-18 05:30 pm UTC (link)
	What's your recommended substitute for people who have trouble typing <ā> for whatever reason? (Reply to this)(Thread)

wiped
2006-09-18 06:28 pm UTC (link)

every latin-based orthography for persian that i've come across uses a diacritic to distinguish between the long and short 'a'. i myself haven't even memorized the code for typing ā, and merely copy/paste it when i need to use it. if that's not possible, or too annoying, i recommend using 'aa' to replace 'ā', so mādar would become maadar. the only problem with this is aesthetic: it just looks ugly, as if the language were some freakish finno-persian creole.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	zuzentzailea 2006-09-18 07:24 pm UTC (link)
	â for â is easier. For my own use I'm happy with aa, but publicly in Arabic script this usually represents a + ain, as in Sanaa, Baath. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	wiped 2006-09-21 03:54 am UTC (link)
	good point; i've edited the entry to include â as an alternative for ā. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	muckefuck 2006-09-20 02:45 am UTC (link)
	Really? I've seen /æ/ vs. /a/ many times; that's what the Routledge reference grammar uses, for instance. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	wiped 2006-09-21 03:44 am UTC (link)
	facepalm yes, even my persian instructor used the IPA symbols instead of diacritics. what i meant to say is that every latin-based orthography uses characters not included in the standard english keyboard... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sonjaaa 2007-08-24 05:30 am UTC (link)
	You could always type double "aa". (Reply to this)(Parent)

24karrot
2006-09-18 11:17 pm UTC (link)

Two other things...

http://vereb.free.fr/transliteration/transliterator.html is a very useful link because it lets you type the sounds and it then gives you the letter you want... I used this before figuring out the keyboard systems with Persian (and Russian).

The other thing is... to be able to SEE the letters on your keyboard (sort of) go to start > all programs > accesories > accessibility > "on screen keyboard"... if you are trying to type it of course lets you see the keyboard which is very helpful.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	wiped 2006-09-21 03:58 am UTC (link)
	ooh thanks a bunch! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	fonceur 2006-10-28 04:50 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, wow. How did I not notice the updates in this community? I think it's time to dust off my TY Modern Persian. Maybe I can motivate myself again. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	wiped 2006-10-28 07:23 pm UTC (link)
	go for it!! (Reply to this)(Parent)

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