Persian and Turkish both are important languages in the world. Turkish translation services have also become imperative for businesses to tap the Turkish market which has its boundaries in Asia and also shares borders with European countries. Persian, on the contrary, is a language that comes from Asia and is mainly common in the Middle East and Central Asia. Persian holds the privilege of being the world’s 20th most-spoken first language with up to 100 million native speakers.
Persian & Turkish – Introduction
Persian is an Iranian language and a sub-division of the Indo-European languages. This language primarily belongs to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. There are different variants of Persian that they speak in all these countries.
- Iranian Persian
- Dari Persian
- Tajiki Persian
Turkish Language
It is the most spoken language of all the Turkic languages and has up to 90 million speakers. Turkish is the national language of Turkey. Other than Turkey and Northern Cyprus, it is spoken in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and some parts of Europe as well as central Asia. Turkish is the 13th most spoken language when it comes to the ranking globally.
Persian and Turkish are two languages that are often compared to each other, as they are both spoken in the Middle East and have a long history of interaction. However, there are also some striking similarities and obvious differences between the two languages. This is important that translation agencies consider all these factors while offering their services for Turkish and Persian translation services.
Similarities Between Both Languages
Both languages mainly belong to the people who come from the Muslim community. There are some similarities on the basis of religion. Turkish translation services could be tough and challenging especially while translating to distinct languages.
A few similarities include:
Vocabulary
Many words from the Turkish and Persian languages are cognate and share the same origin. There are a significant number of cognates between Persian and Turkish. This is mainly because these two languages have a long history of exchanging contacts and interacting with each other. Persian has loanwords from Turkish.
For example,
- Ostad in Persian goes as usta in Turkish.
- Asina in Turkish is asna in Persian.
- Turkish word Feryat is faryad.
Grammar
The grammar of Persian and Turkish is also similar in many ways. Both languages have a system of declivity, where nouns do affect the tone and pitch to show their case, number, and gender. Additionally, Turkish and Persian languages have a rich system of verbal morphology, with verbs being inflected to show tense, aspect, mood, and person.
Script
Persian and Turkish use the Latin alphabet, although they use different diacritics. However, the origin is the same. This is because both languages adopted the Latin alphabet in the early 20th century, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Differences Between Turkish and Persian Languages
Differences also vary on the basis of different aspects of the language. The phonology syntax and vocabulary of both languages are quite divergent from each other.
Phonology
Persian and Turkish languages differ greatly on the basis of phonology. The phonology of Persian and Turkish is poles apart. Persian has a much more complex system of vowels than Turkish, with 11 vowels. Whereas the Turkish language has 8. Additionally, Persian has a number of consonants that do not exist in Turkish, such as the uvular fricative, which is type of a consonant.
Syntax
The syntax of Persian and Turkish is also different in many ways. Persian is a verb-final language, which follows the subject-object-verb while Turkish is a verb-second language. It follows the order of subject-object-verb. This means that the verb in a Persian sentence typically comes at the end of the sentence, while the verb in a Turkish sentence typically comes after the subject. This is a complex difference and often makes Turkish and Persian translation services a tough job.
Vocabulary
There are certain factors in the vocabulary that are similar and a few of these are different. Although there are many cognates between Persian and Turkish, there are also a significant number of words that are unique to each language. This is due to the fact that Persian and Turkish have had different historical linguistic approaches.
Persian, for instance, has borrowed a large number of words from Arabic, while Turkish has borrowed a large number of words from European languages. Because it has interacted with the European languages a lot more than Persian ever did.
Overall, Persian and Turkish are two languages that are similar in some ways, but also different in others. The similarities between the two languages make it relatively easy for speakers of one language to learn the other, but the differences can also make it challenging especially while translating the content for any of the languages.
Conclusion
Persian and Turkish languages have been the most significant languages in the world. Turkish is the world’s 13th most spoken language and the only one popular among Turkic languages. Persian also has a great history. These languages are quite similar when it comes to vocabulary, grammar, and script. However, these differ on the basis of phonology and syntax.