The Yazdi Alphabet

The Yazdi alphabet has 32 letters, all derived from the Perso-Arabic script shared with Standard Persian (Farsi), the official language of Iran. The 32 letters include the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet plus 4 letters unique to Persian: پ (pe, /p/), چ (che, /tʃ/), ژ (zhe, /ʒ/), and گ (gaf, /g/).

Short vowels are generally not written in everyday Yazdi text but can be indicated with optional diacritical marks called harakat. As a regional Persian dialect, Yazdi uses the same script as Standard Persian (Farsi), making the written form of Yazdi mutually intelligible with other Persian dialects in writing even where spoken dialects differ.

Yazdi (also known as Yazdi Persian or the dialect of Yazd) is a Central Persian dialect spoken in Yazd Province and the city of Yazd in central Iran. The language is spoken by an estimated 150,000–300,000 people, primarily in and around Yazd city — one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage city.

Yazdi belongs to the Southwestern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the same branch that includes Standard Persian (Tehrani Farsi), Dari (Afghan Persian), and Tajik. As a dialect of Persian, Yazdi is closely related to Standard Persian but preserves archaic features from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) — older vocabulary, distinctive phonological patterns, and grammatical forms — that have been lost in the dominant Standard Tehran dialect. ISO 639-3 code: yaz.

Yazdi is spoken primarily in Yazd Province in central Iran, centred on the historic city of Yazd. Yazd is a UNESCO World Heritage city (inscribed 2017) recognised as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city is famous for its distinctive desert architecture, windcatcher towers (badgir), and ancient underground water channels (qanats). It is also the historical heartland of Zoroastrianism in Iran.

Yazd Province is located on the edge of the central Iranian plateau, between the Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert) and the Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert). The geographic isolation of Yazd city — deep in the central Iranian plateau — has contributed to the conservative, archaic character of the Yazdi dialect, which has preserved Persian features from earlier stages of the language not found in the more northern Standard Tehran Persian.

Yazdi differs from Standard Tehran Persian (Farsi) in several important ways. Most significantly, Yazdi preserves archaic Persian features from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) that have changed in the standard dialect. These include distinctive phonological patterns — specific vowel qualities and consonant realisations — as well as older vocabulary items that are archaic or absent in Standard Persian, and certain grammatical features reflecting an earlier stage of the Persian language.

Yazd's geographic isolation in the central Iranian plateau, far from the capital Tehran, has allowed the local dialect to develop relatively independently, preserving features from the pre-modern Persian of the central Iranian plateau. The Yazdi community's strong cultural identity — rooted in the city's ancient Zoroastrian heritage and UNESCO-recognised architecture — has also helped maintain dialectal distinctiveness. In writing, however, Yazdi uses the same 32-letter Perso-Arabic script as Standard Persian.

Yazdi is a regional dialect of Persian rather than a separate language, and its status as endangered is debated. With approximately 150,000–300,000 speakers in Yazd Province, it has a substantial speaker base. However, the dialect faces pressure from Standard Tehran Persian (Farsi) through formal education, media, and national cultural integration, which tends to shift younger speakers toward the standard dialect.

The distinctive archaic features of the Yazdi dialect — its older vocabulary and phonological patterns from Middle Persian — are most at risk of being lost as younger generations adopt Standard Persian pronunciation and vocabulary. Linguists have documented the Yazdi dialect as a valuable source for understanding the historical development of Persian from its Old and Middle Iranian ancestor forms, and language documentation efforts have been made to record its distinctive features before further shift to the standard dialect occurs.

Yazdi preserves several archaic Persian features not found in Standard Tehran Persian (Farsi). These include vocabulary items with direct continuity from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) — the administrative and literary language of the Sasanian Empire — that have been replaced by different words in Standard Persian. Yazdi also preserves some phonological patterns that reflect older stages of Persian pronunciation from the historical central Iranian plateau region.

Encyclopaedia Iranica documents the Yazdi dialect as part of a group of Central Iranian dialects that have preserved features reflecting an earlier stage of Persian development than the Northern standard. The geographic isolation of Yazd in the central Iranian plateau and the city's strong historical identity — including its ancient Zoroastrian heritage, traditional architecture, and UNESCO World Heritage status — have contributed to the conservative character of the Yazdi dialect, making it an important subject for Iranian linguistics and Persian language history.