Lesson 2: Long Vowels in Persian

Long Vowels

There are three long vowels in Persian: /â, i, u/:

/â/ as in father

/i/ as in tea

/u/ as in zoo

Unlike the Persian short vowels, long vowels are represented alphabetically. They take different shapes in a word, depending on their positions and whether they attach to the surrounding letters. The following table illustrates the shapes of these long vowels in various positions inside a word:

Long Vowels	Initial	Medial	Final Joined	Final Disjoined
â
i
u