About Persian
Quick Facts About Persian
Persian origin words in English
| Persian language and Iranian studies are becoming increasingly popular among the university students in the U.S.A. The number of students enrolled in Persian-language courses in US universities is soaring. It has increased five times compared with last year's figure, a Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Arizona University said.
Persian language ( called Farsi by the native speakers) is a spoken language of more than 110 million (61-71 million native speakers) people around the world. Official Language in Iran (as Farsi), Tajikistan (as Tajik), Afghanistan (as Dari). Spoken also in Uzbekistan, western Pakistan, Bahrain, northern Iraq, and elsewhere in the world. Prior to British colonization, Persian was also widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent; it took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts in the subcontinent throughout the Middle Ages and became the official court language under the Mughal Emperors There are about 1 million Persian speakers in the U.S.A.
Today, the United sates contains the highest number of Iranians in the world outside Iran - more than any other country besides Iran. According to 1996 census (by ICI) of the Iranian Diaspora, the Iranian-American population was estimated at 1,560,000 (691,000 by other estimates; by ISG). Iranian-American Diaspora has produced many prominent figures in the Unites States academic, financial, political spheres, cinema, television and sports. The 2000 census data suggests, that in terms of educational attainment, the Iranian Americans greatly surpass the national average. 57.2% of Iranian Americans over 25 years old hold a bachelor’s degree or higher ( 24.4% is average for the U.S.), and more than 27% of Iranian Americans over the age of 25 have a graduate degree or above. This makes them makes them the most highly educated ethnic group in the United States ( among 67 ethnic groups studied), the census reporters suggest. The survey identified more than 500 Iranian-American professors teaching and doing research at top-ranked U.S. universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California system (Berkeley, UCLA, etc.), Stanford, the University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, MIT, California Institute of Technology, Boston University, George Washington University, and hundreds of other universities and colleges throughout the United States. The latest census shows that Iranian-Americans contribute substantially to the U.S. economy, with a median family income 20 to 38 percent higher than the national average. The survey showed more than 50 Iranian-Americans in senior leadership positions at companies with more than $200 million in asset value, including General Electric, AT&T, IBM, Verizon, Intel, Cisco, Motorola, Oracle, Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, and eBay. Fortune magazine ranks an Iranian American Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of the board of eBay, the popular online auction company, as the second richest American entrepreneur under age 40. The largest number of Iranian-American populations in the U.S.A. resides in California, ( estimated at 300,000 to 600,000). Most of them reside in Los Angeles and Southern California. As a result of the large, well-educated and successful Iranian immigrant community, Los Angeles boasts 10 Iranian newspapers; numerous Iranian-owned stores, restaurants and other businesses; locally produced Iranian television and radio shows; Iranian yellow pages; and the largest Persian bookstore outside of Iran, according to Edmund F. Scherr, a Washington correspondent. To TOP of PAGE |