On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 03:13:54 -0500, Nicholas Bodley
<nbodley@...> wrote:
[about Farsi]

> My hope is to learn to "cheat" :) , to see some distinctive details
> that distinguish it from the Arabic language; to do this without extensive
> study of both.

IMO, the easiest way to distinguish Farsi from Arabic is by spotting
the four extra letters that Farsi added to the alphabet -- peh (beh
but with three dots below rather than just one), chim(?) (jim but with
three dots below rather than just one), gaf (kaf but with an extra
line above), and zha(?) (za but with three dots above rather than just
one).

Also, final and isolated kaf sometimes have a different shape than in Arabic.

Finally, distribution of some letters may help: I believe that final
yeh without dots ("alif maqsura" in Arabic?) is more common in Farsi
than in Arabic, as is final heh (without dots, i.e. not ta' marbuta).

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>