Kaveh Ashourinia

Quantifying and visualizing the ambiguities of the semi-consonantal Persian writing system, and its consequences

Literacy is more critical today than it has been at any other time, is a fundamental requirement for socio-economic inclusion, and acts as a force for prosperity in most contemporary societies. The scripts of a writing system connect the reader to the message, therefore we can think of them as components of written language. Written Persian is a non-Roman alphabetical script system with roots in the Phoenician alphabet. It is an adaptation of Arabic script, even though the Persian language is very different from Arabic. For this and other reasons, many shortcomings and inconsistencies exist in Persian script as a way communicating the Persian language, and the script has been criticized throughout history for this reason. This paper measures and demonstrates one of the shortcomings of the Persian writing system in terms of communicating the Persian language: the absence of short vowels and the inconsistency of long vowels. It introduces an analytical tool that could, with modifications, be applied to other alphabetic systems. In the future, this tool may help inform investigation of the question of whether the Persian writing system can be improved through adjustments or if transitioning to another script is required. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/2439/