How Similar is Iraqi Arabic to Persian? (Influence of Persian on Iraq)

The Iraqi dialect of Arabic has had a lot of influence from Persian, so much that at times, some sentences in Iraqi will be more clear to a Persian speaker than many Arabic speakers. In this video, we'll take a look at some of the commonalities between Persian and Iraqi Arabic (also known as Mesopotamian Arabic). We'll also be talking about some of the shared cultural elements between Iran and Iraq.

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Iraqi Arabic has an Aramaic Syriac substrate and also shares significant influences from the ancient Mesopotamian languages of Akkadian, Sumerian, and Babylonian, as well as Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Greek.

The Persian language (also referred to by its endonym "Farsi") is an ancient language which has had a huge impact on other languages and cultures, mainly the Middle East, as well as Central and South Asia. Classified as one of the Western Iranian languages, Persian holds official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Persian has strongly influenced numerous Turkic languages, as well as Armenian, Georgian, and many languages in the Indian subcontinent. Persian has a long history of literature, and it was the first language in the Muslim world to break through Arabic's monopoly on writing. It was even established as a court tradition instead of Arabic under many ruling Muslim dynasties.