Similarities Between Persian and Croatian

In this video, we compare some of the similarities between Persian and Croatian, two Indo-European languages, with one, Croatian, being classified as South Slavic, while Persian is classified as a Western Iranian language. Contact us on Instagram if you have any questions or feedback:
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The Persian language (Farsi) has had a huge impact on other languages and cultures, mainly in the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. Classified as one of the Western Iranian languages, Persian holds official status is Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Persian has strongly influenced numerous Turkic languages, as well as well as Armenian, Georgian, and many languages in the Indian subcontinent. Many Persian words subsequently entered the Balkans when the region was occupied by the Ottoman Empire after these words had entered Ottoman Turkish. Persian has a long history of literature and it was notable for being the first language in the Muslim world to break through Arabic's monopoly on writing. The Persian language has also influenced the Arabic language, although the impact of Arabic on Persian has been higher. But the influence of Persian in the Muslim world has been strong since the early days of Islam. It was even established as a court tradition instead of Arabic under many ruling Muslim dynasties. Croatian is a South Slavic language and the official language of Croatia, and also among the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a minority language in Serbia, and neighboring countries. Throughout history, many Persian originating words have entered the languages of the Balkans.

Under the Ottoman Empire, most people spoke Turkish in Anatolia, while Persian was spoken by the educated, and Arabic was used for religious purposes. Ottoman Turkish, as the official language of the Empire, was mixture of both Arabic and Persian grammar and vocabulary. In the Balkans, Slavic, Greek and Albanian speakers were the majority, but there were substantial minorities of Turks, who spoke Ottoman Turkish. Arabic and Persian words in Ottoman Turkish amounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary. Many of these words entered the different languages of the Balkans. The Arabic words that entered Ottoman Turkish were not the result of a direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, but the adaptation of those words by Persian, which then entered Turkish. This was evidenced by the Persian phonological mutation of the words of Arabic origin. Ottoman Turkish shares the Persian character of its Arabic borrowings with other Turkic languages that had even less interaction with Arabic. Much of the Balkans was under Ottoman rule for several centuries which led to many Persian and Arabic words, which were adopted by Ottoman Turkish, to enter the vocabularies.