ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Romanization of Persian

Okay, imagine you are playing a game where you have to write some words in a language that you don't know how to read or write. Let's say your friend writes a word in Persian, which is a language spoken in Iran. But you can't read or write Persian, so you have to find a different way to write it down.

That's where romanization comes in! Romanization means writing a language that uses a different alphabet (like Persian) using the letters of the Roman alphabet that we use in English (A, B, C, etc.). This way, you can write down Persian words using letters that you already know, even if you don't know how to read or write Persian letters.

For example, the Persian word for "hello" is سلام which uses Persian letters that look different than English letters. But if we use romanization, we can write it as "salam". That way, even if we don't know how to read or write the Persian letters, we can still write down the word and understand what it means.

Romanization can also be helpful for people who are learning Persian as a second language. By using romanization, they can learn how to pronounce Persian words without having to first learn the Persian alphabet.

Overall, romanization is just a way to write down a language using English letters instead of the language's own alphabet. It helps people who don't know the original alphabet of the language to read and write words in that language.