The Persian alphabet is ordered by SHAPE. When you recite the alphabet, you emphasize the shapes in the breaks between phrases [click for example].

Take a look at the column of letters on the right. The top letter is "aleph", the A. It has a unique shape.

The next four letters, "be", "pe", "te" and "se" all have the same basic shape. They look like a lone staple, fallen out of the stapler. The only way you can tell they are different letters is by the placement of the dots below or above. (Dots and strokes - kinda like morse code.)

The four letters after that, "jim", "che", "he" and "xe" also have the same shape (like a wave, or a dragon's head), but different dots. This is followed by the boomerangs, "dal" and "zal" when you add the dot. Then we've got the eyelashes "re", "ze", "zhe".

MORE TO COME! ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED SIMPLY. And with nice visuals.

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