2009-11-04, 09:06 PM
HI
My language is called Persian, not Farsi
Please use the Persian
FARSI" or "PERSIAN"?
By Pejman Akbarzadeh
19 November 2005 (CHN) -- Persian (Iranian) people in the English-speaking countries are the only community who use two different terms to refer to their language, "Farsi" and "Persian." This behavior has caused some confusion among the Westerners as to the appropriateness of these terms.
"Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the German speaking people refer to their language as 'Deutsch', the Greek 'Ellinika' and the Spanish 'Espanol', the Persians use 'Farsi' or 'Parsi' to identify their native form of verbal communication.
In English, however, this language has always been known as "Persian" ('Persane' in French and 'Persisch' in German'). But many Persians migrating to the West (particularly to the USA) after the 1979 revolution continued to use 'Farsi' to identify their language in English and the word became commonplace in English-speaking countries.
In the West when one speaks of 'Persian Language', people can immediately connect it with several famous aspects of that culture and history such as Persian Gulf, Persian Carpet, Persian food, Persian poetry, Persian cat, etc. But "Farsi" is void of such link which is only obvious for people in Persia (Iran) and a few other nations in the Middle East.
The Academy of the Persian Language and Literature (Farhangestan) in Tehran has also delivered a pronouncement on this matter and rejected any usage of the word "Farsi" instead of Persian/Persa/Persane/Persisch in the Western languages. The first paragraph of the pronouncement states: "PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' is to negate this established important precedence. Changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users�"
Fortunately all International broadcasting radios with Persian language service (e.g. VOA, BBC, DW, RFE/RL, etc.) use "Persian Service", in lieu of the incorrect "Farsi Service." That is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and several American and European notable universities.
Some mistakably believe that, in English, the official language of Iran should be called "Farsi," while the language spoken in Tajikistan or Afghanistan should be labeled as "Dari," and "Persian" should be utilized to refer to all of them! However, the difference between the Persian spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, or Tajikistan is not significant and substantial enough to warrant such a distinction and classification. Consider the following case. An Egyptian and a Qatari engage in a conversation in Arabic. They will encounter a great deal of difficulties in comprehending each other. Despite this fact, however, the language used in their conversation is referred to as "Arabic." No one will even attempt to classify their respective dialects separately and refer to them as "Qatari" and "Egyptian"! On the other hand, Persians, Tajiks or Afghans can converse in Persian and easily understand each other. Then, why should their dialects be classified separately and referred to by different names?
In English, usage of "Farsi" in place of "Persian," that has been common since 1980s, is as inaccurate and odd as using "Farsi Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf."
* Pejman Akbarzadeh is Persian Gulf Organization's Rep. in Tehran
We would like to point out that FARSI (which is originally PARSI) is the native name of our language and PERSIAN is its English equivalent; as the native name of German language is 'Deutsch', but we never use 'Deutsch' in place of 'German' in English; or native term of Greek Language is "Ellinika" and always in English we say 'Greek' language, not 'Ellinika' language. Same to "Espanol" vs. "Spanish".
If you notice the title of dictionaries that have been written by several great Persian scholars (eg. Prof. Moein, Prof. Aryanpour, Prof. Baateni, etc.) The title of all of them is "English-Persian Dictionary" not "English-Farsi Dictionary":
http://www.mazdapublishers.com/Farhang-EP.htm
http://www.aryanpour.com/
Meanwhile the official institution "Farhangestan; The Academy of Persian Language and Literature, in Tehran" (www.PersianAcademy.ir) in an announcement has rejected the use of the word 'Farsi' instead of 'Persian' in English. (I have attached it).
According to Dr. Hossein Sameie (visiting linguistics professor of Emory University in Atlanta), "PERSIAN, alongside the name of a language, may be used, as an adjective, for the other aspects of our history and culture. For example, we can speak about 'Persian Literature', 'Persian Gulf', 'Persian Carpet', 'Persian Food'; this way, 'Persian' may be a common concept and function as a link between all aspects of Iranian [Persian] life, including language. 'Farsi' does not have such a characteristic"
![[Image: ooj7.jpg]](https://camo.mybb.com/91cc3354bdfdbc4503b745cfc9a9ab7d43a73c3a/687474703a2f2f7777772e66617273697065727369616e2e636f6d2f696d616765732f6f6f6a372e6a7067)
And finally, of course you are aware that all international broadcasting centers (eg. BBC, VOA, DW, etc.) have "Persian Service" not "Farsi Service" ;
BBC : www.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.shtml
VOA : www.voanews.com/persian/index.cfm
DW : www.dwelle.de/persian/
Radio Free Europe : www.rferl.org/bd/ir/
Radio France International: www.rfi.fr/fichiers/Langues/rfi_persan_main.asp
Same to the "Persian Linguistics Association" :
www.persiandirect.com
"American Association of Teachers of Persian" (AATP):
http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Emmk4/AATP.htm
"The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature":
http://www.apersian.org/
Oxford University:
http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/nme/persian_info.shtml
Columbia University:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mealac/languages/persian/
Yale University:
http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsPr...pt=Persian
etc.
The Announcement of the Persian Academy:
The Language of the nation of Iran [Persia] in English is called "Persian" [or in other European languages: Persane, Persisch, Persa, Persiska, etc.] and is known worldwide as PERSIAN. Recently some people have been trying to use "Farsi" instead of Persian, the trend which has also been followed by some non-Iranians. This has
occurred to the extent that it has raised the question "Which is the correct word, in English, for the language of Iran's people, Persian or Farsi?!..."
This question was put to the official institution FARHANGESTAN (Persian Language and Literature Academy in Tehran) by the Commerce Department for Australia,
at Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In their 34th meeting on 7th of December 1992, the Persian Academy unanimously passed the resolution that this language must be called PERSIAN and the reasons given were:
1- PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing PERSIAN to FARSI is to negate this established important precedence.
2- Changing PERSIAN to FARSI may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users.
3- It may also give the impression that FARSI is a dialect of some parts of Iran and not the predominant (official) language of this country.
4- Fortunately, FARSI has never been used in any research paper or university document in any Western language and the proposal of its usage will create doubt and ambiguity about the name of the official language of our country.
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgro...tFarsi.pdf
My language is called Persian, not Farsi
Please use the Persian
FARSI" or "PERSIAN"?
By Pejman Akbarzadeh
19 November 2005 (CHN) -- Persian (Iranian) people in the English-speaking countries are the only community who use two different terms to refer to their language, "Farsi" and "Persian." This behavior has caused some confusion among the Westerners as to the appropriateness of these terms.
"Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the German speaking people refer to their language as 'Deutsch', the Greek 'Ellinika' and the Spanish 'Espanol', the Persians use 'Farsi' or 'Parsi' to identify their native form of verbal communication.
In English, however, this language has always been known as "Persian" ('Persane' in French and 'Persisch' in German'). But many Persians migrating to the West (particularly to the USA) after the 1979 revolution continued to use 'Farsi' to identify their language in English and the word became commonplace in English-speaking countries.
In the West when one speaks of 'Persian Language', people can immediately connect it with several famous aspects of that culture and history such as Persian Gulf, Persian Carpet, Persian food, Persian poetry, Persian cat, etc. But "Farsi" is void of such link which is only obvious for people in Persia (Iran) and a few other nations in the Middle East.
The Academy of the Persian Language and Literature (Farhangestan) in Tehran has also delivered a pronouncement on this matter and rejected any usage of the word "Farsi" instead of Persian/Persa/Persane/Persisch in the Western languages. The first paragraph of the pronouncement states: "PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' is to negate this established important precedence. Changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users�"
Fortunately all International broadcasting radios with Persian language service (e.g. VOA, BBC, DW, RFE/RL, etc.) use "Persian Service", in lieu of the incorrect "Farsi Service." That is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and several American and European notable universities.
Some mistakably believe that, in English, the official language of Iran should be called "Farsi," while the language spoken in Tajikistan or Afghanistan should be labeled as "Dari," and "Persian" should be utilized to refer to all of them! However, the difference between the Persian spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, or Tajikistan is not significant and substantial enough to warrant such a distinction and classification. Consider the following case. An Egyptian and a Qatari engage in a conversation in Arabic. They will encounter a great deal of difficulties in comprehending each other. Despite this fact, however, the language used in their conversation is referred to as "Arabic." No one will even attempt to classify their respective dialects separately and refer to them as "Qatari" and "Egyptian"! On the other hand, Persians, Tajiks or Afghans can converse in Persian and easily understand each other. Then, why should their dialects be classified separately and referred to by different names?
In English, usage of "Farsi" in place of "Persian," that has been common since 1980s, is as inaccurate and odd as using "Farsi Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf."
* Pejman Akbarzadeh is Persian Gulf Organization's Rep. in Tehran
We would like to point out that FARSI (which is originally PARSI) is the native name of our language and PERSIAN is its English equivalent; as the native name of German language is 'Deutsch', but we never use 'Deutsch' in place of 'German' in English; or native term of Greek Language is "Ellinika" and always in English we say 'Greek' language, not 'Ellinika' language. Same to "Espanol" vs. "Spanish".
If you notice the title of dictionaries that have been written by several great Persian scholars (eg. Prof. Moein, Prof. Aryanpour, Prof. Baateni, etc.) The title of all of them is "English-Persian Dictionary" not "English-Farsi Dictionary":
http://www.mazdapublishers.com/Farhang-EP.htm
http://www.aryanpour.com/
Meanwhile the official institution "Farhangestan; The Academy of Persian Language and Literature, in Tehran" (www.PersianAcademy.ir) in an announcement has rejected the use of the word 'Farsi' instead of 'Persian' in English. (I have attached it).
According to Dr. Hossein Sameie (visiting linguistics professor of Emory University in Atlanta), "PERSIAN, alongside the name of a language, may be used, as an adjective, for the other aspects of our history and culture. For example, we can speak about 'Persian Literature', 'Persian Gulf', 'Persian Carpet', 'Persian Food'; this way, 'Persian' may be a common concept and function as a link between all aspects of Iranian [Persian] life, including language. 'Farsi' does not have such a characteristic"
And finally, of course you are aware that all international broadcasting centers (eg. BBC, VOA, DW, etc.) have "Persian Service" not "Farsi Service" ;
BBC : www.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.shtml
VOA : www.voanews.com/persian/index.cfm
DW : www.dwelle.de/persian/
Radio Free Europe : www.rferl.org/bd/ir/
Radio France International: www.rfi.fr/fichiers/Langues/rfi_persan_main.asp
Same to the "Persian Linguistics Association" :
www.persiandirect.com
"American Association of Teachers of Persian" (AATP):
http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Emmk4/AATP.htm
"The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature":
http://www.apersian.org/
Oxford University:
http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/nme/persian_info.shtml
Columbia University:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mealac/languages/persian/
Yale University:
http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsPr...pt=Persian
etc.
The Announcement of the Persian Academy:
The Language of the nation of Iran [Persia] in English is called "Persian" [or in other European languages: Persane, Persisch, Persa, Persiska, etc.] and is known worldwide as PERSIAN. Recently some people have been trying to use "Farsi" instead of Persian, the trend which has also been followed by some non-Iranians. This has
occurred to the extent that it has raised the question "Which is the correct word, in English, for the language of Iran's people, Persian or Farsi?!..."
This question was put to the official institution FARHANGESTAN (Persian Language and Literature Academy in Tehran) by the Commerce Department for Australia,
at Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In their 34th meeting on 7th of December 1992, the Persian Academy unanimously passed the resolution that this language must be called PERSIAN and the reasons given were:
1- PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing PERSIAN to FARSI is to negate this established important precedence.
2- Changing PERSIAN to FARSI may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users.
3- It may also give the impression that FARSI is a dialect of some parts of Iran and not the predominant (official) language of this country.
4- Fortunately, FARSI has never been used in any research paper or university document in any Western language and the proposal of its usage will create doubt and ambiguity about the name of the official language of our country.
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgro...tFarsi.pdf
) but your language is "
. When “PERSIAN” expresses alone, takes the noun role in the sentence and it means Persian language, but when takes adjective role in the sentence can have several meanings, for instance: Iran region. 
