I opt for Farsi than Persian for the dominant language, used in the present Iran and the colonies abroad.
Iran is a nation of multi-language cultures: Fars, Khuzi, Baluch, Turkman, Kurd, Armani, Asuri, Yahudi, Gilaani, Azari, Lor, and others. The Iranian nationalities have their own historically/ independently evolved languages. Some of them are remnants of the natives prior to the arrival of Aryans, 3000 years ago. Then, Farsi has its various dialects: Khoraasaani, Esfaahaani, Yazdi, Qazvini, Shiraazi, Tehraani, and others. Again, Tehraani has its own sub-dialects: Hasan-aabaadi, Chaale-meydaani, Shahre-Reyi (Raazi), Shemruni, etc. Moreover, Farsi is the name used by the Iranian government. It is the language of education, embassies, mass media and literature. All literature in Iran and Iranian colonies abroad, are labeled under Farsi. Therefore, Farsi is more descriptive of the the main language used in the Iranian plateau. Also, Western literature updates nowadays their historical vocabulary of other nations using the current prevailant terms. The legacy of some of the terms used in the West- mostly originated by adventurists, travelers, or lone linguists- is loosing ground. The term Persian is an abstraction. Historically it was used by Greeks, for a country faraway, over there. In Iran, it was an Arian tribe who went further south to Shiraaz in the plateau, arriving there later than their cousins, Medes in the north, 900 years Before Christ. At the time, there were natives, non-Arian, living in the plateau: Ilaamis, Lors, Gilaanis, Baluchis, and others. So Persian is a component and not an embodiment in the spectrum of languages used in the plateau. Whereas Farsi is one of the languages used here. Incidentally, Afghanistan is a multi-language country with secondary dialects. A person from Herat has hard time conversing with one from Kandahar or Kabul: Urdu, Dari, Pushtu, etc. Bejan Baran --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Send FarsiWeb mailing list submissions to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, > visit > http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/farsiweb > or, via email, send a message with subject or body > 'help' to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it > is more specific > than "Re: Contents of FarsiWeb digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Microsoft mistake: Farsi instead of Persian?! > (D.A.S. Moslehi) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 04:02:08 +0330 > From: "D.A.S. Moslehi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Microsoft mistake: Farsi instead of > Persian?! > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1256" > > I sent the following letter to Microsoft today. > I hope they will listen to the truth and standard. > > The letter: > > To whom it may concern, > I want to talk about the wrong localization used for > Persian (Native name: Farsi) [compare the usage with > German (Native: Deutsch)]. > > When localizing Persian-speaking regions/countries, > you should use the following: > Persian (Iran)/ Persian (Afghanistan) / Persian > (Tajikistan) ... like English (United States) / > English (United Kingdom) / etc. > > The code used for showing slight differences (like > for US or UK) should have a format like this: > fa-ir / fa-af / fa-tj / (in which "fa" stands for > FARSI, the native name of all these dialects of > Persian); just like en-us / en-uk / etc. > The language name abbreviation also should be > corrected to PEI, PEA, and PET respectively. > > For your "language collections", you have used > Arabic (with 13 languages); but the sole authority > for ISO in languages and scripts ( > http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc18/a356.html ), as > well as INFOTERM ( > http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html > and > http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/langhome.html > ), has updated and corrected the name of this > writing system from Arabic to "Perso-Arabic" (you > can search for it) to include Persian, Urdu, Pashto, > ... , too. > > The biggest mistake has been made when you used > "farsi" in your language lists; however, "farsi"is > not the English name of this language and in English > it is called "Persian". It is just like using > Deutsch in your list instead of German! Do you do > that?? You may wish to check ISO here: > http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html > The Iranian Academy of Persian Language and > Literature (exactly with this name in > English)(www.PersianAcademy.ir) has banned the usage > of Farsi instead of Persian in English texts (as > well as for other languages: Persisch, Persa, > Persitski, sParsuli, Parsi, Persan, ...) in an > official announcement to all foreign embassies and I > have quoted the English translation of whole the > resolution at the end of this mail. > > For further info, you may wish to visit the > following sites (highly recommended: *** ): > *** http://www.PersianDirect.com (go to its > MessageBoard for articles written by some other > scholars) > http://www.PersianAcademy.ir > *** http://www.IranianLanguages.com > http://www.Persian-Language.org > http://www.PersianTools.com > *** http://www.voanews.com/persian (VOA Persian) > *** http://www.bbcpersian.com (BBC Persian Service) > *** http://www2.dw-world.de/persian (Deutsche Welle > Persian Service) > *** > http://www.kkhec.ac.ir/on_the_persian_language.htm > http://www.4reference.net/encyclopedias/wikipedia/Persian_language.html > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language > *** http://persian.usinfo.state.gov/ > *** > http://usembassy.state.gov/tokyo/wwwh20030513a7.html > http://www.rferl.org/bd/ir/ (Radio Free Europe) > > Regards, > Ali Moslehi, > Comparative Linguist (PhD) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > *** P.S.--- The Announcement of the Persian Academy > (IAPLL): > 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 > Iranians [Persians] 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. > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://lists.sharif.edu/pipermail/farsiweb/attachments/20031203/97b6a60e/attachment-0001.htm > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > FarsiWeb mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/farsiweb > > > End of FarsiWeb Digest, Vol 7, Issue 1 > ************************************** __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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