LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Persian vs. Farsi Dichotomy in the Internet

Mohammad Reza Falahati Fumani, Ph.D. Candidate

Introduction

A large number of articles have already been written on the dichotomy of 'Persian' versus 'Farsi'. In fact, almost all articles, for example, Yarshater (1989) as one of the mostly cited ones, have reiterated that the correct name for the language spoken and written in Iran is Persian and that the term Farsi is only misused as a wrong substitute for Persian.

If all such articles are solely or mostly in favor of Persian (there are, of course, those who favor Farsi, for example, Tahmasebi (1996)), what is the justification behind writing another article on this issue? Is it to put some color - if not repeating - on what others have already stated? Or there is still something left unresolved and new to be discussed?

The author of this article believes that the latter is true and that is exactly the unavailability, or at least the dearth of any discussion on these two terms based on the material available in the Internet. In addition, we also need to visit the principles stated in linguistics and theories of translation in order to further clarify the use. Most discussions on the subject have been a diachronic analysis of the two terms in relation to social changes (Yarshater, 1989). To tackle the issue objectively, the author will employ: information extracted from the Internet, a brief interview with the authors of articles and a translation technique as three research instruments.

Actually, the author intends to put forward a real picture of these two terms as they are at the moment, i.e. the way they are used, the people who use them, the degree to which they have found their way into the language of people and, most important of all, the reasons triggering the application of these two terms.

Throughout the discussions the author will only establish a linguistic view of the issue in an objective manner. I will personally use the term Persian for the sake of consistency and, of course, following the pronouncement of Iran's Academy of Persian Language and Literature (IAPLL).

Historical Evidences

Within a historical framework, the term Persian has a much longer tradition than Farsi. Persian was the language of 'Parsa' who were an Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into the region, roughly the place where today's Iran is located, about 1000 BC (Internet Article 2).

Modern Persian has had two older versions as well namely, Old Persian (spoken until the 3rd century BC) and Middle Persian (between 3rd Century BC and 9th Century AD) (Internet Article 1).

Farsi, on the other hand, is said to have appeared through the Arabs. In fact, it has been stated that some 1400 years ago when the Arabs entered Persia (the term referred at that time to the land wider than the country now called Iran) they adopted the term Farsi from the already available term Parsi which referred to the language spoken in a region that now lays in the southern part of the present Iran (ibid).

There are four Persian sounds that the Arabic language lacks, these include /g/ as in 'game', /ch/ as in 'chalk', /p/ as in 'pool' and /˛/ as in 'measure'. It is said that the Arabs changed the term Parsi into Farsi because they did not have the sound /p/ (The term Parsi is still used in Iran and has acquired a formal and literary status compared to the more common term Farsi. In fact, within a synchronic framework, the only linguistic difference between Parsi and Farsi is in the degree of formality and genre though diachronically, the term Parsi has had a longer history in comparison to Farsi.).

In the integrated Persian Database of the Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (www.ricest.ac.ir) 461 results were retrieved for Parsi and 95708 items for Farsi. Moreover, the majority of the articles carrying the term Parsi were related to the subject area of Language and Literature, whether prose or poetry.

Views Held Concerning the Suitability or Unsuitability of the Two Terms

Almost all those people who have written on the issue have stated that Persian can better represent the language of the people because it has a longer tradition in the western languages. Most important of all, Iran's Academy of Persian Language and Literature (2007) has argued in an official pronouncement that the name 'Persian' is more appropriate as it has the longer tradition in the western languages and therefore better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Many books written by foreigners regarding Iran and its language have adopted the term Persian, the book written by Edward G. Browne (1902) A literary history of Persia is only one of the many examples.

As stated in (Internet Article 2) Farsi at best can function as a local term for the standard language in Iran and its use must at best be restricted to the present geographical boarders of Iran, rather Persian is a broader term referring to the standard and national language of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and it is spoken by minorities in a number of other countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, to name but a few. They conclude that for correspondences outside the borders of Iran, Farsi must be avoided and Persian be used instead.

Different people and groups are also actively working to institutionalize the use of Persian and the avoidance of the term Farsi. One such effort, for example, forced Language Weaver (2007) to write a correction to its original press release in which it had used the term Farsi while announcing the commercial availability of a bi-directional Persian/English language pair module for its automatic translation product. In fact, the original announcement read as "… Persian may also be referred to as Farsi…" Their correction, however, reads as follows:

… after releasing the news we were contacted by several people that explained that the correct name for the language we referred to as 'Farsi' is 'Persian'. After consulting with several sources and reviewing the information sent to us after release, we would like to formally correct our original announcement to read 'Persian' (ibid).

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