Introduction:
In the past few years, there has been a tendency to replace the adjective “Persian” by “Farsi”. These discussions over the usage of Farsi in European languages has long existed among Iranians, especially Iranian immigrants. As usual, some agree and others disagree. The official language of Iran is sometimes called Farsi in English and other languages. This is a correct transliteration of the native name of the language, however many, including the ISO and the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, prefer the name Persian for the language. Some speakers use the older local name: Parsi. In English, the word Persian has profound historical and cultural connotations, from Persian Empire (good or bad) to Classical Persian Literature. Persian is closely associated with Persian poetry, Persian carpets, and so on. Reputable organizations (such as the BBC and the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, London, etc.) utilize the word Persian.
Linguistic:
Persian is an Iranian tongue belonging to the Western group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. In general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and Modern periods. These correspond to three eras in Iranian history; Old era being the period from sometime before Achaemenids, the Achaemenid era and sometime after Achaemenids (that is to 400-300 BC), Middle era being the next period most officially Sassanid era and sometime in post-Sassanid era, and the Modern era being the period afterwards down to present day.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian seems to have been first used in English in the mid-16th century.1 In Afghanistan Persian is known as Dari or Dari-Persian, while in Tajikistan it’s known as Tajiki.
Native Persian speakers call it “Pârsi” (local name of the language in Iran) or Fârsi (an Arabic form of the word “Parsi”, due to a lack of the ‘p’ phoneme in Standard Arabic.2, 3), which 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’.
This language, in English, is historically known as “Persian”, though some Persian-speakers migrating to the West continued to use “Farsi” to identify their language in English. According to the OED, the term Farsi was first used in English in the mid-20th century.4 The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has declared that the name “Persian” is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in the western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity.5
Conclusion:
As the word Persian in the mind of an English speaker, recalls many other historical and cultural things about Iran, using the Farsi instead of Persian is incorrect and in order to protect our country’s history, we must persist in using the word “Persia” on an international level, and use the adjective “Persian” for anything that is related to Persia – its history, civilization, culture, art, language, and people. When you refer to this language as Persian, the audience may associate it with one or more of these relevant ideas. On the contrary, the word Farsi not only voids these historical and cultural associations, but it also adds a strange society. To the ordinary English speaker, “Farsi” might sound like the language of some unknown, obscure country. But, this problem is not limited to the use of this word in English. As an example, in the case of French the word Farsi sounds similar to the word Farci (stuffed) and Farce (joke) and so, does not evoke any cultural connotations at all. As a result we should avoid the use of the word Farsi instead of Persian (or Persan in French).
Finally, we can see that Persian is the true name of this language in foreign tongues and changing it, not only does not benefit the representation of Iranian culture but also it is a kind of insult to Iranian peoples and their culture too. Now the United Nations and all countries know us as Iran with the abbreviation, IRN (our official websites are like this: domain.ir)
But, this is not the end of the story. This never ended to the use of the word, Persia in newspapers and magazines. In fact the confusion between Iran and Persia still exists.
Notes:
1- Oxford English Dictionary online, s.v. “Persian”, draft revision June 2007.
2- Cannon, Garland Hampton and Kaye, Alan S. (1994) The Arabic contributions to the English
language: an historical dictionary Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, Germany, page 106, ISBN 3-447-03491-2
3- Odisho, Edward Y. (2005) Techniques of teaching comparative pronunciation in Arabic and English Gorgias Press, Piscataway, New Jersey, page 23 ISBN 1-59333-272-6
4- Oxford English Dictionary online, s.v. “Fârsi”.
5- “Pronouncement of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature”. Heritage.chn.ir. 2005-11-19. Retrieved 2010-07-13.