It's Parsi NOT Farsi; Pars, NOT Fars!

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amirrostam
by amirrostam
30-Mar-2008
 

Internet is amazing in that it's made research very easy. Admittedly there is a lot of rubbish but you have to look for the diamond in the rough. We are very lucky to have the pick of Persian literature on the net.

The one glaring and undeniable fact is that despite of and in spite of so much Arabic entering the language, from Saadi, Hafez to Molavi to modern day, the learned ones never referred to our language as Farsi other than enemies of all Iranian nations and Parsi speakers (present day Iranians, Afghans, Tajiks etc.), why else would you insist on a Tazi term or change Pars to Fars? One point made is that these are ancient texts but that is not true, The 5 Masters of Persian Grammar written in modern times never referred to the language as Farsi. In reality these feeble reasons do not excuse speaking or writing incorrectly.

Hear it from Molavi:

مسلمانان مسلمانان زبان پارسی گویم

or Hafez

......زین قند پارسی که به

The insistence on Fars or Farsi is either out of ignorance which can be forgiven as you cannot blame in the ignoramus, or in the case of those who clearly don't belong to the former group and are capable of assessing the damage they inflict. leads one to ponder about their motives.

It seems we are doomed to repeat our mistakes as it's all been said before. Isn't it just amazing that Saadi in his introduction to his Golestan, came up with this line amongst all the use he made of Arabic within the text to show off his mastery.

It seem to me it is THE SAME struggle over and over again throughout our history. Beofre you become too 'gheirati' and reply, ponder why (1) he used the term Pars and (2) was everything said in disguise? Then you may understand the essence of the Iranian struggle throughout history. The only difference is that the children of the Internet don’t have to disguise what they need to say but can say it openly or need the help of any Americans to know their culture, so it’s Parsi, NOT Farsi STUPID!

پارس را غم از آسيب دهر نيست

تا بر سرش بود چو تويی سايه خدا

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more from amirrostam
 
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Correction to Mr. Bahmani

by Anonymous Observer (not verified) on

Actually, you are incorrect. There IS a letter "SH" in Arabic (example being the word "shams" (sun)). The letters that are missing from Arabic that are present in Persian are: CH, G (as in Gol (flower)), P and ZH (as in mozheh (eyelash)).


Abarmard

What is the importance of this?

by Abarmard on

While I strongly advocate the use of Persian instead of Farsi in the English language, I am not so interested about the usage of Pars instead of Fars. I am somehow indifferent about it, kind of like you say tomaatos, I say tomatoes, except everyone says Fars and not Pars.

Please read what Shamlu says about replacing or creating a word in any language, that it's not something someone says and everyone follows but rather it's a natural evolution of the word in the society that makes it last! It most become rooted in the "Farhang e Aamiyaaneh".

That should not be related to the Persian in English, since that's something in our control

 It's important to bring the new words into the Persian language. Unlike many languages we should be proud that we can understand poems from thousands of years ago, while I can't think of another language that the people understand thei words of their language going back 500 years.

My concerns instead of changing farsi to Parsi, are:

-Advocate Iran-Shanasi amongst the youth

-Advocate more Middle Eastern and Persian Historians

-Advocate more Persian Linguists.

 


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Ha ha ha

by A nonymous (not verified) on

This would be interesting if it wasn't rooted in personal identity problems and political frustration.


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Our Mother Tongue Parsi/Persian( in English)

by Ramin (not verified) on

Mr Bahmani

Youre absolutely right. Farhangestane Zabane Parsi in IRAN is the legitimate organization which is responsible to refine our mother tongue from the pollution and substitute the new appropriate terms as required but they did not contribute anything to this precious language as staffs like Haddade Adel, has no sympathy for this language but what they call the ideology and Islam ... .\Thats why as you mentioned we ourselves have to try to populate the appropriate and equivalent of Persian terms which are so beautiful and more pleasing.

IF one body like Ferdowsi the Great could revive our mother tongue in the time of oppression of the nation, we with today's communication tech could do something to sustain that heritage.


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WE ARE FROM PERSIA/IRAN SO WE HAVE TO SAY PARSI ¡¡¡¡

by persian (not verified) on

AS WE ALL KNOW THAT PARSI THE CORRECLY WE HAVE TO INTRODUCE IN EVERY WHERE AS "PARSI"

THE WORD SHOULD BE ORIGINAL ALSO "PARSI".

THE IS ANOTHER WORD WHICH IT IS CARVIAR AND THE RIGHT WORD IS SOUND KHAVIAR.

WE HAVE TO RESPECT THE ORIGINAL AND RIGHT WORD.


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Parsi /Persian not Farsi

by Anonymous1 (not verified) on

It has been a long time, our national scholars been demanding this request to say Parsi or Persian(In English) not Farsi which has no root and meaning in our mother tongue but a morphed shape of the authentic term of Parsi made by Arabs due to not havifn the letter, P.
Here is the demand I have seen since along time ago by The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies

//www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_no...


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farsi is the arabised versionby mazfaz on Sun Mar 30, 2008 07:0

by Faribors maleknasri M.D. (not verified) on

After all are now a greate deal of problems, nearly all of them, solved. It makes me happy. i pleade on the writer of the article and on the writers of so positive and pro Farsi - are they actually pro Parsi? - comments: Please continue. Thanks God Iranian`s Problems are all negligible and
"IRANIAN" problems are now all solved. Thank you once more. Greeting


bahmani

Farsi or Parsi?

by bahmani on

In Arabic there is no letter P, just as there is no SH, so when Iran converted to Islam, it naturally lost the SH and the P.

However there is a distinct difference between Parsi and Farsi. As you would expect the post Islam Farsi has many Arabic words that have become commonly used today. So for example Hello or Salam is arabic. Khoda hafez is half farsi half parsi, Khoda is Parsi, while hafez is Arabic. The pure Parsi word would be Khoda Negahdar.

It is entirely possible for us to switch back to speaking Parsi, if we could learn the alternate non-arabic phases, and maybe you should start the process by writing a series of articles teaching us your obvious vast knowledge, so it can actually do some good and can be passed on, instead of staying locked up deep inside a bitter soul.


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Yeah...

by 12 (not verified) on

Yeah... you are absolutely right! It is Parsi of origin... but remember for over a millennium we have been calling it 'FARSI'(Arabized version)...
So please stop jumping down everyone's throat for calling it by the familiar name!
This will take time...
At present it does seem odd and unfamiliar to call it Parsi, but in time (and if we begin now)it can become as familiar as calling 'ab'... ab!
So for the moment just remind people and don't chastise them.


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Parsi ra pas dariem.

by farhang (not verified) on

I recently received the following e-mail from a Ph.D. student and I'd like to share with you:
I wanted to ask you, as Iranians, not to use 'Farsi' when you refer to Persian language in an English text. Persian is the only language that is currently called by three different names (Farsi, Tajik and Dari) in English. You do not see anybody calling German, Almani or Deusche in English? You do not hear anybody call English, Irish or Australian or for that matter American. Categorizing languages has a scientific method. According to Linguistics, the Persian language belongs to the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages. The Iranian branch is composed of many languages such as Persian, Sughdi, Kurdish, Parthian, etc. The Persian branch has different dialects such as Tajik, Dari, Farsi, Isfahani, etc. To call Persian, Farsi is just as bad as calling Persian Gulf, Arabian Gulf or even the Gulf. In the absence of an interested government, we Iranians have to defend our heritage more vigorously. 'Persia' is what Greek historians called Parsis at the time of the Achaemenids, and like all historic proper names its antiquity is its best defense. Over the centuries 'Persian' was used to refer to the whole country of Iran and therefore could be used interchangeably with Iranian. Fars and Farsi is the Arabic form of Parsis and Persia. Since Arabs did not have P sound, they turned Pars to Fars. Calling the Persian language by the three names of Farsi, Dari and Tajik is quite a recent phenomenon. As I said, linguists have agreed to call the language of Darius and Cyrus Old Persian, the language of Sasanids, Middle Persian and our language 'Persian,' which makes it the grand child of Old Persian and the Child of Middle Persian (Pahlavi). All three stages of Persian language (old, middle and present) belong to Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages. Dari, Tajik, Farsi, Isfahani and Khurasani are different dialects of the Persian language, unlike Kurdish and Sughdian which are different languages in the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages. Would it make sense to call Arabic, Iraqi or Egyptian, although they are three different dialects and have many differences? Would the Arabs allow it?


mazfaz

farsi is the arabised version

by mazfaz on

when arabs came in iran 1387 years ago, they tried to arabise the language. this has affected the illeterate part of our society for years, and up until recently, all the peasants called persian farsi, not parsi. this is again true with isfahan, because isfahan is actually ispahan, which means the city of the army.

also khosro is the arabised version of kasra.

mazfayaz