Iran campaigns against Western terms in its Persian language

By Farshid Motahari Aug 5, 2006, 6:13 GMT

Tehran - 'I went through 30 years of agony to revitalise the Persian language for the Persian nation'.

So begins the prologue by Iranian epic poet Abol-Qassem Ferdowsi which he wrote about 1,000 years ago for famed Shahnameh (King Letter).

Ferdowsi, known as the father of Persian or Farsi, was paid at that time King Sultan Mahammoud Qaznavi in gold coins to create an epos for Persians with pure Persian vocabulary.

The Shahnameh did indeed create new linguistic dimensions for Farsi, such as Esfandiar, Rostam Rudabeh, Siavosh, Sohrab and Sudabeh which are still used by many Iranian parents to name their children after.

But owing to the Arabic influence in Farsi, even Ferdowsi could not fully 'Persianise' the language. Now, though, he would turn in his grave if he knew what had happened to Farsi.

Besides Arabic, French and English terms have also gradually found their way into the language and turned it into a nightmare for a Persian fanatic like Ferdowsi.

'If we removed the foreign terms from Persian, we would have serious problems in communicating,' says Iranian linguist Abdollah Javad.

There are 32 letters in the Farsi alphabet, but 28 of them come from the Arabic language. The only real Persian letters are p, dz (like the 'j' in the French word joli), ch (like the English 'ch' in Charles) and g (like the hard English 'g' in great).

The Pahlavi dynasty from which put up the last two shahs had tried to replace some of the Arabic terms, but without major success.

Following the 1979 Islamic revolution and the emergence of clergy power, Arabi - also the language of the Koran - was used even more than before.

Before and after the revolution, more and more Western terms - mainly French and English - had also invaded the language, causing deep concern among Tehran's rulers over the so-called 'Western cultural invasion' which is also considered a political threat.

'Sometimes it is unavoidable, as there are really no Farsi terms. But some Iranians also exaggerate the use of foreign terms to show themselves as Western-oriented,' says Farid Bina, another linguist familiar with two foreign languages.

Terms like 'bye bye' or 'merci' are now an integral part of Persian and used by almost everybody - even in rural areas - sometimes more often than 'Khodahafez' or 'Tashakor' respectively.

There are also a lot of technical terms - 'machine', 'telephone' or 'traffic', for which no Farsi terms have yet been found. 'Balabar' (getting up) for 'ascenseur' (lift) would be hardly understood by most people.

'The Farsi language is part of our identity,' former president Mohamad Khatami once said. He has been a fierce promoter of the Persian culture and language.

His successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now ordered government and public organizations to replace all Western terms with the relevant Persian translation as given by Farhangestan, the country's linguistic watchdog centre responsible for presenting genuine Persian vocabulary.

Owing to the historic enmity between Persians and Arabs, many Persians say that if the use of Western terms is so bad, use of Arabic terms should also be avoided.

'This is a very unrealistic demand, as more than 90 per cent of Farsi is either directly or indirectly from Arabic and it needs tens of Farhangestan centres and at least two generations to change the linguistic status quo,' says linguist Javad.

Also in modern technology, terms such as 'computer', 'hardare' 'software' or 'system' remain - despite attempts to turn them into Persian - more understandable and therefore more used.

The focus in all this is on Iran's young people, amid establishment fears of the trend towards Western culture. This has led to attempts to find new terms for things close to the younger generation.

'Some foreign terms are used all over the world. In all continents you shout 'taxi' to get one. Using such terms makes us neither worse nor better Persians,' says Azadeh, a 23-year-old student in Tehran.

'You can of course say let's use 'the telephone which you carry with yourself' (mobile phone) and order 'elastic loaves' (pizza) to be delivered by 'self-run' (car). But isn't it easier to say let's call pizza delivery?'