Monday, August 15, 2022

Iranian Vs. Persian

I heard on a linguistics podcast that it is now considered an affectation to call the Persian language Farsi, unless one was in fact Persian.  Rather like not saying "Paree," or "Moskva" if one is not intimately familiar with it, or pronouncing calamari without the "i" unless one is from Italy, or at least, the North End. It surprised me. I suspect that this may eventually become the case in everyday speech, but for the time being people will use Farsi for two reasons.  First, and most important, it makes you sound educated and knowledgeable, and people don't give that up lightly.  Secondly, any Iranians you meet in America are likely to use the term amongst themselves and have picked up that's what the official sources are using. 

Not all Iranians are Persians, only about 60%, but I think about 90% of the ones who come here are Persians, the rest being Azeris. Kurds, another significant minority, not so much. So pretty much everyone you meet here is happy to call themselves Persian, as they have reasons to distance themselves from the current government. Yet worldwide, and certainly within Iran itself, people are much more likely to call themselves Iranian. Whether people come under suspicion in Iran for calling themselves Persian I don't know, as I have twice heard one thing and once the other. I suspect it is seldom a problem unless someone seems to be making a big deal about "no, not Iranian," because being heir to all of Persian history seems a common attitude.  Maybe there are Islamists who take offense there.

1 comment:

Grim said...

The Iranians I have known of Persian descent are extremely proud of the fact, even those broad-minded enough to allow that other traditions might also deserve some degree of pride for their own heritage. (Assyrians, say: never the poor Kurds, who are the Scots of the Middle East.)