# Persian: A word of appreciation to this forum



## ali likes the stars

Hello guys,

especially @PersoLatin, @fishcurl, @truce, and @fdb, but also everybody else.
I've been flooding the forum for a while now with rather trivial questions and you guys have been most helpful.
As I have told before, my Persian is fluent but I use more or less only the same 5 words.
Since I started reading (I only learned the alphabet last year), my verbal horizon has undergone a phase of sheer inflation, pretty much like the universe itself, right after the big bang.

However, in contrast to that, every once in a while somebody asks about a poem of Hafiz, or a translation of some old Persian term.
Those must be the interesting questions to you guys. And yet here I am, asking you to answer these boring and very basic questions of mine.

I feel like I should appologize to this forum for not really contributing, and flooding it with simple questions. Just by the sheer amount of posts that I have been making I have received the senior status. Which seems like a joke.
Anyway, I have nobody else to ask, and I'm doing all of this to improve my Persian and teach my kids at the same time.

So, to sum it up, I'd like to offer you an apology, and my appreciation for your ongoing support.

And now, just so @cherine won't scold me for not asking any question, how can I say in Persian _*I appreciate it*_?


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## PersoLatin

ali likes the stars said:


> how can I say in Farsi _*I appreciate it*_?


قدردانی می کنم

As you are in a generous mood  as always, can I ask you to use Persian in place of 'Farsi'. 
با قدردانی از شما


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## ali likes the stars

PersoLatin said:


> As you are in a generous mood  as always, can I ask you to use Persian in place of 'Farsi'.



Sure, I changed it to _Persian_. I'm curious though, why do you think it matters?


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## PersoLatin

I will sent you a forum email and explain.


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## cherine

It is very sweet of you Ali, to show gratefulness to the awesome people who offer the time and knowledge to help others learn this beautiful language. I would like to share the sentiment, because I too learn a lot from all the great contributions we receive in the forum.
Please don't feel embarrassed about asking "boring" questions about basic things. Basic things are very important, and they're the starting point to later understand more complex things, like poetry. 


ali likes the stars said:


> And now, just so cherine won't scold me for not asking any question, how can I say in Persian _*I appreciate it*_?


You make me look evil. I don't scold anyone, I merely remind people of the forum rules.

Anyway, this being a not real question (or is it?  ) I thought I'd move the thread to this forum where forum members show their appreciations to the other foreros who've helped them. I hope it's ok with you.
By the way, you can edit your post to add mentions (example: @ali likes the stars ) to those you want to draw their attention to this thread.


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## ali likes the stars

cherine said:


> You make me look evil. I don't scold anyone, I merely remind people of the forum rules.



Sorry


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## cherine

It's ok


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## fishcurl

I feel it is a privilege to have to think about one's own language as if it were a novel discovery, to have the opportunity to see it from an outsider's point of view or from the stance of one perched on the hedge between the 'inside' and the 'outside', and to understand that speaking a language is not always quite the same as knowing it well (though it be the same as 'living' it). 

Thanks, ali (likes questions)! I hope you do much more of the same!

No word, taken up and looked at closely, is or could ever be irrelevant, trivial, or simple.


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## fishcurl

Why should one insist on saying Persian instead of Farsi? What is the difference, if any? And what difference does it make at this point in history to say one or the other? I'm really ignorant of the significance of this distinction/preference, and very curious to learn about it.

Perhaps PersoLatin who advocates making the distinction may care to share his/her views with the rest of us as well.


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## PersoLatin

fishcurl said:


> Perhaps PersoLatin who advocates making the distinction may care to share his/her views with the rest of us as well.


I could refer you to many links on the web that will explain the reasons more elegantly but a quick search will get you there.

Many justification are given, but to me the best one is that, it is confusing. In English our language is called Persian, it is internationally known as Persian. فارسی is what we call it in فارسی, Germans call their language 'Deutsche' in German but when they speak in English they refer to it as German, the same as Greeks and many others.

We already have Persia, Persian, Iran, Iranian, adding Farsi to this mix makes things even more confusing. This confusion is also being used to create divisions. There's no ideology behind asking people to call our language by one name. 

Perhaps we can see the reaction if we say "I phoned the hotel in Cologne but I don't speak Deutsche so I hung up".


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## ali likes the stars

PersoLatin said:


> Germans call their language 'Deutsche' in German


Just a minor correction: The language is called _Deutsch_, without an_ e_ at the end.



PersoLatin said:


> In English our language is called Persian, it is internationally known as Persian.



I looked it up and I see your point.

Wikipedia says on this topic:

_The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has declared that the name Persian is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity.[44] Some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of "Farsi" in their articles.[45][46]_

[...] ISO 639-3 uses the name "Persian" (code fas) for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari (Afghan Persian) and Iranian Persian.[43]

Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty use "Persian Service" for their broadcasts in the language.

[...] This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and many of the leading scholars of the Persian language.[44]
There is also an old forum thread on this topic: Persian: General question about "Persian" vs "Farsi"

I also found an interesting text written by Dr. Simin Karimi, Head of Linguistics at the University of Arizona.

_A [...] solution is to follow the existing tradition used for other languages: [...] we will arrive at Iranian Persian (for Farsi), Tajiki Persian, and Dari (Afghani) Persian. 
I don’t see any problem with this solution.
However, [...] we call the language simply Persian in our every day practice [...]. When there is a need [...] we specify them as Farsi, Tajiki, and Dari, still under the cover term Persian. 
_


PersoLatin said:


> There's no ideology behind asking people to call our language by one name.


Well, but in Persian, do you say Farsi or _Parsi_? Because there are people who will insist on the latter.


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## ali likes the stars

fishcurl said:


> Thanks, ali (likes questions)



haha, well played


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## ali likes the stars

cherine said:


> You make me look evil. I don't scold anyone, I merely remind people of the forum rules.



A thought that just occured to me. How do you even keep track of all the threads and posts? It's amazing how you magically appear when a forum rule is broken


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## PersoLatin

ali likes the stars said:


> Just a minor correction: The language is called _Deutsch_, without an_ e_ at the end


Thanks, this 'e' has got me before, anyway I thought I played it safe by not using Greek as an example.


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## fishcurl

Thank you all here for your answers to my question. I was under the wrong impression that PersoLatin was suggesting 'Persian' as the word to use even when one was speaking in Persian! Silly me! 

In English 'Persian' sounds better than 'Farsi', I quite agree. But I feel I'd never remember to correct an English native speaker for using 'Farsi' in place of 'Persian'. After all, _a rose would by any other name smell as sweet_!


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## desi4life

I'm surprised you guys object to the word 'Farsi' in English usage. 'Persian' and 'Farsi' are both acceptable names for the language in English. Although linguists include 'Dari' and 'Tajiki' under the name 'Persian', many Afghans object to Dari being called 'Persian'. Perhaps they're just unfamiliar with English naming conventions, but they feel Persian is an Irani-centric term, and they prefer 'Farsi' as the name of the language. I don't have any first-hand experiences with Tajiki speakers, so I don't know their preferences for the language name.


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## fishcurl

desi4life, there are slight differences among Iranian Persian, Dari, and Tajiki, which is only natural. To call each by a different name may make sense in certain contexts. 

However, I do believe it is true that all three languages are in fact Farsi e Dari, or Dari Persian, basically, i.e. deep down, if, that is, we go back to the roots.


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