Success Stories From: Editor [mailto:editor@middle-east-online.com] Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 11:20 AM To: Javad Fakharzadeh; Ebrahim Shayan; language@iran-heritage.org; abibis@msn.com; Kazem.Abhary@unisa.edu.au, mala@teacher.com Subject: Re: FW: Persian Dear Friends, Many thanks for your interest in Middle East Online. It is interesting to see how an article has developed into analysis of Arabic and Persian languages. We are more than happy to rectify the word Farsi into Persian. Please check the story as it is updated. Coming from Arabic background, I acknowledge the lack of equivalent letters that is in Persian and not in Arabic. Farsi is the word used in Arabic. Best regards. H. Hamza MEO -----Original Message----- From: Amir Naghshineh-Pour [mailto:abibis@msn.com] Sent: Friday, 7 November 2003 6:51 AM To: editor@middle-east-online.com Cc: language@iran-heritage.org Subject: Persian Dear Middle East on line editor, I would like to bring to you attention the incorrect use of the official written and spoken language of Iran as "Farsi" in your article entitled "Iranian-Canadian to compete for Miss World title http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/features/?id=7694" by Stephanie Pertuiset. The correct term is Persian, which is the equivalent word for Farsi or Parsi in English. Using the word Farsi instead of Persian misrepresents the language, culture, and heritage of the Iranian/Persian people since Persian has always been used in English for such purposes. The word "Farsi" does not have any background in English and its relationship with the identity of the Iranian/Persian civilization and culture is not known. It has only been recently that the word "Farsi" has been tried to be brought into play instead of the term Persian in English. Up to a couple of decades ago nobody would write or refer to the Persian language as Farsi. One could hardly find any writings or literature older than twenty five years refer to Persian as Farsi. It has been called the Persian language since the beginning. However, using the word "Farsi" in English is a new invention. The Academy of the Persian Language and Literature (Farhangestan) in Tehran has specifically stated the English name of the official and spoken Language of Iran as Persian. Furthermore, Iranian language and history masters also call it Persian. Dr. Ehsan Yarshater, a professor at Colombia University and the editor of the Encyclopedia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/ has stated this important fact in his Encyclopedia. In addition, I would like to encourage you to refer to the Iranian Languages website http://iranianlanguages.com/ which, has plenty of information about the Persian Language. Moreover, all American well respected universities refer to the language as Persian. Please check out the following websites. http://www.nelc.ucla.edu/GradReq_Iranian.htm http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~nelc/lang_dept/iranian_persian.html http://neareastern.berkeley.edu/docs/courses.html I am eagerly waiting for your response. Best Regards, Amir Naghshineh-pour Iran Heritage, San Diego Chapter, CA http://www.iran-heritage.org/