Learning Journal #8 - The History of Farsi

[Haley Harris]

I never know whether to say Farsi or Persian; evidently I am not the only one. "Persian" is the most widely used name for the language in English but native speakers call it "Parsi" or "Farsi." Farsi is the arabicized form of Parsi since the Arabic alphabet does not have a P. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has declared that the name "Persian" is more appropriate because it"has the longer tradition in the western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity." That is a mouthful. I find it very interesting that one of the reasons is because it has a longer tradition in the western languages. It seems that that would be a reason to favor "Farsi." But then again, "Persian" is in the organization's title, so I think that they were a little biased. I'm going to call it Farsi.

Farsi is the most widely spoken member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages. The development of the Farsi language can be divided into three periods: old, middle, and modern. Old Persian was written in cuneiform and had eight cases, each subjected to gender and number. Middle Persian had a much simpler grammar than Old Persian and it was usually written in an ambiguous script with multivalent letters, adopted from Aramaic. It did after the Arab conquest in the 7th century and most of the writings were lost during Islamic times even though much of the Middle Persian Literature was translated into Arabic. Modern Persian is even more simple than Middle Persian and it has absorbed a lot of Arabic vocabulary. Overall, it seems like once someone knows Farsi it would be easy to learn Arabic. There are four less letters in the Persian alphabet than the Arabic alphabet: gāf, že, če, and pe.

I found this really...umm...interesting video on the history of the Farsi language but it's not in English. However, the narrator's deep voice tells you that it is a very serious history. :) If anything, the video has interesting pictures and it is an extensive listening activity