Re: Learning languages

Danny Wier scripsit:

> I bought a "Teach Yourself" book once in Seattle; for Modern Persian (it's
> called Farsi, morons!).
Well, actually not.  It's called "Farsi" in Persian, right
enough, but it's called "Persian" in English and always
has been.  This is the English-language name used by ISIRI
(the Institute for Standards and Industrial Research of Iran,
http://www.isiri.org/English/edefault.htm), the Academy of Persian
Language and Literature (http://www.persianacademy.ir/ ; in Persian),
and by ISO/IEC 639-1, the standard for language codes, which says that
"fa" is the code for the language called "Persian" in English and "Parsan"
in French (see http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html#op).

Calling Persian "Farsi" in English is like calling German "Deutsch".
It isn't exactly *wrong*, just unidiomatic and unhistorical.  In addition,
saying "Farsi" implicitly excludes the Persian spoken by Afghans ("Dari").

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