Re: Learning languages

Joe:
> jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:
> >Danny Wier scripsit:
> >>I bought a "Teach Yourself" book once in Seattle; for Modern Persian
(it's
> >>called Farsi, morons!).
> >
> >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").
>
> I disagree.  I'd say Farsi is now the more common name.  Unhistorical,
> perhaps, but not analogous to calling German "Deutsch".
A Livagian would feel very insulted and patronized if you showed off
by calling their language "lylanq" (the Livagian name). Likewise,
politeness compels me, when talking to Iranians (or second generation
Iranians), to call their language "Persian". It is true, though,
that the language is often nowadays called "Farsi".

--And.