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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">I would say the situation is always fluid in
the nomenclature employed for foreign names, languages, and places - in English,
at any rate. I'm sure the inhabitants of Livorno would be a little upset
if English-speakers still referred to it as Leghorn (likewise
Braunschweig/Brunswick, and innumerable others). As a matter of
politeness, if those speaking the language say that they would be happier to
hear English-speakers use the word 'Persian', I'm sure most English-speakers
would go along with that. They probably only started to say 'Farsi'
because they thought that's what the speakers of the language would rather hear
them use.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">Interestingly, it doesn't seem to work quite
like this in languages other than English. I don't think the French
could be easily persuaded to refer to the British capital as London rather
than Londres, nor do the British (as far as I know) have any desire to impose
'London' on those foreign languages that use their own form. But
English seems in general willing to adapt to the form that speakers of foreign
languages would prefer English-speakers to use.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">It certainly isn't up to the speakers of one
language to tell the speakers of another language which form they _must_ use -
but it ought to be enough to express a preference, and then I think the
deprecated form will naturally fade out of use, in the interests of harmonious
human relations, which seem to be in pretty short supply (even at times on this
list).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">John</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=vafa018@gmail.com href="mailto:vafa018@gmail.com">Vafa Khalighi</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=xetex@tug.org
href="mailto:xetex@tug.org">Unicode-based TeX for Mac OS X and other
platforms</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 11 June 2011 10:09</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [XeTeX] [Off-topic] Persian
versus Farsi</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>OK, understood, but I also feel that it rather begs the question
(the English<BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
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<DIV text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">name, that is, not your answer).
Because if the received wisdom were that the<BR>preferred English name for
the language was Farsi and not Persian, then<BR>the English name of
the Academy would surely be the the “Academy of Farsi <BR>Language and
Literature”, would it not ? So it is a sort of self-fulfilling
prophesy :</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>What is the historical name of the language of Persian nation in the
west? is it Farsi or Persian? Was it Persian empire or Farsian
Empire?<BR><BR> </DIV>
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<DIV class=im><BR>the Academy of Persian Language and Literature "clearly
advocates the use of <BR></DIV>the word 'Persian' not 'Farsi'", because if
it did not, it would call itself (in English)<BR>the "Academy of Farsi
Language and Literature" !<BR><BR>But if the Persian name for the Persian
language is, in transliteration, <BIG><I><SPAN><FONT
size=2><BIG>Fārsī</BIG></FONT></SPAN></I></BIG>, <BR>is it really logical
for the Persian nation (or should I here be writing "Iranian" ?
<BR>This is quite a linguistic minefield) to seek to tell the West that
while it <BR>is perfectly normal for a Persian (Iranian) to call his
language <BIG><I><SPAN><FONT
size=2><BIG>Fārsī</BIG></FONT></SPAN></I></BIG>, we in the <BR>west must
call it Persian ?!<BR><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>Why not? <BR></DIV></DIV><BR></DIV>
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