Iranian leader bans usage of "foreign" words

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linkage

A big WTF! :eek:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.

The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.

Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.

So a chat room would be rename to short talk room. :rolleyes:

Hobbes

Few other countries do this too. France being one off the top of my head.

The Corinthian

Linguistic protectionism is not that unusual - some Western countries, such as France do the same to a lesser extent. Even Ireland, with a nominal policy of bilingualism, routinely gallicises non-Irish terms (apparently Idirghréasán means Internet).

Given the rapid expansion of American English as a lingua franca in the latter half of the twentieth century, such protectionism can also be argued to be a positive thing as it has eroded the use of national languages in many countries. Personally I’d like to see it introduced in Italian, which in recent decades has taken to using English words where Italian words already exist.

Of course, one could take it to an extreme, but this tends to be more as a result of political rather than linguistic aims. That may be the case in Iran, but your article doesn’t really shed enough light to say.

And if they were, they’d hardly be the first to rename things because of politics - freedom fries anyone?

InFront

This is one of President Ahmadinejad's actions which I have no problem with. Every country feels a sense of Westernisation, or more specifically, Americanisation. Ireland has felt it.

What could be more boring than a world of uniformity and common expression, customs and cultures. I'm sure that Ahmadinejad is just trying add to the protectection the Iranian identity in this small way.

oscarBravo

The Corinthian wrote:

...apparently Idirghréasán means Internet.

Heh. That actually means "interweb".

Gave me a giggle at least...

Victor

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=258434

Mad Mike

While I understand the desire for a nation to to try and hold on to its own linguistic culture there is a sense of inevitable futility about this. When I was in France over 20 years ago there was a big push to rid the language of foreign expressions (e.g "le weekend") but now 20 years later there are more english language expressions used in France than ever.

Mind you the french government was never likely to mandate cutting out an offenders tongue for using foreign expressions! Perhaps the Iranians will be more persuasive!!!

InFront

Mad Mike wrote:

While I understand the desire for a nation to to try and hold on to its own linguistic culture there is a sense of inevitable futility about this.

Victor posted the link to the Dingle argument, and what about the perpetuation of the Irish language with millions being pumped into that particular project. Some would argue that is futile, but equally you could argue that it is important to preserve cultural heritage.
The latter is my opinion on both Iran and Ireland.

spanner

Iranian PC??

Munya

The Corinthian wrote:

(apparently Idirghréasán means Internet

Ive always used Idirlíon (literall translation between-net)