Persian or Farsi? which one is correct?

Question

I think Persian is correct. because as you know, arabs can't pronounce the letter P. so they call Iranian's language farsi but they are wrong cuz Persian is correct. like Perspolice

Answer 1

you use the word "farsi" when you're speaking/writing in Persian. That's the Persian word for Persian. When speaking in English, would you ever say "i can speak Francais"? .. or do you say "i can speak french".
So, using Farsi in the English language is as correct as using words like Francais, Deutsch, al-Arabiya, Italiano, Svenska, Polski, Espanol, etc.
None of these are "wrong" ... but they are when used in English.

Answer 2

Farsi.

I lived in Iran for 3 years. Farsi is the national language of Iran. "Persian" refers to a race or a group of cultures that existed in the ancient Persian empire or anything from that empire. Iranians often call themselves "Persian" in the US and the rest of the West to avoid the stigma of being "Iranian". "Persian" is also a prettier word. Iranians also HATE being called "Arab" (a habit of some people here in the West), so they'll refer to themselves a "Persian" to signify themselves as being something different from Arabs (as they most definately are).

The Persian empire included a number of cultures and languages. Some people in the west say "Persian" when referring to the language. But Farsi is more correct and is the official name of the language. Think of it this way... Would you say the Mexican people spoke "Mayan" "Mestizo" or "Mexican"? Probably not. Spanish is the national language of Mexico - even though George Bush has said otherwise on occasion.

Some words in Farsi:
Salam = hello
khodoffez = goodby
yek = 1
doe = 2
seh = 3
chahar = 4
panj = 5
sheesh = 6
haft = 7
hash = 8
no = 9
dah = 10
baleh = yes
neest = no
dasta rahst = to your right
dasta chahp = to your left
moostah-kheem = go straight
merci (like the french word) = thank you.
chee-mee-gay (spoken quickly) = what did you say?
toksee = taxi
mah-sheen = automobile
bah-zorg = big
koochik = small
hollay shoomah shitoreh = how are you? are you well?
khoob = good
bahd = bad
khaylay = very or excessive (khaylay khoob = very good).
Amrikah = America
Amrikahi = American

"kh" (a sound like you're choking yourself at the back of your throat)

PS: Iran is pronounced Ih-ron - not eye-ran. Iranians call themselves Irani or Ih-ron-ee.

As far as the roots of the word "Farsi". The ancient Persians called their empire "Pars". The Arabs called it Fors. The Iranian Alphabet has fewer letters than the Arab alphabet, but is readable by either culture (but not understandable by either culture though - like English and German). The pronuciation of the Farsi word for Persia ("Pars") probably reads as ("Fors") in Arabic. Like the German names "Wagner" and "Weber" sound different between Germany and England/US. This is just a guess on my part. It's not that the Arabs do not have a "p"-like sound in their language.

But for the world and Iranians themselves, the official word for the Iranian language is "Farsi". If you wanted to be correct to the roots of the language, you might say "Parsi" as anything ending in "i" means "from" or "of". So people from the Pars empire would speak Parsi.... But nobody - not even Iranians - would know what you're talking about today if you said that.

Answer 3

Farsi or Persian Language, both are correct.
It's false that arabs can't pronounce the P, so they say Farsi; that's not correct.
Ancient Iran were called by Arabs "Fors / Belad El Fors", so the world "Farsi" came through it.

Answer 4

I don't know why I call myself Persian! maybe it is easier to pronounce than Iranian or I think it is more beautiful word. I don't remember I called my country Persia or introduce my language Persian!

Answer 5

both