Editing Persian language (section)

==Name==
The term ''Persian'' is an English derivation of [[Latin]] {{lang|la|Persiānus}}, the adjectival form of {{lang|la|Persia}}, itself deriving from [[Greek language|Greek]] {{grc-tr|Περσίς}} ({{lang|grc|Περσίς}}),<ref>{{LSJ|*persi/s|Περσίς|ref}}.</ref> a Hellenized form of [[Old Persian]] {{Transliteration|peo|Pārsa}} ({{lang|peo|𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿}}),<ref>{{OEtymD|Persia}}</ref> which means "[[Persis|Persia]]" (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day [[Fars province|Fars]]). According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the term ''Persian'' as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]] online'', s.v. "Persian", draft revision June 2007.</ref>

''{{Transliteration|fa|Farsi}}'', which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name ''Persian'' is still more widely used. The [[Academy of Persian Language and Literature]] has maintained that the [[exonym and endonym|endonym]] ''{{Transliteration|fa|Farsi}}'' is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that ''Persian'' is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity.<ref name="Farhangestan">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Farhangestān |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/farhangestan |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=3 October 2014 |first=M. A. |last=Jazayeri |date=15 December 1999 |archive-date=25 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425200631/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/farhangestan |url-status=live}}</ref> Iranian historian and linguist [[Ehsan Yarshater]], founder of the ''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]'' and [[Columbia University]]'s Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on [[Iranian studies|Iranology]], rejecting the use of ''{{Transliteration|fa|Farsi}}'' in foreign languages.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Zaban-i Nozohur |journal=Iran-Shenasi: A Journal of Iranian Studies |volume=IV |number=I |year=1992 |pages=27–30}}</ref>

Etymologically, the Persian term {{Transliteration|fa|Farsi}} derives from its earlier form {{Transliteration|fa|Pārsi}} ({{Transliteration|pal|Pārsik}} in [[Middle Persian]]), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term ''Persian''.<ref name="Spooner">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CjibFs9JlgoC |title=Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order |year=2012 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1934536568 |first1=Brian |last1=Spooner |first2=William L. |last2=Hanaway |pages=6, 81 |access-date=22 July 2019 |archive-date=13 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213212710/https://books.google.com/books?id=CjibFs9JlgoC |url-status=live}}</ref> In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym {{Transliteration|pal|Pārs}} ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spooner |first1=Brian |editor1-last=Schiffman |editor1-first=Harold |title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice |date=2012 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |page=94 |isbn=978-9004201453 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52aicl9l7rwC&pg=PA94 |chapter=Dari, Farsi, and Tojiki |access-date=30 October 2015 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310173125/https://books.google.com/books?id=52aicl9l7rwC&pg=PA94 |url-status=live}}</ref> The phonemic shift from {{IPA|/p/}} to {{IPA|/f/}} is due to the [[Influence of Arabic on other languages|influence of Arabic]] in the Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme {{IPA|/p/}} in Standard Arabic.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Campbell |editor1-first=George L. |editor2-last=King |editor2-first=Gareth |title=Compendium of the World's Languages |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |page=1339 |edition=3rd |chapter=Persian |isbn=9781136258466 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWAqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1339 |access-date=30 October 2015 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310173227/https://books.google.com/books?id=DWAqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1339 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Perry, John R. "Persian morphology." Morphologies of Asia and Africa 2 (2007): 975–1019.</ref><ref>Seraji, Mojgan, Beáta Megyesi, and Joakim Nivre. "A basic language resource kit for Persian." Eight International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2012), 23–25 May 2012, Istanbul, Turkey. European Language Resources Association, 2012.</ref><ref>Sahranavard, Neda, and Jerry Won Lee. "The Persianization of English in multilingual Tehran." World Englishes (2020).</ref>

===Standard varieties' names===
The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from ''Persian'' and ''Farsi'', by names such as ''Iranian Persian'' and ''Western Persian'', exclusively.<ref>{{cite book |title=The International Cyclopedia: A Compendium of Human Knowledge |last=Richardson |first=Charles Francis |publisher=Dodd, Mead |year=1892 |pages=541}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Linguistics |last=Strazny |first=Philipp |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-45522-4 |pages=324}}</ref> The official language of Iran is designated simply as ''Persian'' ({{lang|fa|فارسی}}, {{Transliteration|pes|fārsi}}).<ref name="Iran Constitution"/>

The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named ''Dari'' ({{lang|prs|دری}}, {{Transliteration|prs|dari}}) since 1958.<ref name="Olesen"/> Also referred to as ''Afghan Persian'' in English, it is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with [[Pashto language|Pashto]]. The term ''Dari'', meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital [[Ctesiphon]], which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of [[Parthia]] ([[Parthian language|Parthian]]).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dari |title=Darī |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=17 November 2011 |first=Gilbert |last=Lazard |volume=VII |pages=34–35 |quote=It is derived from the word for ''dar'' (court, lit., "gate"). ''Darī'' was thus the language of the court and of the capital, Ctesiphon. On the other hand, it is equally clear from this passage that ''darī'' was also in use in the eastern part of the empire, in Khorasan, where it is known that in the course of the Sasanian period Persian gradually supplanted Parthian and where no dialect that was not Persian survived. The passage thus suggests that ''darī'' was actually a form of Persian, the common language of Persia. (...) Both were called ''pārsī'' (Persian), but it is very likely that the language of the north, that is, the Persian used on former Parthian territory and also in the Sasanian capital, was distinguished from its congener by a new name, ''darī'' ([language] of the court). |access-date=22 July 2019 |archive-date=24 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124025639/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dari |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Ludwig |last=Paul |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/persian-language-1-early-new-persian |title=Persian Language: i: Early New Persian |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=19 November 2013 |quote=''Northeast''. Khorasan, the homeland of the Parthians (called ''abaršahr'' "the upper lands" in MP), had been partly Persianized already in late Sasanian times. Following Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ, the variant of Persian spoken there was called ''Darī'' and was based upon the one used in the Sasanian capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon (Ar. ''al-Madāʾen''). (...) Under the specific historical conditions that have been sketched above, the Dari (Middle) Persian of the 7th century was developed, within two centuries, to the Dari (New) Persian that is attested in the earliest specimens of NP poetry in the late 9th century. |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=17 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317184538/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/persian-language-1-early-new-persian |url-status=live}}</ref>

Tajik Persian ({{lang|tg|форси́и тоҷикӣ́}}, {{Transliteration|tg|forsi-i tojikī}}), the standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as ''Tajik'' ({{lang|tg-Cyrl|тоҷикӣ}}, {{Transliteration|tg|''tojikī''}}) since the time of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Baker"/> It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/tajik-ii-tajiki-persian |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |title=Tajik ii. Tajik Persian |first=John |last=Perry |date=20 July 2009 |access-date=22 July 2019 |archive-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201053157/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tajik-ii-tajiki-persian |url-status=live}}</ref>

===ISO codes===
The international language-encoding standard [[ISO 639-1]] uses the code <code>fa</code> for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard [[ISO 639-3]] uses the code <code>fas</code> for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/fas |title=639 Identifier Documentation: fas |publisher=Sil.org |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216202338/https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/fas |url-status=live}}</ref> This consists of the individual languages Dari (<code>prs</code>) and Iranian Persian (<code>pes</code>). It uses <code>tgk</code> for Tajik, separately.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/tgk |title=639 Identifier Documentation: tgk |publisher=Sil.org |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302020106/https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/tgk |url-status=live}}</ref>