Algerian graduates of Persian language receive certificates

Algerian graduates of Persian language who have managed to pass the beginners level of Persian language courses of IRI Cultural Attaché received their certificates from that attaché Wednesday. According to IRNA, these graduates are students of the Faculty of Persian Language of the Central University of Algeria who had enrolled as Persian language major students during the current academic year at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Algiers. The IRI Cultural Attaché Seyyed Razi Allamalhoda referred to the good and still improving relations between Iran and Algeria and the commonalities of the two countries in cultural, historical and revolutionary fields. Allamalhoda also referred to the role of the Iranian thinkers in enriching the Islamic culture, highlighting some parts of their scientific and Gnostic lives throughout history. He said that the Persian language is the language of sciences, literature, and arts, expressing hope that the Algerian students would parallel with getting better acquainted with this language, also acquire greater insight about the rich and prolific Islamic Iranian culture. After the Iranian cultural attaché, a dispatched senior instructor of Persian language and literature from Iran, Professor Mohammad-Reza Haaj-Baba’ie, in an address elaborated on the second series of Persian language courses and the extent of the Algerian students’ enthusiasm in learning the Persian language and literature. Professor Haaj-Baba’ie added, “During the course of the past academic year some 60 students of various faculties had intended to enroll in voluntary courses of Persian language and literature, but unfortunately due to insufficient facilities, only one course with 17 students was presented for the enthusiasts.” He expressed hope that with the extent of the enthusiasm shown by the Algerian students for learning the sweet Persian language and the rich Persian literature in near future we would be witnesses to the ever increasing cooperation between the academic and cultural centers of the two countries. At the end of the event the graduated of the Persian language recited selected pieces of the Persian language and literature and received the standing applaud of the audience. Persian (Farsi) is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence. The Persian language is classified as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of Sassanid Persia, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Persian Empire in the Achaemenid era. Persian is a pluricentric language and its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages. Persian language has currently some 110 million native speakers, holding official status respectively in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. For centuries Persian has also been a prestigious cultural language in Central Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. Persian has had a considerable influence (mainly in the lexicon) on neighboring languages, particularly the Turkic languages in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Anatolia, neighboring Iranian languages, as well as Armenian, and Indo-Aryan languages, especially in Urdu. It has exerted less influence on Arabic, while borrowing much vocabulary from it. With a long history of literature in the form of Middle Persian before Islam, Persian was the first language in Muslim civilization to break through Arabic’s monopoly on writing, and the writing of poetry in Persian was established as a court tradition in many eastern courts. Some of the famous works of Persian literature are the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, works of Rumi (Mowlana), Rubaiyat (quartets) of Omar Khayyam, Divan of Hafiz and poems of Sa’di. Persian belongs to the Western group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, which also includes Kurdish, Mazandarani, Gilaki, Talyshi and Baluchi. The language is in the Southwestern Iranian group, along with the Larestani and Luri languages, and the Tat Persian of the Caucasus. The term “Fārsi” often refers to three groups of dialects: Farsi is the local name of the language in Iran, and is sometimes used in English instead of the word Persian when referring to the language; Dari is a Persian dialect and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan; Tajik is a group of dialects spoken in Central Asia. Persian, the more widely used name of the language in English historically, is an anglicized form derived from Latin Persianus from the Latin Persia or the Greek Persis, a Hellenized form of Old Persian word Parsa. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Farsi. Farsi is the arabicized form of Parsi, due to a lack of the 'p' phoneme in Standard Arabic (i.e., the 'p' was replaced with an 'f'). In English, this language is historically known as 'Persian', though some Persian speakers migrating to the West continued to use 'Farsi' to identify their language in English and the word gained some currency in English-speaking countries. 'Farsi' is encountered in some linguistic literature as a name for the language, used both by Iranian and by foreign authors. According to the OED, the term Farsi was first used in English in the mid-20th century. The Academy of Persian Language and Lite ature has declared that the name 'Persian' is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in the western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Most Persian language scholars, such as Ehsan Yarshater and Kamran Talattof have also rejected the usage of 'Farsi' in their articles.