Re: Persian or Farsi? (was RE: Decimal separator with more than o ne c haracter?)

From: Peter_Constable@sil.org
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 13:29:05 EDT

  • Next message: Peter_Constable@sil.org: "RE: Persian or Farsi? (was RE: Decimal separator with more than o ne c haracter?)"

    > > > > Iranian, a. and n.
    > > > > [...]
    > > > > 2. The Iranian language.
    > > >
    > > > Which doesn't make any sense to me at all. What is the *Iranian*
    > > > language?! Which edition of OED is this?
    > >
    > > oed.com. (My employer has a subscription.)
    >
    > Weird. Anybody able to shed some light?

    This does not exactly match my New Shorter Oxford, but is close enough:

    A 1. A native or inhabitant of Iran... ; a speaker of an Iranian language.
      2. (Ling.) One of the two groups of languages in the Indo-Iranian branch
    of Indo-European, comprising Old Persian and Avestan and their modern
    descendents or cognates; the language of the Iranians. (from early 19th
    century)

    I think the explanation is that "English speakers were not made for the
    English language, but the English language for English speakers". Because
    it was easily coined and adequately practical for *their* needs, some
    English speakers evidently adopted this usage.

    - Peter

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Peter Constable

    Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
    7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
    Tel: +1 972 708 7485



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