On 2011-06-11 10:27, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:
If the Academy of Persian Language and Literature "clearly advocates the use of the word 'Persian' not 'Farsi' <http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_not_farsi.htm#_ftn46>", why does it then use the word 'Farsi' in its own name ("Farhangesta-n-e Zaba-n va Adab-e *Fa-rsi-*") ?
Because persian in persian is called farsi (فارسی). During its evolution persian /p/ has become /f/, so some old persian *parsi became farsi in modern persian.
Using the word farsi in its english translation like “Academy of Farsi Language and Literature” would be like callig the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung “Council for Deutsch Orthography”, which would be equally wierd as calling it in german “Rat für german Rechtschreibung”.
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