Apr 18, 2009, 6:57 PM

Swedish Iranologist criticizes Iranian academy

Swedish Iranologist criticizes Iranian academy

TEHRAN, April 18 (MNA) -- The Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature (IAPLL) is not functioning well in the area of creating new words in the Persian language, Swedish Iranologist Jahani told MNA.

Carina Jahani, who is the head of the Iranian Studies Center at the Department of Linguistics and Philology of the Uppsala University in Sweden, believes that IAPPLL is overlooking the full capabilities of the Persian language.

 

Indo-European languages are generative and the Persian language, as one of them, have the ability for coining new words but unfortunately, IAPLL has not functioned successfully in this area, she said.

 

She went on to say that this is the reason why Iranians do not use the words coined by IAPLL. Foreign terminology is not a threat for the Persian language if the academics create appropriate words.

 

“I am really against those theories that state there should be no foreign words in the Persian language.  If we hold this view, then we must neglect more than half of the Persian vocabulary as it is borrowed from the Arabic language,” she said.

 

There are many dialects in Iran and they are all considered good resources for linguistic research, but unfortunately, this rich cultural heritage is being neglected in this country, she lamented.

 

Different Persian dialects help to guarantee the viability of the Persian language itself. Linguists can use words from other dialects and create new words for use in modern Persian, she said.

 

She referred to proficiency in dialect and the standard language as abilities which children should learn in their families, and that families should not be afraid of the dialect’s affect on their children’s accent in Persian.

 

SB/YAW

END

MNA

 

 

News ID 33278

Your Comment

You are replying to: .
  • captcha