Modern Tajiki Persian: Gharbzadagi of a Different Kind

Abstract

The leader of the Iranian Revolution Āyat Allāh Rūḥ Allāh Khumaynī has strongly condemned what he considers had been a slavish imitation of the West under the overthrown Pahlavī dynasty and coined the neologismGharbzadagī(literally “Weststrickenness”). He has called for a cultural as well as political emancipation from Western dominance. So far this emancipation has not extended to a purification of the Persian language from the numerous French loanwords which had entered it during the last sixty years. Thus the newspaperJumhūrī-i Islāmī(“Islamic Republic”) has the subtitleUrgān-i Ḥizb-i Jumhūrī-ī Islāmī(“Organ of the Islamic Republican Party”).Urgānis of course Frenchorgane.Even more striking is the use of the termkumītahorkomitehby the revolutionary committees, usually presided by Muslim clergy, which have taken over the functions of local government in Iran. Again,kumītahis the Frenchcomité.While not many Iranianmullahsknow French, or any Western language, they cannot be unaware of the Western origin of these words. We should not be surprised therefore if in the near future we witness a movement to expel from the Persian language the Western loanwords, most of all from official terminology. Most likely they will be replaced by words of Arabic rather than pure Persian origin in view of the regime's identification with Islam rather than ancient Persian culture.