July 19, 2007
Iranian linguistic centre wants Farsi term for SMS
An Iranian linguistic centre has called for the use of a Farsi term for mobile-phone text-messaging, or SMS, earthTimes reports via SMSTextNews.
"The Farhangestan, the country's linguistic watchdog centre responsible for presenting genuine Persian vocabulary, has approved the Farsi term payamak (little message) for SMS.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had last year ordered the government and official organizations to avoid using Western terms and replace them with relevant Farsi translations given by the Farhangestan.
... Before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Western terms - mainly French and English - were gradually adopted by speakers of the language, causing deep concern among Tehran's rulers over the so- called "Western cultural invasion" which is also considered a political threat.
Western terms already Persianized include the equivalent in Farsi of "telephone which you carry with yourself" for mobile phone and "long-distance-writing" for fax. "
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