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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Right, on the linguistic front. (Agreeing with BIMBAM, & others) Persian = Farsi = Iranian, which is related to the Indo-European language family. Arabic is Semitic.
Those guys were speaking Arabic, so ... they're Arabic. Maybe you assume they're from the Arabian Peninsula (as opposed to Iraq, also Arabic-speaking), but I wouldn't particularly assume anything, except that they're Arabic-speaking. You can always ask them, you know. Actually have a conversation with them, as if they're normal people.
Well to be technical Farsi is IN the Indo-European language family, not 'related' to it.
Arabia = a peninsula in Asia consisting of the modern nations of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen and Oman.
Saudi Arabia = a kingdom comprising most of the Arabian peninsula.
Arabian = of or relating to Arabia
Arab = A person who ancestry arises from the people of the Arabian peninsula, including Jordanians and Iraqis, most of whom are of Arab ancestry.
Saudi Arabian = A person who is a citizen or national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Arabic = A language spoken in Arabia, the Middle East, and northern Africa. Also an alphabet used by many non-Arabic languages.
Muslim = A person of the Islamic faith.
Islam = a religion practiced by a billion people in Arabic-speaking countries, as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. About half of the Muslims in the world do not speak Arabic, and only about 10% of them are Arabs.
People who are not Arabs = Lebanese, Syrians, Turks, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Libyans, Palestinians, Iranians, Persians, Somalis, Jews (even though Jews are just as closely related, and Hebrew and Arabic are closely-related Semitic languages).
Why can't they just call themselves, I dunno, 'American'?
If they're in America now?
one specifically said, "We are Arabic!" with that accent, and stuff.
Sounded like spit was coming out with every syllabal.
I don't run around calling myself German.
The good people of Germany would consider me American,
I know that much. You have to know where you're at.
You're not in ARAB-land anymore, when you selling beers at a cornerstore of Texas.
Is all I'm sayin'...
They are unrelated languages from different linguistic families. Persian is more related to English than it is to Arabic. Persian languages are spoken in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan etc., Arabic is spoken in the Arabian peninsula, Iraq and points west of there to Israel, and in North Africa (Egypt, Morrocco). Persia is a distinct civilization from the arabs, and was before Islam as well. They are also mostly Shia Muslims whereas Arabs are mostly Sunni Muslims. Persians have different food, musical traditions, and literary traditions. Really, all they have in common is being nominally Muslim and from roughly the same basic part of the world, but otherwise they don't have that much in common.
BIMBAM, Azerbaijan speaks Turkish, not Farsi.
They USED to be Persians, but were mostly replaced with Turkic tribes that moved in the area later in history. So they are mixture of both, but they speak Turkish language, or rather variation of it.
(So does Turkmenistan.) Turkic language is common in Northern Iran as well, because Azeris are the biggest ethnic group there after Persians.
Persia used to be a big empire back in time, including different ethnicities/people.
Why can't they just call themselves, I dunno, 'American'?
If they're in America now?
I don't run around calling myself German.
The good people of German would consider me American, I know that much.
Because to be honest, many people from those "other" ( non-Eurorpean) parts of the world actually look down on Americans and American culture. Their association with their own culture is much stronger. They prefer however to live in the US for purely economic and political reasons.
The fact that many "real Americans" consider them to be foreigners ( and always will) and look down on them in spite of their legal status or what's not,) is a factor as well.
See the confusion? See it??
no wonder one said, 'Yes!' ...and the other said,'No!'
At the same GD time. Even they don't know...
There is no confusion, really.
Persia ( that initially has got nothing to do with Arabs OR their language) has been conquered by Arabs and submitted under Islam. Under Islam Arabic language considered superior, it's a "true language of Islam."
Before Persians were conquered by Arabs, they've had their own language called "pahlavi" - spoken and written, their own poetry and literature. After the conquest their written language accepted Arabic alphabet.
So because the population - (the conquerors and the conquered, Arabs and Persians) became mixed through the history, it became a complicated matter. But look at it this way - Iranians who consider Islam one of the greatest things that happened to them, probably don't think about their "Persian identity" too much. The ones who consider themselves "Persians" think that Arabs destroyed their original culture and don't like Arabs.
But originally Arabs and Persians were two completely different people with completely different history, religion and languages.
( Hope this helps somewhat.)
PS. The original religion of Persia was Zoroastrianism, which is closer related to religions of India, and that was actually predecessor of Christianity.
Well to be technical Farsi is IN the Indo-European language family, not 'related' to it.
Some classify the Indo-Iranian group as one branch, and Indo-Euro as another branch off the same root. I was leaving that issue open.
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