more and more, i'm amazed to see the rapid growth of blogging among iranians -- both in english by those in diaspora, and especially (and most incredibly) in persian by those in iran. here are just a few of the interesting sites out there that offer testament to the growing power of this phenomenon.
a news item from the western press
of course, there are these, which require no explanation:
and the service that makes all of the persian blogging possible:
and finally, a couple of surprising stats:
as of 2004, persian was the 4th most widely-used blog language in the world -- no doubt it's grown since then
75% of web content in persian is from blogs alone
i'm not sure i have anything too insightful to say about blogestan, as it is now being called. i just thought i'd share... and maybe solicit insights from others... :)
* editor's note: it is, despite what may be suggested by the webpages above, incorrect to call the persian language "farsi" when speaking english. persian is only called "farsi" when one is speaking persian, much like spanish is only called "espaņol" when one is speaking spanish -- not when one is speaking english. just as one would not say "i speak espaņol" or "i speak deutsche," one should not say "i speak farsi." just for you FYI.
man, here i am, 3/4 iranian and i never knew your FYI funfact. what am i supposed to call it when speaking english? persian? really? this is very strange to me. what's your source?
Posted by: meisa at February 2, 2006 03:35 PMFascinating about all of the blogs! Thanks Naseem.
Meisa: its true, it is supposed to be called "persian". :-) I can't remember for the life of me where I heard that, though!
Posted by: Sholeh at February 2, 2006 03:53 PMI've always felt it was wrong to call Persian Farsi when speaking English! Although, words from other languages do come into English and become correct as annoying as this may be Farsi does appear in the Webster's dictionary to mean the Persian language.
Posted by: Artemis at February 2, 2006 09:32 PMwell, meis, i took a few years of persian in college, and both of my profs had a pet peeve about calling persian "farsi" when speaking english. they're both accomplished scholars of persian language and literature, so i'm assuming they're correct. of course, people say "farsi" and are understood when they say it, so if you're one of those that thinks words mean whatever their common usage means, then i guess "farsi" works too. but i was just letting you know. :)
Posted by: nas at February 3, 2006 08:51 AM