Difference between "Iranians" and "Persians"?

[Syringer]

Anyone have a Cliff's notes version of their difference?

 

[Bulk Beef]

Text

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: Syringer
Anyone have a Cliff's notes version of their difference?

Simple, an "Iranian" would be anyone who is a resident of Iran, regardless of ethnicity. A "Persian" is an ethnic definition, Persia was once the mighty empire that predates today's Iran.

 

[Analog]

An Iranian is someone who resides in Iran. A Persian is a more specific term, that defines ethnicity. For instance, I could be a Persian Iranian, or a Persian American. Another definition could be a Kurdish Iranian or Armenian Iranian. Get the picture?

 

[Broohaha]

"Iran" is Farsi for "Persian" in the same way that "Mexicano" is Spanish for "Mexican"

"Farsi" is Persian for "Persian" in the same way taht "Deutsche" is German for "German" and "Espanoil" is Spanish for "Spanish."

"Iran" was adopted by the Iranian government in the 1930s as a way of currying favor with Hitler's Germany. Iran had close ties with Nazi Germany because of its being associated with the ancestral homeland of the "Aryans" (see the wikpedia link in a post above). So, in a bit of nationalistic one-upmanship that was so common in that day, the government decided to mandate that the country no longer be referred to as Persia (even though that's the proper ENGLISH word to define the region) but as "Iran."

Basically it would be akin to a Greek person insisting that the world drop the name "Greece" and instead adopt "Thalanikos" (or whatever the Greek name for the country is) and insist that teh language is Thelanikan and the people are Thelanikans. (Note; I'm probably totally off on how Greeks refer to themselves, their language and their country, but you get the idea.)

That has stuck to this day, much to the detriment of present-day Iran, methinks. "Persia" is the English term associated with the great Persian empires of Xerxes and Cyrus the Great that duked it out with the Greeks. "Persian" is the name associated with the Gulf in the region. "Persian" is a type of cat, a type of architeccture, a type of rug, a type of food, etc. Insted, all of that has been shoved aside and to this day people don't know that when they run into an "Iranian" that hey're speaking to a descendent of one of the great Empires of history.

 

Iranian

Persian

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Broohaha
"Iran" is Farsi for "Persian" in the same way that "Mexicano" is Spanish for "Mexican"

"Farsi" is Persian for "Persian" in the same way taht "Deutsche" is German for "German" and "Espanoil" is Spanish for "Spanish."

Actually, "Irooni" is Farsi for "Persian".

"Farsi" is the Persian lanuage as compared to "Deutsche" is the German language.

I consider myself a Persian American, not an Iranian American.

 

[Linflas]

Even more interesting is that Persians = Aryans. I have an Iranian friend that one time made this statement and I told him he was nuts. He told me to go look it up and I did and sure enough he was correct. I told him that even though he was correct he would probably be better off not calling himself an Aryan.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Linflas
Even more interesting is that Persians = Aryans. I have an Iranian friend that one time made this statement and I told him he was nuts. He told me to go look it up and I did and sure enough he was correct. I told him that even though he was correct he would probably be better off not calling himself an Aryan.

Just tell him to drop the turban and shave his head

Seriously though, he's right, but the stereotype is that of a Nazi skinhead or KKK.

 

[Colt45]

geece is hellas or something close to that in greek.. iirc.