Pure Language Approach; An Enthusiastic Attempt or A Social Response?

Human beings live in a community and interact with one another by means of a common language. To consider any language to be pure is a futile exercise. Undoubtedly, very few, if any, languages exist in the most authentic form free from lexical borrowings or loan words. Languages evolve in time, and a number of language advocates have attempted to erase any foreign lexicon from the source language. In the context of authentic Farsi, these attempts can be traced in two separate lines of evolution. Firstly, enthusiastic attempts of literary figures such as poets and authors; and, secondly, social responses of language advocates, through their familiarity with poetry, writings of poets and authors and also the nomenclature of other language enthusiasts.The enthusiastic attempts of poets and authors towards the use of authentic Farsi can be attributed to two significant factors: 1. attempts that are potentially essential and mandatory; 2. attempts that have resulted from the mastery of language. In the former, the requirement of Quranic translators in discovering an exact equivalent for the Quranic text is noted. In the latter, the application of authentic Farsi in texts, such as the Shāhnāmeh, in a way to maintain appropriateness of language with content is observed. While relating to enthusiastic attempts, the use of literary language can also be considered. In other words, poets and authors have attempted at depersonalization in their literary productions. However, social responses during the periods of Persian Constitutional Revolution and Pahlavi I were colored with extreme nationalistic spirit. In this article, both the enthusiastic attempts and social responses have been traced and studied.