The Investigation of the Obsolescence of Arabic Words in Persian Press at Recent Decade

Abstract

This article investigates the obsolescence of Arabic loanwords in Persian press. For this purpose the Ettelaat newspaper of the years of 1310 and 1311 was selected and some of the Arabic words having been extensively used in Persian at that time was gathered. The major reason of obsolescence of these words is word coinage and the tendency to replace foreign words with Persian words. Negative attitude to Arabic language against positive attitude to Persian is the important reason of Persian word coinage that here the Academy of Persian Literature and Language has played the important role. Furthermore being heavy of Arabic words, linguisticpurism and also patriotism have been resulted to word coinage. Besides word coinage, there are another reasons for obsolescence of Arabic words that are: social, cultural and political changes, taboos and euphemisms. In this article we just investigate the word coinage that is the most important reason of obsolescence.

Keywords

• word coinage
• linguistic purism
• academy
• arabic
• obsolescence