The status is that, somebody has no special plan of going abroad, such as Iran or Turkey, & hardly has any opportunities to work with Iranians & Turkis. & If he/she has to make a decision between Persian & Turkish, Which one do you recommend him/her to learn based on your personal taste ? Thank you very much!
Persian(Farsi) or Turkish?
In that case I wouldn't recommend they learn either. If they to choose one for some reason, I would recommend they learn Turkish because it is a more interesting language in my opinion.
I'd suggest Persian instead of Turkish, according to the informations you gave. The main reason is that the study of Farsi opens up to the knowledge of Arabic, in its writing, vocabulary (50% of Persian vocabulary is derived from Arabic) and culture, whereas Turkish, after Kemal's language reform in 1930, has severed almost all its bonds with Arabic and islamic culture. Moreover, Persian ancient and modern literature and poetry are above all the written literature and poetry of the East, and even far superior to Arabic culture. It's much more interesting to study Persian, whereas Turkish culture has been terribly impoverished by Kemal language policy.
Well, I have studied Turkish but I do have lots of contact with Turkish speakers, some of whom know no other language.
I would say Farsi (Persian) is somewhat easier to learn than Turkish is, if ease of learning is an issue. It is Indo-European, and I do not think it has complex case systems, though I have never studied it. Turkish is written in the Roman alphabet but it is very non-Indo-European in its structure.
I would say Farsi (Persian) is somewhat easier to learn than Turkish is, if ease of learning is an issue. It is Indo-European, and I do not think it has complex case systems, though I have never studied it. Turkish is written in the Roman alphabet but it is very non-Indo-European in its structure.
I would say Turkish. now Persian has a great cultural heritage, but so has Turkish, it may not be written down but it still exists.
Turkish is extremely logical in it's grammar, very very regular and totally phonetic. You write the same way you speak. Its exotic character is more of a bonus I think, because it opens up a whole new way of thinking.
Atatürk's language reforms did change a whole lot, but I have to say that I disagree with all the critique. Being Moslem is not about imitating Arabs, but the Turks didn't quite get that fact. It started out with little loan words but before the language reforms more than 70% of the vocabulary was either Persian or Arabic, many idiomatic expressions came from those two languages. The Ottoman language, as it was used by the Ottoman elite, was totally disconnected to the speech of the Turkish people. What Atatürk did was basically abandoning that artificial construct and going back to the roots. Keepin it real I'd say :)
Turkish will also open you the door to all the other Turkic languages (in differing degrees, you'll immediately understand Azerbaijani and Tatar, also Turkoman...Turkmen, Kirgiz and Kazak are going to be a hard one...Uzbek and Uighur very hard to understand...and Yakut extremely hard).
I do not know a lot about Persian, but seeing that Turkey is tied to the west (and this is getting stronger and stronger every day) and is a secular democracy, I'd say Turkish would be the better choice (plus I can imagine Turkish media is more easily accessible and of better quality).
Turkish is extremely logical in it's grammar, very very regular and totally phonetic. You write the same way you speak. Its exotic character is more of a bonus I think, because it opens up a whole new way of thinking.
Atatürk's language reforms did change a whole lot, but I have to say that I disagree with all the critique. Being Moslem is not about imitating Arabs, but the Turks didn't quite get that fact. It started out with little loan words but before the language reforms more than 70% of the vocabulary was either Persian or Arabic, many idiomatic expressions came from those two languages. The Ottoman language, as it was used by the Ottoman elite, was totally disconnected to the speech of the Turkish people. What Atatürk did was basically abandoning that artificial construct and going back to the roots. Keepin it real I'd say :)
Turkish will also open you the door to all the other Turkic languages (in differing degrees, you'll immediately understand Azerbaijani and Tatar, also Turkoman...Turkmen, Kirgiz and Kazak are going to be a hard one...Uzbek and Uighur very hard to understand...and Yakut extremely hard).
I do not know a lot about Persian, but seeing that Turkey is tied to the west (and this is getting stronger and stronger every day) and is a secular democracy, I'd say Turkish would be the better choice (plus I can imagine Turkish media is more easily accessible and of better quality).
It's important when there are sizzling world events, to know the languages of certain countries. Do we have to choose?
Be a good citizen: Learn Farsi
Enjoy a language outside the IE family: Learn Turkish
Be a good citizen: Learn Farsi
Enjoy a language outside the IE family: Learn Turkish
Which language sounds better, from the point of view of Westerners?
Persian(Farsi) or Turkish?
Persian(Farsi) or Turkish?