The Historical Prestige of Persian Language

Because of the social nature of human languages, the people of any society try to credit up the prestige of their own language in comparison to other languages. In the historical contacts of the languages, some of them become more prestigious and come to the level of the “standard language” of a country or countries and become an indicator for validation of other languages. In contrary, it is also possible that the prestige of some others lessens and even they may vanish. According to Pierce, “linguistic prestige” has an interrelationship with “power”, and any prestigious language is supported by a kind of political-governmental, religious, social, cultural power or alike. This article tries to investigate the factors and the degree of prestige of Persian language in a historical point of view, using library data in an analytic- descriptive method. The results of this study show that prestigious condition of Persian language at the first step was achieved because of the necessity of a social unity of Iranian tribes. Then through the passage of history of Iran, Persian language used the advantages of governmental-political, religious, cultural, social, and financial supports and became prestigious. In spite of historical happenings, the effects of above-mentioned factors have caused Persian to be the most well-known Iranian language with the greatest number of speakers so far. 
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
All languages, whether live or dead, have their own historical background. In this article a certain aspect of Persian language historical background is noted and it is its “historical prestige”. The major question arises as such: “why among more than hundred Iranian languages and dialects, Persian specifies the most remarkable prestigious position to itself?” The reason can be followed in three major factors: time, place, and man. Bastani Parizi says that the triangle of history is based on the same three mentioned columns.
 
2. Theoretical Framework
The history of any language can be studied in different aspects and theoretical approaches. In this article, the history of Persian language is studied based on its historical prestige aspect. Linguistic prestige can be placed in sociolinguistic discussions and it often distinguishes the social and sometimes political-cultural attitudes towards a language in comparison to other languages. Michael Pearce (2007) believes that there is an interrelationship between “social prestige” and “linguistic prestige” in some manners. In additions, linguistic prestige has a direct relation with “power”.
It is worth to note that indicators of a language to be prestigious are relative. For instance, although based on the number of speakers, today Persian is not a prestigious language as languages like Chinese, Spanish, English, and Hindi, from some other aspects such as having cultural, literary, and artistic treasures and historical prestige, it stands on higher levels than the mentioned languages.
 
3. Methodology
The data for this article are gathered through library references, in relation to the major question of the article for the three historical eras of Iranian languages known as Old, Middle, and New. Then with an analytic – descriptive approach, the given data are studied to show the quality of increasing and decreasing of the prestige of Persian, during its 3000 years of its lifetime. In the whole article, there is an emphasize on functions of the three major elements of time, place and man, in Persian language historical prestige.
 
4. Results & Discussion
It seems that after the segregation of Iranian languages from the proto- Iranian language, once more a need was felt for a new unification for a common Iranian language among Iranians. They chose Persian language for this purpose. In this way, by the support of Achaemenian government, the foundation was laid for the appearance of a Persian, as a prestigious language among other Iranian languages.
In general, the five following factors can be considered as the supporters of Persian language as a prestigious language: 1- individuals and governmental institutions, 2- people in society, 3- individuals and cultural institutions, 4- individuals and religious institutions, 5- Iranian and non-Iranian languages.
The earliest time in Iran History, in which Persian language really achieved prestige, was when Achaemenian governorship in Pars region was ruling Iran. Achaemenians used Persian language as a means for unification of Iranian tribes after their separation from the common Iranian mother language, and Persian responded this goal successfully.
Through the passage of time, from the time of Achaemenian dynasty up the time being, Persian language has encountered various challenges, some desirable and some disastrous.
Nowadays many Iranian ethnic groups believe that enforcement of Persian language leads to their local and mother tongues become week. Indeed, this is a false thinking and other languages can use Persian language capabilities for enforcement of their own, because Persian is the common language of all Iranian ethnic groups. In other words, all existing Iranian languages can help each other and make a complementary collection with each other.
It can be guessed that from the old and middle eras of Iran up to the present time, tens or may be hundreds of Iranian languages and dialects have been born, some of which have been died and some others are alive. Among these Iranian languages and dialects, some have been luckier in comparison to others. One of the luckiest languages among all Iranian languages has been Persian. Persian has been profited at least of two advantages: firstly the Achaemenian rulers based its foundation very firmly, and secondly Iranians have used it as their unifier language through ages up to now.  
 
5. Conclusion & Suggestions
It seems that five major steps were taken in the history of Iran for making Persian a prestigious language among other Iranian languages: 1-introducing Persian as a “national language” among Iranian tribes, 2- being used in Achaemenian rulers’ inscriptions written in cuneiform script, 3- introducing Persian as official language in Iran, 4- translation from other languages into Persian, 5- using Persian in educational institutions.
The results show that before Islam, collective attempts of Iranians, and supports of two Iranian governments, namely Achaemenian and Sassanid, made Persian a prestigious language. After Islam, factors such as political-governmental powers, religion, translation, resistance against contacted languages, poetry, literature, calligraphy, education did the same thing for Persian.
From the time of Achaemenian up to now, Persian language has gradually achieved the following linguistic prestige indications: it could have been the national, official, standard, and lingua franca of Iranians; it has affected other languages and even overcome some of them; it has resisted against the supremacy of Greek, Parthian, Arabic and Turkish languages; it has played role in making new languages; and it has finally paved the way for the introduction of cultural, literary, and artistic capabilities among Iranians and even non - Iranians.
We can argue that through considering Persian as the common language of all Iranians, it can be used in promoting social convergence among Iranians. And, it is obvious that considering Persian only as the heritage of Pars tribe and region, leads to social divergence among Iranians. In addition, although today Persian stands at the highest position among Iranian languages and its foundation is relatively firm and strong, this does not mean that nothing can threaten it. It is necessary to emphasize that Persian language always needs to be supported. Right now, to preserve and develop the prestige of Persian, we must do whatever we can, considering linguistic and language planning views, and also the very nature of the language itself.
 
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