Persian as a diaspora language in times of glocalization in Frankfurt am main

Abstract

Persian is one of the five languages in history, which produced about 5500 years of content without interruption along with Sanskrit, Mandarin, Greek and Latin. It is an Asian language, which was before the nation-state in a polycentric state and shares diverse varieties. Among these varieties one can identify the major three types of Khorasan-i, Hind-i and Iraq-i. The idea of nation-state is a totally Western one, which came up after the peace treaty of Westphalia of 1648 in contemporary Germany. In the case of Asia we had the three so-called gunpowder empires (16^th-18^th century), being the Ottoman-Empire, the Safavid-Empire and the Mughal-Empire. However, Persian was at the time of these three Empires its noble court language, lingua franca of science, poetry and literature, and the communication tool for traders. In times of migration, which should be called correctly Glocalization (global and local), languages or certain norms and values migrate as well with the people’s choice to leave their home. The Glocalization aims to approach important lifeworld topics like language or just religion grounded in its philosophy, which shapes everyone’s identity in a reciprocal way. Therefore, it is of importance to talk about Persian as an everyday diaspora language in times of Glocalization: West-Asia (Tehran) in connection with Western-Europe (Frankfurt am Main). 

 Keywords: Diaspora, Frankfurt Am Main, Persian, Transculturality, Urban, Iran