The Washington Monthly

June 17, 2009

A Mystery Solved!

Slate answers a question about Iran:

"In many photos, riot police wear uniforms with the English word police on them. Ambulances, too, bear the word ambulance in English. Why not use Persian words instead of their English equivalents?

Because everyone knows English. Like many capital cities, Tehran has its emergency personnel wear markings that are internationally recognizable. Street signs, too, are translated into English, and police cars are generally inscribed in both English and Persian. That makes the city more tourist-friendly without sacrificing clarity for locals. After all, the Persian word for police is the same: polise. (Persian, or Farsi, is an Indo-European language that uses an Arabic script, but people will often use Latin lettering, also known as Penglish or Fingilish, especially when typing or texting.) It's also the same word in French (police), German (polizei), Italian (polizia), Czech (policie), and many other languages. Iranian students are required to take English classes in high school. So using the English word for police actually maximizes the number of people who will understand it."

I was wondering about that. Now it all makes sense. Thanks, Slate!

—Hilzoy 9:49 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (13)

Comments

There you go again trying your best to soften up the image of the 21st century savak, gestapo and brownshirts led by the Atilla the Hun, Changez Khan, Hitler, Pol Pot and GW Bush all combined into one persona.

Posted by: gregor on June 17, 2009 at 9:59 PM | PERMALINK

Very cool.

Posted by: Chris on June 17, 2009 at 10:19 PM | PERMALINK

That's Genghis Khan, knothead. And he didn't have a police force. Neither did Attila.

Posted by: Mark on June 17, 2009 at 10:22 PM | PERMALINK

Yeah, they do the same thing in Egypt (I lived in Cairo for a year). All of the major street signs and ambulances, etc. are lettered in both English and Arabic for the same reasons.

Posted by: TX Expat on June 17, 2009 at 10:35 PM | PERMALINK

That's Genghis Khan, knothead. And he didn't have a police force. Neither did Attila.

Narrow cultural education, maybe? Both Jengis and Attila were big law and order guys, ran well-disciplined empires. Jengis was proud of the fact that a man with a sack of gold could walk across his realm armed only with a stick to fend off stray dogs.

Per witnesses, both men were strong advocates of avoiding excess in drinking, eating, and costume.

That didn't stop them from the violent and bloody depopulation of entire countries, but, let's be fair where fair is due!

Posted by: Midland on June 17, 2009 at 10:47 PM | PERMALINK

Speaking of translations, the NBC News Tehran bureau chief, Ali Arouzi, told Brian Williams that when he saw a protestor carrying a sign in English, he asked him what it meant to him, and he said he didn't know, that he couldn't read it, that the sign was meant for the Western news media.

Gee, who could have imagined ?

Posted by: Joe Friday on June 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM | PERMALINK

Yeah, they might be taking English classes, but, betcha they ain't learnin' no 'Merican!

Posted by: CallJoeforanyplumbing on June 17, 2009 at 11:13 PM | PERMALINK

Further proof that everyone wants to be just like us!

Posted by: dr sardonicus on June 18, 2009 at 12:00 AM | PERMALINK

Everyone just wants to hear Obama's speeches in the original English.

Posted by: maverratick on June 18, 2009 at 1:18 AM | PERMALINK

That's Genghis Khan, knothead.

In certain parts of the world the transliteration of the name is Changez. Apparently in Afghanistan as well.

http://www.afghanland.com/history/changez.html

Posted by: gregor on June 18, 2009 at 1:33 AM | PERMALINK

Though I doubt Farsi's being Indo-European has any bearing on what its word for "police" is. This is a word subject to borrowing, as the use of poliisi in (non-Indo-European) Finnish shows.

Posted by: noncarborundum on June 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM | PERMALINK

Imagine the right wing brouhaha here if we started putting vital DC information in foreign languages for the convenience of visitors

Posted by: Andy on June 18, 2009 at 11:15 AM | PERMALINK

Thanks for the correction, gregor; I respectfully withdraw the "knothead" comment.

Posted by: Mark on June 18, 2009 at 12:44 PM | PERMALINK

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