Persian is not Arabic

Clear Pronunciation Matters. Here is my take on Mr. Obama's Persian New Year Message.

On a linguistic level, Mr. Obama continues to be the straight A student whose efforts to pronounce foreign words as closely as possible to the target language do not go unnoticed. However, it strikes me that a language coach could have been very beneficial to him to ensure his closing wish of a happy new year for Iranians did not sound Arabic.

In Persian, the word 'eid' in the congratulory phrase 'Happy New Year', “Eid-e Shoma Mobarak”, is pronounced “eid” and “mobarak” rather than “aid” and “mubarak” (probably, the association of this word with the Egyptian polititian caused the president to pronounce the 'o' vowel as 'u', and that of 'e' as 'a').

Mr. President, you continue to come across as a learned man whose eloquence exhudes charm, intellect and linguistic knowledge. Hopefully, next year, we'll hear you say "Eid-e Shoma Mobarak!"

Content-wise, his message carries some information that was long overdue in the media: That of the fact that the Iranian people are the first group of people to suffer greatly at the hands of their “own” government, that the country is waiting to burst with youthful energy, talent and thirst for prosperity and that the level of censorship they are experiencing will not go unnoticed by the powers that be over here in the US.