To: Deaf Smith; Lonesome in Massachussets; Angelino97
This has a reason - there are lots of Iranian ethnicities like Persians, Kurds, Mazdanis, etc and non iranian ethnicities in iran like Azeris, Armenians and Arabs. So the rulers of iran prefer to use tha4t generic term rather than that of the largest (but still only around 40%) ethnicity- the Persians.
Like the Netherlands has many provinces, two 9f which are north and south Holland. They don’t want the entire country to be called by a subset.
It would be like calling the entire USA as California.
30 posted on
05/02/2026 7:11:14 PM PDT by
Cronos
(Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
To: Cronos
It would be like calling the entire USA as California.
To: Cronos
Thanks, you are probably* correct, but that's not what I meant to convey. I was distinguishing what are known as
exonyms and
endonyms. An exonym is what outsiders call a country, an endonym is what inhabitants call it. Like Deutschland v. Germany.
*Not doubting you, but sidestepping endorsing what is outside my lane.
33 posted on
05/03/2026 3:57:29 AM PDT by
Lonesome in Massachussets
( Thorough planning and careful preparation is no substitute for wishful thinking. )
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