Comparative Linguistic Research

Comparative Linguistic Research

The debate over mother tongue education

Document Type : Research Paper

Author
Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand
Linguistics department, BASU
10.22084/rjhll.2026.32501.2430
Abstract
In recent years, a wave has been created and a fabricated issue has been added to the cultural and social discussions of the Persian language, stating that in the multilingual society of Iran, non-Persian languages have been oppressed by the Persian language. This debate requires linguistic, legal, educational and historical analysis, and the real dimensions of the issue cannot be determined by simply inciting collective emotions and resorting to unscientific slogans. This brief article attempts to analyze this debate linguistically. This article presents arguments that show that the existence of Persian as a lingua franca in Iranian society is necessary, that this necessity has never been forced, that no other language in the Iranian language family has this ability, and that ultimately Persian acts like mother tongue for all Iranians.
Keywords
mother tongue
Persian
local languages
ethnocentrism
language planning
Subjects
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