ABSTRACT
Languages are constantly changing, and there can never be a general consensus on what is good or bad usage in a language like Persian – just as in English, some would find the word 'general' redundant before 'consensus,' and for others, it is okay. Careless or bad Persian can be encountered in formal / written Persian only. The way different people speak can differ, based on the social milieu in which they grew up. The worst, or ugliest, Persian is what is neither used by ordinary people when they are talking nor by good writers when they are writing. There has been a Persian purism movement among Iranian intellectuals, writers and linguists since early twentieth Century with ups and downs at different stages – a movement with very little effect on the ordinary people and the way they use the language, no matter to what extent they share the nationalistic sentiments fueling this movement.
