"The Daily PensylvanIranian"
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Penn's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, traditionally publishes an April Fool's issue every year, generally a week or so before April 1. This year's version has not (so far) been put out as a paper version, or even in the standard online form, but only as a set of images.
Echoing the title pun, this year's front page features Iran-related jokes. The two featured articles are headlined "Unemployed Senior Really Banking on Job Offer from the Military Draft" and "Iran Announces New AI-yatollah, First Chatbot Supreme Leader":
Below the fold, there's "Alpha Phi to Monitor Situation in Iran", "Alert: All men [WHARTON EXEMPTED] ages 18-25 to Report for Service", and "Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for 1920 Commons Dinner Last Night":
Geoff Pullum documented a few Linguistics April Fool's in-jokes years ago (here and here), and I'm sure there have been others that escape my memory at the moment.
Stephen Goranson said,
March 31, 2026 @ 2:16 pm
On March 31, it seems to me that Trump and some cabinet members occasionally
take us as fools.
Martin Schwartz said,
March 31, 2026 @ 6:03 pm
The OK pun AI-yatollah points to the very common assumption
(clearly held in vocal Washington circles) that Ayatollah is equivalent to
"Supreme Leader" in the Islanmc Republic of Iran, as though
it were like a title Gorgonzola meaning 'The Big Cheese'.
In fact Āyātollāh is a senior clerical title based on extensive
Shi'ite religious study. There are a great many people in Iran with that
title, but hardly more than a handful who have the degree of
Grand Āyātollāh. The rank of Āyātollāh was given to Mojtaba
Khamenei after the death of his father, but this is controversial
among Iranian religious scholars, especially in Qom. Look up
the Wiki "Atatollah" or ask the AI-yatollah of your preference.
Martin Schwartz
JPL said,
April 1, 2026 @ 12:43 am
But what Farsi words or word is being translated as "Supreme Leader" when the expression "Supreme Leader" is being used in English news items, as if it refers to a political role in the government structure? There's no problem with using the term 'Ayatollah' in English accounts. It hasn't been my impression that people considered 'Ayatollah' and 'Supreme Leader' as equivalent in meaning (sense). But the sentence that contains the word "equivalent" above is unclear as to what exactly the "common assumption" is. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that "supreme leader" is a mistranslation, since it seems rather ridiculous as something one would call the head of an organization.
Robot Therapist said,
April 1, 2026 @ 3:47 am
I guess I'd want to spell it "AI-atollah" with no "y".
Martin Schwartz said,
April 1, 2026 @ 5:14 am
@JPL: I don't say there's a problem, as long as one is speaking about
current (American) English popular usage, although it embodies
ignorance of Iranian usage, about which one may not care. For those who do care, there may bee a problem. I'm sorry you find me unclear. As evidence for what I call a common assumption (which
contradicts your impression), have a look at the Fox News YouTube tag "Trump… Ayatollah". Absolutely clear evidence for my assertion
is the YouTube? video from Middle Eastern Eye entitled: "Trump says that he could share control over the Strait of Hormuz".How about your conducting a survey just asking non-scholars what Ayatollah means.
By the way I do find a problem with your usage "Farsi".Yes, the US State Department declared it a legitimate equivalent (or whatever equative term you wish to use) for Persian, but do you say Deutsch
and not German, Elliniká nd not Greek, Nedewrlands and not Dutch
and Hayeren and not Armenian?,All anglophone Iranist colleagues
I know say "Persian"".Oh, as to your question, in Persian
(Farsi if you must) "Supreme leader" is Rahbar Mo'azzam, or Rahbar
(rah 'road, way'+ -bar 'bearing = showing').
An old song Allāhu akbar Khomeini Rahbar has been recently revived as
Allāhu akbar, Khāmenei Rahbar, referring to Ali Kh.
Martin Schwartz
J.W. Brewer said,
April 1, 2026 @ 12:18 pm
I'm interested in the usage "Grand Ayatollah," since it translates half but only half of "Ayatollah Uzma" (add diacritical marks to taste). It's clearly a fixed phrase in English, not least because "grand" is not really the obvious generic adjective you'd use. In other words it's not exactly a combination like "senior rabbi" or "assistant rabbi" where the main word is borrowed rather than translated/calqued but the modifier is straightforward.
The wiki article notes substantial changes in usage in Iran since 1979 due to a dramatically inflated total inventory of ayatollahs and corresponding reduction in the level of religious prominence/achievement associated with bearing the title, thus motivating further differentiation. It also claims that political factors meant that the late Ayatollah Khameinei received the title without actually meeting the traditional criteria for scholarly achievement.
But on the actual Penn student newspaper coverage, I note that it wasn't very long ago when joke stories about sororities usually did not jokingly have them getting venture-capital funding for tech startups.
Philip Taylor said,
April 1, 2026 @ 3:28 pm
Martin — I very much suspect that whether one says "Farsi" (rather than "Persian"), "Nederlands" (rather than "Dutch"), etc., depends on the number of times that one has used the non-parenthesised form in conversation with native speakers relative to the number of times one has used the parenthesised forms with fellow anglophones. For myself, I have used "Nederlands" far more times (with native speakers) than I have used "Dutch" (with fellow anglophones) because I rarely have occasion to speak of the Dutch language when speaking English. So for me "Nederlands" trips off the tongue whereas "Dutch" does not (except in the fixed phrases "double Dutch" or "going Dutch", or even, I suppose, "Dutch cap").
JPL said,
April 1, 2026 @ 5:24 pm
OK, I take your word for it that there is in the US a common assumption "that Ayatollah is equivalent to "Supreme Leader" in the Islamic Republic of Iran" in some sense. I would have thought that the fact that, e.g., according to mainstream media accounts, the new "Supreme Leader", Mojtaba Khamenei is not an Ayatollah (or at least he wasn't one before he was chosen), and that, while most of the candidates were Ayatollahs, there were other candidates that were not Ayatollahs, would have made the holding of that assumption difficult, but of course Fox News is a different world.
But my main concern was with the term 'Supreme Leader' as used in English language media accounts. Where does that come from? My question was not, "what is the meaning of "supreme leader" in Persian, but what is the Persian expression, if there is one, that is typically used by Iranians in referring to the highest political office (not clerical rank), that is being translated as "Supreme Leader" in English accounts? Is that a good translation, or is there a more accurate translation?
JPL said,
April 1, 2026 @ 5:30 pm
Sorry, my comment above was meant to be addressed to Martin Schwartz, but if anybody else has an answer to my question in para. 2, I would appreciate a response.
VVOV said,
April 1, 2026 @ 8:19 pm
> what is the Persian expression, if there is one, that is typically used by Iranians in referring to the highest political office (not clerical rank), that is being translated as "Supreme Leader" in English accounts?
I do not speak Persian, but I think Martin Schwartz partially answered this question in their previous post and can supplement with information easily available via online dictionary lookup… the official Persian term / title for the head of state of Iran is "rahbar-e moazzam" (رهبر معظم). I do not speak Persian, but from a brief dictionary lookup, "rahbar" means leader (with etymology "rah" road/way + "bar" bearing/showing, per Martin's post) and "moazzam" means exalted / honored / great / magnificent. Hence, "supreme leader" seems to be a reasonable literal translation.
JPL said,
April 1, 2026 @ 9:03 pm
@VVOV:
Thank you very much, but I would disagree with your last sentence, and I'm looking for more than just "translation equivalents"; a more precise description, if possible. Why can't the English translation used be "honored leader"?
Martin Schwartz said,
April 2, 2026 @ 12:47 am
@Philip Taylor: There are specific politico-sociolinguistic reasons
for why "Farsi "became popularly used in English, at least in the US,
but it woud take too long for me to detail them.
@J.W. Brewer: Half? Āyatollāh (sic, second vowel is short, for give my earlier error: āyāt means 'signS').
is Arabic for 'sign ofGod'." 'Uzmā (for Arabic, underdot the
z and put a glottal stop after ā; NB my ' represents a pharyngeal
consonant) means 'great' and is used in the Arabic for 'Great Britain'.
Mo'azzam, from the same Arabic root, means 'made great, regarded as great'. Btw, I'm an Iranist and not a Persianist (big difference!)
and also not a scholar of modern Iran.
@VVOV: You reminded me (as I rememberedon my way to bed)
that rahbar-e mo'azzam indeed, being a Persian construction and not aphrase ready-made in Arabic, has -e after the first noun to connect
it with the following adj.
@JPL: Honored reader, I hope I answered your question by my above remarks. If not, I shall not get drawn into an infinite exchange,
and as for the present matter, I'm outa here.
Martin Schwartz
ajay said,
April 2, 2026 @ 6:49 am
The commonest non-Iran use of "ayatollah" survives both the correct and the wrong interpretation, as one could reasonably believe the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Roll-ah to be either the Supreme Leader of Rock and Roll (like Michael Jackson, you know, the King of Pop) or simply someone who has studied rock and roll for many years and whose dedication and knowledge is recognised by his fellow students.
ajay said,
April 2, 2026 @ 6:55 am
'Uzmā (for Arabic, underdot the
z and put a glottal stop after ā; NB my ' represents a pharyngeal
consonant) means 'great' and is used in the Arabic for 'Great Britain'.
This would appear to be a very serious mistranslation! 'Great Britain' is not great in the sense of exalted, honoured, magnificent. It is great in the sense of geographically big. Or, at least, geographically bigger than "Little Britain", which was originally the name used for Ireland but later was taken to refer to Brittany.
VVOV said,
April 2, 2026 @ 9:08 am
@JPL, i agree it's an interesting question, why did "supreme leader" become the standard English translation of this phrase rather than exalted / honored / great / some-other-adjective leader.
For what it's worth, I did a google books search for "supreme leader" for texts dated 1979-1989 (i.e. first 10 years after the Islamic Revolution). In the first two pages of results, only one was referring to the supreme leader of Iran.
The other results included 3 for Ahmed Sékou Touré (president of Guinea, described as "supreme leader of the Revolution"), and one each for Fidel Castro ("supreme leader of the Cuban Revolution"), Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung, Emilio Aguinaldo, (president of the Philippines), Andranik Ozanian ("supreme leader of the Armenian revolutionary movement"), Stalin, one referring to the leader of the Khitan empire in the 6th century CE, and a couple discussing the concept of a "supreme leader" in politics without referencing a specific individual within the visible excerpt/preview.
In contrast, when the years for the google books search were changed to 2010-present, almost all results on the first two pages referred to the leader of Iran (the others were split between the DPRK, and fictional works).
My impression from this very brief search is that at the time of the Iranian Revolution, "supreme leader" was an extant phrase in English that was broadly applied to various types of autocratic leaders and was not necessarily intended as a direct translation of those leaders' titles in their own language. Then, in subsequent years, the term "supreme leader" has become more specifically associated with the leader of Iran.
VVOV said,
April 2, 2026 @ 11:03 am
Addendum to my earlier comment:
In ongoing/current discourse, the leaders of China and the DPRK are both sometimes referred to as the "supreme leader". In these cases, the Chinese/Sino-Korean term being rendered as "supreme" (最高) literally means "highest", i.e., the leader who is of a higher rank than all other leaders. '
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_leader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Leader_(North_Korean_title)
That seems to be a different connotation than the Persian "mo'azzam" which Martin glosses above as "made great, regarded as great".
J.W. Brewer said,
April 2, 2026 @ 3:10 pm
To one VVOV's questions, I think "supreme" maybe has an implicature of there being only one such leader (in a given regime) at a time, whereas you could potentially have multiple concurrent "exalted" leaders, and the same for other proposed translations?
FWIW as a sort-of analogy to "grand ayatollah" I am advised by wikipedia that the medieval Bosnian title usually rendered in English as "grand duke" (велики војвода, in the original) was rendered in Latin as "supremus voivoda," borrowing rather than calquing the main Slavic noun but translating the adjective. The Slavic title looks to be a calque of the Byzantine μέγας δούξ.
Martin Schwartz said,
April 2, 2026 @ 4:48 pm
As to the Arabic (and then Persian) phrase mentioned by J.W.
Brewer in his first comment above, and the use of the second adjectival
element used (to Ajay's displeasure) in application to Britain:
The word should be rendered for Arabic as 'uZmâ (for which a
proper diacritical font would have for the initial pharyngeal (my ') a symbol which looks like a dotless backward question mark, and for my Z
an underpointed z. There is no final glottal stop (I should not write
comments when I'm half asleep); rather the long final vowel
indicated by Arabists as -â (in distinction from -ā) indicates what is indicated by Arabic orthography as the vowel a followed by a y,
which is no longer pronounced. This is the feminine form of
'aZīm, which can mean 'great', 'grand' and 'geograhically vast',
so suitale with "Britain". As for āyatullah (I'm not indicating the
initial glottal stop) 'sign of God',the first element is feminine, so adj.
'uZmâ. The Persian of Iran pronounces the originally Arabic words
as āyatollāh and ozmā.
Martin Schwartz
ajay said,
April 3, 2026 @ 3:44 am
Martin: thank you. I wonder if the Persian "ozma" is where L Frank Baum got the idea?
VVOV: a lot of the use of "supreme leader" might be to do with the habit of Communist countries of having leaders whose official job titles don't reflect their actual power; Stalin was not president of the USSR, Deng Xiaoping IIRC was never president of China. So you need a concise way of saying "chap who is really in charge".
"Great Leader" was Kim Il Sung's honorific, but it was not handed down after his death; he remained the Great Leader, and his heir Kim Jong Il was known as the Dear Leader.
HS said,
April 3, 2026 @ 6:16 pm
but do you say Deutsch and not German, Elliniká and not Greek, Nedewrlands and not Dutch and Hayeren and not Armenian?
I have the same issue here in New Zealand. It has become common here to refer to the Maori language (when speaking English) as "te reo Maori" or just "te reo", which irks me. "Te reo" just means "the language" in Maori, so this would be equivalent to somebody referring to, say, Spanish as "la lengua español" or "la lengua" when speaking English.
I wonder if the Persian "ozma" is where L Frank Baum got the idea?
The usual story is that Baum got the name of "Oz" from his filing cabinet marked "O-Z". Possibly it is apocryphal. ("Oz" is of course also the name of a small continent to the west of New Zealand.)
Martin Schwartz said,
April 3, 2026 @ 10:20 pm
I see from the Wiki "L. Frank Baum" that he wrote something called
"Ozma of Oz"; this fleshes out ajay's question. Ozmā is not common in Persian; it only occurs in some limited phrases from Arabic.
My guess as a non-Baumologist is that Baum built Ozma on Oz.
Then there's Dr. Oz. In Turkish his surname is Öz, which means
s/th like 'quintessential, pure'. Usually this goes with longer
surnames. like Özkan 'pureblooded', Özalp 'pure hero',
Özkartal 'Reinadler', Öztopçu 'Yourbasiccannoneer' etc. Long ago, UCB was having jobtalks for
a position in Turkish, and in one day two of the candidates had
surnames with Öz-; our late Istanbul-born linguist Karl Zimmer
quipped, "Today is an özday".
Martin Schwartz
quipped " "Today is an özday".
David Marjanović said,
April 4, 2026 @ 7:14 am
Özaslan "true lion"
Özdemir "pure iron"
Öztürk "we're, like, totally not Kurds or anything"
Martin Schwartz said,
April 4, 2026 @ 1:22 pm
@David Marjanoviċ: Totally. Laughing emojis and emotica, smiling suns, and clapping hands to you.
Martin from Berkliye (Berkliyeli)