In an interview, I heard him reply in French, since Roger's 1st wife was French, possibly all of them spoke it?~
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[QUOTE] [b]it was electric7 wrote:[/b]
when you say Parsi...does that mean Farci..or persian language?[/QUOTE]
Farci = Parsi. It's a matter of different systems of latinizing the spelling. Same thing with Palestine / Filistine, Phoenicia / Punica, Peking / Beijing etc.
when you say Parsi...does that mean Farci..or persian language?[/QUOTE]
Farci = Parsi. It's a matter of different systems of latinizing the spelling. Same thing with Palestine / Filistine, Phoenicia / Punica, Peking / Beijing etc.
^^^^^ Sorry, but that is not exactly true. Parsis originally came from Pars (the local name for Persia), and are of pure Persian origin. When the Arabs conquered Pars (Persia), they were not able to say the letter 'P' (there is no such sound in Arabic), so they called the people (the original Persians they conquered) Farsi instead of Parsi.
Farsi is the language spoken by Iranians today, which does have its roots in the ancient Persian language but is different. Iranians today are a mixture of the Persian and Arab races.
Farsi is the language spoken by Iranians today, which does have its roots in the ancient Persian language but is different. Iranians today are a mixture of the Persian and Arab races.
What you're saying is quite true, but also entirely separate from what I wrote. The Parsi/Farsi/Farci/Pharsee difference is a matter of spelling as well as pronunciation. Farsi is written in a Persian-Arabic alphabet, and when words from said language are 'transplanted' to the west, they are transliterated into the Latin alphabet. However, some consonants are not an exact 1:1 match between the languages (as with the non-existent 'f'-sound you refer to in Arabic*), so there are multiple options, resulting in different transliterations like, as I mentioned, the famous Beijing/Peking. So I'm not talking about the Arabic pronunciation, but solely about the western transliteration.
If you're going to get really technical and analyse the difference between the words Parsi and Farsi as used in different parts of the world, you'll find that some regions in Asia distinguish between the two (Parsi = people of Persian extraction, especially non-Islamic Persians, Farsi = Persian language), some use either Parsi or Farsi in both senses (so to mean the people and the language) and some use an altogether different word for the Parsi people while using either Farsi or Parsi to refer to the language.
* interesting side-note: Arabic does have a soft 'th' (similar to the Scandinavian thorn, written as 'þ'), so you can ask yourself the question why they softened the P to an F, rather than a P to Th shift, which is also conceivable.
If you're going to get really technical and analyse the difference between the words Parsi and Farsi as used in different parts of the world, you'll find that some regions in Asia distinguish between the two (Parsi = people of Persian extraction, especially non-Islamic Persians, Farsi = Persian language), some use either Parsi or Farsi in both senses (so to mean the people and the language) and some use an altogether different word for the Parsi people while using either Farsi or Parsi to refer to the language.
* interesting side-note: Arabic does have a soft 'th' (similar to the Scandinavian thorn, written as 'þ'), so you can ask yourself the question why they softened the P to an F, rather than a P to Th shift, which is also conceivable.
Parsis come from the Gujarat region of the subcontinent as that is where their Persian forebears settled when they came from Iran. As such they acclimated and were absorbed into the socio-cultural fabric of the Gujarat region, adopting the language, food and dress. Their native language is Gujarati, albeit with a few idiosyncratic changes originating from their Pahlavi (Middle Persian) native language. Their surnames names are usually either a.) South Asianized Persian ones like Naoroji (Nowrouz) or Godrej (Gudarz), b.) occupational ones adopted during the Raj like Contractor, Solicitor, Doctor, Petit, Printer, Daruwalla, Saklatvala or even Sodabottleopenerwalla! or c.) local Gujarati surnames shared with the Hindu-Muslim population like Patel, Modi, Kapadia, Mistry or, in Freddie's case, Bulsara. Parsi surnames like Bulsara, Bharucha or Anklesaria are actually derived from Gujarati cities like Bharuch, Bulsar or Anklesar. Freddie's paternal family originated in Bulsar, which had (and continues to have) a large Parsi-Zoroastrian community.
To cut this short though, Freddie's native language was Parsi Gujarati and he most likely spoke it at home. He most certainly knew basic Hindustani at the very least as his family reports him as having sung to Indian music that they played at home. My guess is as good as any that that music played was more likely than not movie music from old Bollywood classics of the 40's and 50's.
Btw, with regards to Freddie's accent. Parsis were one of the first Indian communities to develop close relations with the English and were among the first to adopt English as a second language. This gave them a proclivity to Anglicization that many other Indian communities lacked. To the point where for many Parsis, English is as much a native language, if not more so, than Gujarati or any other Indian language. As such, Parsi English is often reputed to be of extremely high quality albeit with an accent as Parsis are native Gujarati speakers after all. This coupled with Freddie's education at a posh Anglo-Indian boarding school near Bombay catering to India's elite helped mold his unique accent. Freddie Mercury basically had a very colonial Anglo-Indian RP accent. The kind of accent Nehru, Jinnah and, to some extent, Gandhi had. An accent any upper-middle class Indian educated in elite colonial/postcolonial English schools would have had it. Having lived in England for a while, Freddie's accent naturally evolved into a somewhat more crisp English accent, albeit a very perfect one compared to his more blue-collar British peers, the one you could only get in rigorous colonial schools. But traces of an Indian accent are still pretty discernible to an attentive listener. If you hear his interviews from the 70's, you can notice a definite Indian twang. In the 80's, its still there but less obvious, given its being hidden by a more prominent British sound.
To cut this short though, Freddie's native language was Parsi Gujarati and he most likely spoke it at home. He most certainly knew basic Hindustani at the very least as his family reports him as having sung to Indian music that they played at home. My guess is as good as any that that music played was more likely than not movie music from old Bollywood classics of the 40's and 50's.
Btw, with regards to Freddie's accent. Parsis were one of the first Indian communities to develop close relations with the English and were among the first to adopt English as a second language. This gave them a proclivity to Anglicization that many other Indian communities lacked. To the point where for many Parsis, English is as much a native language, if not more so, than Gujarati or any other Indian language. As such, Parsi English is often reputed to be of extremely high quality albeit with an accent as Parsis are native Gujarati speakers after all. This coupled with Freddie's education at a posh Anglo-Indian boarding school near Bombay catering to India's elite helped mold his unique accent. Freddie Mercury basically had a very colonial Anglo-Indian RP accent. The kind of accent Nehru, Jinnah and, to some extent, Gandhi had. An accent any upper-middle class Indian educated in elite colonial/postcolonial English schools would have had it. Having lived in England for a while, Freddie's accent naturally evolved into a somewhat more crisp English accent, albeit a very perfect one compared to his more blue-collar British peers, the one you could only get in rigorous colonial schools. But traces of an Indian accent are still pretty discernible to an attentive listener. If you hear his interviews from the 70's, you can notice a definite Indian twang. In the 80's, its still there but less obvious, given its being hidden by a more prominent British sound.
A couple of years ago Freddie's sister visited the convention and was asked that question. She said that Freddie and herself spoke Suaheli as their native language and English as the second language. She did not mention Gujarati but certainly he must have picked up some Indian language in boarding school.
AFAIR, what she said is that they both spoke mostly English, but sometimes they'd speak Swahili with their parents.
[QUOTE] [b]Ready_Coddie wrote:[/b]
I kind of disagree there...
Freddie was a parsi & upon his stay in India would have learned both English & Hindi.
Panchgani was always (and still is) a brilliant school/hostel area but during that time middle class/upper middle class could afford it as well & majority of them were hindus & would obviously take time to master english & I don't think Freddie never talked to anyone, he would have picked up considerable Bombayian hindi (mix of multiple languages)[/QUOTE]
agree
I kind of disagree there...
Freddie was a parsi & upon his stay in India would have learned both English & Hindi.
Panchgani was always (and still is) a brilliant school/hostel area but during that time middle class/upper middle class could afford it as well & majority of them were hindus & would obviously take time to master english & I don't think Freddie never talked to anyone, he would have picked up considerable Bombayian hindi (mix of multiple languages)[/QUOTE]
agree