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Reza Shah ruled Iran from 1925 - 1941 during which he worked hard to modernize the country. One of the ways he accomplished this was to import as much as he cou
by rezashirazian 11y ago
Reza Shah ruled Iran from 1925 - 1941 during which he worked hard to modernize the country. One of the ways he accomplished this was to import as much as he could from Europe. This is the reason beheind the French influence on the language. For any item that Farsi didn't have a word for or the word was too long or difficult, the French version became the defacto.
Hence Tie is "Kerevaat" (fr. cravate), Elevator is "Asaansor" (fr. ascenseur) and Pineapple is "Anaanaas" (fr. ananas)
- uptownfunk 11y agoThank you for this! I have always thought that Farsi sounded like French for some reason, and I could never put my finger on what it was. This clears things up!
- geff82 11y agoSince I learned farsi and live with my Iranian wife, I actually can't speak french fluently any more. After 3 days in France, the reverse thing happens and I talk to my wife in French, which she does not understand. Somehow, French and Persian occupy the same area of my brain. I also find that native French/Farsi speakers have a similar (not equal) accent when talking German. I always say " when someone calls and has a French accent, but the name sounds Middle Eastern, he's Iranian"
- uptownfunk 11y agoI had something similar - I learnt a bunch of spanish when I was in high school, then moved to india and learnt a bunch of hindi. And when I tried speaking spanish again after learning all that hindi, I found I couldn't articulate in spanish, only in hindi. I would think of something in spanish, and then out of my mouth would come hindi. It was funny and puzzling at the same time