Dari (Eastern Persian)

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For Zoroastrian Dari see Dari (Zoroastrian).

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Persian language
Regional and social varieties: Modern Persian & Western variant Classical Persian & Eastern variant Central Asian Tājīk variant Judeo-Persian (Dzhidi) Judeo-Tajik (Bukhori) Hazāra dialects Grammar: Standard New Persian Central Asian Persian Language features: Vocabulary Nouns Verbs Phonology Writing systems: Perso-Arabic script Cyrillic alphabet Romanized Persian alphabet

Dari (Persian: دری - Darī; pronounced [dæˈɾi]) or Dari Persian (Persian: فارسی دری - Fārsīy e Darī; pronounced [fɒːɾsije dæˈɾi]), also known as Eastern Persian is a historical name for the Persian language and, in contemporary usage refers to the dialects of the Persian language that are spoken in Afghanistan.^[1][2][3] It is the term officially recognized and promoted by the Afghan government for the language.^[1] As defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, Dari is an official language of Afghanistan but Pashto, according to various sources,^{[citation needed]} is spoken by most of its population.

Contents 1 Origin of the word "Dari" 2 Geographical distribution 3 Differences between Iranian Persian and Dari (Afghan) Persian 4 History 5 Political views on the language 6 See Also 7 Further reading 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Origin of the word "Dari"

There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari. The majority of scholars believe that Dari refers to the Persian word darbār (دربار), meaning "Court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids.^[1] This opinion is supported by medieval sources and early Islamic historians.^[4]

[edit] Geographical distribution

In Afghanistan Dari Persian ("Fārsi e Dari") is also simply called Persian ("Fārsi"). It is not to be confused with Dari or Gabri of Iran, a language of the Central Iran sub-group, spoken in some Zoroastrian communities.^[5][6]

Iranian languages have been and are still widely used language in Central Asia both by native speakers and as trade languages. Whereas in the past East Iranian languages, such as Bactrian, Sogdian and Khotanese, and West Iranian languages, notably Parthian and Middle Persian were prominent, New Persian has supplanted most of these languages. Only in the Pamir mountains there are still pockets of speakers of East Iranian languages left, such as Shughni, Sarikoli, Yazgulami, and Sanglechi-Ishkashmi, thanks to their relative isolation.

Dari Persian is considered to be a more archaic form of (New) Persian. It is the major language of Afghanistan, one of the two official languages (next to Pashto). In practice though it serves as the de facto lingua franca among the various, different ethno-linguistic groups. Dari Persian dominates in the northern and western parts, and the capital, Kabul, in the east. The command of Dari, varies from region to region, especially in the predominantly Pashto speaking areas there is a certain degree of resentment towards the prominent position of Dari, as the language is associated with rival ethnic groups, especially Tajik, or despised religious minorities, notably Hazara. The majority of the Afghan population speak Dari on a daily base.^{[citation needed]}

Dari Persian has contributed to the majority of Persian borrowings in South Asian languages, such as Hindi-Urdu, Panjabi, Bengali, etc., as it was the administrative and cultural language of the Persocentric Mughal Empire and served as the lingua franca throughout the Indian subcontinent for centuries. The sizeable Persian component of the Anglo-Indian loan words in English therefore reflects Dari pronunciation, for instance dopiaza (= Iranian Persian do-piyāzeh "(having) two onions"), gymkhana (-khana = Ir. Pers. khāneh "house"), pyjama (= Ir. Pers. pey-jāmeh "leg/foot garment"^[7], Chicken tikka (tikka = Ir. Pers. tekkeh "piece, chunk").

[edit] Differences between Iranian Persian and Dari (Afghan) Persian

Phonology

The differences in pronunciation of Iranian and Afghan Persian can be considerable, on par with Scottish and Cockney English, although, naturally, educated speakers have generally no difficulty understanding each other (except in the use of certain lexical items or idiomatic expressions). The principal differences between standard Iranian Persian, based on the dialect of the capital Tehran, and Afghan Dari, as based on the Kabul dialect, are:

• 1. the absence of the so-called "majhul" vowels in Iranian Persian, viz. the originally long "ē" / "ī" and "ō" / "ū", still kept separate in Afghan Persian, have merged into "ī" and "ū" respectively. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are pronounced the same in Iranian Persian, viz. [šīr], but [šēr] for 'lion' and [šīr] for 'milk' in Afghan Persian. The long vowel in زود 'quick' and زور 'strong' is realized as [ū] in Iranian Persian, in contrast, these words are pronounced as [zūd] and [zōr] respectively by Persian speakers in Afghanistan.
• 2. the treatment of the dipthongs of early Classical Persian "aw" (as "ow" in Engl. "cow") and "ay" (as "i" in Engl. "fine"), which are pronounced as [ow] (as in Engl. "low") and [ey] (as in Engl. "hey!", "day") in Iranian Persian. Dari, on the other hand, is more archaic, e.g. نوروز 'Persian New Year' is realized as [nowrūz] in Iranian, and [nawrōz] in Afghan Persian, and نخیر 'no' is uttered as [naχeyr] in Iranian, and as [naχayr] in Afghan Persian.
• 3. the high short vowels "i" and "u" tend to be lowered in Iranian Persian, as "e" (similar to "i" in Engl. "fit", "hit"), and "o" (as in Engl. "Ron"),
• 4. the pronunciation of the labial consonant و, which is realized as a (voiced) dental fricative, similar to Engl. "v", but Afghan Persian still retains the (classical) bilabial pronunciation "w" (as in Engl.).
• 5. the convergence of uvular velar "q" (ق) and voiced, fricative velar "γ" (غ) in Iranian Persian (presumably under the influence of Azeri Turkish)^[8], which is still kept separate in Dari,
• 6. the realization of short final "a" (-ه) as "e" in Iranian Persian,
• 7. the realization of short non-final "a" as [æ] in Iranian Persian.

Morphology

This section requires expansion.

Grammar

On the other hand, the syntax of Dari Persian does not differ greatly from Iranian Persian. One of the major grammatical differences is expressing the continuous tense. In Iranian Persian, the auxiliary verb “to have” (داشتن [dāštan]) is placed before the main finite verb (with prefix "mī-") to indicate a continuous action. In Dari, on the other hand, a periphrastic construction with the expression "dar hāl-i" (at the moment of) is used instead: the main verb appears in the infinitive. A sentence like "I am going" would be thus expressed as "man dāram mīr(av)am" in Iran, whereas in Afghanistan this would be "man dar hāl-i raftan hastam" ("hastam" is a copula form, viz. the 1st person singular present of the verb "būdan" 'to be').

This section requires expansion.

Vocabulary

This section requires expansion.

Cultural influences from Iran on Dari

The cultural dominance of Iran (especially in the media and education) ensures that the specific features of Iranian Persian are also understood by many Dari speakers in Afghanistan. This is also (to a point) vice versa. The Persian variant of Afghanistan, which also shows some influence by speakers of Pashto on the colloquial level, usually able to be mutually understood by the Persian speakers of Iran.

This section requires expansion.

[edit] History

The history of Dari is closely related to the birth and rise of New Persian as a literary language after the arrival of Islam. See the entry Persian language.

[edit] Political views on the language

Some people do not consider the Persian spoken in Afghanistan to be a separate dialect.^{[citation needed]} They consider it to be just Persian. Dari is used by certain scholars in Tajikistan and Iran, including Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, to refer to the Persian language.^{[citation needed]} It is also believed by some that Dari Persian should not be called Afghanistani Persian, because it already existed centuries before the creation of Afghanistan, or the use of the word Afghanistani. Linguists prefer the terms Western Persian (Farsi) for the spoken Persian in Tehran, and Eastern Persian (Dari) for the Persian spoken in most of Afghanistan, eastern Iran & in Pakistan. The language name of Afghanistan was officially changed from Farsi to Dari due to political reasons in 1964.^[9][10]

[edit] See Also

• Avestan
• Pazend
• Pahlavi
• Zoroastrianism
• Persian Language

[edit] Further reading

• Lazard, G. "Darī - The New Persian Literary Language" in Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition.
• Sakaria, S. (1967) Concise English - Afghan Dari Dictionary Ferozsons, Kabul, OCLC 600815
• Farhadi, Rawan A.G. (1975) The Spoken Dari of Afghanistan: A Grammar of Kaboli Dari (Persian) Compared to the Literary Language Peace Corps, Kabul, OCLC 24699677

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Dari alphabet from Afghanistan Online

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