Dari
Dari | |
---|---|
Afghan Persian, Eastern Persian | |
دری | |
Nastaʿlīq style) | |
Pronunciation | [d̪ɐˈɾiː] |
Native to | Afghanistan |
Speakers | L1: 10 million (2017)[1] L2: 21 million (2023)[1] |
| |
Dialects | [note 1][2][3] |
Persian alphabet | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Afghanistan |
Regulated by | Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | prs |
Glottolog | dari1249 |
Dari (/ˈdɑːri, ˈdæ-/; endonym: دری [d̪ɐˈɾiː]), also known as Dari Persian (فارسی دری, Fārsī-yi Darī, [fʌːɾˈsiːjɪ d̪ɐˈɾiː] or Fārsī-ye Darī, [fʌːɾˈsiːjɛ d̪ɐˈɾiː]), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan.[4][5] Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language;[6][7] it is known as Afghan Persian or Eastern Persian in many Western sources.[8][9][10][11] The decision behind renaming the local variety of Persian was more political than linguistic to support an Afghan state narrative.[12] Apart from a few basics of vocabulary, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and Iran; the languages are mutually intelligible.[13] Dari is the official language for 35 million Afghans in Afghanistan[14] and it serves as the lingua franca for interethnic communications in Afghanistan.[citation needed]
As defined in the
Dari served as the preferred literary and administrative language among non-native speakers, such as the Pashtuns and
Etymology
Dari is a name given to the
Since 1964, it has been the official name in Afghanistan for the Persian spoken there. In Afghanistan, Dari refers to a modern dialect form of Persian that is the standard language used in administration, government, radio, television, and print media. Because of a preponderance of Dari native speakers, who normally refer to the language as Farsi (فارسی, "Persian"), it is also known as "Afghan Persian" in some Western sources.[9][10]
There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari. The majority of scholars believe that Dari refers to the Persian word dar or darbār (
The Dari language spoken in Afghanistan is not to be confused with the language of
History
Dari comes from
The first person in Europe to use the term Deri for Dari may have been Thomas Hyde in his chief work, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700).[29]
Dari or Deri has two meanings. It may mean the language of the court:
- "the Zebani Deri (Zeban i Deri or Zaban i Dari = the language of Deri), or the language of the court, and the Zebani Farsi, the dialect of Persia at large (...)"[30][31]
It may also indicate a form of poetry used from Rudaki to Jami. In the fifteenth century it appeared in Herat under the Persian-speaking Timurid dynasty. The Persian-language poets of the Mughal Empire who used the Indian verse methods or rhyme methods, like Bedil and Muhammad Iqbal, became familiar with the araki form of poetry. Iqbal loved both styles of literature and poetry, when he wrote:
گرچہ هندی در عذوبت شکر است 1[32]
Garče Hendī dar uzūbat šakkar ast
طرز گفتار دری شیرین تر است
tarz-e goftār-e Darī šīrīn tar ast
This can be translated as:
Even though in euphonious Hindi is sugar – Rhyme method in Dari is sweeter
Uzūbat usually means "bliss", "delight", "sweetness"; in language, literature and poetry, uzubat also means "euphonious" or "melodic".
Referring to the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez, Iqbal wrote:
شکرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند
Šakkar-šakan šavand hama tūtīyān-i Hind
زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود
zīn qand-i Pārsī ki ba Bangāla mē-ravad
English translation:
All the parrots of India will crack sugar
Here qand-e Pārsī ("Rock candy of Persia") is a metaphor for the Persian language and poetry.
Persian replaced the Central Asian languages of the Eastern Iranics.
Geographical distribution
Dari is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (the other being
Dari is spoken natively by approximately twenty-five percent to eighty percent of the
Dari dominates the northern, western, and central areas of Afghanistan, and is the common language spoken in cities such as
.Cultural influence
Dari has contributed to the majority of Persian borrowings in several
Differences between Iranian and Afghan Persian
There are phonological, lexical,[52] and morphological[28] differences between Afghan Persian and Iranian Persian. There are no significant differences in the written forms, other than regional idiomatic phrases.
Phonological differences
The phonology of Dari as spoken in Kabul, compared to Classical Persian, is overall more conservative than the standard accent of Iran. The principal differences between standard Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian as based on the Kabul dialect are:
- The merging of majhul vowels /eː, iː/ and /oː, uː/ into /iː/ and /uː/ respectively in Iranian Persian, whereas in Afghan Persian, they are still kept separate. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are pronounced the same in Iranian Persian as /ʃiːr/, but /ʃeːr/ for 'lion' and /ʃiːr/ for 'milk' in Afghan Persian. The long vowel in زود "quick" and زور "strength" is realized as /uː/ in Iranian Persian, in contrast, these words are pronounced /zuːd/ and /zoːr/ respectively by Persian speakers in Afghanistan.
- The Classical Persian high short vowels /i/ and /u/ tend to be lowered in Iranian Persian to [e] and [o], unlike in Dari where they might have both high and lowered allophones.
- The treatment of the diphthongs of early Classical Persian "ay" (as "i" in English "size") and "aw" (as "ow" in Engl. "cow"), which are pronounced [ej] (as in English "day") and [ow] (as in Engl. "low") in Iranian Persian. Dari, on the other hand, is more conservative, e.g. نخیر 'no' is realized as /naχejr/ in Iranian but /naχajr/ in Afghan Persian, and نوروز 'Persian New Year' is /nowruːz/ in Iranian but /nawroːz/ in Afghan Persian. Moreover, [ow] is simplified to [o] in normal Iranian speech, thereby merging with the lowered Classical short vowel /u/ (see above). This does not occur in Afghan Persian.
- The pronunciation of the labial consonant و, which is realized as a voiced labiodental fricative [v] in standard Iranian, is still pronounced with the (classical) bilabial pronunciation [w] in Afghanistan; [v] is found in Afghan Persian as an allophone of /f/ before voiced consonants and as variation of /b/ in some cases, along with [β].
- The convergence of the is absent in Dari, where the two are still kept separate.
- [a] and [e] in word-final positions are distinguished in Dari, whereas [e] is a word-final allophone of /æ/ in Iranian Persian.
Dialect continuum
The dialects of Dari spoken in Northern, Central, and Eastern Afghanistan, for example in
Varieties of Dari
In a paper jointly published by Takhar University and the Ministry of Education in 2018, researchers studying varieties of Persian from Iran to Tajikistan, Identified 3 dialect groups (or macro dialects) present within Afghanistan.
Takhar and the MOE only discussed vocabulary differences between the dialect groups and did not extensively discuss phonological differences between these groups. However there was a noticeable difference in the romanizations of the Western dialects and the South-Eastern dialects. Chiefly that the vowel diacritic "pesh" (
South-Eastern
The South Eastern group (also referred to the Southern and Eastern group) constitutes varieties spoken in and around
As seen in many Hazaragi varieties, certain Eastern Dialects have developed a system of retroflex consonants under pressure from Pashto. They are not widespread, however.[2]
The Kabuli dialect has become the standard model of Dari in Afghanistan, as has the
Western
The Western group includes various varieties spoken in and around:
Hazaragi
The third group recognized by Afghanistan Ministry of Education is
Sistani
Afghanistan's Ministry of Education does not make a distinction between varieties of the Sistan region and the varieties in the Western group. However Encyclopaedia Iranica considers the Sistani dialect to constitute their own distinctive group, with notable influences from Balochi.[2]
Phonology
Consonants
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Affricate
|
p b | d
|
tʃ dʒ | k ɡ | q | (ʔ) | |
Nasal | m | n
|
|||||
Fricative
|
f | s z | ʃ ʒ | x ɣ | h | ||
Tap | ɾ | ||||||
Approximant
|
l
|
j | w |
- Stops /t, d/ are phonetically dental [t̪, d̪].
- A glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears in words of Arabic origin.
- A flap sound /ɾ/ may be realized as a trill sound [r], in some environments, mostly word-final position; otherwise, they contrast between vowels wherein a trill occurs as a result of gemination (doubling) of [ɾ], especially in loanwords of Arabic origin. Only [ɾ] occurs before and after consonants; in word-final position, it is usually a free variation between a flap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause, but flap is more common, only flap before vowel-initial words.
- As in many other languages, /n/ is realized as bilabial [m] before bilabial stops and as velar [ŋ] before velar stops.
- /f/ is voiced to [v] before voiced consonants.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High
|
iː | uː | |
Near-high
|
ɪ | ʊ | |
Mid vowel | eː | oː | |
Low
|
a | ɑː |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High
|
i | u | |
ʊ | |||
High-mid
|
e | o | |
Low-mid
|
ɛ | ||
Low
|
a | ɑ |
Dari does not distinguish [ɪ] and [ɛ] in any position, these are distinct phonemes in English but are in un-conditional
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High
|
au | ui |
Mid | oi | |
Low
|
ai | ɑi |
Political views and disputes on the language
This section appears to contradict the article Pashto. (May 2017) |
Successive governments of Afghanistan have promoted New Persian as an
The term continues to divide opinion in Afghanistan today. While Dari has been the official name for decades, "Farsi" is still the preferred name to many Persian speakers of Afghanistan. Omar Samad, an Afghan analyst and ambassador, says of the dispute:[69]
This debate pits those who look at language as a shared heritage that includes thinkers, writers, and poets of the Farsi language against those who believe that Dari has older roots and provides a distinct identity that cannot be confused with Iran's claim.
See also
Notes
- ^ Sistani is subsumed as part of the Western varieties by Afghanistans Ministry of Education and Takhar University, but considered a distinct dialect by the Encyclopaedia Iranica.
References
- ^ a b Dari at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ a b c d e f g "AFGHANISTAN v. Languages". Encyclopaedia Iranica. 1983.
- ^ a b c d e الله حکیمی, مطیع (2018). "گونههای زبان فارسی دری" (journal) (in Persian). Takhar University & The Afghanistan Ministry of Education.
- ISBN 978-1-60497-652-6.
- ^ "11 books". afghanistandl.nyu.edu. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
- ^ a b c d Lazard, G. "Darī – The New Persian Literary Language Archived 24 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine", in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition 2006.
- ^ "Tajikam Portal - Secret documents Reveal Afghan Language Policy". tajikam.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
- ^ "Airgram Farsi to Dari 1964 Embassy Kabul to USA". Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "Afghanistan". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 8 July 2010. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: prs". SIL International. 18 January 2010. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ Library, International and Area Studies. "LibGuides: Dari Language: Language History". guides.library.illinois.edu. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-84904-204-8.
- ^ "Kāboli". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
Persian in Afghanistan is generally called fārsi by Persian-speakers and pārsi in Pashto. The standard written Persian of Afghanistan has officially been called Dari since 1964; apart from a few basics of vocabulary, however (and more Indo-Persian calligraphic styles in the Perso-Arabic script), there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and of Iran. The term "Dari" is often loosely used for the characteristic spoken Persian of Afghanistan, but is best restricted to formal spoken registers (poetry, speeches, newscasts, and other broadcast announcements).
- ^ "South Asia :: Afghanistan". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 4 January 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
- ^ "The Afghans – Language Use". United States: Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). 30 June 2002. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
- ^ "Afghanistan v. Languages". Ch. M. Kieffer. Encyclopædia Iranica, online ed. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
Persian (2) is the most spoken languages in Afghanistan. The native tongue of twenty five percent of the population ...
- ^ a b c "Dari". UCLA International Institute: Center for World Languages. University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
- ^ "The World Factbook". 15 October 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- ^ "South Asia :: Afghanistan – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- ^ Lazard, Gilbert 1975, "The Rise of the New Persian Language"
- ^ in Frye, R. N., The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595–632, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publications, CD version
- ^ "DARĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica". Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ Ebn al-Nadim, ed. Tajaddod, p. 15; Khjwārazmī, Mafātīh al-olum, pp. 116–17; Hamza Esfahānī, pp. 67–68; Yāqūt, Boldān IV, p. 846
- ^ ""Parsi-Dari" Ethnologue". Ethnologue.org. 19 February 1999. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ ""Dari, Zoroastrian" Ethnologue". Ethnologue.org. 19 February 1999. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Farsi, the most widely spoken Persian Language, a Farsi Dictionary, Farsi English Dictionary, The spoken language in Iran, History of Farsi Language, Learn Farsi, Farsi Translation". Farsinet.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ a b UCLA, Language Materials Projects. "Persian Language". Iranchamber.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ Thomas Hyde (1760). Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum Religionis Historia. E Typographeo Clarendoniano. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
- ^ John Richardson, London, 1777 pg. 15
- ^ John Richardson (1810). Sir Charles Wilkins, David Hopkins (ed.). A vocabulary, Persian, Arabic, and English: abridged from the quarto edition of Richardson's dictionary. Printed for F. and C. Rivingson. p. 643. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ "تمهید". Ganjoor (in Persian). 2013. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
- JSTOR 3518055.
- ^ Abbadullah Farooqi (2013). "The Impact of Khawaja Hafiz on Iqbal's Thought". Iqbal. Government of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 22 March 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-925021-16-5.
- ISBN 978-1-925021-16-5. Archivedfrom the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-521-77933-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-51441-5.
- ISBN 978-0-521-51441-5.
- ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7.
- ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7. Archivedfrom the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-415-96692-4. Archivedfrom the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
- ISBN 978-92-3-102812-0.
- ^ "AFGHANISTAN v. Languages". Ch. M. Kieffer. Encyclopædia Iranica, online ed. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
Persian (2) is the language most spoken in Afghanistan. The native tongue of twenty five percent of the population ...
- ^ "Languages of Afghanistan". SIL International. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2005. Archived from the original on 30 January 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
- ^ "Dari language". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
- ^ "Dari language, alphabet and pronunciation". Omniglot.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-4411-5127-8. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- ISBN 9231028138p 734
- ^ Zellem, Edward. 2012. "Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs". Charleston: CreateSpace. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- ^ Zellem, Edward. 2012. "Afghan Proverbs Illustrated". Charleston: CreateSpace. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- ^ "Ethnologue report for language code: prs". Ethnologue.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ A. Pisowicz, Origins of the New and Middle Persian phonological systems (Cracow 1985), pp. 112–114, 117.
- ^ Charles M. Kieffer (2003). "HAZĀRA iv. Hazāragi dialect". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- ^ a b c Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "Kābolī Persian". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
- ^ a b Miller, Corey. "Variation in Persian Vowel Systems - University of Maryland" (PDF). Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet.
- ^ Fiorello, Christopher. "Dari Phonology". SIL Internation.
- ^ Rees, Daniel A. (2008). Towards Proto-Persian: An Optimality Theoretic Historical Reconstruction. Ph.D. dissertation. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University.
- ^ Neghat, Muhammad Nassim (1993). Dari-English Dictionary. Omaha: University of Nebraska.
- ^ "Vowel Harmony in Hazaragi Persian in Afghanistan". ResearchGate. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
- . Retrieved 11 August 2023.
- ^ Efimov, V. A. (2008). Xazara. In V. A. Efimov (ed.), Sredneiranskie i novoiranskie Jazyki: Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Firma Vostočnaya Literatura RAN. pp. 344–414.
- ISSN 2754-2599.
- ISSN 0240-8910.
- ^ Mitchell, Rebecca; Naser, Djamal (2017). A Grammar of Dari. München: LINCOM. pp. 20–27.
- ^ Willem Vogelsang, "The Afghans", Blackwell Publishing, 2002
- ^ "Airgram Farsi to Dari 1964 Embassy Kabul to USA". www.datadust.de. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
- ^ see too Harold F. Schiffman Language 2012, pp. 39–40
- ^ Bezhan, Frud. "Dari or Farsi? Afghanistan's Long-Simmering Language Dispute". Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
Further reading
- Lazard, G. "Darī – The New Persian Literary Language Archived 24 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine" in Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition.
- Phillott, Douglas Craven (1919). Higher Persian grammar for the use of the Calcutta University, showing differences between Afgan and modern Persian; with notes on rhetoric. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press.
- Sakaria, S. (1967) Concise English – Afghan Dari Dictionary, Ferozsons, Kabul, OCLC 600815
- Farhadi, A. G. R.('Abd-ul-Ghafur Farhadi)(Abd-ul-ghafûr Farhâdi) (1955) Le Persan Parlé en Afghanistan: Grammaire du Kâboli Accompagné d'un Recueil de Quatrains Populaires de la Région de Kâbol, Centre national de la recherche scientifique or Librairie C. Klincksieck, Paris.
- 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
- Ioannesyan, Youli (2009). Afghan folktales from Herat: Persian Texts in Transcription and Translation. Amherst: ISBN 978-1-60497-652-6.
- Zellem, Edward. 2015. "Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs, 3rd edition". Charleston: CreateSpace. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- Zellem, Edward. 2012. "Afghan Proverbs Illustrated". Charleston: CreateSpace. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- Afghanistan primary school text books for Dari language (in Dari). · Ơ ʹ]] ʹ ð ʹ đ ® ʹ ® £ ʹ ® ł · ʹ ʹ ł 1365. 1979. .
- Baker, Adam (2016). "Dari (Afghan Persian)". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 46 (2): 229–234. .
- Harold F. Schiffman Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors (Brill's Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages) BRILL, Leiden, 1.ed, 2011 ISBN 978-9004201453
External links
- Media related to Dari language at Wikimedia Commons
- Dari travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Dari at Encyclopædia Iranica
- Dari language at Britannica
- Dari language, alphabet and pronunciation
- Dari language resources
- Dari alphabet Archived 30 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Dari encyclopedia on Miraheze