Dari (Persian)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Persian language
Regional and social varieties: General Iranian Persian Dari Tajik Dzhidi (Judeo-Persian) Bukhori (Judeo-Tajik) Hazaragi Grammar: General Iranian Persian Tajik Language features: Vocabulary Nouns Verbs Phonology Writing systems: Perso-Arabic script Tajik alphabet Romanized Persian alphabet

Dari (Persian: دری, pronounced [dari]) or Persian Dari (Persian: فارسی دری, pronounced [farsi dari]) is the official name for the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and is also a regional language in Tajikistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.^[1]

Contents 1 Origin of the word "Dari" 2 Geographical distribution 3 Grammar 4 History 4.1 Opinions about emergence of the Dari 4.2 Dari after Islam 5 Political views on the language 6 Further reading 7 References 8 External links

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, meaning "Court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids^[2]. This opinion is supported by medieval sources and early Islamic historians^[3].

Geographical distribution

In Afghanistan Dari is sometimes called Farsi, as are all languages in the Persian sub-group of languages. 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.^[4][5]

Iranian languages are widely used in Central Asia both by native speakers and as trade languages. Many of these languages are frequently mutually intelligible.

Dari is a dialect of Persian, which forms a branch of the Indo-Irianian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. There are three different phases in the development of Persian language: Old Persian, Middle Persian, and Modern Dari. Old Persian and the Avestan language represents the old stage of development and was spoken in ancient Bactria.^{[citation needed]} The Avestan language is called Avestan because the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, Avesta, were written in this old form. Avestan died out long before the advent of Islam and except for scriptural use not much has remained of it. Old Dari, however, survived and there are many written records of old Dari, in cuneiform called Maikhi, in Khorasan.^{[citation needed]} Old Dari was spoken until around the third century BC. It was a highly inflected language.^{[citation needed]}

Modern Dari is a major language of Afghanistan, and is spoken in the northern and western parts, and the capital, Kabul, in the east. Approximately 55% of the population of Afghanistan are native speakers.^{[citation needed]}

Also, due to large emigration from Afghanistan, there are hundreds of thousands of Dari speakers around the world, notably in North America, Australia and many European countries. There are also a significant number of Dari speakers in Pakistan (mainly in NWFP) as well as native Persian/Dari dialect languages in Pakistani Balochistan, Chitral district and in the country's urban centres such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Grammar

The syntax of Afghan Dari does not differ greatly from Iranian Farsi. The stress accent in Dari is different and can have some similarity of spelling but difference in pronunciation of certain words, as that of British English and American English. Hence before a person approaches Dari and Farsi, although the grammar and vocabulary structure is quite similar, he will find that the pronunciation creates a difference in the two sister languages. This has encouraged different language developments. For example, the spoken greeting in Iranian Persian 'Shomā Khub hastin?' (شما خوب هستید؟) (How are you doing?), differs from Dari only slightly 'Shumā khub astin?' (شما خوب استید). The vowel system also differs from that of Iranian Persian, to some degree. The biggest difference in pronunciation is with the letter "و", which is pronounced like a "w" in Dari but like a "v" in Farsi. To mark attribution, both Dari and Farsi use the direct object marker -ra in the written and spoken language.

In addition, a major grammatical difference can be found in an unusual form of simple present tense. In Farsi, the verb “to have” (Persian: dāshtan داشتن) is sometimes used before another verb to indicate a continuous action. While in Dari, the expression "dar hāle" (at the moment of), can be used with the simple present or past tense to express a continuous state. e.g. to express that "I am going" in Iran can be said "Man dāram miravam" (من دارم میروم) while in Afghanistan it can be said "Man dar hāle raftan astam" (من در حال رفتن استم). These, however, are not the standard-use forms of simple present tense, in both languages, the most common way to say "I am going" is simply: "Man miravam" (من میروم). Both of the previously mentioned tense forms would be the equivalent to saying: "I am in the process of going" in English. While it makes sense, it is very rarely actually spoken. Nevertheless, some Dari speakers in Afghanistan have recently adopted the structure used by Farsi speakers in Iran, besides both forms are trans-intelligible.^{[citation needed]}

History

The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.(March 2008)

Dari was the official language of the Sassanids' court. It emerged as the language of the Persians after the defeat of the Parthians by Ardeshir I in 226 CE. Dari is also referred to as Middle Persian, or as a classic style of Persian language. The term "middle" Persian suggests the existence of an Old Persian and a New Persian. Old Persian was the language of the Achaemenids, which was overshadowed by Greek after the conquests of Alexander the Great.^{[citation needed]}

The Muslim conquests broke the continued chain of the Persian language and Arabic (for two hundred years, i.e. 7–8 century CE) became the official language. The Persians, however, did not forget their own language and gradually, Middle Persian was being shaped into New Persian (or Dari) while influenced by Arabic loanwords and was written in Arabic script. New Persian (or Dari) became the main language of people of Transoxiana and Khorasan in 9th century, and later, it became widespread in other parts of Iran, as well as non-Iranian regions such as India, and Anatolia.^[6]. Therefore, Transoxiana and Khorasan are regarded by many as the birthplace of Persian language and Persian literature^[7].

The Old, Middle, and New Persian are and represent the same language at three stages of its history. The New Persian language is what is called today as Iranian Farsi or Afghan Dari (so called "Farsi e Dari") or Tajik Persian (so called "Farsi e Tajiki"). "Farsi" is the local name of the Persian of Iran and "Dari" is the local name of the Persian spoken in Afghanistan. The New Persian remains close to the Middle Persian in many respects. However, New Persian has taken many Arabic loanwords, as opposed to Middle Persian which was influenced, to a lesser degree, and by Aramaic. The grammatical structure has also undergone minor changes, mainly in relations to verbal morphology and syntax; As an instance an educated Persian speaker can understand literary texts of the previous millennium almost with ease while it is not the case for many other languages.

Opinions about emergence of the Dari

The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.(March 2008)

There are different opinions concerning how Dari was formed and developed, and concerning the region where Dari came into existence.

Mohammad Taqi Bahar, a famous Iranian poet and scholar, writes in his book Sabk-Shenasi:^[8]

Some people say that Dari is the same old Persian, others believe that Dari is a dialect of the Soghdi language common in the north of Amu Darya and Samarkand. While others, relying on the statements of Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa, believe that Dari was the language of Capital. It was the most fluent language of the Sassanid period and contained a large number of Eastern words, especially those of Balkh.

He continues:

As the people of Samarkand and Bukhara narrated books and poetries in Dari language after Islam and the poets of Khorasan also narrated their poems in this language, Dari came step by step from Khorasan to Persia (modern day Iran). I can say as a conclusion that Dari is the language of the people of Bukhara and Balkh.

Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 706) writes in his book Al-fehrest: Pahlavi refers to Pahla, which is the name of five cities: Isfahan, Ray, Hamadan, Mah-Nahawand and Azerbaijan. But Dari is the language of citizens and that of Court. It is one of the languages of Khorasan and eastern regions (of Persia). While Dari is the language of Zoroastrian religious leaders, and the people of Persia (Iran) spoke in this language.^[9]

Despite the confusing explanation of Ibn Muqaffa about Pahlavi, Dari and Farsi, we can still conclude that Dari was the language of eastern regions of Persia, i.e. Balkh. Parsi was the official language of the Zoroastrian religion, which is said to be the vehicle of literature later known as Dari. The differences between Iranian Farsi and Afghan Dari in accent, vocabulary, and expressions have evolved over time and is mostly like American English and British English. Today, Iranian Farsi and Afghan Dari are considered two different dialects. By the 9th century, the Dari of Khorasan was the dominant speaking language of the Sassanian empire. In the Middle of the 8th century, Abu Muslim's Arab armies spoke Dari. And it was this language which kept a sense of unity among the Arabicized Persians and thus emerged as a national identity through literature.

According to Prof. Shahrestani, former president of the Faculty of Persian literature of Kabul University, Dari was formed during the rule of "Behman son of Espandyar", one of the Kavi Kings in Balkh, who ruled probably before the Common Era. In several old books including Burhan e Qāté, it is mentioned that “At the period of Behman’s ruling, son of Espandyar, people came from different regions to his court and did not understand each others’ languages. Therefore, he ordered the scholars to make a fluent Persian language, and named it Dari.”^[10] Hence, we can say with most certainty that Dari is almost a 2000-year-old language.

In all over Greater Iran (Persia) people called their spoken language "Farsi", whereas they attributed the word "Dari" for a pure, original language with a correct structure. Zabihullah Safa, an Iranian scholar, reporting from the book "Burhān e Qāte'" says: "Any word which does not have any error/mistake is called Dari e.g. اشکم و شکم، بگوی و گوی، اشتر و شتر, etc. So اشکم، بگوی and اشتر are Dari words. And some people believe that it was the language of some cities like Balkh, Bukhara, Badakhshan, and Merv". Another example can be Hafez of Shiraz, a famous Persian poet who lived in Shiraz his whole life. He has called his language "Parsi" but has also called it "Dari" when trying to attribute his poems to a rich language.

Dari after Islam

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

With the advent of Islam, Arabic slowly replaced the Persian language. Pre-Islamic Persia is said to have had a strong poetic tradition, but little of it has survived, according to M. Boyce, because most of it was not written down. When Arabic became the scholarly language, Persian fell into disuse. Today, both Iranian Farsi and Afghan Dari contain equal combination of Arabic and Turkish vocabulary. The reason that Dari reserved its pure and original language style and expressions, while Iranian Farsi could not, is that the people of the eastern regions of Persia, i.e. Khorasan, had less contact and interaction with other foreign languages, although the language of the people of Transoxiana was affected by Russian. Iranian Farsi was influenced by some European languages — particularly by French — in the late years of the Qajar Dynasty and during the Pahlavi dynasty.

An important difference between Dari and Farsi can be noticed after the 18th century. Before the 17th century, we do not observe any remarkable difference between the works written in different regions of Persia. Works written in Dari in Hindostan (present day Pakistan and Northern India) during the Moghul Empire had a different language style and usage of expressions than the works written in Iranian Farsi, whereas the language of the people of Khorasan reserved its old Dari style. Three distinct schools were created in Persian poetry and literature: Khorasani, and Iraqi.

The earliest Dari writing goes back to 752 in letter form. However, by the 10th century, a tremendous amount of literature was written and translated into Dari. The first attempts to revive Persian were in poetic form. Among the first poets according to "Tarikh e Sistan", were "Abu Hafas Soghdi", "Mohammad ibn Wasif", and "Hanzala e Badqisi". The Lubab El Albāb of Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi claims one Abbas of Merv as the first poet, who composed a poem in honor of Khalifa al-Ma'mun on the occasion of his entry into that city of Merv in 809 A.D.

Ibn Wasif, a secretary of "Ya'qub Bin Laith As Saffāri" of the Saffarid dynasty, praised the sultan on his recent victory in Herat and Foshanj in Arabic verses. Not understanding his secretary of chancery, Yaqub asked: "Why must something be recited that I can't understand?" Thus, Ibn Wasif, to please the sultan, began writing in Dari. Hanzala and Ibn Wasif were the leading men, in local Persian courts, who led the way for a patriotic literary revival.

Much credit also goes to dynasties of Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids and Seljukids who encouraged poetry and had hundreds of poets in their courts. Most of the well-known Persian poets lived during those periods.

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 should not be called Afghan Persian, because it already existed centuries before the creation of Afghanistan, or the use of the word Afghan. 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.^[11][12]

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

References

External links

• Dari Alphabet (www.afghan-web.com)
• (Persian) International Symposium of Masters of Persian language discusses the name of this language
• Persian speaking people and the names of persian language

v • d • e Iranian languages Old W Median · Old Persian E Avestan · Old Scythian Middle W Parthian · Middle Persian E Bactrian · Khwarezmian · Ossetic · Saka (Sacian) · Scythian · Sogdian Modern W Old Azari · Balochi · Bashkardi · Central Iran · Dari (Zoroastrian) · Gilaki · Gorani · Kurmanji · Laki · Luri · Bakhtiari Lori · Mazandarani · Ormuri · Sangsari · Parachi · Persian · Sorani · Taleshi · Tajik  · Tat · Tati · Zazaki E Bartangi · Hindukush Group · Ishkashmi · Karakoram Group · Khufi · Munji · Oroshori · Ossetic · Parachi · Pashto · Roshani (Roshni) · Sanglechi · Sarikoli · Shughni · Wakhi · Vanji · Yaghnobi · Yidgha · Yazgulami · Zebaki W = Western · E = Eastern · Italics indicate extinct languages