Dari language

**Dari** (/ˈdɑːri, ˈdæ-/; endonym: دری [d̪ɐˈɾiː]), also known as **Dari Persian** (Dari: فارسی دری, *Fārsī-yi Darī*, [fʌːɾˈsiːjɪ d̪ɐˈɾiː] or *Fārsī-ye Darī*, [fʌːɾˈsiːjɛ d̪ɐˈɾiː]), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language; it is known as Afghan Persian or Eastern Persian in many Western sources. As Professor Nile Green remarks, "the impulses behind renaming of Afghan Persian as Dari were more nationalistic than linguistic" in order to create an Afghan state narrative. Apart from a few basics of vocabulary, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and Iran; the languages are mutually intelligible. The term "Dari" is officially used for the characteristic spoken Persian of Afghanistan, but is best restricted to formal spoken registers. Afghanistan's Persian-speaking population still prefer to call their language "Farsi", asserting that the term "Dari" has been imposed upon them by the dominant Pashtun ethnic group as an effort to detach Afghanistan from its deep-rooted cultural, linguistic, and historical connections with the wider Persian-speaking world, encompassing Iran, Tajikistan, and parts of Uzbekistan. It serves as the lingua franca for interethnic communications in Afghanistan.

As defined in the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan, Dari (Farsi) is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan; the other is Pashto. Dari is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the native language of approximately 40–45% of the population. Dari serves as the lingua franca of the country and is understood by up to 78% of the population.

Dari served as the preferred literary and administrative language among non-native speakers, such as the Pashtuns and Mughals, for centuries before the rise of modern nationalism. Also, like Iranian Persian and Tajiki Persian, Dari Persian is a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of the Sassanian Empire (224–651 AD), itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenids (550–330 BC). In historical usage, *Dari* refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids.

## Phonology

### Consonants

* 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

(Urban Kabuli) Dari Vowels

(Rural Kabuli) Dari Vowels

Dari does not distinguish [ɪ] and [ɛ] in any position, these are distinct phonemes in English but are in un-conditional free variation in nearly all dialects of Dari. There are no environmental factors related to the appearance of [ɪ] or [ɛ] and native Dari speakers do not perceive them as different phonemes (that is to say, the English words bet [bɛt] and bit [bɪt] would be nearly indistinguishable to a native Dari speaker). However, speakers in Urban regions of Kabul, Panjšir and other nearby provinces in southern and eastern Afghanistan tend to realize the vowel as [ɪ]. Speakers of Dari in central Afghanistan (i.e. Hazaragi speakers) tend to realize the vowel in proximity to, or identically to, [i], unless the following syllable contains a high-back vowel. Speakers in western Afghanistan (such as in the Herat or Farah province) and some rural regions in the Kabul province (not the city) most commonly realize the vowel as [ɛ]. Additionally, in some varieties of Dari, the phoneme [ɛ] appears as an allophone of [a].

Diphthongs

* When occurring as lax, the open vowels /a, ɑ/ are raised to [ɐ, ʌ].

## References

1. ↑ Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Kābolī Persian (en-US).
2. ↑ Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Kābolī Persian (en-US).
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Miller, Corey. Variation in Persian Vowel Systems - University of Maryland.
4. ↑ Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Kābolī Persian (en-US).
5. ↑ Vowel Harmony in Hazaragi Persian in Afghanistan.