Books in Dari and Pashto | Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Digitized Books | University of Nebraska at Omaha Books in Dari and Pashto Dari (Persian) and Pashto are the two official languages of Afghanistan. Official government documents in Afghanistan are published in both languages. Most Afghans are bi-lingual and are fluent in both languages. About 50 percent of Afghans speak Dari, and some 40 percent speak Pashto. Other languages in Afghanistan include Turkic languages (Uzbek and Turkmen), Baluchi, Pashai, Nuristan, and others spoken by minority groups. Dari and Pashto have extensive literature. Some of their greatest poets include Jalaluddin Rumi, Omar Khayam, Firdausi, Khushal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba. About 15 percent of the material in the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection are in Dari and Pashto. Selected materials from the collection have been digitized in support of research in the area of Afghanistan studies. The UNO Criss Library holds the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection, one of the largest collections of Afghan primary and secondary materials outside of the country.

It contains over 20,000 titles in more than 20 languages, including Dari, Pashto, and English. Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing. List-i qavanin va usulnamah'hay nafizah-i Afghanistan Afghanistan The document lists 165 laws and practice-legal codes that were issued by the government of Afghanistan from 1310 to 1353 (1931-1975). The list includes starting date for each law and the date of termination of the law, if no more in practice. Type script, in Dari language Afghān-i notūnah (Afghan songs and melodies) Afghanistan, Press and Information Ministry The music is provided for a number of special Afghan melodies. These melodies have their origin in the eastern, southern, and southwestern regions of Afghanistan. Some of the songs, in both Pushto and Farsi lyrics, tell the story of young lovers' innermost feelings for each other and the plight of meeting under difficult social conditions. The lyrics tell of the heartaches resulting from these impossible situations and ardent hopes for eventual fulfillment of love.

Other songs tell of the Afghan's patriotism, love of the country, and of the proud tradition of sacrificing everything in the cause of motherland. Siraj al-Tavarikh Fayz Muhammad Katib Covers the history of Afghanistan from, 17th-20th century. It includes historical events and biographical descriptions of Afghan kings and rulers. The book is in Persian language, in two volumes. Published in Kabul: Matbaah-i Hurufi-i Dal al-Saltanah, 1331 (1952) Pashto | About World Languages By Irene Thompson | Updated August 7, 2015 by Irene Thompson Pe kher ragle – Welcome Pashto, also known as Pakhto, Pashtu, and Pushto, is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan as well as by a large diaspora encompassing India, Iran, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. It may be spoken by around 50 million people worldwide ( Ethnologue ).

Status Afghanistan Southern Pashto is spoken by 6 million people in Afghanistan ( Ethnologue ). It is a co-official language of Afghanistan along with Dari (Eastern Persian) . The relative status of Dari and Pashto are a sensitive topic in Afghan society. Although the Afghan constitution grants Dari and Pashto equal status, many Pashtuns feel that in reality their language is being discriminated against complaining that Dari is the dominant language in Afghan government, official proceedings, the judiciary, and in the print and electronic media, with up to 80% of all official communication being conducted in Dari. Primary and secondary education is available in both Dari and Pashto, as well as in some of Afghanistan’s other languages, and parents are free to choose the language of education for their children. However, most of instruction in Afghan universities is conducted in Dari. Moreoever, Dari serves as a de facto lingua franca among the various ethnic groups in the country. Pakistan Northern Pashto is spoken by 9.6 million people In Pakistan ( Ethnologue ), but it has no official status. It is taught in primary schools, but literacy rates are low. Pashtun children are educated in Urdu .

Pashto is used in the print and electronic media. Dialects Top Pashto can be divided into dialect groups, differentiated mostly by pronunciation and some vocabulary. The major dialect divisions, in turn, have numerous variants. In general, however, speakers of Pashto dialects can understand each other. Lexical similarity between Northern and Southern Pashto is estimated at approximately 80% ( Ethnologue ). In some dialects, the vowels /i/ and /u/ can be either short or long. Consonants Besides the consonants common to most modern Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto also has alveo-dental affricates /ts/, /dz/ and a set of retroflex consonants borrowed from neighboring languages of the Indian subcontinent. They are produced with the tongue curled back so that its underside touches the roof of the mouth. Also, unlike other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto allows consonant clusters at the beginning of syllables, e.g., xpa ‘foot’, nwar ‘sun’. The chart below shows the consonant inventory of Pashto as reflected in the Kandahar dialect of Southern Pashto, but does not cover all the existing dialectal variations.

In addition, there are some consonants in Pashto that do not occur in the speech of monolingual speakers, but only in the formal speech of bilingual educated people who speak both Pashto and Dari . In the table below, they are given in parentheses. Stress Stress can fall on any syllable of a word. It can distinguish the meaning of otherwise identical words, e.g., áspa ‘mare’ and aspá ‘spotted fever’. Grammar Pashto is a highly inflected language with a complex system of noun declensions and verb conjugations. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns Pashto nouns, adjectives, and pronouns are marked for the following categories: two genders: masculine and feminine two numbers: singular and plural, with a variety of plural markers three cases: direct , oblique , and vocative (only in the singular). Cases are marked with prefixes, suffixes or both. Direct case is used for both subjects and objects. There are no articles. There are three declensions for nouns, and five for adjectives. There are first- and second-persons pronouns.

Third person is represented by proximate and remote demonstrative pronouns (similar to ‘this’ and ‘yonder’) All modifiers agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. Verbs Verbs agree with their subjects in person, number and gender. Below are some features of Pashto verbs: Verbs have two stems: present and past. Present stems can be simple or secondary. Simple tenses are formed by the addition of personal endings to the two stems. Secondary stems consist of a root + suffixes that indicate transitivity , intransitivity, and causativity . There are three tenses: present, past, and future. There are two voices : active and passive. There are two aspects : imperfective and perfective . Aspect is as important as tense. There are four moods: indicative , conditional , imperative , and potential . Past tense transitive sentences are formed as ergative constructions, i.e., transitive verbs in the past tense agree with the object, rather than the subject of the sentence. The normal word order in Pashto is Subject-Object-Verb. All modifiers precede the nouns they modify Vocabulary Pashto shares most of its vocabulary with other Indo-Iranian languages.

It has also borrowed words from other languages. For instance, Pashto spoken in Pakistan contains a great many loanwords from Urdu . Due to the influence of Islam, Pashto has also borrowed many words from Arabic . Some of the oldest borrowings from Greek date back to the 3rd-century BC Greek occupation of the territory that is now Afghanistan. Pashto has also borrowed words from neighboring Indo-Aryan languages. Today, the most important source of borrowing is English , particularly in the areas of science, technology, politics, and the military. Below are a few basic sentences and words in Pashto in romanization. Hello Top The first written records of Pashto date back to the 16th century. Pashto has always been written with a modified Perso-Arabic script that contains additional letters to represent consonants specific to Pashto. Until the spelling system was standardized in the late 18th century, the representation of these consonants varied greatly. With the adoption of Pashto as a national language of Afghanistan in 1936, the writing system underwent some additional modifications that resulted in greater consistency.

Various transliteration systems used today for representing Pashto with Latin letters lack standardization and may be confusing. The Pashto alphabet used to write all varieties of the languages today has 44 letters. It uses all 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet , and shares 3 letters with Persian and Urdu . Since Pashto has more vowels than Arabic and Persian, it has more letters representing vowel sounds than contained in the Perso-Arabic script. Pashto has an extensive literary tradition. Pashtun folk literature includes stories set to music , and a large number of short poems, traditionally composed by women, reflecting their daily lives. Below is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pashto script and romanization. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Də bašar ṫol afrād āzād naṙəy tâ rāźī au də ḥays̱iyat au ḥuqūqo lâ palwâ sarâ barābar dī.

ṫol də aqəl au wijdān ḫāwandān dī au yo lâ bal sarâ də warorəy pâ rūḥiye sarâ bāyad čaland kəṙī. Learning Dari: Overview - Transparent Language Learn about Dari Language and Culture Overview of the Dari Language Dari, sometimes also called Dari Persian, is one of the official languages of Afghanistan, along with Pashto. Dari speakers are concentrated largely in the north and central parts of the country, as well as the capital, but the Dari language also functions as a lingua franca among many of Afghanistan's diverse inhabitants. In addition, it serves as the language of business and higher education in much of the country, and as such carries great prestige. Dari is a member of the West Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Like its closest relatives, Farsi and Tajiki, Dari traces its roots to the ancient Persian language, one of the oldest known languages in the world. It is also more distantly related to Afghanistan's other main language, Pashto, which is an East Iranian language.

However, some people learning Dari may be surprised to realize that despite being written in a variant of the Arabic script and having borrowed many Arabic words, Dari is not linguistically related to Arabic. Classification of the Dari Language and Dari Vocabulary The bulk of Dari vocabulary comes from native Iranian roots. Enough words are shared between Dari, Farsi, and Tajiki that people who speak Dari can often understand and make themselves understood to speakers of the other two languages. Nonetheless, like most languages, Dari has also borrowed words from other languages around it. Unsurprisingly, many loanwords come from Pashto. Arabic elements are also an indispensable part of spoken and written Dari. While Arabic grammar and syntax have not affected the structure of Dari to any great extent, the influence of Arabic on Dari vocabulary has been enormous. More recently, there has been an influx English borrowings, many of which are simply sounded out phonetically in the Dari script. Loanwords from Indian and Turkic languages are also present. Dari has given words to other languages as well.

The exchange with Pashto goes both ways, for example, especially since it is not uncommon for Afghani Pashto speakers to learn Dari as well. Dari has also contributed vocabulary words to a number of South Asian languages, such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali. The Dari Alphabet and Dari Pronunciation The Dari alphabet is based on the Arabic alphabet, although it has four additional letters that do not exist in Arabic. The Dari alphabet consists of 32 letters in total, some of which represent sounds that are familiar to English speakers, while others represent sounds that are not used in English. People who are trying to learn Dari pronunciation should pay particular attention to the unfamiliar sounds. Dari is usually written using only consonants and long vowels. There are small diacritic marks which can be added above or below letters to indicate short vowels, but these marks are normally used only by children or by people learning Dari as a foreign language. To master Dari pronunciation, however, it is important to remember that the short vowels are pronounced even though they are usually not written. Dari text is written in a flowing script that runs from right to left, the opposite of English.

Dari letters do not have capital and lowercase forms. However, most Dari letters connect to the letters preceding and following them, just as in English cursive writing. Due to these connections, letters often change shape depending on their placement within a word. In general, each letter will have one shape at the beginning of a word, another shape in the middle of a word, a third shape at the end of a word, and a fourth shape when it occurs by itself. Dari Grammar Learning Dari grammar is comparatively simple. Gender, noun inflection, agreement of adjectives, irregular verb conjugations - all of those things that can be so challenging to master in some languages - are absent from Dari. However, the syntax (the ordering of words in a sentence) of Dari is fixed and therefore important. The most common word order for a Dari sentence is Subject-Object-Verb. Verbs are conjugated by adding prefixes and suffixes to indicate tense, mood, and person. Dari adjectives usually follow the nouns they modify. The nouns themselves have singular, plural, and dual forms. Regular practice is necessary to learn to speak Dari well. That's why good Dari software programs can be so useful for language learning.

It's easier than ever to begin to speak Dari with the language resources and Dari language software from Transparent Language. With our language learning products, you will speak the language, learn the alphabet, learn vocabulary, understand grammar, and master pronunciation quickly! Explore Another Language Dari language | Britannica.com Dari language See Article History Dari language, member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian family of languages and, along with Pashto, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan . Dari is the Afghan dialect of Farsi ( Persian ). It is written in a modified Arabic alphabet, and it has many Arabic and Persian loanwords. The syntax of Dari does not differ greatly from Farsi, but the stress accent is less prominent in Dari than in Farsi. To mark attribution , Dari uses the suffix -ra. The vowel system of Dari differs from that of Farsi, and Dari also has additional consonants. About half the population of Afghanistan speaks Dari. It is the primary language of the Tadzhik, Hạzāra, and Chahar Aimak peoples. Dari, rather than Pashto, serves as the means of communication between speakers of different languages in Afghanistan.

Learn More in these related articles: Persian language member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. It is the official language of Iran, and two varieties of Persian known as Dari and Tajik are official languages in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, respectively. Modern Persian is most closely related to Middle and Old Persian, former... in Afghanistan: Languages The people of Afghanistan form a complex mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. Pashto and Persian (Dari), both Indo-European languages, are the official languages of the country. More than two-fifths of the population speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, while about half speak some dialect of Persian. While the Afghan dialect of Persian is generally termed “Dari,” a number... 1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference linguistic groups in Afghanistan (in Afghanistan: Languages ) External Links Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.

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Close Date Published: December 20, 2010 URL: Access Date: January 20, 2017 Share Pashto - InfopediaPk - All facts in one site Pakistan (Provincial language in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & FATA) Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan Pashto (Naskh: پښتو also transliterated Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Paxto or Pushtu), known as Afghan in Farsi and Pathan in Punjabi (The two languages being located on either side of Pashto),is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan. It is a member of the Eastern Iranian languages group spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as by the Pashtun diaspora around the world.

Pashto belongs to the Northeastern branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, although Ethnologue lists it as Southeastern.The number of Pashtuns or Pashto-speakers is estimated 50-60 million people world wide.The Constitution of Afghanistan declares Pashto as one of the two official languages of the country, the other being Dari (Persian). History Of Pashto Abdul Rahman Baba (1650–1715) The origin of Pashto language and the Pashtun tribes is unknown. The word "Pashto" derives by regular phonological processes from Parsawa- "Persian".Nonetheless, the Pashtuns are sometimes compared with the Pakhta tribes mentioned in the Rigveda (1700–1100 BC), apparently the same as a people called Pactyans, described by the Greek historian Herodotus as living in the Achaemenid's Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BC.However, this comparison appears to be due mainly to the apparent, etymologically unjustified, similarity between their names.

Herodotus also mentions the Pactyan "Apridai" Pashtun or Pathan tribe but it is unknown what language they spoke. Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana and to their east was India.Since the 3rd century CE and onward, they are mostly referred to by the name "Afghan" ("Abgan") and their language as "Afghani". Scholars such as Abdul Hai Habibi and others believe that the earliest Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri in the eighth century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana. However, this is disputed by several European experts due to lack of strong evidence. Pata Khazana is a Pashto manuscript claimed to be first compiled during the Hotaki dynasty (1709–1738) in Kandahar, Afghanistan. During the 17th century Pashto poetry was becoming very popular among the Pashtuns.

Some of those who wrote Poetry in Pashto are Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Nazo Tokhi and Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Afghan Empire. Official language Before the present day ethno-linguistic situation in South Asia, the Afghan Empire comprised regions on both sides of the Durand Line by which the British colonial power annexed about one third of Afghanistan. The border created a buffer zone and was drawn through the Pashtun areas of settlement leaving the larger part of them in what was to become Pakistan. Pashto (since 1936) and Dari (since 1964) are the two official languages of Afghanistan - a status held until the 1930s by Persian,which served as the lingua franca of the Durrani Empire.

Since the early 18th century, all the kings of Afghanistan were ethnic Pashtuns except for Habibullah Kalakani, and most of them bilingual although Amanullah Khan spoke Pashto as his second language.Persian as the literary language of the royal court was more widely used in government institutions while Pashto was spoken by the Pashtun tribes as their native tongue. Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign as a marker of ethnic identity and a symbol of "Official nationalism" leading Afghanistan to independence after the defeat of the British colonial power in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. In the 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931 and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy Pashto Tolana in 1937.Although officially strengthening the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "Sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing".

King Zahir Shah thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933, that both Persian and Pashto were to be studied and utilized by officials.In 1936, Pashto was formally granted the status of an official language with full rights to usage in all aspects of government and education by a royal decree under Zahir Shah despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrates mostly spoke Persian.Thus Pashto became a national language, a symbol for Afghan nationalism. The status of official language was reaffirmed in 1964 by the constitutional assembly when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to Dari.The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In Pakistan, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.In 1984, Pashto was permitted to be used as the medium of instruction in primary schools. Pashto dialects Pashto has two main dialects: a softer dialect spoken in the south, and a harsher dialect in the north.

The former is further divided into southwestern and southeastern dialects, and the latter into northwestern (Also called central or Ghiljai dialect) and northeastern. The morphological differences between the most extreme north-eastern and south-western dialects are comparatively few and unimportant, and the criteria of dialect differentiation in Pashto are primarily phonological. Writing System Pashto employs the Pashto alphabet, a modified form of the Persian alphabet which on its part is derived from the Arabic alphabet. The reason for this is because, it is not a Semitic language, and thus it is modified. It has extra letters for Pashto-specific sounds. Since the 17th century Pashto has been primarily written in the Naskh script, rather than the Nasta'liq script used for neighboring Persian and Urdu languages. The Pashto alphabet consists of 45 letters, and 4 diacritic marks.Pashto is written from right to left. Speakers and geographic distribution Pashto is a language spoken in South-Central Asia, primarily in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan as well as by the Pashtuns throughout the world.

As the national language of Afghanistan,Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact numbers of speakers are unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 35-60% of the total population of Afghanistan. In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language of about 15.42% of Pakistan's 170 million people. It is the main language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and northwestern Balochistan, but also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province as well as by Pashtuns who are found living in different cities throughout the country. Modern Pashto speaking communities are also found in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in northeastern Iran, primarily in South Khorasan Province to the east of Qaen, near the Afghan border, and in Tajikistan.There are also communities of Pashtun communities descent in the southwestern part of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sizable Pashto-speaking communities also exist in the Middle East, especially in the United Arab Emirates,and Saudi Arabia, as well as in the United States, United Kingdom,Thailand, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar, Australia, Japan and Russia etc. Create a free website UCLA Language Materials Project: Language Profile Please note: Due to project funding termination in summer 2014, this database is no longer actively being maintained. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the listings. Dari Dari Citations Dari Links Select a New Language Number of Speakers: 7.6 million Key Dialects: There are different dialects of Dari spoken in Afghanistan. People living close to the Iranian border speak in Persian, while those living in northern Afghanistan speak the Shamaly dialect. The principal dialects spoken in Afghanistan are Herati Dari, Tajiki Dari, Kabuli Dari, Khorasani Dari, and Parsiwan. In Iran, the key dialects are Yazd Dari and Kerman Dari. Geographical Center: Afghanistan GENERAL INTRODUCTION Along with Pashto, Dari is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

A member of the Northwestern Iranian language subfamily, Dari is closely related to languages such as Kurdish, Baluchi, and Gilaki. Dari is the Afghan dialect of Persian and as such is sometimes referred to as “Eastern Persian”. Dari, rather than Pashto, serves as the lingua franca for the languages of Afghanistan. Roughly one-third of the population of Afghanistan (approximately five million) speak the language. Dari is also spoken by a total of two and a half million people in Iran, Pakistan, and neighboring regions. Iranian Dari, however, is considered to be endangered. LINGUISTIC AFFILIATION Dari is a Northwestern Iranian language of the Indo-Iranian subgroup of the Indo-European language family. LANGUAGE VARIATION Although phonological and lexical differences persist among the various dialects, they cause little difficulty in comprehension. These differences exist on a relatively small scale. This is valid even as regards the dialects spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. Most Afghani Dari dialects are more similar to literary Persian than the Iranian dialects. Zargari (Morghuli) is a secret language of artisans based on Persian.

ORTHOGRAPHY Dari is written in a modified Arabic alphabet called Perso-Arabic, whose modifications are needed to account for Persian phonological differences. LINGUISTIC SKETCH Given that Dari is the Afghan dialect of Persian, it is not surprising that the two share a wealth of grammatical properties in common. It is also relatively unsurprising that Dari has imported a number of loan words from both Persian and Arabic. In fact, the vocabulary of Dari is closer to Tajiki than Persian. The syntax and morphology of Dari do not differ from Persian in any significant way. However, the bulk of the grammatical differences are phonological, perhaps due to the influence of neighboring Turkic languages. For instance, accent on stressed syllables is much less prominent in Dari than in Persian. The consonant and vowel systems of Dari differ from that of Persian as well. For example, Dari has two long vowels o and e, which Persian lacks. In addition, the use of the dipthongs ai and aw in Dari have no correspondents in Persian. In this respect, Dari maintains vowel distinctions that have been lost in modern Persian.

The dialectal variation between Dari and Persian has been described as analogous to that between European French and Canadian French. Given the grammatical parallels between Persian and Dari, the reader is invited to read the linguistic sketch of Persian at to learn more of the basic grammatical properties (syntactic and morphological) of Dari. ROLE IN SOCIETY Dari plays an important role in Afghan society. It is one of the national languages of the country and is used by roughly 50% of the population. In addition, it represents the primary means of communication between speakers of different languages in Afghanistan. Dari is currently taught in Afghani schools, heard on national radio, and has enjoyed a long and prestigious literary tradition. The current status of Dari in countries where it does not enjoy national status, on the other hand, is less stable. In Iran, for instance, Dari is neither written nor taught in schools and is considered an endangered language. Iranians are gradually giving up Dari to speak/learn Persian, the official language of Iran. The variety of Dari spoken in Pakistan, however, although marginalized, is a relatively stable institution.

HISTORY Dari emerged as the language of the Persians and Zorastrian priests after the defeat of the Parthians by Cyrus in the middle of the sixth century B.C. Shortly thereafter, Dari was adopted as the spoken language of the Persian courts of the Sassanids. Following the Muslim conquest in the sixth century A.D., Arabic replaced Dari as the official language of the Persians. This lasted roughly two hundred years. During this period, Dari was not forgotten and little by little came to take on a new form, influenced considerably by Arabic and Parthian. Scholars consider this linguistic amalgamation to be the mother of both Dari and Persian. REFERENCES Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Editor). 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth Edition. Dallas: SIL International. Farhadi, Rawan A.G. 1975. The Spoken Dari of Afghanistan: A Grammar of Kaboli Dari (Persian) Compared to the Literary Language. Kabul: Peace Corps. Latify, Hafiz A. 1980. Spoken Dari. Washington, D.C.: Foreign Service Institute. Reza, Assadi. 1985.

Afghan Persian (Dari): Materials Status Report. Available from Eric Document Reproduction Service, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, Virginia 22153-2852, Phone: 800-443-3742. Dari - Language Information & Resources Home » Resources » Languages » Dari Dari The Dari language, also sometimes referred to as Afghan Persian, is one of the most prominent dialects of the modern Farsi (Persian) language. It is spoken by an estimated 5 million people in Afghanistan, where it is an official language and serves as the primary tool of communication. There has been some intriguing debate as to the origin of the word “Dari.” Records left by early Islamic historians suggest that the term was adapted from the Persian word “Darbar” (“court”), which most likely refers to the court of the Sassanid Empire that reigned from the early-3rd to mid-6th centuries. Classification of the Dari Language The Dari language is classified as part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family.

The development of the Indo-Iranian language family can be divided into three categories: old, middle and modern. Dari is technically considered a dialect of the Farsi or Persian language. More specifically, Dari is the dialect of Farsi spoken in Afghanistan. In the past there has been some debate among linguists, especially those in the Middle East, as to the exact status of Dari. While it is generally agreed that Dari is a distinct dialect of Farsi, some argue that Dari and Farsi are essentially the same thing and refer to Afghan Persian simply as Farsi. Early History of the Dari Language: The Old Iranian Period The two known Old Iranian languages are Avestan and Old Persian, from which modern Farsi and Dari developed. Examples of written Old Persian have been found in cuneiform inscriptions dating to the Persian Achaemenid Dynasty from 550 to 330 BC. Evidence of the ancient and now-extinct Avestan language can be found in the ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, a body of work known as the Avesta.

Although other Old Iranian languages are believed to have been in use during the Old Iranian period, there is no concrete evidence of their existence as there is with Avestan and Old Persian. Developments During the Middle Iranian Period Old Persian is thought to have remained in use as a spoken language until approximately the 3rd century BC. A new form of the language developed during the Middle Iranian period that dates from about 300 BC to 950 AD. Known as Middle Persian, this became the basis for modern Farsi. The modern Farsi (or Persian) language developed around the 9th century; this became the basis for the modern Dari language. Written Dari: Influence of the Arabic Language Arabic has had a significant influence on the Dari language. The majority of Dari loanwords are derived from either Farsi or Arabic. Like Farsi, Dari is commonly written using a modified Arabic alphabet. This stems from the time of the Islamic conquest of modern-day Iran, when the majority of Persia was converted to Islam. Written Dari utilizes a Perso-Arabic script in which most of the letters are connected (like cursive writing in English) and which reads from right to left.

Relationship Between Dari and Farsi As already noted, Dari is technically considered the Afghan dialect of the Farsi or Persian language. The standard Farsi currently spoken in Iran is often referred to as Western Farsi, while the Dari of Afghanistan is also referred to as Eastern Farsi. A third type of modern Persian dialect, Tajiki Persian, is found primarily in Tajikistan. Multiple dialects exist within each of these varieties of the Persian language. Although both Dari and Farsi make use of a modified Arabic alphabet, Dari has a different vowel system from Farsi and also has additional consonants not found in Farsi. Differences between spoken Dari and Farsi are primarily found in pronunciation: Dari has a less obvious stress on accents than Farsi does. Dari in Afghanistan Today, the Dari language serves as one of the official languages of Afghanistan alongside Pushtu (also known as Pashto). In general Dari serves as the common language of communication in Afghanistan, a country with a variety of ethnic and linguistic groups. An estimated two-fifths of Afghanistan’s population speaks Pushtu, the native language of the Pashtun ethnic group.

By comparison, approximately half of the population speaks some dialect of Farsi. Although Dari is the most common, a number of other Farsi dialects exist within Afghanistan, including those spoken by the Tajik, Hazara, and Kizilbash peoples. It is important to note that ethnic and linguistic groups in Afghanistan do not necessarily correspond. For example, the Pushtu language is not spoken only by people of Pashtun origin, and people of Pashtun origin often speak languages other than Pushtu, such as Dari. The Afghan population includes a variety of ethnic groups, the largest of them being the Pashtuns. Minority groups include the Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks. Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan: Struggle for Power The Afghan government was dominated for many years by the Pashtun population. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, however, a coalition government comprised of Pashtun and minority group representatives was formed. In 1996, this coalition government was overthrown by the Taliban, who reasserted the dominance of the Pashtun majority over Afghanistan.

In 2001, the Taliban regime came to an end and was replaced by a coalition government comprised of Afghanistan’s major ethnic groups. The Afghan constitution of 2004 protects these terms of shared power and rights for these various groups. Modern Dari Language Approximately 30 percent of Afghanistan’s population, or about 5 million people, speak Dari. The modern Dari language has a great deal of Arabic and Persian loanwords for reasons of historical development. In recent decades, an increasing number of words have also been borrowed from other languages, including Turkish and English. Get Your FREE Quote Afghanistan Online: Languages Spoken in Afghanistan Contact us A Look at the Languages Spoken in Afghanistan Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian/Farsi) are the official languages of Afghanistan. Pashto was declared the National Language of the country during the beginning of Zahir Shah's reign, however, Dari has always been used for business and government transactions. Both belong to the Indo-European group of languages. According to recent US government estimates, approximately 35 percent of the Afghan population speaks Pashto, and about 50 percent speaks Dari.

Turkic languages (Uzbek and Turkmen) are spoken by about 11 percent of the population. There are also numerous other languages spoken in the country (Baluchi, Pashai, Nuristani, etc.), and bilingualism is very common. Both Pashto and Dari are written primarily with the Arabic alphabet, however, there are some modifications. Pashto literature saw a massive rise in development in the 17th century, mostly due to poets like Khushal Khan Khattak, who is known today as the national poet of Afghanistan. Other noteworthy Pashto poets in history were Rahman Baba, and the founder of the modern Afghan nation, Ahmad Shah Abdali. Dari also has an extensive literature, actually, some of the worlds greatest poems have been written in Dari. Dari poems by Jalaluddin Rumi have been translated from its original Dari versions to numerous other languages, and is widely read even in the west. Many powerful kingdoms of the past such as those of the Moghuls in India, primarily used Dari in their royal courts.

by Abdullah Qazi Pashto MP3 Language Course 1 | Learn to Speak Pashto | Pimsleur See All Pashto Products » Description Includes 30 lessons and reading instruction as MP3 download (16 hrs), plus a Reading Booklet and User’s Guide The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Pashto Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, learning Pashto will expand your horizons and immeasurably enrich your life. The best part is that it doesn’t have to be difficult or take years to master. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes, and we get you speaking right from the first day. Pimsleur courses use a scientifically-proven method that puts you in control of your learning. If you’ve tried other language learning methods but found they simply didn’t stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try. Why Pimsleur? - Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. - Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life.

- Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. - Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. - Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. - Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. - Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. - Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? - 30, 30-minute audio lessons - 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you with an introduction to reading Pashto designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent - In total, 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers - a Reading Booklet and a User’s Guide What You’ll Learn In the first 10 lessons, you’ll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You’ll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills. In the next 10 lessons, you’ll build on what you’ve learned.

Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You’ll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. In the final 10 lessons, you’ll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the Pashto language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You’ll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. Reading Lessons are included at the end of Lesson 30 to provide you with an introduction to reading Pashto, which uses the modified Arabic alphabet. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with Pashto pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format. The Pimsleur Method We make no secret of what makes this powerful method work so well.

Paul Pimsleur spent his career researching and perfecting the precise elements anyone can use to learn a language quickly and easily. Here are a few of his “secrets”: The Principle of Anticipation In the nanosecond between a cue and your response, your brain has to work to come up with the right word. Having to do this boosts retention, and cements the word in your mind. Core Vocabulary Words, phrases, and sentences are selected for their usefulness in everyday conversation. We don’t overwhelm you with too much, but steadily increase your ability with every lesson. Graduated Interval Recall Reminders of new words and structures come up at the exact interval for maximum retention and storage into your long-term memory. Organic Learning You work on multiple aspects of the language simultaneously. We integrate grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, melody, and intonation into every lesson, which allows you to experience the language as a living, expressive form of human culture. Learning in Context Research has shown that learning new words in context dramatically accelerates your ability to remember. Every scene in every Pimsleur lesson is set inside a conversation between two people. There are no drills, and no memorization necessary for success. Active Participation The Pimsleur Method + active learner participation = success.

This method works with every language and every learner who follows it. You gain the power to recall and use what you know, and to add new words easily, exactly as you do in English. The Pashto Language Pashto is an Iranian language of the Indo-European family spoken by over 17 million people, primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This course teaches the Northern dialect as spoken in Kabul (Afghanistan), which will be understood through all Pashto-speaking regions. Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (Dari is the other) and the native tongue of approximately 50 percent of the population there. Although, not an official language in Pakistan, it is spoken by approximately 13% of the population. Pashto uses a modified version of the Arabic alphabet, and is read right to left. Tech Talk - Lessons can be downloaded using the Pimsleur Course Manager App for iPad, iPhone and Android devices, and Mac or Windows computers, or - Lessons can be downloaded as a zip file for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player. - All purchased courses are backed up in your Pimsleur.com cloud-based digital library account. - Lessons can be played on your iPod or any MP3 player.

- The Pimsleur Course Manager App can be installed on several devices for personal use only. - Lessons are non-DRM (Digital Rights Management) MP3 files and can be copied onto a CD or DVD for playing in a CD/DVD player. Need Help?

Question: Pashto and Dari are the two official languages of which country ?
Answer: AFGHANISTAN