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Copyright Arjang Center, INC. All rights reserved.
Copyright Arjang Center, INC. All rights reserved.
Copyright Arjang Center, INC. All rights reserved.
Farsi in Iran vs. Dari in Afghanistan
In my twenty some years of practicing translation and interpretation I have not been asked about Persian, Farsi, Dari, Tajik, Pashto and
Urdu as much as the past five or six years. As a Persian (Farsi/Dari) language service provider while I have been trying to catch up with the
unprecedented need for my services I have also found educating the language community about the standards and measures for Farsi/Dari
language quite challenging.
At the end of this presentation, hopefully, you will have a better idea of the differences or better yet similarities between Farsi and Dari as
well as an idea of other languages spoken in Near East Asia. It will be a fun and interactive session with videos from Afghanistan and Iran
so the audience can put a face to the material they learn. More information is also available at my website www.arjangcenter.com and I am
always available by email at farah@arjangcenter.com for more information.
Exchange of ideas for business, science, technology, education and politics as well as day-to-day needs of people in courts, social and
medical services have been the main engine for language services in the US. Until the turn of the new century, language community in the
US dealt with “main languages” which included mainly European languages, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic; and “less commonly taught
languages” or “exotic languages” which were basically all the other languages including Persian.
Arabic, the most prominent language of the Middle East, has been the most popular language as the result of hot politics and business in
that area. Nevertheless, crisis in the Middle East and Near East Asia, in addition to globalization and constant development of the countries
in the area have changed the need for other languages previously known as “Exotic Languages!” Waves of immigrants from Afghanistan,
Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan have also had an impact on the need for other languages spoken in that area. The call for Middle Eastern
languages is so vast that the language community in North America is yet to adjust itself to the needs.
As a response to the great need of Persian (Farsi/Dari) linguists in the US, many individuals with little or no language background were
absorbed to the language community and the chaos inflated when there was no standard to measure the competence and qualifications of
the vast majority novice linguists.
European languages have managed to set standards and measures as well as establishments for language services in the last two
centuries as a result of different waves of European immigration to the North America. While there are many academic programs of two or
four year degrees for European languages, there are hardly any substantial serious programs for Persian language, let alone different
dialect of Dari or Farsi. The burden is on language community to set standards in order to receive high quality products.
In the 70’s if somebody asked me what my native language was, I would say “Persian” because hardly anybody knew the word “Farsi.”
Interestingly enough, if now I say my language is Persian, the next question is about the relation of Persian and French as they consider
Persian a dialect of French spoken in Paris! Sometimes in response to my statement that my language is Persian, people are shocked that
Persian is a language. Even though more educated people connect Persian to the Old Persian Empire they still don’t consider Persian as
the language. They just think of the word Persian as an adjective to the people of the Old Persian Empire.
It is beyond our discussion to talk about the socio political aspect of Persian but it is important to touch upon the history and formation of
Persian language. Persian as an old language has Indo European background. As old as it is, it has gone through many stages namely
Old Persian, Middle Persian and Modern or New Persian. While we have to concentrate on New Persian, it is interesting to know that Old
Persian was the language of Avestan, the religious book of Zoroastrian faith in old Persia. It was diminished and gradually replaced by
Middle Persian by the 3rd century AD. Middle Persian didn’t last too long because it was influenced by Arabic after the Arab’s invasion to
Iran around the 7th century AD. By the 9th century, Persian language adopted Arabic Alphabet and got closer to what we know as the
family of Persian language today or the New Persian.
Believe it or not Persian, Farsi, and Dari are all the same and the language of poet Rumi! Old Persia, when the borders were different from
today, was stretched from West of today’s India over to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. The official language of
people living in this territory was Persian or Parsi as it was pronounced by the speakers of the language. That’s why Rumi, the most
prominent 13th century Persian poet and philosopher, was born and raised in Balkh, Afghanistan but lived and died in Konya, Turkey. All
his poems are in Persian and he was inspired by a philosopher in Nishapur, North East of Iran when he was 18 years old as he was traveling
with his father to escape the Mongolian attacks. On those days, there was no central government but the power of the authorities and the
standard language manifested itself in the language of the court and legal system as well as the art and science.
Regions and communities didn’t occur overnight or by the rulings of kings or governors. People had their own cultures including their ways
of communications and language, but were influenced by the official language and the written form of communications. This is how dialects
of the same language were developed and you know about three of them from old Persia as Farsi, Dari and Tajik, formal languages of Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan respectively.
As new borders were drawn in the most recent history of old Persia, new countries were erupted promoting local languages of their capitals
as the formal and standard language of their court and legal systems. Hence different dialects of Persian were practiced formally in Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan following their own destiny.
The word “Dari” in Persian means related to “Darbaar,” the Persian word for “court.” In the 10th to 15th century Persian literature, many
classic proses refer to “Dari” or “Farsi e Dari” as the language of court or formal language. At the same time as Arabic was imbedded into
Persian Language and culture, the word Farsi replaced Parsi since Arabic does not have the sound “P.” While Dari and Farsi were created
side by side in Persian Language, Europe and English language were not influenced by the socio political changes happening in Persia.
Different languages in Europe continued to use the same word for Persian, as they have been using through out the history, until the 1980’
s and the influx of immigrants from Iran and Afghanistan to the United States. At that time, somehow Iranians identified themselves with
Farsi as their standard language and Afghans identified themselves with Dari as their standard language.
As a linguist who has been providing translation services for both Afghan and Iranian nationals, I admit that there are more similarities than
differences between the two dialects. It can be compared to something like British English and American English. A seasoned translator
who is familiar with both cultures and has a good solid language background can learn the differences in choice of words and local cultures
to accommodate a high quality translation and interpretation for general purposes and high level of formal language use. However, when it
comes to more specific local use of the language with more detail cultures attached to the project, only a local linguist would be able to
provide the best rendition, given the fact that any Persian speaker linguist can adapt and pick up the local cultures easily by either studying
the culture or living in the area.
Iran, being the only country whose formal language is Persian, even though many different dialects of Persian are spoken in different parts
of the country, has worked quite adamantly over the past 100 years on modernizing and standardizing Persian language. The process of
modernizing Persian language has had its ups and downs but certainly has been going forward. Many institutes and organizations have
been working on syntax and semantics of Persian language spoken in Iran. The number of Persian publications in the form of hard copy
and soft copy is beyond imagination. While this huge number of publications serves both countries of Iran and Afghanistan, nevertheless it
does not encompass many nuances of the cultures local to Afghanistan. So in the very recent years, as localization has become more
known and practiced by the linguists, new Persian dictionaries of Dari and Farsi dialects are emerging. In my course of translation and
interpretation practices I have collected about 5000 words that are different in each dialect and soon will be posted on my website.
To learn more about the details of Farsi and Dari in addition to other languages spoken in Near East Asia and the Middle East I will be
happy to host you in my seminar at ATA Conference in San Francisco, November of 2007.
Thank you for attending my seminar and at the end I will be happy to take questions regarding the different dialects of Persian Language,
the most famous of which Farsi and Dari.
In my twenty some years of practicing translation and interpretation I have not been asked about Persian, Farsi, Dari, Tajik, Pashto and
Urdu as much as the past five or six years. As a Persian (Farsi/Dari) language service provider while I have been trying to catch up with the
unprecedented need for my services I have also found educating the language community about the standards and measures for Farsi/Dari
language quite challenging.
At the end of this presentation, hopefully, you will have a better idea of the differences or better yet similarities between Farsi and Dari as
well as an idea of other languages spoken in Near East Asia. It will be a fun and interactive session with videos from Afghanistan and Iran
so the audience can put a face to the material they learn. More information is also available at my website www.arjangcenter.com and I am
always available by email at farah@arjangcenter.com for more information.
Exchange of ideas for business, science, technology, education and politics as well as day-to-day needs of people in courts, social and
medical services have been the main engine for language services in the US. Until the turn of the new century, language community in the
US dealt with “main languages” which included mainly European languages, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic; and “less commonly taught
languages” or “exotic languages” which were basically all the other languages including Persian.
Arabic, the most prominent language of the Middle East, has been the most popular language as the result of hot politics and business in
that area. Nevertheless, crisis in the Middle East and Near East Asia, in addition to globalization and constant development of the countries
in the area have changed the need for other languages previously known as “Exotic Languages!” Waves of immigrants from Afghanistan,
Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan have also had an impact on the need for other languages spoken in that area. The call for Middle Eastern
languages is so vast that the language community in North America is yet to adjust itself to the needs.
As a response to the great need of Persian (Farsi/Dari) linguists in the US, many individuals with little or no language background were
absorbed to the language community and the chaos inflated when there was no standard to measure the competence and qualifications of
the vast majority novice linguists.
European languages have managed to set standards and measures as well as establishments for language services in the last two
centuries as a result of different waves of European immigration to the North America. While there are many academic programs of two or
four year degrees for European languages, there are hardly any substantial serious programs for Persian language, let alone different
dialect of Dari or Farsi. The burden is on language community to set standards in order to receive high quality products.
In the 70’s if somebody asked me what my native language was, I would say “Persian” because hardly anybody knew the word “Farsi.”
Interestingly enough, if now I say my language is Persian, the next question is about the relation of Persian and French as they consider
Persian a dialect of French spoken in Paris! Sometimes in response to my statement that my language is Persian, people are shocked that
Persian is a language. Even though more educated people connect Persian to the Old Persian Empire they still don’t consider Persian as
the language. They just think of the word Persian as an adjective to the people of the Old Persian Empire.
It is beyond our discussion to talk about the socio political aspect of Persian but it is important to touch upon the history and formation of
Persian language. Persian as an old language has Indo European background. As old as it is, it has gone through many stages namely
Old Persian, Middle Persian and Modern or New Persian. While we have to concentrate on New Persian, it is interesting to know that Old
Persian was the language of Avestan, the religious book of Zoroastrian faith in old Persia. It was diminished and gradually replaced by
Middle Persian by the 3rd century AD. Middle Persian didn’t last too long because it was influenced by Arabic after the Arab’s invasion to
Iran around the 7th century AD. By the 9th century, Persian language adopted Arabic Alphabet and got closer to what we know as the
family of Persian language today or the New Persian.
Believe it or not Persian, Farsi, and Dari are all the same and the language of poet Rumi! Old Persia, when the borders were different from
today, was stretched from West of today’s India over to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. The official language of
people living in this territory was Persian or Parsi as it was pronounced by the speakers of the language. That’s why Rumi, the most
prominent 13th century Persian poet and philosopher, was born and raised in Balkh, Afghanistan but lived and died in Konya, Turkey. All
his poems are in Persian and he was inspired by a philosopher in Nishapur, North East of Iran when he was 18 years old as he was traveling
with his father to escape the Mongolian attacks. On those days, there was no central government but the power of the authorities and the
standard language manifested itself in the language of the court and legal system as well as the art and science.
Regions and communities didn’t occur overnight or by the rulings of kings or governors. People had their own cultures including their ways
of communications and language, but were influenced by the official language and the written form of communications. This is how dialects
of the same language were developed and you know about three of them from old Persia as Farsi, Dari and Tajik, formal languages of Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan respectively.
As new borders were drawn in the most recent history of old Persia, new countries were erupted promoting local languages of their capitals
as the formal and standard language of their court and legal systems. Hence different dialects of Persian were practiced formally in Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan following their own destiny.
The word “Dari” in Persian means related to “Darbaar,” the Persian word for “court.” In the 10th to 15th century Persian literature, many
classic proses refer to “Dari” or “Farsi e Dari” as the language of court or formal language. At the same time as Arabic was imbedded into
Persian Language and culture, the word Farsi replaced Parsi since Arabic does not have the sound “P.” While Dari and Farsi were created
side by side in Persian Language, Europe and English language were not influenced by the socio political changes happening in Persia.
Different languages in Europe continued to use the same word for Persian, as they have been using through out the history, until the 1980’
s and the influx of immigrants from Iran and Afghanistan to the United States. At that time, somehow Iranians identified themselves with
Farsi as their standard language and Afghans identified themselves with Dari as their standard language.
As a linguist who has been providing translation services for both Afghan and Iranian nationals, I admit that there are more similarities than
differences between the two dialects. It can be compared to something like British English and American English. A seasoned translator
who is familiar with both cultures and has a good solid language background can learn the differences in choice of words and local cultures
to accommodate a high quality translation and interpretation for general purposes and high level of formal language use. However, when it
comes to more specific local use of the language with more detail cultures attached to the project, only a local linguist would be able to
provide the best rendition, given the fact that any Persian speaker linguist can adapt and pick up the local cultures easily by either studying
the culture or living in the area.
Iran, being the only country whose formal language is Persian, even though many different dialects of Persian are spoken in different parts
of the country, has worked quite adamantly over the past 100 years on modernizing and standardizing Persian language. The process of
modernizing Persian language has had its ups and downs but certainly has been going forward. Many institutes and organizations have
been working on syntax and semantics of Persian language spoken in Iran. The number of Persian publications in the form of hard copy
and soft copy is beyond imagination. While this huge number of publications serves both countries of Iran and Afghanistan, nevertheless it
does not encompass many nuances of the cultures local to Afghanistan. So in the very recent years, as localization has become more
known and practiced by the linguists, new Persian dictionaries of Dari and Farsi dialects are emerging. In my course of translation and
interpretation practices I have collected about 5000 words that are different in each dialect and soon will be posted on my website.
To learn more about the details of Farsi and Dari in addition to other languages spoken in Near East Asia and the Middle East I will be
happy to host you in my seminar at ATA Conference in San Francisco, November of 2007.
Thank you for attending my seminar and at the end I will be happy to take questions regarding the different dialects of Persian Language,
the most famous of which Farsi and Dari.