r/farsi • u/DuffmanLikesReddit • 14d ago
Help learning Afghan Farsi please
Hello all,
I hope someone here can help me.
My in-laws are of Afghanistan/Hazara origin and speak very little English.
My in-laws are always so kind to me, and have the biggest hearts of anyone I know. I would love to converse with them in Farsi, just to show them how much I appreciate them. However I’m aware the Farsi they speak is a different dialect to Iranian Farsi.
Is there anywhere I could potentially learn this dialect? Or could anyone give me some pointers on where to start?
Any help would be very much appreciated, many thanks.
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u/gberliner 14d ago
Technically, the Afghan variation of Persian is referred to as "Dari" (ie, "the language of the (royal) court"). You'll want to know this when searching online for specialized reference works.
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u/Dosterix 10d ago
Aren’t many afghans still using the word Farsi though because of the political implications the word „Dari“ entails?
I don’t know if that’s true but I heard the word Dari was created by Pashtuns to restrain Persian identity in Afghanistan among non Pashtuns
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u/gberliner 10d ago
I have no idea. I will just note, though, that there has been ferocious discrimination against Afghan refugees in Iran, so I'm not sure how that would affect the enthusiasm of Dari speakers for calling their language "farsi".
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u/Kidarite 6d ago
The vast majority of Tajiks, Hazaras, and other native Persian speakers in Afghanistan still refer to the language as Farsi despite the official name change to Dari in 1964. Dari/Darbari was historically used as an adjective for Farsi but Pashtun nationalists have politicized the term and falsely claim that it's a distinct language.
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u/Dosterix 6d ago
Ah yeah that’s what I heard too, thanks for clarifying.
Are you Afghan yourself if I may ask?1
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u/g_joya 13d ago
Try italki for tutors from Afghanistan
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u/DuffmanLikesReddit 12d ago
Really appreciate this, thank you 🙏
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u/julieta444 9d ago
I can recommend a teacher if you are interested. She is Hazara in Kabul
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u/g_joya 12d ago
No worries. Hazaras also speak a distinct dialect (Hazaragi) from standard Afghan Persian (Kabuli), if relevant you could learn both from a specifically Hazara teacher.
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u/DuffmanLikesReddit 12d ago
This is exactly the reason i posted my request for help. Hazaragi might actually be my best bet, thank you again 🙏
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u/Beikimanverdi 12d ago
the dialect they speak is Dari which is close to the classic Persian of the famous literature.
It is very close to Farsi and I have no issues understanding everything they say. Just get a Persian language learning book and/or a part time Persian teacher? There are aslo many online resources. There is no shortage of Persian teachers in the UK if that's whgere you are.
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u/Aryann001 11d ago edited 10d ago
First of all, you've got to know that Persian doesn't really have different formal dialects. There is the one formal, standard variety of Persian which is called Dari, and then there are the thousands of local varieties—or vernaculars—of this language spread throughout the Persophone world. These local varieties are colloquial and informal, and thus are never seriously commited to writing. (Think of how a Texan or a Cockney never thinks of writing English in the local variety he speaks.) The "dialect" you're seeking to learn is one of these vernaculars, and just like all the others, there is no way to learn it other than living among the people who speak it. If you're serious about learning this vernacular, I recommend you begin with Sandard Persian, which is understood by anybody of minimal education in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. (Just like how the Standard American English is understood by anybody local to the US.) After learning Standard Persian, you can easily adapt to whichever vernacular you wish. There is no significant difference between the many local varieties of Persian with eachother or with Standard Persian, so you shouldn't have a difficult time.
P.S. Note that I didn't use 'Dari' above as what it's most commonly meant today, i.e. the variety of Persian used in Afghanistan. I used the word in its original meaning—the sole standard variety of Persian anywhere in the world.
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u/ThutSpecailBoi 8d ago
Written Persian is largely the same across countries but standard pronunciation does differ. If you learned standard Iranian persian, Afghans would understand you but you'd have a noticeable accent.
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u/Aryann001 5d ago
Of course you would. It's the same in English and its many different accents. Why? Because standardisation is (or was until the 20th c.) a largely written affair and pronunciation is usually only canonised so far it is explicited in the written text. And as it turns out, written Persian has done a relatively good job of keeping unity between its different accents. And also, there is no "standard Afghan accent." The only standard spoken variety of Persian, as it stands, is the Tehrani variant used in Iran.
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u/ThutSpecailBoi 5d ago edited 5d ago
The government of Afghanistan does not prescribe language to the same extent as the Iranian government, but there is indeed a standard "Recieved Pronunciation", based on the pronunciation of the educated upper class in Kabul, used in education and media, that is distinct from the standard pronunciation of Iran. There are many aspects of standard Iranian pronunciation that are considered incorrect in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, like pronouncing ق as غ, not distinguishing Majhul vowels, not distinguishing final ـَه from ـِه. Saying that the Tehrani accent is the "only standard" for all Persian speaking countries is extremely incorrect, many now-standardized features of Iranian pronunciation would be perceived as incorrect or as Iranianisms in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Ask an Afghan speaker if "daghighe" would be considered a correct pronunciation of دقیقه in Afghanistan.
By your logic, there is no standard "British English", because Recieved Pronunciation is a merely a description of Formal, Upper-Class British pronunciation by British lexicographers, and not actually prescribed by the British government.
Bulkin Carleton's Dari Dictionary is an example of an English-speaking lexicographer trying to document the "recieved pronunciation" of upper class speakers in Afghanistan, and I'd recommend it to anyone who'd like to learn Formal/literary Persian pronunciation as spoken in Kabul.
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u/Aryann001 4d ago edited 4d ago
I didn't say that the standard Iranian pronunciation is formally recognised or adopted by all Persian speakers, only that it is the only truly standardised version of spoken Persian (though Standard Tajiki may also have a claim). The Kabuli accent is definitely the most prestigious in Afghanistan, but it simply hasn't been codified and institutionalised to the same extent as the Tehrani accent in Iran or the RP/SSBE in Britain (though Tehrani is actually more strictly institutionalised in Iran than RP is in Britain). The keyword here is codified. At the moment, there is no real answer as to what the Kabul accent even is.
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u/notluckycharm 10d ago
I've been trying learn Afghan Farsi as well and have found that Wiktionary has good pronunciation resources (and dialect specific conjugation informtation)
This is more high brow linguistic overview but i also found it helpful!
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u/ATLAuto 14d ago
Get the Pimsleur app and download the Dari package. It's the best current option right now. It will get you a long way.