An apocope of “courtly Persian,” fārsi-ye dari is, along with Pashto, one of the principal Persian languages spoken contemporarily in Afghanistan (especially in the capital and the southern and western regions).
This language is also known as “Persian,” “Persawan,” or “Afghan Persian.”
Over half the population are native speakers of this language, and it is the principal tongue of the Hazara and Aimay (Chahar Aimaq) peoples. It is the common tongue among the various tribes and peoples of Afghanistan, and has consequently become the lingua franca for the region.
In ancient times this region was known as Ariana and was, over the course of time, part of the Aquemenid Persian Empire, the Hellenistic Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, and the Sassanid Persian Empire. With the disappearance of the Hellenistic Kingdom, the area converted to Buddhism and to Hinduism, and later to Islam with the arrival of Arab Moslems in 636 AD (year 14 on the Hegira calendar).
The State of Afghanistan was created in 1747. British influence began to be exerted as of 1837 in the country, and on August 19th, 1919 the country obtained its independence from the United Kingdom.
In 1973 a coup d’etat toppled the monarchy and the Republic was installed.
Five years later communist forces took control, however guerrilla insurgency provoked a Soviet intervention which lasted until 1989. In 1996 the Taliban assumed power and imposed Sharia Law on the country.
Following the attacks of September 11th, Afghanistan has been a State only in name as the country has become a de facto protectorate of the United States, NATO and the United Nations.
Related posts
Tags: Afghan Persian, Afghanistan, Aimay, Aquemenid Persian Empire, Arab Moslems, Ariana, Buddhism, Chahar Aimaq, courtly Persian, Dari, de facto, fārsi-ye dari, guerrilla insurgency, Hazara, Hegira calendar, Hellenistic Bactrian Kingdom, Hinduism, Islam, Kushan Empire, lingua franca, NATO, Pashto, Persawan, protectorate, Sassanid Persian Empire, Sharia Law, Taliban, united nations, United States
I think the World now needs a modern lingua franca as well
Why not decide on a neutral non-national language, taught worldwide, in all nations? I would prefer Esperanto
Your readers may be interested in
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670.
A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at
http://www.lernu.net
Hi Brian,
thanks for your comment. I think your proposal is interesting and I find the general idea to be a good one.
However, and speaking as someone that doesn’t know an awful lot about Esperanto, it seems to me that this language is largely based on Indo-European language structures and vocabulary. As a result, I have a hard time seeing it becoming more of a lingua franca than, say, English already is today.
Over 5,000 years into human civilization, I think we’re going to have a hard time finding a language that can serve as a truly global lingua franca that isn’t “biased” in this sense…what do you think?
[...] agencies of the State Department. Its main focus will be increasing resources for languages such as Dari and Pashto, for the military operations in Afghanistan (also discussed here and here). Many [...]