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Initial investigations into Dari dialectology AF-PAK LEARN Omaha May 19, 2010. Corey Miller ( cmiller@casl.umd.edu ) Najiba Moats. What is Dari?. Variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan Can be contrasted with Farsi (Iran), Tajik (Tajikistan) We are not referring to the following usages:
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Initial investigations into Dari dialectologyAF-PAK LEARN OmahaMay 19, 2010 Corey Miller (cmiller@casl.umd.edu) Najiba Moats
What is Dari? Variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan • Can be contrasted with Farsi (Iran), Tajik (Tajikistan) • We are not referring to the following usages: • Dialect of Zoroastrians spoken in Yazd and Kerman, Iran and Bombay, India • Literary form of Early New Persian (9-12th centuries)
Southwest Iranian Languages Family Tree Old Persian Middle Persian Early New Persian Farsi Dari Tajik
What is dialectology? • Study of variation in language associated with geography • Macro: national varieties of Persian • Micro: regional varieties within Farsi, Dari, etc. • Identification of dialect features associated with different localities • Words, pronunciations, grammatical features • Shibboleths and stereotypes
Benefits to understanding dialectal structure of a language • Better understanding of non-standard language • Ability to determine a speaker’s provenance (à la Henry Higgins)
How to describe Dari? • Contrastive approach • e.g. how does Dari differ from Farsi? • Internal approach • What are the popularly recognized dialects? (cf. Perceptual Dialectology, Dennis Preston) • Identify variables • What lexical, phonological, syntactic and morphological features characterize the different dialects?
Lexicalvariables • Household items • sugar: بوره /bura/ vs. شکر /ʃakar/ • butter: مسکه /maska/ vs. کره /kare/ • Western imports: from French or English? • tie: نکتای /nektay/ vs. کراوات /krɑvɑt/ • Japan: جاپان /jɑpɑn/ vs. ژاپن /ʒɑpon/ • Same word different meaning • maternal uncle, midwife: ماما /mɑmɑ/, دائ /dɑi/
Phonological variables • Dari is generally more “conservative” • Preserves some distinctions (e.g. from Early New Persian) that are lost or merged in Farsi • Vowels • Diphthongs • Consonants
Preservation of “classical” vowel distinctions • e ~ i • شیر/ʃer/ vs. /ʃir/ lion,شیر/ʃir/ milk • سیر/ser/ vs. /sir/ full, سیر/sir/ garlic • o ~ u • شور/ʃor/ vs. /ʃur/ salty • صور/sur/ trumpet
Preservation of diphthongs • ay ~ e • پیدا /paydɑ/ vs. /pedɑ/ find • سیر /sayr/ vs. /ser/ walking • aw ~ o • جلو /jelaw/ vs. /jelo/ front • چلو /čelaw/ vs. /čelo/ cooked rice
National distinctions in domestic flux Adapted from Farhadi 1955
Consonants /q/ ق and /ɣ/ غ • Dari maintains distinction • قهر(قار) /qɑr/ anger vs. غار /ɣɑr/ hole • Farsi has merged /q/ and /ɣ/ as /ɢ/ with allophones [ɢ] initially and [ʁ] intervocalically • Hodge 1957 reports q ~ ɣ distinction in Kerman, Iran • Both Dari and Farsi have allophone [x] in certain contexts: وقت /waxt/, /vaxt/ time
Additional consonantal differences • Consonantal و • نودninety /nawad/ vs. /navad/ • آوازsound /ɑwɑz/ vs. /ɑvɑz/ • ژ j ~ ʒ • Farsi distinguishes ج /j/ and ژ /ʒ/ • Merged in Dari • ژاله /jɑla/ vs. / ʒɑle/ • جوان /javɑn/ youth
Additional vocalic difference • vowel + “silent” ه • نامه /nɑma/ vs. /nɑme/ letter • شکسته /ʃekasta/ vs. /ʃekaste/ broken
Syntactic and Morphological Differences • Morphology • first person singular verbal suffix: /om/ vs. /am/ • I go: /merom/ vs. /miram/ • Syntax • formation of the present progressive: I’m eating • خورده میرم/xordamerom/ • دارم می خورم/dɑrammixoram/
Methodology • Unlikely that differences in national varieties correspond exactly with political boundaries (cf. Miller 1985) • Use reported differences in national varieties to establish isoglosses
Fieldwork components • Sociolinguistic interview • Elicitation guides • Phonology: reading wordlists • Lexicon: “What do you put in your tea to make it sweet?” • Reading passage • IPA Handbook Farsi adapted for Afghanistan • Observe connected speech processes
Interviews to-date • Herat male • Mazari Sharif female (native language Uzbek) • Bamian female (Hazaragi) • Jalalabad male (native language Pashto)
Plans going forward • Conduct interviews with speakers from additional regions • Deepen coverage of individual regions • “Standard”: determine existence, description and where it is found • Association of variables with localities: isoglosses • Determination and description of social dialects
References • Farhadi, Abd-ul-Ghafur. 1955. Le persanparlé en Afghanistan. Paris: Klincksieck • Henderson, Michael Magnus Thyne. 1972. Dari (Kabul Persian) Phonology. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin dissertation. • Hodge, Carleton T. 1957. Some aspects of Persian Style. Language 33.355-369. • International Phonetic Association. 1999. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References • Miller, Corey. 1989. The United States-Canadian border as a linguistic boundary: The English language in Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College undergraduate thesis. • Nawid, Senzil. 1994. بررسی مختصر گویشهای دری کابل و فارسی تهران. Persian studies in North America: studies in honor of Mohammad Ali Jazayery. Bethesda, MD: Iranbooks.
References • Preston, Dennis R., editor. 1999. Handbook of perceptual dialectology. Amsterdam: Benjamins. • Rees, Daniel A. 2008. Towards proto-Persian: An optimality theoretic historical reconstruction. Washington, DC: Georgetown University dissertation. • Sayd, Mustafa Ajan. 2009. Dari-English Dictionary. Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody.
References • فهرست واژه های متفاوت در فارسی افغانستان و ایران. http://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA_%D9%88%D8%A7%DA%98%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C_%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AA_%D8%AF%D8%B1_%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3%DB%8C_%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86_%D9%88_%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86