Dari is basically a more conservative form of Persian than
Farsi, especially in vowels. The long and short <i> and <u> are
maintained in Dari, whereas in Farsi short <i> and <u> merge with
<e> and <o>. Spoken Farsi is also somewhat different than written
Farsi, but I don't remember all the specifics (there is a type of [e > o]
vowel harmony involved), but I only studied Farsi and not Dari and I'm a native
speaker of neither. (My ex once told me not to pronounce Farsi as written
or else I'd sound Pakistani.)
I'm wondering about common Persian <xv>, which is
pronounced simply as [x] in Farsi; I think it's preserved as [xv] in Dari.
But Dari even breaks up two initial consonants in native Persian words, unlike,
say Pashto -- so "brother" is still /barâdar/.
~Danny~
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 4:55
PM
Subject: [tied] Dari/Farsi question
I know that Dari and Farsi are both versions
of Modern Persian -- how similar are they? Is it like the difference between
say, American and Australian English, where a few terms might (OK, more than a
few terms) might be confusing but the basics are the same or is it more like
the relationship between, say French and Spanish?
BTW -- I really love
lurking on this list. The discussions are fascinating, even though I can
rarely add to them.
cj