Re: [tied] Dari/Farsi question

There's little difficulty in mutual comprehension as far as I know, and Dari is essentially an eastern dialect of Farsi, with the usual quota of lexical differences. The literary languages are almost the same, while spoken Dari gravitates towards Tajiki -- another form of Modern Persian, with which it forms a dialectal continuum. They are related definitely more like diffent varieties of English than like French and Spanish. Cf. the Ethnologue database descriptions:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=1000

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: hyltoncj64@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:55 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