Re: [tied] Dari/Farsi question

From: Danny Wier
Message: 14037
Date: 2002-07-17

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 /barĂ¢dar/.
 
~Danny~
----- Original Message -----
From: hyltoncj64@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
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