Dari (Persian Dialect)

Dari (Persian Dialect)

Dari (Persian: دری‎, Darī, pronounced ) or Fārsī-ye Darī (Persian: فارسی دری‎, ) refers to the dialects of modern Persian spoken in Afghanistan, and is hence also known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized and promoted in 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language. As defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan; the other is Pashto. Dari is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the mother-tongue of approximately 50% of the population, serving as the country's lingua franca. The Iranian and Afghan dialects of Persian are highly mutually intelligible, with differences found primarily in the vocabulary and phonology. But in historical usage, Dari refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids.

Dari, spoken in Afghanistan, should not be confused with Dari or Gabri of Iran, a language of the Central Iranian sub-group, spoken in some Zoroastrian communities.