Ehsan M . Entezar Copyright © 2010 by Ehsan M . Entezar. Library of Congress Control Number: 2010906550 ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4500-9931-8 Softcover 978-1-4500-9930-1 Ebook 978-1-4500-9932-5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any lorm or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This book was printed in the United States of America. To order additional copies of this book, contact: Xlibris Corporation 1-888-795-4274 www.Xlibris.com [email protected] 76588 Pronunciation Guide .7 Preface......................... .9 Introduction.............. 11 Part 1— Grammar Phonology.......................... 23 The Verb Phrase............... 31 The Noun P hrase............. 49 The Adjectival P h rase..... 73 Adverbs and Prepositions 82 C lau ses................................ 95 Part 2— Phrase Book Language Functions and Topics............................................................................. I l l Language Functions.................................................................................................. 112 Shopping...................................................................................................................... 122 Fruits and Vegetables................................................................................................. 125 Travel and Transportation........................................................................................127 Security.......................................................................................................................... 130 Family and Relations................................................................................................. 133 Education..................................................................................................................... 136 Health and H ygien e.................................................................................................. 138 Religion and W orship................................................................................................ 141 W eather and C lim a te ................................................................................................ 143 Government and Politics......................................................................................... 144 Bibliography................................................................................................................ 149 Appendix A: Days and M onths.............................................................................. 151 Appendix B: N um erals..............................................................................................152 Appendix C: Afghan N am es................................................................................... 154 Index...............................................................................................................................161 G u i l i .P R O N U N C I A T I O N Symbol D ari E nglish / /a/ as/ “from” ask /aa/ /naan/ “bread” far /dest/ “hand” get /e/ /i/ /sir/ “garlic” feet /o/ /omr/ “age” put /zud/ “fast” shoot /u/ /ey/ /deyr/ “late” day /ow/ /zowr/ “force/power” low / /aay/ aayna/ “mirror” I /b/ /bad/“bad” best /P/ /paak/ “clean” pest /t/ / “you” test tu / /a/ / dest/ den /k/ /kaard/ “knife” kin / gaaz/ “swing” get /qaalin/ “rug” None /q/ / s/ /seyb/ “apple” sent /z/ /zan/ “wife/ woman” was / /sh/ shaar/ “city/town” she /zh/ /gazhdom/ “scorpion” measure HI /faarsi/ “Farsi” Farsi 7 Ehsan M . Entezar /kh/ /khosh/ “happy” none /gh/ / afghaan/ “Afghan” none /ch/ / chaar “four” chest /jaan/ “dear/body” just /j/ /m/ /ma/ “I” me /n/ / naam/ “name” name /V /kalaan/ “big/large” learn It l /raa/ “path/way/road” rent /w/ /wakht/ “time” went /yak/ “one” yes ¥ 8 Since 9/11 and the overthrow o f the Taliban, more and more Westerners and people from Asia and other countries going to Afghanistan feel the need to learn Dari. The materials commercially available are mosdy in the form of Phrase Books without any significant information the grammar of Dari. Additionally, the limited Dari grammar books available are mostly o f the written instead of the spoken form of the language. As it w ill be made clear, spoken and written Dari are two different systems. Furthermore, these grammars are prim arily prescriptive rather than descriptive in that instead of describing language as it is ( d escrip tive), they describe it as i t should be (p rescriptive). This book is the first attempt to provide a descriptive grammar o f spoken Dari. M y interest in language and language teaching is both theoretical and practical, going back to the 1960s. M y doctorate is in applied linguistics and I have taught Dari grammar at Kabul University and in the Peace Corps. Additionally, I have written many articles on linguistics and language teaching. Between 1964 and 1969, I wrote several language textbooks for the United States Peace Corps: Farsi (Afghan P ersian) (1964),The School for International Training, Putney, Vermont, U SA; In term ed ia te D ari (1965), U.S. Peace Corps, Kabul and D ari (1969), T he University of Texas at Austin. F a rsi (A fghan P ersia n ) was the first attem pt ever to teach spoken/ conversational Dari systematically to native speakers of English. It was based on the audio-lingual method, common in the 1960s. This approach to language teaching emphasized on listening and speaking rather than reading and writing skills, providing very little information on grammar in the process. The goal was to help Peace Corps volunteers communicate with ordinary Afghans. Therefore, the materials were presented in phonemic transcription and avoided any expressions (words, phrases, and sentences) of the written form of Dari. In short, Farsi (Afghan P ersian) and subsequent manuals I wrote were to teach spoken Dari to Americans going to Afghanistan as Peace Corps volunteers. 9 Ehsan M . Entezar Modern language teaching approaches are learner-centered, emphasizing language functions and an understanding of the target language structure (grammar). This book is a systematic attempt to provide an outline of spoken Dari grammar to assist individuals in learning to speak the language. Using this grammar as a reference, Americans and other Westerners can learn how to speak Dari with the help of informants (native Dari speakers), tutors, or on their own. There are two parts to D ari Grammar a n d Phrase Book. Part 1, grammar, deals with Dari sounds, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and clauses along with their formations, types, and functions. Part 2 Phrase Book consists of language functions and topics. More specifically, this part briefly discusses language functions: how to ask/give information, agree/disagree, persuade/ dissuade, give commands and make suggestions, and so on. The topics include shopping and clothing, fruits and vegetables, travel and transportation, security, family and relations, education, health, religion and worship, and weather and climate. The book ends with three appendixes. Appendix A is about days of the week and months of the year; Appendix B covers ordinal and cardinal numbers, and Appendix C discusses Afghan names. D ari G rammar a n d Phrase Book would not have been completed without the support and encouragement of some individuals. First and foremost, I am indebted to Dr. Karl Krahnke, Professor of Linguistics, Colorado State University, an ex-Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan, for taking his valuable time to read the manuscript and make invaluable comments and criticisms. Professor Krahnke taught English to Afghan students and he is fluent in Dari. Additionally, I am also indebted to Doctors John Bing and Robert Pearson, also returned Peace Corps volunteers from Afghanistan, for their constant support and encouragement, and for reading the manuscript. Finally, I am grateful to my wife and children for their wholehearted support. W h ile Professor Krahnke contributed comments and suggestions, I take the responsibility for any flaws in the book. Ehsan M . Entezar Modesto, California 26 March, 2010 10 Afghanistan is a multilingual society, with Dari and Pashto being the two dominant languages. O f these two, Dari is the interethnic language by which most, if not all, of the native speakers of other languages (Pashto, Uzbeki, Turkmeni, Pashai, Baluchi, and others) can communicate with each other. Pashto is generally spoken in the south and east, but it is also spoken in the north and western regions of the country. Dari is spoken natively in the capital Kabul, northern, central, and the western parts of Afghanistan as well as in Gardez and Jelalabad in the southeast and east respectively. Uzbeki is the native language of the Uzbek people in the northwest, but it is also spoken in some other northern regions. Turkmeni is mostly spoken in the northwest close to the border ofTurkmenistan. Baluchi is spoken in the southwest, and Pashai in Nuristan, in eastern Afghanistan. The Persian Language The Persian language is spoken by about a hundred million people. Its native speakers live in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. There are three major dialects of Persian: Farsi, Tajiki, and Dari. Farsi is spoken in Iran,Tajiki in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and Dari in Afghanistan. M ost Afghans call Dari “Farsi” but Dari is the official name for it. W ith in Afghanistan, there are different regional dialects of Dari. The major dialects of Dari are Kabuli, Hazaragi, (central Afghanistan), Herati (Herat), and Badakhshi spoken in Badakhshan, south of the Tajikistan border. These dialects differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. W h ile these Dari dialects differ in grammar and vocabulary, the differences in pronunciation are more acute. Among these dialects, Hazargi is more different from Kabuli and other dialects of Dari. Nevertheless, they are all dialects of Dari, and by definition mutually intelligible. The dialect used in this book is Kabuli, spoken in Kabul, where the author was born and raised. 11