| Hazaragi | |
|---|---|
| آزرگی | |
 The wordsHazāragi,Āzargi, andAzargi written inNastaliq. | |
| Native to | Afghanistan[1] |
| Ethnicity | Hazaras |
Native speakers | 5 million (2023)[2] |
| Persian alphabet[3] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | haz |
| Glottolog | haza1239 |
| Part ofa series on the |
| Hazaras |
|---|
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 Commons |
Hazaragi[a] refers to a group ofdialects ofAfghan Persian. Afghan Persian, also known asDari, is an eastern variety of thePersian language and has many dialects throughout Afghanistan.[4]
Hazaragi dialects fall underDari, an eastern variety ofPersian. Dari, known as Afghan Persian, is one of the two officialLanguages of Afghanistan. Persian is a prominent member of theIranian branch of theIndo-European language family. The Hazaragi dialects of Dari and the standard Kabuli dialect of Dari are mutually intelligible,[5] with the primary differences being accents.[6] InDaykundi, the local dialect of Dari contains someTurkic loanwords viaKarluk.[7]
Najib Mayel Heravi about the Hazaragi dialects:
"The Hazaragi dialects of Persian possess some of the most ancient and authentic features of the Persian language, to the extent that features typical of the Persian dialects of the 4th and 5th centuries (such as compound verbs instead of simple verbs, old particles, adverbs, old prefixes, verb repetitions, old pronouns, and noticeable alternations) are all prevalent in this variety. The study of these dialects of Persian in Afghanistan, before it becomes obsolete and foreign, is essential for historical linguistic studies of Persian and for solving problems in the interpretation of ancient Persian texts."[8]
Hazaragi dialects are mainly spoken by the Hazara people, who are native to and mainly live in Afghanistan.
As part of the largerAfghan diaspora, theHazara diaspora has led to many Hazara Afghans living, or being born, in Pakistan and Iran. As a result, many Afghan-Pakistanis (particularly inQuetta), and Afghan-Iranians (particularly inMashhad),[9] speak Hazaragi dialects of Dari. Along with the diaspora in easternUzbekistan, northernTajikistan, theAmericas,Europe, andAustralia.[10] The influx ofAfghan refugees inIran has caused there to be an estimated total of 399,000 Dari speakers of Hazaragi dialects in the country, as of 2021.[11]
Some dialects of Dari spoken by Hazaras contain Turkic loanwords.[12][13] According to Temirkhanov, the Mongolian elements make up 10% of the Hazara vocabulary.[14] AnIranica article on Dari dialects of the Hazaras states that they consist of three linguistic layers: pre-Mongol Persian, with its own substratum; theMongolian language; and the modernTajik language, another eastern Persian variety.[15]
According to Efimov, examples of vocabulary in Hazaragi dialects that reflect Turkic influence includeata ('father'),kaṭa ('big, large'),qara ('black'),[15]kunda ('plow'),qōš ('eyebrow'),[16] while words of Mongolic origin includebêri ('bride'),alaḡa ('palm of the hand'),qulaḡay ('thief'),[15]xatun ('wife, woman'),ōɡ̄il ('village').[16] GermanIranologistMichael Weiers [de] notes that a key distinguishing feature of the Hazaragi dialects are its Turco-Mongolic lexical components, which make up around 10% of their vocabularies. Although the Hazaragi dialects of Dari remain structurally similar to theKabuli dialect of Dari, this lexical layer is different.[15][17]
The grammatical structure of the Hazaragi dialects of Dari[18][19][20] are identical to that of theKabuli dialect.[21][22]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| ʊ | ||
| Mid | e | ɔ |
| Low | a |
/a/ can also approach the sound[æ] or[ɛ].[23]
Hazaragi dialects contain the voiced fricative/ɣ/, and the labial–velar approximant/w/. Unlike in other Persian dialects, the retroflex stops/ʈ/ and/ɖ/ are found. Thevoiceless glottal fricative/h/ is often dropped.[24] The convergence of thevoiced uvular stop/ɢ/ (ق) and thevoiced velar fricative/ɣ/ (غ) inWestern Persian (probably under the influence ofTurkic languages)[25] is treated as separate phonemes in Hazaragi dialects.
Diphthongs include/aj/,/aw/, and/ew/ (cf. Iranian Persianab,āb,ûw). The vocalic system is eastern Persian, characterized by the loss of length distinction, the retention of mid-vowels, and the rounding ofā andå/o, alternating with its merger witha orû (cf. Iranian Persianān).[24]
Stress is dynamic and same to that in the Kabuli dialect of Dari[26] and Tajik,[27] and are thus not variable.[28] Stress generally falls on the last syllable of a nominal word form, including derivative suffixes and several morphological markers. Typical is the insertion of epenthetic vowels in consonant clusters (e.g.,pašm >póšum; 'wool') and final devoicing (e.g.,ḵût; 'self, own').[24]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palato- alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | tʃ | k | q | ||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | dʒ | ɡ | ||||
| Flap/Trill | r | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | (h) | |||
| voiced | z | ʒ | ɣ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||||
[h] only occurs infrequently and among more educated speakers./r/ can be heard as either a trill[r] or a tap[ɾ]. /x,ɣ/ can also range to uvular sounds [χ,ʁ].[citation needed]
The most productive derivative marker is-i, and the plural markers are-o for the inanimate (as inkitab-o, meaning 'books'; cf. Iranian Persian-hā) and-û for the animate (as inbirar-û, meaning 'brothers'; cf. Iranian Persian-ān). The emphatic vocative marker isû or-o, the indefinite marker is-i, and the specific object marker is-(r)a. The comparative marker is-tar (as inkalû-tar; 'bigger'). Dependent adjectives and nouns follow the head noun and are connected by-i (as inkitab-i mamud; 'book of Mahmud'). Topicalized possessors precede the head noun marked by the resumptive personal suffix (as inZulmay ayê-ši;lit. 'Zulmay her mother'). Prepositions include, in addition to the standard Persian ones,ḵun(i) ('with; using'),da ('in'; cf. Iranian Persiandar); the latter often replacesba ('to') in dative function. Loaned postpositions include comitative-qati ('together with') and(az)-worî ('like'). Interrogatives typically function also as indefinite (as inkudam; 'which; someone').[24]
| Singular/Plural | First person | Second person | Third person |
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | ma[me, I] (man) | tu[you] (tu) | e/u[this/that] (w) |
| plural | mû[we, us] (mo) | šimû/šumû (cumo) | yo/wo[these/those] (icon) |
| singular | -um[mine] -em | -it/khu/–tû[your/yours] (-et) | -iš/-(i)ši[his/hers] (-ec) |
| plural | -mû[ours] (-emon) | –tû/-šimû/šumû[your/yours] (-eton) | -iš/-(i)ši[their] (-econ) |
These includeatê/arê ('yes');amma orwali ('but');balki ('however');šaydi ('perhaps')ale ('now'); andwuḵt-a ('then'). These are also marked by distinctive initial stress.[24]
| Hazaragi-Dari | Iranian Persian | English |
|---|---|---|
| amyale | aknun | now |
| dalil'dera | dalil darad | maybe |
The imperfective marker is the prefixmi- (assimilated variants:m-,mu-,m-,mê-), as in the conjugated verbmi-zan-um ('I am hitting'). The subjunctive and imperative marker isbi- (with similar assimilation). The negation prefix isna- and is placed before all other prefixes, as inna-mi-zad-um ('I was not hitting'). These typically attract stress.[24]
The tense, mood, and aspect systems are different from Western Persian. The basic tense system is threefold: present-future, past, and remote (pluperfect). New modal paradigms developed in addition to the subjunctives:
Moreover, all past and remote forms have developed imperfective forms marked bymi-. There are doubts about several of the less commonly found, or recorded, forms, in particular those withḵot.[29] However, the systematic arrangement of all forms according to their morphological, as well as semantic, function shows that those forms fit well within the overall pattern. The system may tentatively be shown as follows, leaving out complex compound forms such aszada ḵot mu-buda baš-um.[24]
In the assumptive, the distinction appears to be not between present versus past, but indefinite versus definite. Also, similar to all Persian dialects, the imperfective forms inmi-, and past perfect forms, such asmi-zad-um andzada bud-um, are used in irreal conditional clauses and wishes, e.g.,kaški zimi qulba kadagi mu-but ('If the field would only be/have been plowed'). Modal verbs, such astan- ('can'), are constructed with the perfect participle, e.g.,ma bû-r-um, da čaman rasid-a ḵot tanist-um ('I shall go, and may be able to get to Chaman'). Participial nominalization is typical, both with the perfect participle (e.g.,kad-a 'having done'), and with the derived participle with passive meaningkad-ag-i 'having been done'. E.g.,zimin-i qulba kada-ya ('The field has been ploughed'),zamin-i qulba (na-)šuda-ra mi-ngar-um ('I am looking at a plowed/unplowed field'),imrûz [u ḵondagi] tikrar mu-kun-a ('Today he repeats reading what he had read'). The gerundive (e.g.,kad-an-i 'to be done') is likewise productive, as inyag čiz, ki uftadani baš-a, ma u-ra qad-dist-ḵu girift-um, tulḡa kad-um ('One object, that was about to fall, I grabbed, and held it'). The clitic-ku or-ḵu topicalizes the parts of speech, and-di topicalizes the predicate; e.g.,i-yši raft, ma-ḵu da ḵona mand-um ('He himself left; I, though, I stayed').[24]
