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Hazaragi ( fa, , Həzārəgī; haz, , links=no, Āzərəgī) is an eastern dialect of
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
that is spoken by the
Hazara people The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scatt ...
, primarily in the
Hazarajat Hazaristan ( fa, هزارستان, Hazāristān), or Hazarajat ( fa, هزاره‌جات, Hazārajāt) is a mostly mountainous region in the central highlands of Afghanistan, among the Koh-i-Baba mountains in the western extremities of the ...
region of central
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, as well as other Hazara-populated areas of Afghanistan. It is also spoken by the Hazaras of
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and also by the
Hazara diaspora The Hazara people are an ethnic group who are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat, they established a large diaspora which consists of many communities in different countries around the ...
living elsewhere in the world.


Classification

Hazaragi is a member of the
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
branch of the
Indo-European language family The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
. It is an eastern variety of
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
closely related to the
Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī  ...
language of Afghanistan. The primary differences between Dari and Hazaragi are the accents Schurmann, Franz (1962) ''The Mongols of Afghanistan: An Ethnography of the Moghôls and Related Peoples of Afghanistan'' Mouton,
The Hague, Netherlands The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, page 17
OCLC 401634
/ref> and Hazaragi's greater array of many Turkic and a few Mongolic loanwords.Charles M. Kieffer, "HAZĀRA iv. Hazāragi dialect," ''Encyclopedia Iranica'' Online Edition, December 15, 2003, available a

/ref> Despite these differences, the two dialects are mutually intelligible.


Geographic distribution and diaspora

Hazaragi is spoken by the
Hazara people The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scatt ...
, who mainly live in Afghanistan (predominantly in the
Hazarajat Hazaristan ( fa, هزارستان, Hazāristān), or Hazarajat ( fa, هزاره‌جات, Hazārajāt) is a mostly mountainous region in the central highlands of Afghanistan, among the Koh-i-Baba mountains in the western extremities of the ...
region, as well as in major urban areas), with a significant population in Pakistan (particularly
Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...
) and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
(particularly Mashhad), and by Hazara diaspora in eastern
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
, northern
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
, the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
,
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, and Australia. In recent years, a substantial population of Hazara refugees have settled in Australia, prompting the
Department of Immigration and Citizenship The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) was an Australian government department that existed between January 2007 and September 2013, that was preceded by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and was s ...
to move towards an official recognition of the Hazaragi language. Currently, NAATI (
National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (known as NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia. NAATI's mission, as outlined in the NAATI Constitution, ...
) holds interpreting tests for Hazaragi as a distinct language, noting in test materials that Hazaragi varies by dialect, and that any dialect of Hazaragi may be used in interpreter testing as long as it would be understood by the average speaker. The test materials also note that Hazaragi in some locations has been significantly influenced by surrounding languages, and that the use of non-Hazaragi words assimilated from neighboring languages would be penalized in testing.


History


Persian and Islam

The Persian language became so much part of the religion of Islam that it almost went wherever Islam took roots. Persian entered, in this way, into the very faith and thought of the people embracing Islam throughout
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
. There are some Mongolic-speaking
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
known as
Moghol people The Moghols (also Mogul, Mongul) are Mongolic people as descendants of the Mongol Empire's soldiers in Afghanistan. They live in the Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla villages of Herat province and used to speak the Moghol language. The Moghols sometime ...
, mainly in Karez and Kundur between
Maymana Maymana ( Persian/ Uzbek/Pashto: میمنه) is the capital city of Faryab Province in northwestern Afghanistan, near the Turkmenistan border. It is approximately northwest of the country's capital Kabul, and is located on the Maymana River, wh ...
and
Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...
(northwestern and western Afghanistan), who still speak a Mongolic language that the Hazara people do not understand.


Turkic and Mongolic influence

Over the time, some of the Turkic and Mongolic languages died out in Afghanistan as living languages amongst some Hazara people. However, Hazaragi contains many Turkic and a few Mongolic loanwords.


Grammatical structure

The grammatical structure of Hazaragi is practically identical with that of the Kabuli dialect of Persian.


Phonology

can also approach the sound or . As a group of eastern Persian varieties which are considered the more formal and classical varieties of Persian, Hazaragi retains the voiced fricative , and the bilabial articulation of has borrowed the (rare) retroflexes and ; as in ''buṭ'' (meaning "boot") vs. ''but'' (meaning "idol") (cf. Persian '); and rarely articulates . The convergence of
voiced uvular stop The voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G\. is a rare sound, even ...
(ق) and
voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , ...
(غ) in Western Persian (probably under the influence of
Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
) is still kept separate in Hazara. Diphthongs include , , and (cf. Persian , , ). The vocalic system is typically eastern Persian, characterized by the loss of length distinction, the retention of mid vowels, and the rounding of and , alternating with its merger with , or (cf. Persian ). Stress is dynamic and similar to that in Dari and Tajik varieties of Persian, and not variable. It generally falls on the last syllable of a nominal form, including derivative suffixes and a number of morphological markers. Typical is the insertion of epenthetic vowels in consonant clusters (as in ''pašm'' to ''póšum''; "wool") and final devoicing (as in ''ḵût''; "self, own"). only occurs infrequently, and among more educated speakers. can be heard as either a trill or a tap . // can also range to uvular sounds [].


Nominal morphology

The most productive derivative marker is ''-i'', and the plural markers are ''-o'' for the inanimate (as in ''kitab-o'', meaning "books"; cf. Persian ) and ''-û'' for the animate (as in ''birar-û'', meaning "brothers"; cf. Persian ). The emphatic vocative marker is ''û'' or ''-o'', the indefinite marker is ''-i'', and the specific object marker is ''-(r)a''. The comparative marker is ''-tar'' (as in ''kalû-tar'', meaning "bigger"). Dependent adjectives and nouns follow the head noun and are connected by ''-i'' (as in ''kitab-i mamud'', meaning "the book of Maḥmud"). Topicalized possessors precede the head noun marked by the resumptive personal suffix (as in ''Zulmay ayê-ši'', literally "Zulmay her mother"). Prepositions include, in addition to the standard Persian ones, ''ḵun(i)'' (meaning "with, by means of", ''da'' (meaning "in"; cf. Persian ); the latter often replaces ''ba'' (meaning "to") in dative function. Loaned postpositions include comitative ''-qati'' (meaning "together with") and ''(az) -worî'' (meaning "like"). Interrogatives typically function also as indefinites (as in ''kudam'', meaning "which, someone").


Particles, conjunctions, modals, and adverbials

These include ''atê/arê'', meaning "yes"; ''amma'' or ''wali'', meaning "but"; ''balki'', meaning "however"; ''šaydi'', meaning "perhaps"; ''ale'', meaning "now"; and ''wuḵt-a'', meaning "then". These are also marked by distinctive initial stress.


Verb morphology

The imperfective marker is ''mi-'' (assimilated variants: ''m-'', ''mu-'', ''m-'', ''mê-''; as in ''mi-zan-um'', "I hit, I am hitting"). The subjunctive and imperative marker is ''bi-'' (with similar assimilation). The negation is ''na-'' (as in ''na-mi-zad-um'', "I was not hitting"). These usually attract stress.


Tenses

The tense, mood, and aspect system is typically quite 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: * The non-seen/mirative that originates in the resultative-stative perfect (e.g., ''zad-ēm''; cf. Persian ), which has largely lost its non-modal use; * the potential, or assumptive, which is marked by the invariant ''ḵot'' (cf. Persian ''xāh-ad'' or ''xād'', "it wants, intends") combined with the indicate and subjunctive forms. Moreover, all past and remote forms have developed imperfective forms marked by ''mi-''. There are doubts about several of the less commonly found, or recorded, forms, in particular those with ''ḵot''.G. K. Dulling, The Hazaragi Dialect of Afghan Persian: A Preliminary Study, Central Asian Monograph 1, London, 1973. pp. 35-36 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 (all forms are 1st sing), leaving out complex compound forms such as ''zada ḵot mu-buda baš-um''. In the assumptive, the distinction appears to be not between present versus past, but indefinite versus definite. Also, similar to all Persian varieties, the imperfective forms in ''mi-'', and past perfect forms, such as ''mi-zad-um'' and ''zada 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 as ''tan-'' ("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 Čaman". Participial nominalization is typical, both with the perfect participle (e.g., ''kad-a'', "(having) done") and with the derived participle with passive meaning ''kad-ag-i'', "having been done" (e.g., ''zimin-i qulba kada-ya'', "The field is ploughed"; ''zamin-i qulba (na-)šuda-ra mi-ngar-um'', "I am looking at a plowed/unplowed field"; ''imrûz ḵondagitikrar 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 in ''yag 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 parts of speech, ''-di'' the predicate; as in ''i-yši raft, ma-ḵu da ḵona mand-um'', "He himself left; I, though, I stayed".


See also

* Aimaq dialect


References


External links


Map of the Hazaragi language in Afghanistan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hazaragi language Eastern Persian dialects in Afghanistan Languages of Afghanistan Languages of Iran Languages of Tajikistan Persian language in Pakistan Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hazarajat