How different are Pashto and Farsi?

[fzpz]

Never. It was until the British that Farsi was banned, where it stopped serving as the official language. Urdu (through amalgamation of khariboli, brajbhasha, porbee, sanskrit, farsi, arabic, etc.) was used in poetry/entertainment. It was during the latter mughals (especially in hyderabad and up) that it was used as the lingua franca. Farsi was too foreign for everyone to use. Only the courts/elite of the elite used it. They gave up on farsi as the official/national/lingua franca of their empires, but not before thoroughly "persianizing" khariboli. If you think of urdu as a language one is never going to get their head around it. Just think of it as an ever changing potpourri with a sanskrit grammar structure. Urdu in KPK will eventually be different from urdu in Kashmir, which will be different from urdu in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab etc. I don't particularly think of it as a language, just a mix of many languages that provides a lingua franca. A person speaking urdu today would not understand the urdu of their grandparents, and so on. Urdu on tv for me might as well be a foreign language, very hard for the commoner to understand the vocab behind it. Urdu in Pakistan will become increasingly persianized while urdu in india dies off.

[Nokia_Apridy]

kupar awo islam....

[Feroza_Banu]

Urdu on tv for me might as well be a foreign language, very hard for the commoner to understand the vocab behind it.

hahaha u don't understand it because Urdu on tv is a few words from HIndi and the rest Farsi vocabulary.

I am fluent in Farsi, so your Urdu adab is a piece of cake to me!

[Karachi]

Never. It was until the British that Farsi was banned, where it stopped serving as the official language. Urdu (through amalgamation of khariboli, brajbhasha, porbee, sanskrit, farsi, arabic, etc.) was used in poetry/entertainment. It was during the latter mughals (especially in hyderabad and up) that it was used as the lingua franca. Farsi was too foreign for everyone to use. Only the courts/elite of the elite used it. They gave up on farsi as the official/national/lingua franca of their empires, but not before thoroughly "persianizing" khariboli. If you think of urdu as a language one is never going to get their head around it. Just think of it as an ever changing potpourri with a sanskrit grammar structure. Urdu in KPK will eventually be different from urdu in Kashmir, which will be different from urdu in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab etc. I don't particularly think of it as a language, just a mix of many languages that provides a lingua franca. A person speaking urdu today would not understand the urdu of their grandparents, and so on. Urdu on tv for me might as well be a foreign language, very hard for the commoner to understand the vocab behind it. Urdu in Pakistan will become increasingly persianized while urdu in india dies off.

I personally want urdu to become more Farsi/Dari, i think that was the way it was orginally, almost all old Urdu scholars and poets knew how to speak farsi

I dont really care if it dies out in India, it probably will because thats the agenda of the hindi speakers there, even if you notice now in Bollywood, they are using more hindi now, unlike in the 50's, 60s, 70,s where most of the songs were in urdu

Also Pakistanis should refrain from watching bollywood and learn more purer urdu to keep the language alive

[Darweshkhel]

i highly doubt dari uses pashto words.

this forum is full of nobodies spewing nonsensical opinions.

Pohantoon, darmaltoon, dagarwal, loya jirga, wolaswalee theres a bunch of pashto words in dari language. thank you

[graveyardofempires]

Pohantoon, darmaltoon, dagarwal, loya jirga, wolaswalee theres a bunch of pashto words in dari language. thank you

lets not forget farsiwaans with pukhto names such as toryalay,baryalay,gulmakey,and many more

[Feroza_Banu]

Yes many non pashtoons in afghanistan have pashtoon names...

zarlasht, Mina, gulalai, zarmina, zarghoona, malalai (very common), orbal,

and many village farsiwaans use pashto words in their common daily conversations, e.g. 'ghaley bishi'... meaning 'ghaley kena'.. or keep quiet.

[Karachi]

I have noticed with the new Bollywood movies, is that they speak a whole lotto English.

one thing i hate is when hindi speakers claim that all bollywood songs even old ones are hindi and not urdu, atleast they should give the credit where it belongs to the mostly muslim song writers of bollywood who spoke urdu. Most hindi writers can never match the emotions potrayed in urdu, it is urdu which made many of bollywood's songs great, yet i notice they get offended when you say this, infact it should be the other way around, urduspeakers should be getting offended because they are potraying urdu as hindi. to hindu/hindi speakers urdu doesn't even exist as a language, many of them hate the language

[Mir_Ghazab]

I want to know how different are Pashto and farsi? Can a Pashto speaker for example understand Farsi? or vice versa?

Farsi/Tajik is a wonderfully sophisticated language on par with other great world languages, with deep roots and history in our region, whereas Pashto is a rustic, unstable language of tribes from the hills and mountains of Sulaiman Mountain ranges, on level or even lesser status to/with languages like Pashae and Baluchi. But Pashto is stubbornly imposed by some people.

[graveyardofempires]

^
^

persistani again with another identity
i,ll report you right away

[Feroza_Banu]

Farsi/Tajik is a wonderfully sophisticated language on par with other great world languages, with deep roots and history in our region, whereas Pashto is a rustic, unstable language of tribes from the hills and mountains of Sulaiman Mountain ranges, on level or even lesser status to/with languages like Pashae and Baluchi. But Pashto is stubbornly imposed by some people.

your post is reported (by me), there is not place for you here Parsistani (or the like).... This is a pashtoon forum remember!... pashto is not only a language to us, its our nang or namoos, its our mother.... you insult our mother and u expect to stay here...?

[Roshina]

You know who I think has the inferiority complex that all you incompetent little minds accuse each other of? The ones who suffer from it are in reality those who will get all insecure in answering a simple question like, "What is the difference between Language A and Language B?" I note the insecurity in everyone's lame and embarrassing attempts to make Pashto seem superior to Dari, or vice versa. Get over it already, for God's sake. All languages are equal. Just becuase I'm a Pashtana and am crazy about Pashto doesn't make Pashto better than all other languages. That's a fact. Live with it. (And that also means no other language is better than Pashto either! So better luck convincing me that Persian is better or more beautiful or sophisticated than Pashto.)

The two languages are very different. Period. They have many words in common, but then so do Pashto and Arabic, or Arabic and Persian. And there's nothing wrong with that, and it makes perfect sense because the original speakers of these languages are neighbors and have been interacting with each other for over a millennium.

As for the ease and the difficulty of any language, I don't believe in this nonsense either. Yes, Pashto is a difficult language, we all say, but what does that mean? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. But how do we know it's a difficult language? We didn't grow to *learn* the language to know its level of difficulty; we speak it because it was passed down to us by our parents/families. How can you know whether a language is easy or difficult without studying it formally? Besides, try learning Turkish! It's a killer even for people who know over ten languages. Pashto may, however, be more difficult than Persian. But I don't know that because I've never formally studied Pashto. It's obviously easy for me because I'm a native speaker.

Persian/Dari is easy, yes - mostly because there's no gender in Persian; unlike (all?) other languages, it gets to be applauded for not being gendered, which makes it very easy because you don't have to worry about whether something is feminine or masculine. I still often struggle with this in Urdu, and it varies from dialect to dialect in Pashto.

So! Pashto and Farsi are two separate languages. However, it is a common belief that if you know Persian, Pashto will be very easy for you to learn. And vice versa: I'm studying Persian, and it's not at all difficult.

[pir_Rokhan]

This is not an honest approach to critically evaluate the linguistic features of Pastho and Farsi but a malafide attempt by the cheerleeders of Punjabi empire to create an ethnic divide in Afghans.

Pashto and Farsi has a lot of similarities while Pashto and Punjabi /Sindhi/Seraiki/etc are different ball games altogether. Urdu is not worthy of being called a language. It is just a persianised cum arabised version of Hindi.

Karachi , Karachi is destined to be a future city state. Better worry about it and try to live in peaceful co existence with Pashtuns and others there instead of worrying about the historic land of Afghans founded 250 plus years ago. It seems that the Pakis are really getting concerned about their foundationless empire lead by the Punjabi elite as it is disintegrating with accelerated pace.

[Khidr]

You know who I think has the inferiority complex that all you incompetent little minds accuse each other of? The ones who suffer from it are in reality those who will get all insecure in answering a simple question like, "What is the difference between Language A and Language B?" I note the insecurity in everyone's lame and embarrassing attempts to make Pashto seem superior to Dari, or vice versa. Get over it already, for God's sake. All languages are equal. Just becuase I'm a Pashtana and am crazy about Pashto doesn't make Pashto better than all other languages. That's a fact. Live with it. (And that also means no other language is better than Pashto either! So better luck convincing me that Persian is better or more beautiful or sophisticated than Pashto.)

The two languages are very different. Period. They have many words in common, but then so do Pashto and Arabic, or Arabic and Persian. And there's nothing wrong with that, and it makes perfect sense because the original speakers of these languages are neighbors and have been interacting with each other for over a millennium.

As for the ease and the difficulty of any language, I don't believe in this nonsense either. Yes, Pashto is a difficult language, we all say, but what does that mean? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. But how do we know it's a difficult language? We didn't grow to *learn* the language to know its level of difficulty; we speak it because it was passed down to us by our parents/families. How can you know whether a language is easy or difficult without studying it formally? Besides, try learning Turkish! It's a killer even for people who know over ten languages. Pashto may, however, be more difficult than Persian. But I don't know that because I've never formally studied Pashto. It's obviously easy for me because I'm a native speaker.

Persian/Dari is easy, yes - mostly because there's no gender in Persian; unlike (all?) other languages, it gets to be applauded for not being gendered, which makes it very easy because you don't have to worry about whether something is feminine or masculine. I still often struggle with this in Urdu, and it varies from dialect to dialect in Pashto.

So! Pashto and Farsi are two separate languages. However, it is a common belief that if you know Persian, Pashto will be very easy for you to learn. And vice versa: I'm studying Persian, and it's not at all difficult.

Very well said! You took the words out of my mouth. I'm glad people are seeing through the blatant inferiority-complex/insecurity on display by both sides on this topic.

I could not have articulated it any better!

[ScimitarXEdge]

Farsi/Tajik is a wonderfully sophisticated language on par with other great world languages, with deep roots and history in our region, whereas Pashto is a rustic, unstable language of tribes from the hills and mountains of Sulaiman Mountain ranges, on level or even lesser status to/with languages like Pashae and Baluchi. But Pashto is stubbornly imposed by some people.

Total and complete nonsense. Farsi/Dari is a beautiful and quaint language no doubt, but when it comes to composing textured tenses and thoughts, it's very rudimentary. It doesn't even have gender related conjugations and declensions like most other Indo-European languages.