Problem
How do you recognize another language? How do you understand what people are saying - at last the general subject matter?
The ladies in the gym's sauna are chatting away. I cannot understand a word they say. I cannot even tell which language they are speaking. Yesterday a pair of ladies from Morocco and Egypt were conversing in Arabic.
Today a pair born in Afghanistan were speaking in another language. I learned that Afghanistan has two major languages.
They speak enough English to speak to me. (I was speaking to one of them earlier in the swimming pool.)
My first question is:
How can I tell I identify a language from Afghanistant? Is it more sing-song than English, like Welsh and Italian? Is it more guttural like German?
Answers
They said, more gutteral, like German.
I was not convinced.
I asked which country's language are you speaking?
They are speaking the language of Afghanistan, the main language, officially called Dari (also commonly called by the old name, called Farsi or Persian), although they can get by in both, the other language being Pashtu (also spelled as Pushtu or Pushto).
Which of the two languages you are speaking?
I decide that they only way for me to identify which language is which, if not by pronunciation, is by vocabulary. That may reveal the different letters. So I start by asking for the numbers one to three in both languages.
English - official language one pashtu/ pashto - official language two dari (also called Dari Persian or Afghan Persian)
one - yak - yo
two - dua - du
three - dree - sree?
What is hallo and goodbye?
Salaam aleikum. (As in Arabic.)
Thank you
Translation Tips
Duolingo does not yet have Arabic or any of the Middle Eastern languages. I am learning the Hebrew, Russian and Greek alphabets on Duolingo. (The Japanese and Hindi are both being prepared but have not yet reached the draft or beta stage allowing you to try out and debate translations on the first version before it is finalised.
Google translate gives Pashto and Persian but translates both into cursive scripts which I cannot read. Dari language is not in their long list.
However, if you type into Google translate Pashto you are offered the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkapps.translate.psen
The Reverso dictionary gives Arabic and several European languages and Hebrew but not Pashto nor Persian.
Tips
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Languages_of_Afghanistan
http://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See later post on Afghan foods. Please share links to your favourite posts.
How do you recognize another language? How do you understand what people are saying - at last the general subject matter?
The ladies in the gym's sauna are chatting away. I cannot understand a word they say. I cannot even tell which language they are speaking. Yesterday a pair of ladies from Morocco and Egypt were conversing in Arabic.
Today a pair born in Afghanistan were speaking in another language. I learned that Afghanistan has two major languages.
They speak enough English to speak to me. (I was speaking to one of them earlier in the swimming pool.)
My first question is:
How can I tell I identify a language from Afghanistant? Is it more sing-song than English, like Welsh and Italian? Is it more guttural like German?
Answers
They said, more gutteral, like German.
I was not convinced.
I asked which country's language are you speaking?
They are speaking the language of Afghanistan, the main language, officially called Dari (also commonly called by the old name, called Farsi or Persian), although they can get by in both, the other language being Pashtu (also spelled as Pushtu or Pushto).
Which of the two languages you are speaking?
I decide that they only way for me to identify which language is which, if not by pronunciation, is by vocabulary. That may reveal the different letters. So I start by asking for the numbers one to three in both languages.
English - official language one pashtu/ pashto - official language two dari (also called Dari Persian or Afghan Persian)
one - yak - yo
two - dua - du
three - dree - sree?
What is hallo and goodbye?
Salaam aleikum. (As in Arabic.)
Thank you
Translation Tips
Duolingo does not yet have Arabic or any of the Middle Eastern languages. I am learning the Hebrew, Russian and Greek alphabets on Duolingo. (The Japanese and Hindi are both being prepared but have not yet reached the draft or beta stage allowing you to try out and debate translations on the first version before it is finalised.
Google translate gives Pashto and Persian but translates both into cursive scripts which I cannot read. Dari language is not in their long list.
However, if you type into Google translate Pashto you are offered the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkapps.translate.psen
The Reverso dictionary gives Arabic and several European languages and Hebrew but not Pashto nor Persian.
Tips
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Languages_of_Afghanistan
http://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook
Dari is written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script.
Dari alphabet and pronunciation (الفباى دري)
ح (he) is also known as ی جیمی (ye-jimi), and ﻩ (he) is also known as ی دوچش (ye-docešma)
http://www.17-minute-world-languages.com/en/dari/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook
Authorhttp://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See later post on Afghan foods. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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