| Hazāragī | |
|---|---|
| هزارگی | |
| Spoken in | Afghanistan Iran Pakistan |
| Region | Central Asia |
| Native speakers | 1.8[1] to over 2.2 million[2] (date missing) |
| Language family | |
| Writing system | Persian alphabet |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | haz |
| Persian language |
|---|
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Regional and social varieties:
Grammar: Language features: Writing systems: Geographic distribution: |
Hazaragi (Persian: هزارگی) is a dialect of the Persian language spoken by the Hazara people, most of all in an area known as the Hazarajat.[3]
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The primary differences between Standard Persian and Hazaragi are the accent[4] and Hazaragi's greater array of Turkic and Mongolian loanwords.[5] Despite these differences, Hazaragi is mutually intelligible with other regional Persian dialects.[6]
Academic estimates of the Hazaragi-speaking population range from 1.8[7] to over 2.2 million[8] speakers.
Hazaragi is classified and further subclassified as an Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western, Southwestern, Persian, Hazaragi Language.[9]
Hazaragi is a dialect of the Persian language (recognized as a language by Ethnologue), with loanwords borrowed from Mongolian and Turkic.[10] It is a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and is closely related to Dari Persian (the Persian dialect in Afghanistan). Hazaragi in the Daykundi Province has a significant admixture of Altaic influence in the language.
Hazaragi is spoken by Hazara people who mainly live in Afghanistan (the Hazarajat and also in major urban areas), Pakistan (particularly Quetta) and Iran (particularly Mashhad),[11] with diaspora communities in the Americas, Europe and Australia.
In recent years a substantial population of Hazara refugees have settled in Australia, prompting the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to moves towards an official recognition of Hazaragi language. Currently NAATI (national accreditation authority for translators and interpreters) 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 penalised in testing.[12]
The history of the language of the Hazara people has been an issue of some debate. While some scholars believe that the Hazara originally spoke a Mongolian language during the time of the Mongol king Babur, who came to Afghanistan in the 16th century, many well established scholars like Bacon[13] and Schumann[14] believe that the original language of Hazaras was Dari Persian from the beginning. Dulling[15] wrote that the language of Hazaras was a mixed of Persian and Hindi in which Persian took over Hindi in the Middle Ages.
A distinct Hazara Persian dialect began to emerge amongst the people of the Hazarajat in the late eighteenth century. The Hazara spoke Mongolian until the late eighteenth century. During the time of King Babur Hazaras spoke the Mongolian language of their ancestors. It is not certain when Mongolian died out as a living language in the Hazarajat. Dulling[16] states that, “they ceased to be Mongol speakers by the end of eighteenth century at the latest, and were then speaking Tajik of a sort”.[17]
There seem to be two main reasons that caused the demise of Mongolian language and emergence of Hazaragi amongst the people of the Hazarajat. The first was the civilization of Persia, their knowledge, art and culture which strongly affected the people living in the mountains of central Afghanistan. The second major reason was the religion of Islam and the role of the Persian language in Islam.
The Persian language extended and spread out of the boundaries of Iran and supplanted the language of Mongols. After the Mongol assault in Iran from 1219 to 1221[18] and slaughter of the learned men, some of them fled and went out to Greater Khurasan (now northern Afghanistan), of whom a large number also took refuge in sub-continent (current India and Pakistan). It is said that the “Soofis” both Iranian and non-Iranian left indelible memories in the propagation of Persian language.
The second generation of Mongolians, in order to maintain control of a Persian-speaking country, of necessity adapted to the Persian culture and language. The linking and love of Iranian culture and language so enamored the Mongol rulers that they themselves, became the best proponents of the Iranian culture and language. The courts of Mughal kings such as Akbar, Shah Jahan, Jahangir attracted many Iranian poets and men of learning.
When Nadir Shah Afshar conquered Kandahar in 1150 A.H, in order to propagate the Persian language in Afghanistan, he planted settlements from Iran and moved a number of people from Afghanistan, whom he settled by grants of land in the middle of Iran. The Qizilbash People are from these new settlers.[19]
One of the reasons behind the demise of Mongolian language was the religion of 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 the continent. This is noted in the famous Turkish saying Kim ki okur Farsi, varir dinin yarisi ("he who learns Persian, grabs half of the faith").[20]
Timur, though he committed many great depredations, was brought up according to the Iranian culture and patronized the learned to such an extent that Samarkand and Herat became seats of Iranian learning.[21]
Similarly the Ilkhanate Mongols (one main tribe of the ancestors of Hazara) rulers became so involved with Persian that after Iskan Khan, when the Mongols went to the mountains of present Hazarajat they took the language of Persia with them along with Shi'a Islam.[22]
There are some Hazaras, mainly in Karez and Kundur between Maymana and Herat (northwestern and western Afghanistan) who still speak the Mongolian language that other Hazaras do not understand.[23]
Modern Hazaragi contains a number of Mongolian and Turkic words.[24][25] Over time the Mongolian language has died out in Afghanistan as living language amongst the Hazara people. Persian language has had a strong impression on the people of Hazarajat due to religion and Iranian learning and culture. The very first known language of Hazara people, inherited by the Mongolians is being supplanted by the ambience the speakers are living in. Such as Afghanistan: where the Hazaragi speakers are adding more and more Dari to their language, whereas in Pakistan the Hazara are adding more Urdu and English words to Hazaragi. A number of Hazara people live in the United States, Europe and Australia where they adapt the language culture of their respective countries. Time affects language strongly and this has happened to Hazaragi.
Dulling says in his book "Grammatically the Mongolian was probably fairly pure, it contained a certain amount of original language, Persian and its substratum. It would seem, too, that because the long period that separated the initial and final Mongol settlements, the Mongol language itself was not homogeneous, containing as it did not only Middle Mongol but also modern Mongol elements.”[26]
The existence of Mongolian and Turkic languages is discussed in Hayat Mohammad Khan's Hayate Afghan:
Khan concludes that because of their connection in the Government in Zabul their language underwent a change into a dialect of Persian spoken by the Zabulis, their own Mongolian ceased to exist owing the passage of time.
The grammatical structure of Hazaragi[28][29][30] is practically identical with that of Dari or even kabuli Persian.[31][32] The most striking feature of this dialect is its lexicon that includes many notable items of uncertain origin. G. K. Dulling[33] considers “the present dialect to consist of three strata:
He is probably right when he asserts so[34] and that: “Although these dialects are essentially forms of modern Tajik [more properly modern Dari; they are nevertheless lexically distinctive enough to merit their local special name of ‘Hazaragi’”.[35] Examples of the vocabulary are: Turkic [ata “father”], [kaṭa “big, large”], [qara “black”]; Mongolian: [beri “bride”], [alagha “palm (of hand)”], [qulaghay “thief”].[36]
As a group of eastern persian varieties, Hazara retains the voiced fricative [γ] and the bilabial articulation of [w] has borrowed the (rare) retro flexes [ṭ] [ḍ] example: [buṭ meaning boot] vs. [but meaning idol] (Persian. Bot); and rarely articulates [h].[37]
Diphthongs are [ay], [aw], and [ēw] (Persian [-ab]-[āb]-[ûw]). The vocalic system is typically eastern Persian characterized by the loss of length distinction, the retention of the mid vowels, and the rounding of [ā] [å/o], alternating with its merger with [a], or [û] (Persian-ān).[37]
Stress is dynamic and similar to that in Dari Afghan Persian[38] and tajiki[39] Persian, and not variable.[40] 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, example: [pashm (pašm)] to [pashum (póšum)] meaning [wool] and final devoicing, example: [Khod (ḵût)] meaning [self, own].[37]
The most productive derivative marker is [-i] the plural markers are [-o] (persian [-hā]), example: [kitab-o meaning books] and animate [-û] (persian [-ān]) example: [birar-û meaning brothers]. The emphatic vocative marker is [û] and [-o], the indefinite marker is [-i], and the specific object marker is [-(r)a]. The comparative marker is [-tar], example: [kalû meaning big] az u (kada) kalû-tar bigger than that one. Dependent adjectives and nouns follow the head noun and are connected by [-i], example: kitab-i mamud the book of Maḥmud; topicalized possessors precede the head noun marked by the resumptive personal suffix, example, Zulmay ayê-ši literally Zulmay her mother. Prepositions include, in addition to the standard Persian ones, [khun/ḵun(i) meaing with, by means of,] [da meaing in] (persian [dar]); 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, example: [kudam meaing which, someone].[37]
| Singular/Plural | First person | Second person | Third person | Persian /Dari |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | ma [me, I] | tu [you] | e/u [this/that] | |
| plural | mû [we,us] | šimû/šumû | yo/wo [these/those] | i-hā/u-hā |
| singular | -um [mine] | -it/khu/–tû [your/yours] | -iš/-(i)ši [his/hers] | |
| plural | -mû [ours] | –tû/-šimû/šumû [your/yours] | -iš/-(i)ši [thier] |
These include [atê/arê meaning yes]; [amma, liken, wali meaning but]; [balki meaning however]; [shayadi/šaydi meaning perhaps];[ale meaning now,]; [wuḵt-a meaning then]. These are also marked by distinctive initial stress.[37]
| Hazaragi | Persian/Dari | English |
|---|---|---|
| aku | aknun | now |
| del'dara | dalil darad | maybe |
The imperfective marker is [mi-] (assimilated variants m-, mu-, m-, mê-), example: [mi-zan-um] I hit, I am hitting; the subjunctive and imperative marker is [bi-] (with similar assimilation); the negation is [na-], example: [na-mi-zad-um] I was not hitting. These usually attract stress.[37]
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:
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].[41] 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].[37]
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, zadabud-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 are 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 [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, e.g., 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/-ḵu] topicalizes parts of speech, [-di] the predicate; e.g., i-yši raft, ma-ḵu da ḵona mand-um “He himself left; I, though, I stayed.”[37]
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