Dari
Dari is a term used to denote one of several closely related
Persian dialects spoken in what used to be
Greater Khorasan. The term
Dari is usually said to derive from
Pārsī-e Darbārī which means
Persian of the (royal) courts. It developed at the royal courts of the
Samanids (980 AD) in
Central Asia and became the major language of Persia. Another theory is that comes from
Dara, a word meaning 'valley', referring to the deep valleys of
Khorasan, where the language developed. Today, the term is used to refer to three different dialects/languages:
1.
Dari is the local name used for the
Persian language in
Afghanistan.
2.
Dari (also called Gabri or Yazdi) is the name used by Zoroastrians to refer to the Northwestern
Iranian language they speak.
3. Dari is also the name of the
Persian language in classical
Persian poetry.
*
Daré entry in the
Encyclopædia Iranica
