61-547: The Wakhan Corridor ( Dari : دالان واخان , romanized: Dâlân-e wâxân ; Pashto : واخان دهلېز , romanized: Vâxân dahléz ) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan . This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang , China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan in the north from
122-679: A distinction between varieties of the Sistan region and the varieties in the Western group. However Encyclopaedia Iranica considers the Sistani dialect to constitute their own distinctive group, with notable influences from Balochi . Dari does not distinguish [ ɪ ] and [ ɛ ] in any position, these are distinct phonemes in English but are in un-conditional free variation in nearly all dialects of Dari. There are no environmental factors related to
183-444: A modern dialect form of Persian that is the standard language used in administration, government, radio, television, and print media. Because of a preponderance of Dari native speakers, who normally refer to the language as Farsi ( فارسی , "Persian"), it is also known as "Afghan Persian" in some Western sources. There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari . The majority of scholars believe that Dari refers to
244-528: A nearly identical categorization but considered varieties spoken in the Sistan region to constitute a distinct group. Takhar and the MOE only discussed vocabulary differences between the dialect groups and did not extensively discuss phonological differences between these groups. However there was a noticeable difference in the romanizations of the Western dialects and the South-Eastern dialects. Chiefly that
305-624: A permanent character. The shrines and tombs scattered throughout the area are all of a comparatively recent character. There are also the remains of a small fort can be found near this location. It is said to have been built by Bozai, a Kyrgyz chief. Bazai Gonbad was the scene of a minor incident during the Great Game . In 1891 the Russians sent a small military force to the area. The British Captain Francis Younghusband , in
366-492: A shared heritage that includes thinkers, writers, and poets of the Farsi language against those who believe that Dari has older roots and provides a distinct identity that cannot be confused with Iran's claim. Bozai Gumbaz Bazai Gonbad or Bozai Gumbaz ( Dari : بزای گمبز , lit. 'domes of the elders' ) is the site of a domed tomb (or gonbad ) and nearby settlement of mostly ethnic Kyrgyz herders in
427-465: A wide area in the west of Kabul which is mainly recognized as Dashti Barchi, and some regions near Herat . As a group, the Hazaragi varieties are distinguished by the presence of retroflex consonants and distinctive vocabulary. However it has been shown that Hazaragi is more accurately a sub-dialect of Dari rather than its own variety of Persian. Afghanistan's Ministry of Education does not make
488-563: Is extremely rugged, the Corridor was historically used as a trading route between Badakhshan and Yarkand . It appears that Marco Polo came this way. The Portuguese Jesuit priest Bento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606. In May 1906, Sir Aurel Stein explored the Wakhan and reported that at that time, 100 pony loads of goods crossed annually to China. There were further crossings in 1874 by Captain T.E. Gordon of
549-687: Is its conservative nature compared to, for example, the Tehrani dialect. This can be seen in its Phonology (e.g. it's preservation of "Majhul" vowels), Morhphonology and Syntax, and it's Lexicon. A further distinction may be made between varieties in and near Kabul and varieties in and near Afghan Turkistan. With dialects near Kabul exhibiting some influences from languages in southern Afghanistan and South Asia and dialects in Afghan Turkistan exhibiting more influence from Tajik . All South-Eastern varieties exhibited some influence from Uzbek . Despite
610-625: Is no modern road. There is a rough road from Ishkashim to Sarhad-e Broghil built in the 1960s, but only rough paths beyond. These paths run some 100 km (60 mi) from the road end to the Chinese border at Wakhjir Pass, and further to the far end of the Little Pamir. Jacob Townsend has speculated on the possibility of drug smuggling from Afghanistan to China via the Wakhan Corridor and Wakhjir Pass, but concluded that due to
671-495: Is sugar – Rhyme method in Dari is sweeter Uzūbat usually means "bliss", "delight", "sweetness"; in language, literature and poetry, uzubat also means "euphonious" or "melodic". Referring to the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez , Iqbal wrote: شکرشکن شوند همه طوطیان هند Šakkar-šakan šavand hama tūtīyān-i Hind زین قند پارسی که به بنگاله میرود zīn qand-i Pārsī ki ba Bangāla mē-ravad English translation: All
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#1732765655848732-730: Is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan . Dari Persian is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language; it is known as Afghan Persian or Eastern Persian in many Western sources. The decision to rename the local variety of Persian in 1964 was more political than linguistic to support an Afghan state narrative. Dari Persian is most closely related to Tajiki Persian as spoken in Tajikistan and
793-468: Is the common language spoken in cities such as Balkh , Mazar-i-Sharif , Herat , Fayzabad , Panjshir , Bamiyan , and the Afghan capital of Kabul where all ethnic groups are settled. Dari Persian-speaking communities also exist in southwestern and eastern Pashtun-dominated areas such as in the cities of Ghazni , Farah , Zaranj , Lashkar Gah , Kandahar , and Gardez . Dari Persian has contributed to
854-580: Is the easternmost point on the southeastern prong, is about 300 km (190 mi) from Ishkashim. The easternmost point of the northeastern prong is a nameless wilderness about 350 km (220 mi) from Ishkashim. On the Chinese side of the border is the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . The northern border of the corridor is formed by the Pamir River and Lake Zorkul in
915-631: Is the language of the cities of Madā'en; it is spoken by those who are at the king's court. [Its name] is connected with presence at court. Among the languages of the people of Khorasan and the east, the language of the people of Balkh is predominant." Dari Persian spoken in Afghanistan is not to be confused with the language of Iran called Dari or Gabri, which is a language of the Central Iranian subgroup spoken in some Zoroastrian communities. Dari comes from Middle Persian which
976-466: Is −5.7 °C (21.7 °F) resulting in long, very cold winters and brief, cool summers. The economy of the area is based on agriculture , transport , trade, and tourism . In order to improve the local economy, the government of Afghanistan has built a road to Sarhad in the southwest and Wakhjir Pass (Afghanistan–China border) in the east. One of the main attractions in Bazai Gonbad
1037-402: The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan , Dari Persian is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan; the other is Pashto . Dari Persian is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the native language of approximately 25–55% of the population . Dari Persian serves as the lingua franca of the country and is understood by up to 78% of the population. Dari Persian served as
1098-704: The Irshad Pass connects the corridor to Gilgit-Baltistan. The Dilisang Pass, which also connects to Gilgit-Baltistan, is disused. The easternmost pass, as indicated above, is the Wakhjir Pass , which connects to China and is the only border connection between that country and Afghanistan. The corridor is higher in the east than in the west; (the Wakhjir Pass is 4,923 m (16,152 ft) in elevation) and descends to about 3,037 m (9,964 ft) at Ishkashim. The Wakhjir River emerges from an ice cave on
1159-564: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan in the south, the latter of which is also part of the disputed region of Kashmir . This high mountain valley, which rises to a maximum altitude of 4,923 m (16,152 ft), serves as the source of both the Panj and Pamir rivers, which converge to form the larger Amu Darya River . For countless centuries, a vital trade route has traversed this valley, facilitating
1220-652: The Qing dynasty . The corridor is in the Wakhan District of Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. As of 2020, it had 17,167 residents. The northern part of the Wakhan, populated by the Wakhi and Pamiri people, is also referred to as the Pamir . The closest major airport for the residents to use is Fayzabad Airport in the city of Fayzabad to the west, which can be reached by a road network. At its western entrance, near
1281-813: The Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan . It lies in the Little Pamir on the right bank of the Bozai River , near where it joins Wakhjir River to become the Wakhan River . It is part of the Wakhan National Park and protected by the Afghan Armed Forces . Bazai Gonbad is connected by a 60 km (37 mi) long unpaved road to Sarhad in the southwest, and about 50 km (31 mi) of such road to Wakhjir Pass ( Afghanistan–China border ) in
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#17327656558481342-687: The ezāfe ) have often been employed to coin words for political and cultural concepts, items, or ideas that were historically unknown outside the South Asian region, as is the case with the aforementioned "borrowings". Dari Persian has a rich and colorful tradition of proverbs that deeply reflect Afghan culture and relationships, as demonstrated through the works of Rumi and other literature. There are phonological, lexical, and morphological differences between Afghan Persian and Iranian Persian. For example Afghan Farsi has more vowels than Iranian Farsi. However, there are no significant differences in
1403-605: The Afghan side of the Wakhjir Pass and flows west, joining the Bozai Darya near the village of Bozai Gumbaz to form the Wakhan River . The Wakhan River then joins the Pamir River near Kala-i-Panj to form the Panj River , which then flows out of the Wakhan Corridor at Ishkashim. The Chinese consider Chalachigu Valley , the valley east of Wakhjir Pass on the Chinese side connecting Taghdumbash Pamir , to be part of
1464-422: The Afghan town of Ishkashim , the corridor is 18 km (11 mi) wide. The western third of the corridor varies in width (13–30 km (8–19 mi)) and widens to 65 km (40 mi) in the central Wakhan. At its eastern end, the corridor forks into two prongs that wrap around a salient of Chinese territory, forming the 92 km (57 mi) boundary between the two countries. The Wakhjir Pass , which
1525-627: The Afghanistan Ministry of Education referring to this group as "South-Eastern" some of the varieties included are in the north. As seen in many Hazaragi varieties, certain Eastern Dialects have developed a system of retroflex consonants under pressure from Pashto. They are not widespread, however. The Kabuli dialect has become the standard model of Dari Persian in Afghanistan, as has the Tehrani dialect in relation to
1586-524: The British Army, in 1891 by Francis Younghusband , and in 1894 by Lord Curzon . Early travellers used one of three routes: From a non-Afghan point of view, the corridor is in part a political creation from The Great Game between British India and Russian Empire. In the north, an agreement between the empires in 1873 effectively split the historic region of Wakhan by making the Panj and Pamir Rivers
1647-720: The Oxus River region, Afghanistan, and Khorasan after the Arab conquests and during Islamic-Arab rule. The replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khorasan. Dari Persian spread and led to the extinction of Eastern Iranian languages like Bactrian and Khwarezmian with only a tiny amount of Sogdian descended Yaghnobi speakers remaining, as
1708-716: The Persian in Iran. Since the 1940s, Radio Afghanistan has broadcast its Dari programs in Kabuli Dari, which ensured the homogenization between the Kabuli version of the language and other dialects of Dari Persian spoken throughout Afghanistan. Since 2003, the media, especially the private radio and television broadcasters , have carried out their Dari programs using the Kabuli variety. The Western group includes various varieties spoken in and around: Herat , Badghis , Farah and Ghor . Varieties in this group share many features with
1769-556: The Persian word dar or darbār ( دربار ), meaning "court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids . The original meaning of the word dari is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (cited by Ibn al-Nadim in Al-Fehrest ). According to him, " Pārsī was the language spoken by priests, scholars, and the like; it is the language of Fars ." This language refers to Middle Persian . As for Dari , he says, "it
1830-749: The United States had asked China to open the corridor. In July, 2021, the area came under the Taliban control for the first time during the group's summer offensive . It was reported that hundreds of ethnic Kyrgyz nomads along with their livestock attempted to flee north into Tajikistan. It is patrolled by forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , which took over responsibility from the previous NATO -trained Afghan National Security Forces . As of June 2023, there had been discussions between foreign ministers of China and Afghanistan concerning
1891-477: The Wakhan Corridor. The high mountain valley is about 100 km (60 mi) long. This valley, through which the Tashkurgan River flows, is generally about 3–5 km (2–3 mi) wide and less than 1 km (0.6 mi) at its narrowest point. This entire valley on the Chinese side is closed to visitors; however, local residents and herders from the area are permitted access. Although the terrain
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1952-592: The ancestors of Tajiks started speaking Dari after relinquishing their original language (most likely Bactrian) around this time, due to the fact that the Arab-Islamic army which invaded Central Asia also included some Persians who governed the region like the Sassanids . Persian was a prestigious high-ranking language and was further rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids. Persian also phased out Sogdian. The role of lingua franca that Sogdian originally played
2013-515: The appearance of [ ɪ ] or [ ɛ ] and native Dari speakers do not perceive them as different phonemes (that is to say, the English words bet [b ɛ t] and bit [b ɪ t] would be nearly indistinguishable to a native Dari speaker). However, speakers in Urban regions of Kabul, Panjšir and other nearby provinces in southern and eastern Afghanistan tend to realize the vowel as [ ɪ ]. Speakers of Dari in central Afghanistan (i.e. Hazaragi speakers) tend to realize
2074-473: The border between Afghanistan and the then-Russian Empire. In the south, the Durand Line Agreement of 1893 marked the boundary between British India and Afghanistan. This left a narrow strip of land ruled by Afghanistan as a buffer between the two empires, which became known as the Wakhan Corridor in the 20th century. The corridor has been closed to regular traffic for over a century and there
2135-729: The control of Afghanistan since the formation of the Durrani Empire in 1747. The eastern border of Wakhan District was settled with China 's Qing dynasty during the reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1750. The southern and northern borders came into existence during the Great Game in 1893. There is no evidence to indicate that the local Pamir Mountains had ever earlier supported permanent settlements. While debris of mud buildings and similar constructions can occasionally be found, they are generally seen as only indicating relatively recent occupation and have little if any evidence of
2196-767: The corridor to reach the Chinese border, Beijing seems disinclined to open the border, due to security concerns. In 2024 an independent analysis conducted at the University of Texas at Austin which relied on open source intelligence suggested the corridor consists of, "primarily dirt roads and footpaths that abruptly end before reaching the border." 37°N 73°E / 37°N 73°E / 37; 73 Dari language Dari ( / ˈ d ɑː r i , ˈ d æ -/ ; endonym : دری [d̪ɐˈɾiː] ), Dari Persian ( فارسی دری , Fārsī-yi Darī , [fʌːɾˈsiːjɪ d̪ɐˈɾiː] or Fārsī-ye Darī , [fʌːɾˈsiːjɛ d̪ɐˈɾiː] ), or Eastern Persian
2257-470: The course of his Pamir expedition, encountered the Russians at Bazai Gonbad, and the Russians ordered him out of the area. The Russians subsequently apologized for the incident. Bazai Gonbad is at extreme altitude, experiencing an alpine tundra climate ( Köppen : ET ), bordering on a subarctic climate ( Dfc ) that close to a monsoon -influenced subarctic climate ( Dwc ). The average annual temperature
2318-1014: The dialect of Dari spoken in Western Afghanistan stands in between the Afghan and Iranian Persian. For instance, the Herati dialect shares vocabulary and phonology with both Afghan and Iranian Persian. Likewise, the dialect of Persian in Eastern Iran, for instance in Mashhad , is quite similar to the Herati dialect of Afghanistan. In a paper jointly published by Takhar University and the Ministry of Education in 2018, researchers studying varieties of Persian from Iran to Tajikistan, Identified 3 dialect groups (or macro dialects) present within Afghanistan. In an article about various languages spoken in Afghanistan, Encyclopaedia Iranica identified
2379-510: The dialects of Persian spoken in Eastern Iran, and one may make many comparisons between the speech of Herat and Mashhad . The third group recognized by Afghanistan Ministry of Education is Hazaragi . Spoken by the Hazara people , these varieties are spoken in the majority of central Afghanistan including: Bamyan , parts of Ghazni , Daikundi, Laal Sari Jangal in Ghor province, 'uruzgan khas', in
2440-477: The difficulties of travel and border crossings, it would be minor compared to that conducted via Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province or through Pakistan, both having much more accessible routes into China. The remoteness of the region has meant that, despite the long-running wars of Afghanistan since the late 1970s, the region has remained virtually untouched by conflict, and many locals, mostly composed of ethnic Pamir and Kyrgyz , are not aware of
2501-484: The east. Construction of the road from Sarhad to Bazai Gonbad and then to the Wakhjir Pass ( Afghanistan–China border ) in the northeast has started in late 2023. The Chaqmaqtin Lake is about 20 km (12 mi) to the northeast of Bozai Gonbad. Foreigners must have an Afghan visa to tour the area. The territory around Bazai Gonbad was last conquered by Nader Shah and his armies in around 1738. It has been under
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2562-789: The fifteenth century it appeared in Herat under the Persian-speaking Timurid dynasty . The Persian-language poets of the Mughal Empire who used the Indian verse methods or rhyme methods, like Bedil and Muhammad Iqbal , became familiar with the araki form of poetry. Iqbal loved both styles of literature and poetry, when he wrote: گرچه هندی در عذوبت شکر است Garče Hendī dar uzūbat šakkar ast طرز گفتار دری شیرین تر است tarz-e goftār-e Darī šīrīn tar ast This can be translated as: Even though in euphonious Hindi
2623-457: The increased number of Persian speakers within Afghanistan. The World Factbook states that about 80% of the Afghan population speaks Dari Persian. About 2.5 million Afghans in Iran and Afghans in Pakistan , part of the wider Afghan diaspora , also speak Dari Persian as one of their primary languages. Dari Persian dominates the northern, western, and central areas of Afghanistan, and
2684-814: The introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. The sizable Persian component of the Anglo-Indian loan words in English and in Urdu therefore reflects the Dari Persian pronunciation. For instance, the words dopiaza and pyjama come from the Afghan Persian pronunciation; in Iranian Persian they are pronounced do-piyāzeh and pey-jāmeh . Persian lexemes and certain morphological elements (e.g.,
2745-675: The language of the Achaemenids (550–330 BC). In historical usage, Dari refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids . Dari is a name given to the New Persian language since the 10th century, widely used in Arabic (compare Al-Estakhri , Al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Hawqal ) and Persian texts. Since 1964, it has been the official name in Afghanistan for the Persian spoken there. In Afghanistan, Dari refers to
2806-449: The latter would henceforth be named Dari. Within their respective linguistic boundaries, Dari Persian and Pashto are the media of education. The term continues to divide opinion in Afghanistan today. While Dari has been the official name for decades, "Farsi" is still the preferred name to many Persian speakers of Afghanistan. Omar Samad , an Afghan analyst and ambassador, says of the dispute: This debate pits those who look at language as
2867-435: The majority of Persian borrowings in several Indo-Aryan languages , such as Urdu , Hindi , Punjabi , Bengali and others, as it was the administrative, official, cultural language of the Persianate Mughal Empire and served as the lingua franca throughout the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Often based in Afghanistan , Turkic Central Asian conquerors brought the language into South Asia. The basis in general for
2928-512: The movement of travelers to and from East, South, and Central Asia. The corridor was formed after an 1893 agreement between Mortimer Durand of the British Raj and Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan, creating the Durand Line . This narrow strip acted as a buffer zone between the Russian Empire and the British Empire (the regions of Russian Turkestan , now in Tajikistan and the northern part of British Raj, now in Pakistan). Its eastern end bordered China's Xinjiang region, then claimed by
2989-418: The opening of the strategically significant corridor to enhance the trade ties between Beijing and Kabul . Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi both met on the sidelines in Tibet during the third Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation, to discuss the possibilities of improving trade ties. Though the Taliban government finished a 50-km road through
3050-439: The parrots of India will crack sugar Through this Persian Candy which is going to Bengal Here qand-e Pārsī (" Rock candy of Persia") is a metaphor for the Persian language and poetry. Persian replaced the Central Asian languages of the Eastern Iranics. Ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Darified in originally Khorezmian and Soghdian areas during Samanid rule. Dari Persian spread around
3111-403: The post-Sassanid period, and the New era being the period afterward down to the present day. The first person in Europe to use the term Deri for Dari may have been Thomas Hyde in his chief work, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700). Dari or Deri has two meanings. It may mean the language of the court: It may also indicate a form of poetry used from Rudaki to Jami . In
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#17327656558483172-417: The preferred literary and administrative language among non-native speakers, such as the Turco-Mongol peoples including the Mughals , for centuries before the rise of modern nationalism. Also, like Iranian Persian and Tajiki Persian , Dari Persian is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official religious and literary language of the Sassanian Empire (224–651 AD), itself a continuation of Old Persian ,
3233-480: The time of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526), even as those governments were dominated by Pashtun people. Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty (1826–1973) first introduced the Pashto language as an additional language of administration. The local name for the Persian variety spoken in Afghanistan was officially changed from Farsi to Dari, meaning "court language", in 1964. Zaher said there would be, as there are now, two official languages, Pashto and Farsi, though
3294-414: The two share many phonological and lexical similarities. Apart from a few basics of vocabulary, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and Iran ; the languages are mutually intelligible. Dari Persian is the official language for approximately 35 million people in Afghanistan and it serves as the common language for inter-ethnic communication in the country. As defined in
3355-520: The vowel diacritic "pesh" ( Kasrah ) was romanized with an "i" for South-Eastern dialects but as an "e" for western dialects. This is presumably due to a difference in quality, however the paper itself did not explain why the vowels were transliterated differently. The South Eastern group (also referred to the Southern and Eastern group) constitutes varieties spoken in and around Kabul , Parwan , Balkh , Baghlan , Samangan , Kunduz , Takhar , Badakhshan and others. A distinctive character of this group
3416-494: The vowel in proximity to, or identically to, [ i ], unless the following syllable contains a high-back vowel. Speakers in western Afghanistan (such as in the Herat or Farah province) and some rural regions in the Kabul province (not the city) most commonly realize the vowel as [ ɛ ]. Additionally, in some varieties of Dari, the phoneme [ ɛ ] appears as an allophone of [a]. Successive governments of Afghanistan have promoted New Persian as an official language of government since
3477-414: The wars in the country. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan asked the People's Republic of China on several occasions to open the border in the Wakhan Corridor for economic reasons or as an alternative supply route for fighting the Taliban insurgency . The Chinese resisted, largely due to unrest in its far western province of Xinjiang, which borders the corridor. In December 2009, it was reported that
3538-431: The west and the high peaks of the Pamir Mountains in the east. To the north is Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region . To the south, the corridor is bounded by the high mountains of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram . Along the southern flank of the corridor, there are two mountain passes that connect the corridor to its neighbours. The Broghol pass offers access to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, while
3599-585: The written forms, other than regional idiomatic phrases. The phonology of Dari Persian as spoken in Kabul, compared with Classical Persian, is overall more conservative than the accent of Iran's standard register. In this regard Dari Persian is more similar to Tajiki Persian. The principal differences between standard Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian as based on the Kabul dialect are: The dialects of Dari spoken in Northern, Central, and Eastern Afghanistan, for example in Kabul , Mazar , and Badakhshan , have distinct features compared to Iranian Persian . However,
3660-420: Was spoken during the rule of the Sassanid dynasty . In general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New (Modern) periods. These correspond to three eras in Iranian history, the old era being the period from some time before, during, and after the Achaemenid period (that is, to 300 BC), the Middle Era being the next period, namely, the Sassanid period and part of
3721-677: Was succeeded by Persian after the arrival of Islam. Dari Persian is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. In practice though, it serves as the de facto lingua franca among the various ethnolinguistic groups. Dari Persian is spoken by approximately 25-80% of the population of Afghanistan . Tajiks , who comprise 27-39% of the population , are the primary native speakers, followed by Hazaras (9%) and Aymāqs (4%). Moreover, while Pashtuns (48%) natively speak Pashto , those living in Tajik and Hazara dominated areas also use Dari Persian as their main or secondary language. Thus, non-native Persian speaking groups have contributed to
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