by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2011/02/01 07:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2011/02/01/10122912.aspx
This blog is not a sequel to I Adar you! Hell, I Double Adar you!. I am just recycling the pun, and kind of ignoring the fact that there is no double meaning this time....
THE WINDOWS 7 DARI LANGUAGE INTERFACE PACK IS LIVE!
Click here to download the Dari Windows 7 LIP via the Microsoft Download Center.
Please note that the Dari Windows 7 LIP can only be installed on a system that runs an English client version of Windows 7. It is in available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
The Dari Windows 7 LIP is produced as part of the Local Language Program sponsored by Public Sector.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON DARI
NUMBER OF SPEAKERS:
~7.6 million speakers
NAME IN THE LANGUAGE ITSELF:
دری
Dari (in modern usage) is the variant of Persian spoken in Afghanistan. It is one of the two constitutional languages of Afghanistan, the other being Pashto. Dari is the most widely spoken language in the country, with over 50% of the population speaking Dari as a first language.
The underlying shared language is the most important Indo-European language in Southwestern Asia. It has several dialects, three of which are spoken by the majority of speakers: 40 million people speak Western Persian, sometimes known as Farsi and the national language of Iran; 15 million speak Tajik, the national language of Tajikistan, and 15 million use Eastern Persian or Dari, which is one of the national languages of Afghanistan. Additionally Persian is spoken by around 40 to 50 million as a second language.
The language name has become a confusing issue. Not only are Dari and Tajik often considered to be different languages by many non-linguists because their names are different, but the name Farsi is now increasingly used for Persian, although this is like calling Spanish Español in English. Dari has a myriad of names, from Eastern Farsi to Afghan Persian, though native speakers more often call it Farsi. However, the term Dari has been officially promoted by the government of Afghanistan for political reasons, and enjoys equal official status alongside Pashto in Afghanistan. Dari is generally thought of as a more archaic form of Farsi than is spoken in Iran, similar to the way Afrikaans might be considered related to Dutch.
FUN FACT:
• A significant number of the borrowings of Persian into other languages actually come from Dari (via Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and other languages of the Indian subcontinent) and thus use Afghan Dari rather than Iranian Persian pronunciations – e.g. pyjama rather than pey-jāmeh.
Click here for more information on differences between Iranian and Afghan Persian (Dari).
CLASSIFICATION:
Dari is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Indo-Iranian languages.
SCRIPT:
With the exception of Tajik, which is written in Cyrillic, all Persian dialects use the Arabic script, with four additional letters (پ, چ, ژ, گ), two modified letters (ک, ی) and a few variations on spelling. This Persian alphabet is itself further extended when being used for languages like Urdu or Pashto. This collection of languages is generally thought of as using the Perso-Arabic script and specifically contrasted with the script used for the Arabic language.
Click here for more information on the Dari language.
MICROSOFT-SPECIFIC:
Enjoy!
Doug Ewell on 2 Feb 2011 10:58 AM:
> the name Farsi is now increasingly used for Persian, although this is like calling Spanish Español in English.
Or like insisting that Bengali must be called "Bangla" in English.
Michael S. Kaplan on 2 Feb 2011 12:58 PM:
Or Uyghur, not Uighur. :-)
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