A bit more introduction first. I have found the following through surf mode and Google search. Until I stopped and went on with my daily life. So what you have is merely a smorgasbord of all the possible information out there and my take on the information I found. Future posts will also be done in similar fashion.
I'm starting with the languages of Afghanistan because some of the information I've found is in the language(s) of the country especially the local news (which is also included in today's post). If you're interested in doing translations or if you know a bit but want to know more these links will help. I'm also including a flag and a map as you can see.
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| Flag Public Domain |
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| Topo Map GNU Free Documentation |
Afghanistan Online: Languages --
The nice thing about this page is its Afghan origin . Also check out the links to the whole site for a wealth of information about the country. The page shows the distinction between Farsi and Afghan Persian, otherwise known as Dari and provides links to alphabets and a dictionary.
Ethnologue Report for Afghanistan --
If you'd like to see where all the different languages in Afghanistan are spoken, this report provides the info. It provides links to the language which provides further information about where else the language is spoken and also provides a link to a map which indicates where the different languages are spoken. So if you know Pashto but not Dari, then you can find where Pashto is spoken more often. Afghan is one of those countries where many languages are spoken and this site provides a list to all of them.
As a general information site for languages all over the world, the home page for Ethnologue will lead you there.
Afghan Languages Portal
I was a little bit intimidated with this at first because it's a link to the Defense Language Institute. I became worried that I was somewhere I shouldn't be. But this is America and the information is provided free of charge to the public. I'll just add though -- use at your own risk. It doesn't seem very complete though like it's still a work in progress. I was able to download material for basic Dari instruction, but wasn't able to download the Pashto course also provided. I can't say for sure that it is also available to those outside the US.
Learn Pashto Language
I'm including this because it appears to be written by a native speaker in country. It lead to another blog at wordpress, Hadi Hairan: Learn Pashto with two lessons that were quite detailed and informative. But then it stops. The way it is written however gives a glimpse into that culture. Makes me wonder why it stopped though.
Learn Pashto:Language Learning Software and Online Language Classes
Although this website is primarily to sell company software, it also provided free material, a software program that provides vocabulary learning, an overview of the language and a blog.
Finally -- in the language category:
Pashto Language Resources
Don't you love the sites that are a list of links to other sites? (like this one). This site appears to be just that, but it also appears well researched and it also recommends. So if my small piece of the information puzzle has whetted your appetite for more, go here, definitely.
The home page of this site is entitled Afghan Analyst, An Online Resource for Researching Afghanistan (you can get there by clicking the 'Home' link at the above page). It has links also to Dari Language Resources as well as much other information.
By the way, final is never final here, because I started thinking about the BBC languages website which provides very fine language instruction. Although primarily for the top 7, it does have a page for other languages at BBC - Languages - Other languages. It doesn't list Pashto or Dari (the main languages spoken in Afghanistan in case you hadn't surmised that already), it does list Persian. Besides being an all round great site for English speakers to learn a language.
And now for Part 2 of today's presentation.
The News
(which is being postponed until tomorrow - or sometime this week).
As is my normal modus operandi I don't always complete. It is my intention to keep this going but I realized after today's post I will need to reduce the content at least somewhat.
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