American who speaks 23 languages says Persian is his favorite

Persian, also known as Farsi, is Afghanistan's official tongue along with Pashtu Tajikistan and Iran official tongue and a member of the Indo-European language family. Persian in Afghanistan is called Dari Persian or Farsi Dari in Tajikistan Farsi Tajiki today in alot of countries people may know this language as Iranians official language but the main root of this language is in Khorasan todays Afghanistan. Dari version of Persian is pure and sweeter although it is mixed with alot of Arabic and other languages words but it is still pure. 40 years of war in Afghanistan is the reason why today all historical and cultural credits of historical zone Ariana Khorasan goes to Iran.

Persian is also the favorite language of one the few people who has real authority when it comes to comparing languages: 17-year-old Tim Doner. A famous “hyperpolyglot,” which means someone who can speak many languages, Doner says he knows 23. He recently appeared on an Australian morning news program, where the hosts asked him to pick his favorite, and he selected Persian without hesitation. Doner even recited a few lines from the celebrated 14th century Persian poet Hafez, leaving the Australian anchors slightly stunned. (That’s at about 1:30 into the above video.)

I can’t verify the level of Doner’s fluency, though some Farsi-speakers who I asked about the video said his pronunciation was good if slightly over-articulated, in the manner of someone who has learned a language but not used it much in conversation. A New York Times story on Doner from last year discussed some of the science behind hyperpolyglots and listed some of his languages: Arabic, Hebrew, French, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, Italian, Swahili, Indonesian, Hindi, Ojibwe (a Native American language), Pashto, Turkish, Hausa (spoken in West Africa), Kurdish, Yiddish, Dutch, Croatian and German.

So what makes Persian Doner’s favorite? He doesn’t say, but as someone who does not speak a word of it, I’ve long felt the same way. There’s something wonderfully musical about the language. It’s not hard to see how Persian culture would have developed such a reputation for poetry.

Article copied from washingtonpost.com edited by Kabuliyanhub.com