CLARIFIED SHEEP-TAIL FAT

A little linguistic excursion, for your entertainment.....


The major languages of Afghanistan are Pashtoon and Dari, both closely related to Persian. Substantial minorities speak Tajik and Baluchi (the later esp. in the area near the Boland pass. Both of these languages are also related to Persian.

These languages are also spoken in Pakistan (Persian used to be the literary language from Kabul to Delhi and Lucknow).
Tajik and Baluchi are also spoken in some areas of Persia, and Persian is still sometimes used as a literary language in parts of Central Asia, including the Turkic speaking regions.

Dari and Tajik can both be considered merely dialect versions of Persian.


In a phrasebook which I read awhile ago I encountered an interesting error.

The English speaking co-author inadvertently mistook the word 'rogan-e domba' to mean black pepper. It actually means the rendered tail-fat of a fat-tailed sheep, which is much used in certain parts of the Islamic world the same way lard is used here.


Here's a sentence, constructed with the "help" of this phrasebook, completely clear and intelligible in Persian, Dari, and Tajik:

"Ohe, pesh-khizmat (...oh waiter.....), ba man (...to me.....) lazeem ast (...is needed.....) namak (...salt.....) o rogan-e domba (.....and boiled sheepfat!!!)."


Imagine the poor American soldier in Kabul who thinks he just asked for salt and pepper......