Downloaded from https://www.everyspec.com FM 34-54 DARI: Dari is used in Afghanistan and favored by the government. Since its written form is heavily influenced by Persian models, there is no easy way for the nonspecialist to distinguish it from Persian. KURDISH, PASHTO, AND URDU: The other notable Arabic alphabet languages are Kurdish, Pashto, and Urdu. Kurdish is spoken by the Kurdish tribes of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Pashto is used widely in Afghanistan, and Urdu is the predominant language of Pakistan. These languages contain letters and diacritics not listed for Arabic or Persian. If one of these languages is suspected, refer the problem to a linguist.
Character languages use writing systems with symbols that stand for words or meaningful elements of words rather than for sounds. Character languages, such as hieroglyphic Egyptian, existed in earlier times; but today, the only character languages are Chinese and languages that have wholly or partially borrowed the Chinese system, such as Japanese and Korean. DISTINGUISHING CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND KOREAN: The easy way to distinguish the three languages is to look for the distinctive phonetic symbols of Japanese and Korean. If these symbols are not present, conclude that the language is Chinese. Chinese is the model for the other two, and these languages borrow freely from Chinese.
Figures G-12, G-13, and G-14 give sample texts of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Figure G-12 shows Chinese characters. They are more detailed, complex, and square or precise than Japanese or Korean. Korean and Japanese language texts use Chinese characters whenever it might be unclear to use one of their own symbols. This means that the higher or more academic a text is the more Chinese characters it will have. G-20 OTHER ARABIC ALPHABET LANGUAGES CHARACTER LANGUAGES