[12] Hazaragi is spoken by the Hazara people, who mainly live in Afghanistan (predominantly in the Hazarajat (Hazaristan) region, as well as other Hazara-populated areas of Afghanistan), with a significant population in Pakistan (particularly Quetta) and Iran (particularly Mashhad),[13] and by Hazaras in eastern Uzbekistan, northern Tajikistan, the Americas, Europe, and Australia.

[15] In recent years, a substantial population of Hazara refugees has settled in Australia, prompting the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to move towards official recognition of the Hazaragi language.

[citation needed] Persian entered, in this way, into the very faith and thought of the people embracing Islam throughout South Asia.

[23] As a group of eastern Persian varieties which are considered the more formal and classical varieties of Persian,[citation needed] Hazaragi retains the voiced fricative [ɣ], and the bilabial articulation of [w] has borrowed the (rare)[clarification needed] retroflexes [ʈ] and [ɖ]; as in buṭ (meaning "boot") vs. but (meaning "idol") (cf.

The vocalic system is typically eastern Persian, characterized by the loss of length distinction, the retention of mid vowels, and the rounding of [ā] and [å/o], alternating with its merger with [a], or [û] (cf.

[5] [clarification needed] Stress is dynamic and similar to that in Dari[25] and Tajik varieties of Persian,[26] and not variable.

[27] It generally falls on the last syllable of a nominal form, including derivative suffixes and several morphological markers.

Typical is the insertion of epenthetic vowels in consonant clusters (as in pašm to póšum; "wool") and final devoicing (as in ḵût; "self, own").

Participial nominalization is typical, both with the perfect participle (e.g., kad-a, "(having) done") and with the derived participle with passive meaning kad-ag-i, "having been done" (e.g., zimin-i qulba kada-ya, "The field is ploughed"; zamin-i qulba (na-)šuda-ra mi-ngar-um, "I am looking at a plowed/unplowed field"; imrûz [u ḵondagi] tikrar mu-kun-a, "Today he repeats (reading) what he had read").

The gerundive (e.g., kad-an-i, "to be done") is likewise productive, as in yag čiz, ki uftadani baš-a, ma u-ra qad-dist-ḵu girift-um, tulḡa kad-um, "One object, that was about to fall, I grabbed, and held it".

The clitic -ku or -ḵu topicalizes parts of speech, -di the predicate; as in i-yši raft, ma-ḵu da ḵona mand-um, "He himself left; I, though, I stayed".