Pashto
? Pax?tó
The word Pax?tó written in the Pashto alphabet
Pronunciation	[p't?o], [p?x't?o], [p?ç't?o]
Native to	Afghanistan, Pakistan
Ethnicity	Pashtuns
Native speakers	60-80 million
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Iranian Pashto
Standard forms	Central Pashto Northern Pashto Southern Pashto
Dialects	Pashto dialects
Writing system	Perso-Arabic script (Pashto alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Afghanistan[1]
Recognised minority language in	Pakistan[2]  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  Balochistan
Regulated by	Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan Pashto Academy of Pakistan Pashto Academy Quetta
Language codes
	ps - Pashto, Pushto
	pus - Pushto, Pashto
	pus - inclusive code - Pashto, Pushto Individual codes: pst - Central Pashto pbu - Northern Pashto pbt - Southern Pashto wne - Wanetsi
Glottolog	pash1269
Linguasphere	58-ABD-a
Areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan where Pashto is:   the predominant language   spoken alongside other languages
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This article contains Pashto text. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined letters or other symbols instead of Pashto script.

Pashto (,^[3][4][5];^{[Note 1]} ? / P?x?tó, [p't?o, p?x't?o, p't?o, p?ç't?o]), sometimes spelled Pukhto or Pakhto,^{[Note 2]} is an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European family. It is known in Persian literature as Afghani (, Afgh?ni).^[8]

The language is natively spoken by Pashtuns (also called Pukhtuns/Pakhtuns; historically known as ethnic Afghans), an ethnic group of Afghanistan^{[9][10][11][12]} and Pakistan.^[13] Pashto comprises, along with Dari (alternatively known as 'Afghan Persian'), the two languages of Afghanistan with official status.^[14][1][15] Pashto is also the second-largest regional language in Pakistan, mainly spoken in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of the Balochistan province.^[16] Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world; the total number of Pashto-speakers is thought to be at least 40 million,^[17] although some estimates place it as high as 80 million.^[18] Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns.^[19]

Geographic distribution

As a national language of Afghanistan,^[20] Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact number of speakers is unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45-60%^{[21][22][23][24]} of the total population of Afghanistan.

In Pakistan, Pashto is spoken by 15% of its population,^[25][26] mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. Pashto-speakers are found in other major cities of Pakistan, most notably in Karachi, Sindh.^[27]

Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in India, Tajikistan,^[28] and northeastern Iran (primarily in South Khorasan Province to the east of Qaen, near the Afghan border).^[29] In India most ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) peoples speak the geographically native Hindi-Urdu language instead of Pashto. However small numbers of Pashto speakers exist in India, namely the Sheen Khalai in Rajasthan,^[30] and the Pathan community in the city of Kolkata, often nicknamed the Kabuliwala ("people of Kabul").^[31][32]

In addition, sizable Pashtun diaspora also exist in Western Asia, especially in the United Arab Emirates^[33] and Saudi Arabia. The Pashtun diaspora speaks Pashto in countries like the United States, United Kingdom,^[34] Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar, Australia, Japan, Russia, New Zealand, etc.

Afghanistan

Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari Persian.^[35] Since the early 18th century, the monarchs of Afghanistan have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for Habibull?h Kalak?ni in 1929).^[36] Persian, the literary language of the royal court,^[37] was more widely used in government institutions while the Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue. King Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926-1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism"^[36] leading Afghanistan to independence after the defeat of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. In the 1930s a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931^[38] and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in 1937.^[39]

Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing".^[36] King Zahir Shah (reigned 1933-1973) thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto.^[40] In 1936 a royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted to Pashto the status of an official language^[41] with full rights to usage in all aspects of government and education - despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian.^[39] Thus Pashto became a national language, a symbol for Pashtun nationalism.

The constitutional assembly reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to Dari.^[42][43] The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto.

Pakistan

Play media

A native speaker speaking Pashto

In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language of 15% of its population (as of 1998),^[44][26] mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province, areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Islamabad, as well as by Pashtuns who live in different cities throughout the country. Modern Pashto-speaking communities are found in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh.^{[27][45][46][47]}

Urdu and English are the two official languages of Pakistan. Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan.^[48] The primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan is Urdu.^[49][50]

The lack of importance given to Pashto and neglect has caused growing resentment amongst Pashtuns, who also complain that Pashto is often neglected officially .^{[51][52][53][54]} It is noted that Pashto is not taught well in schools in Pakistan.^[55] Moreover, in government schools material is not provided for in the Pashto dialect of that locality.^[56] Students are unable to fully comprehend educational material in Urdu.^[57]

Professor Tariq Rahman states:^[58]

"The government of Pakistan, faced with irredentist claims from Afghanistan on its territory, also discouraged the Pashto Movement and eventually allowed its use in peripheral domains only after the Pakhtun elite had been co-opted by the ruling elite...Thus, even though there is still an active desire among some Pakhtun activists to use Pashto in the domains of power, it is more of a symbol of Pakhtun identity than one of nationalism."

-- Tariq Rahman, The Pashto language and identity-formation in Pakistan

Robert Nicols states:^[59]

"In the end, national language policy, especially in the field of education in the NWFP, had constructed a type of three tiered language hierarchy. Pashto lagged far behind Urdu and English in prestige or development in almost every domain of political or economic power..."

-- Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors, Pashto Language Policy and Practice in the North West Frontier Province

History

Inscription in Greek by Sophytos, 2nd century BCE, Kandahar.

Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from Avestan or a variety very similar to it.^[12] However, the position that Pashto is a direct descendant of Avestan is not agreed upon. What scholars agree on is the fact that Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian.^[60][61]

Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana. This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name Afghan (Abgan).^{[62][63][64][8]}

Abdul Hai Habibi believe that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri of the early Ghurid period in the 8th century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana. Pa Xaz?ná ( ) is a Pashto manuscript^[65] claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor Hussain Hotak in Kandahar; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as David Neil MacKenzie and Lucia Serena Loi.^[66][67] Nile Green comments in this regard:^[68]

"In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as the eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as a promoter of the wealth and antiquity of Afghanistan's Pashto culture."

-- Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes

From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are Bayazid Pir Roshan (a major inventor of the Pashto alphabet), Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Nazo Tokhi, and Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Durrani Empire.

In modern times, noticing the incursion of Persian and Arabic vocabulary, there is a strong desire to "purify" Pashto by restoring its old vocabulary.^[69][70][71]

Grammar

Pashto is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language with split ergativity. Adjectives come before nouns. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masc./fem.),^[72] two numbers (sing./plur.), and four cases (direct, oblique, ablative and vocative). There is also an inflection for the subjunctive mood. The verb system is very intricate with the following tenses: present, simple past, past progressive, present perfect, and past perfect. The possessor precedes the possessed in the genitive construction. The verb generally agrees with the subject in both transitive and intransitive sentences. An exception occurs when a completed action is reported in any of the past tenses (simple past, past progressive, present perfect, or past perfect). In such cases, the verb agrees with the subject if it is intransitive, but if it is transitive, it agrees with the object,^[20] therefore Pashto shows a partly ergative behaviour. Unlike most other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto uses all three types of adpositions - prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

• Phonemes that have been borrowed, thus non-native to Pashto, are color coded. The phonemes /q/ and /f/ tend to be replaced by [k] and [p] respectively.^{[73][Note 3]}
• is voiced back-alveolar retroflex flap.^[74] MacKenzie states: "In distinction, from the alveolar trill r and from the dental (or alveolar) lateral l, it is basically a retroflexed lateral flap."^[75]
• The retroflex fricatives /?, ?/ and palatal fricatives /ç, ?/ represent dialectally different pronunciations of the same sound, not separate phonemes. In particular, the retroflex fricatives, which represent the original pronunciation of these sounds, are preserved in the South Western dialects (especially the prestige dialect of Kandahar), while they are pronounced as palatal fricatives in the North Western dialects. Other dialects merge the retroflexes with other existing sounds: The South Eastern dialects merge them with the postalveolar fricatives /?, ?/, while the North Eastern dialects merge them with the velar phonemes in an asymmetric pattern, pronouncing them as [x, ?]. Furthermore, according to Henderson (1983),^[11] the voiced palatal fricative /?/ actually occurs generally in the Wardak Province, and is merged into /?/ elsewhere in the North Western dialects. It is also pronounced as sometimes /?/ in Bati Kot according to the findings of D.W Coyle.^[76]
• The velars /k, ?, x, ?/ followed by the close back rounded vowel /u/ assimilate into the labialized velars [k?, , x?, ].
• Voiceless stops [p, t, t, k] are all unaspirated, like Romance languages, and Austronesian languages; they have slightly aspirated allophones prevocalically in a stressed syllable.

Vocabulary

In Pashto, most of the native elements of the lexicon are related to other Eastern Iranian languages.^[61] As noted by Josef Elfenbein, "Loanwords have been traced in Pashto as far back as the third century B.C., and include words from Greek and probably Old Persian".^[77] For instance, Georg Morgenstierne notes the Pashto word ? men i.e. a hand-mill as being derived from the Ancient Greek word [m?khan?] i.e. a device.^[78] Post-7th century borrowings came primarily from Persian language and Hindi-Urdu, with Arabic words being borrowed through Persian,^[79] but sometimes directly.^[80][81] Modern speech borrows words from English, French, and German.^[82]

However, a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto.^[83][84]

Here is an exemplary list of Pure Pashto and borrowings:^{[85][86][87][88][89]}

Classical vocabulary

There a lot of old vocabulary that have been replaced by borrowings e.g. ? [throne] with [from Persian].^[90][91] Or the word [yag?nagí] meaning "uniqueness" used by Pir Roshan Bayazid.^[92] Such classical vocabulary is being reintroduced to modern Pashto.^[93] Some words also survive in dialects like ? ? [the bride-room].^[94]

Example from Khayr-al-Bay?n:^[92]

...

Transliteration: ... be-yag?nagi, be-karari wi aw p? badxwi kx?e wi p? gun?hn

Translation: " ... without singularity/uniqueness, without calmness and by bad-attitude are on sin ."

Writing system

Pashto employs the Pashto alphabet, a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet or Arabic script.^[95] In the 16th century, Bayazid Pir Roshan introduced 13 new letters to the Pashto alphabet. The alphabet was further modified over the years.

The Pashto alphabet consists of 45 to 46 letters^[96] and 4 diacritic marks. In Latin transliteration, stress is represented by the following markers over vowels: , á, , ú, ó, í and é. The following table (read from left to right) gives the letters' isolated forms, along with possible Latin equivalents and typical IPA values:

Dialects

Pashto dialects are divided into two varieties, the "soft" southern variety Pat?, and the "hard" northern variety Pax?t? (Pakhtu).^[9] Each variety is further divided into a number of dialects. The southern dialect of Wanetsi is the most distinctive Pashto dialect.

	? [long] - in different dialects South Western (Kandahar) IPA: /u?d?/ North Western (Jalalabad) IPA: /u?d?/ Northern (Khost) IPA: /wu?d?/ Southern (Kunduz) IPA: /wu?d?/ North Eastern (Yusapzai) IPA: /u.'d?/
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1. Southern variety

• Durrani or Kandahar dialect (or South Western dialect)
• Kakar dialect (or South Eastern dialect)
• Shirani dialect
• Mandokhel dialect
• Marwat-Bettani dialect
• Southern Karlani group [aka. Central Dialects: Wazirwola and Banunchi]

• Khattak dialect
• Wazirwola dialect

• Dawarwola dialect
• Masidwola dialect

• Banuchi dialect

2. Northern variety

• Central Ghilji dialect (or North Western dialect)

• Wardak dialect

• Yusufzai or Yusapzai dialect (or North Eastern dialect)
• Northern Karlani group

• Taniwola dialect
• Mangal tribe dialect
• Khosti dialect
• Zadran dialect
• Bangash-Orakzai-Turi-Zazi- dialect
• Afridi dialect
• Khogyani dialect

3. Wa?etsi Dialect

Literary Pashto

Alphabets of Literary Pashto

Standard Pashto or Literary Pashto is the standardized variety of Pashto which serves as a literary register of Pashto , and is based on the North Western dialect, spoken in the central Ghilji region, including the Afghan capital Kabul and some surrounding region. Literary Pashto's vocabulary, however, also derives from Southern Pashto. This dialect of Pashto has been chosen as standard because it is generally understandable. Standard Pashto is the literary variety of Pashto used in Afghan media.

Literary Pashto has been developed by Radio Television Afghanistan and Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan in Kabul. It has adopted neologisms to coin new terms from already existing words or phrases and introduce them into the Pashto lexicon. Educated Standard Pashto is learned in the curriculum that is taught in the primary schools in the country. It is used for written and formal spoken purposes, and in the domains of media and government.^[97]

Criticism

There is no actual Pashto that can be identified as "Standard" Pashto, as Colye remarks:^[98]

"Standard Pashto is actually fairly complex with multiple varieties or forms. Native speakers or researchers often refer to Standard Pashto without specifying which variety of Standard Pashto they mean...people sometimes refer to Standard Pashto when they mean the most respected or favorite Pashto variety among a majority of Pashtun speakers."

-- Placing Wardak among Pashto Varities, page 4

As David MacKenzie notes there is no real need to develop a "Standard" Pashto:^[99]

"The morphological differences between the most extreme north-eastern and south-western dialects are comparatively few and unimportant. The criteria of dialect differentiation in Pashto are primarily phonological. With the use of an alphabet which disguises these phonological differences the language has, therefore, been a literary vehicle, widely understood, for at least four centuries. This literary language has long been referred to in the West as 'common' or 'standard' Pashto without, seemingly, any real attempt to define it."

-- A Standard Pashto, page 231

There has also been an effort^[100] to adopt a written form based on Latin script,^{[101][102][103][104]} but the effort of adapting a Roman alphabet has not gained official support.

Literature

Pashto-speakers have long had a tradition of oral literature, including proverbs, stories, and poems. Written Pashto literature saw a rise in development in the 17th century mostly due to poets like Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689), who, along with Rahman Baba (1650-1715), is widely regarded as among the greatest Pashto poets. From the time of Ahmad Shah Durrani (1722-1772), Pashto has been the language of the court. The first Pashto teaching text was written during the period of Ahmad Shah Durrani by Pir Mohammad Kakar with the title of Ma?rifat al-Afgh?n? ("The Knowledge of Afghani [Pashto]"). After that, the first grammar book of Pashto verbs was written in 1805 under the title of Riy al-Ma?abbah ("Training in Affection") through the patronage of Nawab Mahabat Khan, son of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, chief of the Barech. Nawabullah Yar Khan, another son of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, in 1808 wrote a book of Pashto words entitled ?Aj?yib al-Lugh?t ("Wonders of Languages").

Poetry example

An excerpt from the Kal?m of Rahman Baba:

?
? ?

IPA: [z? ra'm?n p? 'xp?l.a gram j?m te ma'jan j?m]
[te d nor ?o'p?n me bo'li gram p? t?s?]

Transliteration: Z? Rahmn p? xpla gram y?m ?e mayán y?m
?e d? nor ?opn me bolí gram p? ts?

Translation: "I Rahman, myself am guilty that I am a lover,
On what does this other universe call me guilty."

Proverbs

See: Pashto literature and poetry § Proverbs

Pashto also has a rich heritage of proverbs (Pashto matalúna, sg. matál).^[105][106] An example of a proverb:

? ?

Transliteration: Ob p? ng n? beléi

Translation: "One cannot divide water by [hitting it with] a pole."

Phrases

Greeting phrases

Colors

List of colors:

List of colors borrowed from neighbouring languages:

• n?r?njí - orange [from Persian]
• gul?bí - pink [from Hindustani, originally Persian]
• ? nilí - indigo [from Persian, ultimately Sanskrit]]

Times of the day

? ?

Names of the Month

Pashtuns followed the Vikrami Calendar, as mentioned by Yousuf Khan Jazab:^[107]

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Schmidt, Rüdiger (ed.) (1989). Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden: Reichert. ISBN 3-88226-413-6.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Georg Morgenstierne (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. ISBN 0-923891-09-9
• Daniel G. Hallberg (1992) Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 4). National Institute of Pakistani Studies, 176 pp. ISBN 969-8023-14-3.
• Herbert Penzl A Grammar of Pashto: A Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan, ISBN 0-923891-72-2
• Herbert Penzl A Reader of Pashto, ISBN 0-923891-71-4

Further reading

• Morgenstierne, Georg. "The Place of Pashto among the Iranic Languages and the Problem of the Constitution of Pashtun Linguistic and Ethnic Unity." Pa?to Quarterly 1.4 (1978): 43-55.

External links

• Pashto Dictionary with Phonetic Keyboard & Auto-Suggestion
• Pashto Phonetic Keyboard
• Pashto Language & Identity Formation in Pakistan
• Indo-Aryan identity of Pashto
• Henry George Raverty. A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or Language of the Afghans. Second edition, with considerable additions. London: Williams and Norgate, 1867.
• D. N. MacKenzie, "A Standard Pashto", Khyber.org
• Freeware Online Pashto Dictionaries
• A Pashto Word List
• Origins of Pashto
• Resources for the Study of the Pashto Language