Pashto (پښتو; also known as Afghan, Pathan, Pushto, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu, and Pukhto) is the language spoken by the ethnic Afghan otherwise known as the Pashtun people who inhabit Afghanistan and the western provinces of Pakistan. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... The Pigshoon (also Pigshtoon, Pakharshtoon, ethnici koni, or Pathan) are an ethno-linguistic group of eastern Iranian stock, living primarily in eastern and southern Afghanistan, the NWFP Province and Baluchistan with large colonies found in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. ...

History

The language is believed to have originated in the Kandahar/Helmand areas of Afghanistan. Dari often dominates over Afghan/Pashto in Afghanistan in everyday government use since the capital was moved to Kabul from Kandahar in the 18th century. It is, along with Persian, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Pashto is spoken by ca 45% of Afghanistan's population as a mother tongue, according to the CIA, but this figure requires corroboration from a census that has not taken place in Afghanistan in decades. Pashto speakers in Pakistan range from 16% to as much as 20% of the population (including Afghan refugees), but an accurate census remains elusive due to the tribal and migratory nature of Pashtuns and their habit of secluding women. Kandahār (or Qandahār) is a city in southern Afghanistan, the capital of Kandahar province. ... Helmand province is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. ... The term Dari derives from Fârsi-e Darbâri which means Persian of the (royal) courts. It developed at the royal courts of the Samanids (980 AD) in Central Asia and became the major language of Persia. ... In politics a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of capital) is the principal city or town associated with its government. ... Kabul Kabul (34°32′ N 69°10′ E, Kâbl, in Persian کابل) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population variously estimated at 2 to 4 million. ... Kandahār (or Qandahār) is a city in southern Afghanistan, the capital of Kandahar province. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Jump to: navigation, search Persian (فارسی / پارسی), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, western Pakistan...

Classification

Pashto is classified within the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Other notable related tongues include Ossetic, now spoken in the Caucasus. Jump to: navigation, search The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... Ossetic or Ossetian (In Ossetic: Иронау, Ironau) is an Iranian language spoken on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains on the borders of Russia and Georgia. ... The Caucasus , a region bordering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. ...

Geographic distribution

Pashto is spoken by about 12 million people in the south, east and a few northern provinces of Afghanistan and over 28 million in Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan. Small communities are also found in Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad). Smaller communities exist in Northern India (Pathankot, Rampur) and northeastern Iran. It is spoken by a large part of Afghanistan population who are of the Pashtun tribe, as well as by ethnic Pashtuns who live on the other side of the disputed Durand Line in present day Pakistan. North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is geographically the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan. ... Baluchistan (or Balochistan), also known as Greater Baluchistan is an arid region of south Asia, presently split between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ... Sindh (Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. ... The city of lights Karachi (كراچى) is the largest city in Pakistan and the capital of the province of Sindh. ... The Pacca Qilla or the Hyderabad Fort in all its glory in the year 1845 Hyderabad is a city in Sindh, a province of Pakistan (also formerly known as Neroon Kot). ... The Pigshoon (also Pigshtoon, Pakharshtoon, ethnici koni, or Pathan) are an ethno-linguistic group of eastern Iranian stock, living primarily in eastern and southern Afghanistan, the NWFP Province and Baluchistan with large colonies found in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. ... The Durand line is a term for the poorly marked 2,640 kilometer (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. ...

Official status

Pashto became one of the official languages of Afghanistan in 1964. The other is the Persian language, known as Dari in Afghanistan. An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Persian (فارسی / پارسی), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, western Pakistan... The term Dari derives from Fârsi-e Darbâri which means Persian of the (royal) courts. It developed at the royal courts of the Samanids (980 AD) in Central Asia and became the major language of Persia. ...

Dialects

The northern dialect is spoken by about 24,000,000 people, and the southern dialect by about 16,000,000. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...

Grammar

Pashto is a S-O-V language. Adjectives come before nouns. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for gender (Masculine/Feminine), number (Singular/Plural) and case (Direct/Oblique). Direct case is used for subjects and direct objects in the present tense. Oblique case is used after most pre- and post-positions as well as in the past tense as the subject of transitive verbs. There is no definite article, but instead there is extensive use of the demonstratives this/that. The verb system is very intricate with the following: Simple Present, Subjunctive, Simple Past, Past Progressive, Present Perfect,and Past Perfect. In any of the past tenses (Simple Past, Past Progressive, Present Perfect and Past Perfect) Pashto is an ergative language, i.e. transitive verbs in any of the past tenses agree with the object of the sentence. An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... In a variety of different contexts, gender refers to the masculinity or femininity of words, persons, organisms, or characteristics. ... A number is an abstract entity used originally to describe quantity. ... Categories: Stub | Software engineering | Data management ... See subject (grammar) for the linguistic definition of subject. ... The accusative case of a noun is, generally, the case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present // English present tense... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... In grammar, a verb is transitive if it takes an object. ... Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ... Demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or just ergative language) is one that marks the subject of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...

Vocabulary

Pashto, being an Indo-European language, shares many cognates with other related languages. Following the advent of Islam in Afghanistan, the Pashto language has received a significant influx of loan-words from Arabic, Persian and various Turkic languages. Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Jump to: navigation, search Persian (فارسی / پارسی), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, western Pakistan... The Turkic languages are a group of related languages that are spoken by a variety of people distributed across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China with estimated 100-130 million native speakers. ...

Writing system

From the time of Islam's rise in Central Asia, Pashto has used a modified version of Perso-Arabic script. In recent years, however, because of the Internet, it has become increasingly popular to write Pashto in the Latin script. Pashto has several letters which do not appear in any other Perso-Arabic script which represent the retroflex versions of the consonants t,d,r,n. The letters are written like the standard Arabic ta', dal, ra', and nun with a "pandak" attached underneath which looks like a small circle. They also have the letters ge and xin (the initial sound of which is like the German ch found in the word "ich") which look like a ra' and sin respectively with a dot above and beneath. Pashto also has the extra letters that Persian has added to the Arabic alphabet. See http://www.khpalapashtu.com/sitee/pashtula/pasalph.htm to view the entire alphabet. Jump to: navigation, search Islam ( ♫) (Arabic: الإسلام al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing the Arabic language, which is the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... See also consonance in music. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing the Arabic language. ...

Examples

• Note - The following transliterations represent the Kabuli dialect.

Examples of intransitive sentence forms using the verb "to go" "tlil": Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ... In grammar, an intransitive verb is an action verb that takes no object. ...

Command (you masculine-singular):

• Maktab ta dza! or Maktab ta laarr sha!
• School to go - Go to school!

Command (you masculine-plural):

• Maktab ta dzey! or Maktab ta laarr shey!
• School to go -Go to school!

Simple Present:

• zuh maktab ta dzum.
• I school to go - I go to school.

Subjunctive:

• zuh ghwaarum che maktab ta laarr shum.
• I want that to school go (Masculine-I-verb form) - I want to go to school.

Persent Perfect:

• zuh maktab ta tlilai yum.
• I school to gone (Masculine verb form) am - I have gone to school.

Simple Past:

• zuh maktab ta wolaarrum.
• I school to went - I went to school.

Past Perfect:

• zuh maktab ta tlilai wum.
• I school to gone (Masculine verb form) was - I had gone to school.

Past Progressive:

• zuh maktab ta tlilum.
• I school to was going - I was going to school or I used to go to school

Examples of transative sentence forms using the verb "to eat" "khwarril":

Command (You singular):

• Paneer wokhuurra!
• cheese eat - Eat the cheese!

• Paneer muhkhuurra!
• cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Command (You plural): Paneer (sometimes spelled as Panir or Paner, from Persian cheese) is an unaged cheese that is similar to pressed Ricotta cheese, except that the curd is drier and has no salt added. ...

• Paneer wokhuurrey!
• cheese eat - Eat the cheese!

• Paneer muhkhuurrey!
• cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Simple Present:

• zuh paneer khuurrum.
• I cheese eat - I eat cheese.

Subjunctive:

• zuh ghwaarum che paneer wokhuurrum.
• I want that cheese eat (I-verb form) - I want to eat cheese.

Present Perfect:

• maa paneer khwarrilai dai.
• me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) is - I have eaten cheese.

Simple Past:

• maa paneer wokhorro.
• me (I-oblique) cheese ate - I ate cheese

Past Perfect:

• maa paneer khwarrilai wo.
• me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) was - I had eaten cheese.

Past Progressive:

• maa paneer khwarruh.
• me (I oblique) cheese was eating (masculine-singular verb form) - I was eating cheese or I used to eat cheese.

External links

Pushtu language edition of Wikipedia

• UCLA article
• Ethnologue report