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Pashto

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Pashto (Naskh: پښتو‎, IPA: [pəʂ'to]), also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu, also known as Afghani[1][2] or Kabuli,[3] is an Eastern Iranian language spoken by Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[4]

Native speakers of Pashto account for 42% of the Afghan population[5] and 15.42% of Pakistan.[6] As defined in the Constitution, Pashto is a national and official language of Afghanistan and is used for the administration of the Afghan government throughout the country.

Dialects

As a consequence of life in mountainous areas, weak socio-economic inter-relations, along with other historic and linguistic reasons, there are many dialects in Pashto language. However, as a whole, Pashto has two main dialects: soft or western dialect and hard or eastern dialect. The difference between these two dialects is in the use of some vowels and sounds. One of the main features of the dialects is the differences in the pronunciation of these five phonemes (all sounds in IPA):

Southwest: [ts] [dz] [ʂ] [ʐ] [ʒ]
Southeast: [ts] [dz] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʒ]
Northwest: [s] [z] [ç] [j] [ʒ]
Northeast: [s] [z] [x] [g] [d͡ʒ]

The dialect of Kandahar is the most conservative with regards to phonology, retaining both the dental affricates and the retroflex fricatives, which have not merged with other phonemes.

Geographic distribution

File:Moderniranianlanguagesmap.jpg
Geographic distribution of Pashto (purple) and other Iranian languages

Pashto is spoken by about 30 million people in the western provinces of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan of Pakistan (15.4% of the total population)[7] and by over 15 million people in the south, east, west and a few northern provinces of Afghanistan (ca. 40% of the total population).[8] In Pakistan, smaller, modern "transplant" communities are also found in Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad). Other smaller communities of Pashto-speakers are found in northeastern Iran and in India.[9]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[10]

ا ب پ ت ټ ث ج ځ چ څ ح خ د ډ ذ ر ړ ز ژ ږ س ش ښ ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک ګ ل م ن ڼ ه و ى ئ ي ې ۍ

Letters specific to Pashto

The letters below are specific to Pashto only:

ټ، ځ، څ، ډ، ړ، ږ، ښ، ګ، ڼ، ې ،ۍ

The five Yaas of Pashto

The following are the five Yaas used in Pashto writing:

ی، ي، ې، ۍ، ﺉ

Examples

Template:ConvertIPA

Examples of intransitive sentence forms using the verb "to go" "tləl":

Command (you masculine-singular):

  • khawanze/shawanze (ښوونځى) ta dza! or khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ ša!
  • School to go - Go to school!

Command (you masculine-plural):

  • khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ šəy!
  • Go to school!

Simple Present:

  • zə khawanze/shawanze ta dzəm.
  • I school to go - I go to school.
  • zə ğwāṛəm če khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ šəm.
  • I want that to school go (Masculine-I-verb form) - I want to go to school.

Present Perfect:

  • zə khawanze/shawanze ta tləlay yəm.
  • I school to gone (Masculine verb form) am - I have gone to school.

Simple Past:

  • zə khawanze/shawanze ta wəlāṛəm.
  • I school to went - I went to school.

Past Perfect:

  • zə khawanze/shawanze ta tləlay wəm.
  • I school to gone (Masculine verb form) was - I had gone to school.

Past Progressive:

  • zə khawanze/shawanze ta makh kay talay um"
  • 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" "xwaṛəl":

Command (You singular):

  • Panir wəxora!
  • cheese eat - Eat the cheese!
  • Panir məxora!
  • cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Command (You plural):

  • Panir wəxorəy!
  • cheese eat - Eat the cheese!
  • Panir məxorəy!
  • cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Simple Present:

  • zə panir xorəm.
  • I cheese eat - I eat cheese.

Subjunctive:

  • zə ğwāṛəm če panir wəxorəm.
  • I want that cheese eat (I-verb form) - I want to eat cheese.

Present Perfect: ما پنېر خوړلی دی

  • mā panir xoṛəlay day.
  • me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) is - I have eaten cheese.

Simple Past:

  • mā panir wəxoṛə.
  • me (I-oblique) cheese ate - I ate cheese

Past Perfect:

  • mā panir xoṛəlay wo.
  • me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) was - I had eaten cheese.

Past Progressive:

  • mā panir xoṛə.
  • me (I oblique) cheese was eating (masculine-singular verb form) - I was eating cheese or I used to eat cheese.

Questions Stā num tsə day your name what is - what is your name

See also

Bibliography

  • Schmidt, Rüdiger (ed.) (1989). Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden: Reichert. ISBN 3-88226-413-6. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  • Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. ISBN 0-923891-09-9

Footnotes

  1. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 03 Jan. 2008. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/afghani>.
  2. ^ "afghan." WordNet 3.0. Princeton University. 03 Jan. 2008. <Word Net http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Afghani&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=00>
  3. ^ Abstract of speakers’ strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001, Census of India (retrieved 17 March 2008)
  4. ^ UCLA Language Materials Project: Language Profile
  5. ^ CIA World Fackbook: Afghanistan
  6. ^ Pakistan Census: Population By Mother Tongue
  7. ^ Government of Pakistan: Population by Mother Tongue
  8. ^ CIA -The World Factbook -- Afghanistan
  9. ^ "Phonemic Inventory of Pashto" (PDF). CRULP. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  10. ^ Pashto Alphabet Table
Pashto edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pashto Computer Fonts


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