SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN PASHTO FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD PASHTO LEARN MORE ABOUT PASHTUNS سالم. زما نوم جان دئ. [saˈlɔːm zmɔː num ʤɔːn dǝɪ] Uzbeks are the most numerous Turkic /salām. zmā num jān dǝy./ AND THEIR LANGUAGE Hi. My name is John. 1. Pashto is spoken as a first or second language by people in Central Asia. They predomi- over 40 million people worldwide, but the highest nantly mostly live in Uzbekistan, a land- population of speakers are located in Afghanistan ستاسو نوم څه دئ؟ [ˈstɔːso num ʦǝ dǝɪ] and Pakistan, with smaller populations in other locked country of Central Asia that shares /stāso num ʦǝ dǝy?/ Central Asian and Middle Eastern countries such borders with Kazakhstan to the west and What is your name? as Tajikistan and Iran. north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the ,A member of the Indo-Iranian language family .2 تاسې څنګه یاست؟ زه ښه یم، مننه. [ˈʦǝŋgɒ jɔːst zǝ ʂɒ jǝm mɒˈnǝnɒ] Pashto shares many structural similarities to east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan /ʦǝnga yāst? zǝ ṣ̆ a yǝm, manǝna./ languages such as Dari, Farsi, and Tajiki. to the south. Many Uzbeks can also be How are you? I’m fine, thanks. 3. Because of US involvement with Afghanistan over found in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyr- the past decade, those who study Pashto can find careers in a variety of fields including translation gyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the ستاسو دلیدو څخه خوشحاله شوم. [ˈstɔːso dǝˈliːdo ˈʦǝχa χoʃˈhɔːla ʃwǝm] and interpreting, consulting, foreign service and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of /stāso dǝ-lido ʦǝxa xoš-hāla šwǝm./ intelligence, journalism, and many others. NGOs It’s nice to see you. and other enterprises that deal with Afghanistan China. desperately need American who speak Pashto and .understand Pashtun culture تاسو د کوم ځای یاست؟ [ˈtɔːso dǝ kum ʣɔːɪ jɔːst] 4. Poetry is a big part of Pashtun culture and it has /tāso dǝ kum dzāy yāst?/ been for centuries. In the city of Herat, women, Where are you from? men and children gather on Thursday night to .share verses from old and new poetry زه د اندیانا یم. [zǝ dǝ iːnˈdjɔːnɔː jǝm] 5. Pashtuns live by Pashtunwali (the code of honor) /zǝ dǝ indyānā yǝm./ which consists of principles such as hospitality, I’m from Indiana. assistance, giving asylum, and honor of women, etc. This code applies to each Pashtun’s day-to-day life as well as operating at the village, tribe, and مننه. [mɒˈnǝnɒ] country level. /manǝna./ Thank you. ABOUT US The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region ښه راغالست! [ʂɒ rɔːˈʁlɔːst] (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for /ṣ̆ a rāǧlāst./ learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian Welcome. languages. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. په مخه مو ښه. [pǝ moˈχɒ mo ʂɒ] 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, /pǝ moxa mo ṣ̆ a./ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good-bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 E-mail : [email protected] Center for Languages of the Special thanks goes to Dr. Rakhmon Inomkhojayev and Dr. Rahman Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu Arman for their contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE PASHTUNS peculiarities to help to express the meaning of time oriented society with a strong influence of tribalism. and space precisely. First, Pashto uses split-ergativity; a The more than 400 Pashtun tribes make up special ergative construction of the sentence formed with confederations, such as Durrani, Apridi, Momand, AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? transitive verbs in the past. And second, Pashto verbs use Waziri, Ghilzai, and others. Pashtuns are one of the major ethnic groups of aspect (completed or incomplete action) to indicate time About two million Pashtuns Central Asia, living there since rather than traditional forms of tense. are nomadic herders, migrating ancient times. Historically, the between Afghanistan and Suleiman Mountains on the The vocabulary of Pashto has been considerably Pakistan. border of Afghanistan and Pakistan influenced by Dari, which serves as the lingua franca were identified as the traditional of Afghanistan. But, Pashto also contains many Arabic Intertribal relationships, homeland of the Pashtun tribes. loanwords (adopted via Dari) and Indian loanwords conflicts, and other matters In modern times, Pashtuns live in (adopted via Urdu). Most of the international words of importance are regulated much a broader territory including such as moṭár ‘car’, rāḍyó ‘radio’, and kampyuṭár by a non-written traditional Central, Western, and Northern ‘computer’ entered Pashto through Indian English. ethical code called Pashtunwali Afghanistan and Northwest or Pakhtunwali (The Code of Pakistan. Also, a sizable number WHAT ALPHABET DOES PASHTO USE? Honor of Pashtuns). The Pashtunwali of Pashtuns can be found in India, code consists of principles such as hospitality, Iran, and Tajikistan. As a result of nearly 30 years of The Pashto Alphabet is based on the Perso-Arabic assistance, giving asylum, revenge, honor of women, war in Afghanistan, many Pashtuns found also now alphabet as used for Persian (Farsi and Dari). Like dignity, etc. and are applied to various situations of be found as refugees in Saudi Arabia, United Arab all Perso-Arabic scripts, Pashto is written and read day-to-day life. The right of interpretation of these Emirates, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, from right to left and there are no distinct capital rules belongs to a Jirga (a council or assembly) a Sweden, Canada, and the United States. letters. However, the number of letters, structure of traditional regulator of Pashtun’s life. A Jirga consists of the alphabet, and the respected individuals of the community and functions form of handwriting on the level of village, tribe, and the entire country. WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS PASHTO? distinguishes the Pashto Farming, gardening, and animal husbandry are Pashto belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo- Alphabet from other traditional occupations of Pashtuns. Important crops European family of languages, and the East Iranian similar Perso-Arabic include vegetables, wheat, barley, corn, and rice. subgroup of languages, along with several languages of alphabets. For example, Nomadic Pashtuns deal with commerce providing the Pamir-Badakhshan region of Northeast Afghanistan the Pashto alphabet goods of everyday needs for and Eastern Tajikistan. These languages are quite separate consists of 44 letters rural residents throughout from the West Iranian (or Persian) subgroup consisting for 7 vowels and 32 their migration route. naskh of languages such as Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki. consonants, and it uses the style script, which Pashtuns love their writers has a straight shape and slopes slightly to the left. (In Rahmān Approximately 40 million people speak Pashto as a contrast, Farsi and Dari scripts use the nasta’líq style, and poets such as native language with the majority of Pashto speakers which has a relaxed shape and slopes to the right.) Bābā and Khushāl Khān live in Afghanistan (estimated 12 million) and Pakistan Khatak. They have original (about 27 million). folklore traditions,including legends, myths, stories, and Pashto is one of two official languages of the Islamic WHAT IS THE PASHTUN CULTURE LIKE? For many centuries, Afghanistan has been the proverbs. The poetic folklore of Pashtuns includes Republic of Afghanistan. It has multiple dialects, songs performed in various social gatherings and a the main being the Western dialect, also known as crossroads of numerous empires and cultures. Thus the local people and their traditions have been influenced unique genre called landə́y consisting of two verses Kandahari, and the Eastern dialect, also known as (lines) of 9 and 13 syllables each. Many landəys Nangrahari-Peshawari or Mashriqi. Some scholars also by cultures and civilizations from Greece to India for millennia. In ancient times, many people in the area describe the social, patriotic, and romantic emotions of recognize a Central dialect spoken in Kabul, Logar, the Pashtuns. Parwan, and Ghazni provinces and a Southern dialect now called Afghanistan followed Zoroastrianism, and spoken in the Paktia and Paktika provinces. many people in the broad areas followed Buddhism Songs and music form a daily part of life for many and Hinduism. However, throughout history the vast Pashtuns. And a many social gatherings, Pashtuns Pashto is an inflectional language, using prepositions and majority in these territories converted to Islam, and perform a distinctive collective dance called Atan postpositions alongside declensions to indicate case and today virtually all Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims. which starts slowly with measured motions and then has two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine). Traditionally, Pashtuns are a family and community gets faster, as the dancers and audience get more Additionally, Pashto features a few grammatical excited.