|
Pashto
Map
Pashto is one of the national languages
of Afghanistan (Dari Persian is the other), and the home language of
Pushtuns living in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan [NWFP
or Pashtunistan of Afghanistan] and many Pushtuns living in
Baluchistan (Iran and Pakistan). Major Pashto speaking cities in
Afghanistan are Qandahar, Jalal Abad, Kabul; and Peshawar in Pakistan.
There are 8 million Pashto speaking in Afghanistan (more than 35% of
the population) and almost 9 million in Pakistan (13% of the
population).
Pashto is one of the East-Iranian
group of languages, which includes, for example, Ossete (North Ossetian,
south Ossetian, Caucusus Soviet Socialist Republic) and Yaghnobi
(Tajikistan).
The first written records of Pashto
are believed to date from the sixteenth century and consist of an
account of Sheikh Mali's conquest of Swat. In the seventeenth
century, Khushal Khan Khatak, considered the national poet of
Afghanistan, was writing in Pashto. In this century, there has been a
rapid expansion of writing in journalism and other modern genres which
has forced innovation of the language and the creation of many new
words.
Traces of the history of Pashto are present in its vocabulary. While
the majority of words can be traced to Pashto's roots as member of the
Eastern Iranian language branch, it has also borrowed words from
adjacent languages for over two thousand years. The oldest borrowed
words are from Greek, and date from the Greek occupation of Bactria in
third century BC. There are also a few traces of contact with
Zoroastrians and Buddhists. Starting in the Islamic period, Pashto
borrowed many words from Arabic and Persian. Due to its close
geographic proximity to languages of the Indian sub-continent, Pashto
has borrowed words from Indian languages for centuries.
Pashto has long been recognized as an important language in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Classical Pashto was the object of study by
British soldiers and administrators in the nineteenth century and the
classical grammar in use today dates from that period.
In 1936, Pashto was made the national language of Afghanistan by royal
decree. Today, Dari Persian and Pashto both are official national
languages of Afghanistan.
|
