Pashto Language
Pashto is an Indo-European language primarily spoken by the Pashtun ethnic group, chiefly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a global speaker population of around forty million, including communities in North America and Europe. This language evolved likely in the mid-1000s CE and is considered the second most important Iranian language after Persian. Pashto is predominantly written in the Perso-Arabic script, which, while consonant-driven, includes unique letters not found in Persian or Arabic. Historically, Pashto transitioned from a spoken form to a literary language in the 1600s, gaining prominence through poetry and publications in the early twentieth century.
Pashto serves as one of Afghanistan's official languages and is especially prevalent in regions like the Hindu Kush Mountains and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Despite its rich oral tradition and cultural significance, Pashto faces challenges from increasing English usage and governmental hesitance in Pakistan regarding its official status. Additionally, the Taliban's influence in Afghanistan has intermittently affected the language's prominence and vitality. Dialectical diversity exists within Pashto, with up to five recognized dialects, mainly differing in consonant pronunciation. Overall, Pashto remains a vital medium for cultural expression among its speakers.
Pashto Language
The Pashto language is used in the modern-day Middle East, mostly by members of the Pashtun ethnic group. The majority of Pashto speakers live in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but other speakers live in North America, Europe, and other parts of the Middle East. Pashto is an Indo-European language that most likely evolved in the mid-1000s CE. In the 2000s and 2010s, Pashto became a popular language to study in the West, mostly because of the military conflict in Afghanistan and the rising importance of relations with countries in the Middle East. Pashto is spoken by approximately forty million people around the world.
Pashto is written mostly in the Perso-Arabic script. Like some other Arabic scripts, Pashto script uses letters to mostly write consonants. However, some letters in Pashto can represent vowels. Some letters in Pashto are unique to the language and are not used in Persian or Arabic. As with other Arabic languages, Pashto is written from right to left. However, numerals are written left to right.
History and Classification
Pashto is classified broadly as an Indo-European language. Indo-European languages are a broad group of languages that all seem to have developed from one common ancestral language spoken nearly six thousand years ago. This language, which scholars call Proto-Indo-European (PIE), spread and developed into many different languages. Eventually hundreds of languages formed from PIE.
One family of languages that developed from PIE was the Indo-Iranian languages. These languages developed in modern-day Iran and India. These languages are often categorized into Indic and Iranian branches. Pashto is one of the languages that developed from the Indo-Iranian language family. Some scholars believe that Pashto developed thousands of years ago, though it is difficult to trace the exact time when the language was developed. Pashto is considered to be the second most important Iranian language, after Persian.
Pashto was, at first, a spoken language that was not written down. During part of Pashto's history, people living in modern-day Afghanistan used Dari, which was one of the most popular languages in the areas where Pashto was spoken, for writing. However, in the 1600s CE, some Pashto speakers began translating poetry from Persian into Pashto. These documents helped Pashto develop into a literary language as well as a spoken language. The translations also helped Pashto become a modern language. In the early twentieth century, poets began writing their work directly into Pashto, giving the language more prominence. That was also the time that Afghanistan's first newspaper—which was written in Pashto—was published.
Although Pashto became a literary language, it has remained a language that is mostly spoken. Much information and many stories are passed on through oral tradition in Pashto. This is due in part to the fact that literacy rates are low in some areas where Pashto is spoken. Traditional folktales are often passed down from parents to children in Pashto in Afghanistan.
Some modern Pashto speakers are concerned about the language's future. In Pakistan, the government is wary of using Pashto in an official way as leaders worry that using the language of the Pashtu will develop a sentiment of loyalty to Afghanistan, possibly causing upset along Pakistan's long, chaotic border. Another reason that Pashto's future could be in jeopardy is that English has become an acceptable international language that many people can use and understand. With more people using English, smaller indigenous languages are being spoken less. The Taliban, which took over much of Afghanistan during the 1990s, reasserted Pashto's prominence in the region, but the war that started in 2001 disrupted the progress.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
Pashto is mostly spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is one of the official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari. In Afghanistan, Pashto is spoken mostly in the region of the Hindu Kush Mountains as well as in some parts of the north and northeast. More than 40 percent of Afghans speak Pashto. The Pashtuns are an ethnic group in Afghanistan who mostly speak Pashto.
This language is also spoken by roughly twenty million people in Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. Pashto is considered a regional language in Pakistan, and it is mainly spoken by Pakistanis living in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which used to be the North-West Frontier Province, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Other Pashto speakers live in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, India, Europe, and the United States, numbering forty million Pashto speakers worldwide.
Just like most other languages, Pashto has different dialects. Scholars identify up to five Pashto dialects: Northwest Pashto, Northeast Pashto, Southwest Pashto, Southeast Pashto, and Central (or Middle) Pashto. Although different Pashto dialects exist, they are not vastly different from one another. The differences in the dialects are mostly in the pronunciation of particular consonants.
Bibliography
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"Pashto Language at Indiana University." Department of Central Eurasian Studies. The Trustees of Indiana University. Web. 1 Sept. 2015. http://www.iub.edu/~ceus/‗undergraduates/pashto.shtml
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