12.2919, Sum: Pashto Language

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-12-2919. Fri Nov 23 2001. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 12.2919, Sum: Pashto Language

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1)
Date:  Sun, 18 Nov 2001 21:56:47 -0500
From:  steven donahue <sdonah01 at bellsouth.net>
Subject:  Pashto

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 18 Nov 2001 21:56:47 -0500
From:  steven donahue <sdonah01 at bellsouth.net>
Subject:  Pashto

Below is a summary of what I have gathered about the Pashto Language.
Steven Donahue


(1) The Pashtuns are an Indo-European people genetically related to the
        Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. Pashto belongs to the
        Indo-European family of languages and is thus distantly related to English.
        Despite the fact that Pashto is written in a variant of Arabic script,
        and has many loan words, particularly from the Qu'ran, it is not related
        to that language group. A now famous Arabic loan word is "Taliban"
        meaning students. English words seemingly derived from Sanskrit such as "star",
        "God" and "speck" ('storey', 'Kwaday'  'spek', respectively in Pashto)
        still show an historical echo between English and Pashto.
(2) Dr. Habibullah Tegey, Senior  Editor of the Pashto Services for the Voice
  of America.told me, " Pashto is what is called in language typology an 'ergative
          language'.   Typical Ergative languages, such as Basque or the aboriginal
  Australian,  have the verb agree with the subject in present tense; Pashtu is
          ergative only in past tense, where the verb agrees with the object."
          Pashto is the best example of non-typical ergativity. Basque is the best
          example of typical ergativity."
(3) Dr. Taylor Roberts,   an expert on Pashto "clitics" (pronominal clitics  are
  weak   pronouns)said, "Pashtu is a formidable language that would take a second
          language learner some time to tune into past tense constructions
          involving two pronouns, when certain verbs would be problematic." For
          example, ' My father is sending you back to the cave I was in yesterday'
          could be mis-interpreted, ' Your father is sending me back to the cave I
          was in yesterday.'"*
(4)  Concerning Pashto dialects, Dr. Tegey says, " Generally speaking there
          are three dialects: Western, Eastern, and the Central dialect of Kabul
          formerly used by    Kabul Radio, which is the de facto standard." Since
          Pashto lacks a "V" sound, speakers of it will pronounce many English
          words with "V" by substituting a "W". For example, "Very" might be
          pronounced as 'Wary'.
(5) At the present time, not a single program exists in the United States
          for teaching Pashto to English speakers. However, The University of
  Pennsylvania now definitely will offer a  Pilot Pashto course
  in Spring semester, 2002. The course ( SARS   291/591), Intensive Beginning
  Pashto,will be directed by Dr. Benedicte Santry, and will be a 2 semester-unit (
  accelerated ) elementary course, offering a year's worth of instruction in one
  semester. It will meet 2 hours daily four days a week. Professor  Schiffman
  is overseeing the course   215 898 5825  haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu



          For Further Information:


          1. Taylor Roberts home page with Pashtu materials:
               http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/
          2. Books and cassettes for learning Pashto have been prepared by the
          Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC:
               http://www.cal.org/pubs/pashto_p.html


         * [ Adapted From p. 182 A Reference Grammar of Pashto. Habibullah [Tegey,
          Barbara Robson. Center for Applied Linguistics. Washington, D.C. 1996]




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