The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages , having emerged during the Middle Iranian era (4th century BC to 9th century AD). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle-era Western Iranian dialects , the Middle-era Eastern Iranian dialects preserve word-final syllables.
53-777: The Banuchi(Shitak) ( Pashto : شيتک ), Bannuzai ( Pashto : بنوزي ), also Banusi ( Pashto : بنوڅي ) or Banisi , is a prominent tribe of Pashtun people which has the reputation of being one of the most warlike amongst Pashtun people.They inhabit the Bannu District and Dera Ismail Khan of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and North Waziristan of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas , with some members settled in Afghanistan . The Banuchi trace their descent to
106-453: A royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted Pashto the status of an official language, with full rights to use in all aspects of government and education – despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian. Thus Pashto became a national language , a symbol for Pashtun nationalism . The constitutional assembly reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian
159-628: A contiguous area: southern and eastern Afghanistan and the adjacent parts of western Pakistan; the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region in eastern Tajikistan ; and the westernmost parts of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China . There are also two living members in widely separated areas: the Yaghnobi language of northwestern Tajikistan (descended from Sogdian ); and the Ossetic language of
212-573: A device). Post-7th century borrowings came primarily from Persian and Hindi-Urdu , with Arabic words being borrowed through Persian, but sometimes directly. Modern speech borrows words from English, French , and German . However, a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto. Here is an exemplary list of Pure Pashto and borrowings: naṛә́i jahān dunyā tod/táwda garm aṛtyā́ ḍarurah híla umid də...pə aṛá bāra bolә́la qasidah Eastern Iranian languages The largest living Eastern Iranian language
265-697: A pervasive external influence on the closest neighbouring Eastern Iranian, as it is evident in the development in the retroflex consonants (in Pashto, Wakhi, Sanglechi, Khotanese, etc.) and aspirates (in Khotanese, Parachi and Ormuri). A more localized sound change is the backing of the former retroflex fricative ṣ̌ [ʂ] , to x̌ [x] or to x [χ] , found in the Shughni–Yazgulyam branch and certain dialects of Pashto. E.g. "meat": ɡu ṣ̌ t in Wakhi and γwa ṣ̌
318-612: A promoter of the wealth and antiquity of Afghanistan's Pashto culture." From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are Bayazid Pir Roshan (a major inventor of the Pashto alphabet ), Khushal Khan Khattak , Rahman Baba , Nazo Tokhi , and Ahmad Shah Durrani , founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Durrani Empire . The Pashtun literary tradition grew in
371-456: A tribal chief of the Bannuzai tribe and the first (MBBS) doctor of Bannu and neighbouring regions. ●Mir Mast Khan Umerkhel ,tribal chief of the banuchi tribe. Pashto language Pashto ( / ˈ p ʌ ʃ t oʊ / PUH -shto , / ˈ p æ ʃ t oʊ / PASH -toe ; پښتو , Pəx̌tó , [pəʂˈto, pʊxˈto, pəʃˈto, pəçˈto] ) is an Eastern Iranian language in
424-522: A variety very similar to it, while others have attempted to place it closer to Bactrian . However, neither position is universally agreed upon. What scholars do agree on is the fact that Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian . Compare with other Eastern Iranian Languages and Old Avestan : Zə tā winə́m /ɐz dɐ wənən/ Az bū tū dzunim Strabo , who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that
477-663: Is Pashto , with at least 80 million speakers between the Oxus River in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan . The second-largest living Eastern Iranian language is Ossetic , with roughly 600,000 speakers across Ossetia (split between Georgia and Russia ). All other languages of the Eastern Iranian subgroup have fewer than 200,000 speakers combined. Most living Eastern Iranian languages are spoken in
530-680: Is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province , areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Islamabad . Pashto speakers are found in other major cities of Pakistan, most notably Karachi , Sindh, which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in the world. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in India , Tajikistan , and northeastern Iran (primarily in South Khorasan Province to
583-454: Is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact number of speakers is unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan . In Pakistan , Pashto is spoken by 15% of its population, mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. It
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#1732787743290636-463: Is sometimes classified as Eastern Iranian, but is not assigned to a branch in 21st-century classifications. The Eastern Iranian area has been affected by widespread sound changes , e.g. t͡ʃ > ts. Common to most Eastern Iranian languages is a particularly widespread lenition of the voiced stops *b, *d, *g. Between vowels, these have been lenited also in most Western Iranian languages, but in Eastern Iranian, spirantization also generally occurs in
689-657: Is strictly used for the people who descend from the Shitak super tribe namely Surani (Sur), Mirian (Miri) and Sam (Sami). The Banuchis originally lived in the Shawal area, which lies partly in the present-day North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan and partly in the Paktika Province of Afghanistan . The Banuchi, as well as their cousin tribe the Dawars descend from the Shitak supertribe who were settled in Shawal. In
742-564: Is taught poorly in schools in Pakistan. Moreover, in government schools material is not provided for in the Pashto dialect of that locality, Pashto being a dialectically rich language. Further, researchers have observed that Pashtun students are unable to fully comprehend educational material in Urdu. Professor Tariq Rahman states: "The government of Pakistan, faced with irredentist claims from Afghanistan on its territory, also discouraged
795-518: Is the second-largest provincial language of Pakistan , spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan . Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million, although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. A national language of Afghanistan , Pashto
848-500: Is to identify genealogical lineages amongst themselves and major lineage (tribe) is to be identified by fellow Pashtuns and outsiders. Banuchis in total have a 150 smaller Khels (Sections) that originate from the major lineage as outlined in the table underneath. The details of each original smaller Khel(section) is available in books, "Hayat-I-Afghani" and "Pashtana da tarikh pa Ranra Kshe". Main gates in Bannu city were named after some of
901-590: The Caucasus (descended from Scytho-Sarmatian and is hence classified as Eastern Iranian despite its location). These are remnants of a vast ethno-linguistic continuum that stretched over most of Central Asia , parts of the Caucasus, Eastern Europe , and Western Asia in the 1st millennium BC — an area otherwise known as Scythia . The large Eastern Iranian continuum in Eastern Europe would continue up to
954-621: The Indo-European language family , natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan . It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ( افغانی , Afghāni ). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns , it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari , and it
1007-582: The Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue . King Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926–1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism" leading Afghanistan to independence after the defeat of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. In the 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with
1060-667: The voiced labiodental fricative /v/ . The dental member has proved the most unstable: while a voiced dental fricative /ð/ is preserved in some Pamir languages, it has in e.g. Pashto and Munji lenited further to /l/ . On the other hand, in Yaghnobi and Ossetian, the development appears to have been reversed, leading to the reappearance of a voiced stop /d/ . (Both languages have also shifted earlier *θ > /t/ .) The consonant clusters *ft and *xt have also been widely lenited, though again excluding Ormuri-Parachi, and possibly Yaghnobi. The neighboring Indo-Aryan languages have exerted
1113-787: The 14th century, the Wazir tribe of Pashtuns, who were living in Birmal in the west, migrated eastwards to the Shawal area and fell into dispute with the Shitaks (Banuchis and Dawars), and succeeded to oust the Shitaks northeastwards towards the land between the Tochi and Kurram rivers. Eventually, the Banuchi Shitaks migrated to the Bannu District , where the Pashtun tribes of the Mangal and
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#17327877432901166-762: The 4th century AD, with the successors of the Scythians, namely the Sarmatians . Western Iranian is thought to have separated from Proto-Iranian in the course of the later 2nd millennium BC not long after Avestan , possibly occurring in the Yaz culture . Eastern Iranian followed suit, and developed in place of Proto-Iranian, spoken within the Andronovo horizon . Due to the Greek presence in Central Asia, some of
1219-770: The 8th century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana . Pə́ṭa Xazāná ( پټه خزانه ) is a Pashto manuscript claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor Hussain Hotak in Kandahar ; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as David Neil MacKenzie and Lucia Serena Loi. Nile Green comments in this regard: "In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as
1272-724: The Arab conquests and during Islamic-Arab rule. The replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khorasan. The Persian Dari language spread, leading to the extinction of Eastern Iranic languages including Bactrian and Khorezmian . Only a few speakers of the Sogdian descended Yaghnobi remain among
1325-897: The Honai, as well as the Khattak were already settled. The Banuchis first defeated and drove away the Mangals and the Honais, then gradually pushed the Khattaks northwards to Kohat and Karak , and eventually captured and settled in Bannu District. As soon as their conquest were secured the new colonist divided out the country equally amongst them, the credit for this division (wesh) goes to their spiritual guide Sheikh Mohammad Rohani and his family (Saadats of Bannu). During Khilji rule in India
1378-529: The Pashto Movement and eventually allowed its use in peripheral domains only after the Pakhtun elite had been co-opted by the ruling elite...Thus, even though there is still an active desire among some Pakhtun activists to use Pashto in the domains of power, it is more of a symbol of Pakhtun identity than one of nationalism." Robert Nicols states: "In the end, national language policy, especially in
1431-542: The Shitak superclan of the larger Karlani tribe . The word banuchi is strictly used for the people who descend from the Shitak super tribe namely Surani (Sur), Mirian (Miri) and Sam (Sami). The Shitak tribe arrived Bannu after the fall of Ghazna in the first half of the 13th century, at that time their leader (Malak) was Shah Farid Shitak. Later for linguistic and spelling convenience of local and foreign languages multiple short names were used when referring to them (Bannuchi, Banusi, Banosi, Banisai or Banisi). The word banuchi
1484-680: The Society's annual meeting in 1927. In 1955, Pashtun intellectuals including Abdul Qadir formed the Pashto Academy Peshawar on the model of Pashto Tolana formed in Afghanistan. In 1974, the Department of Pashto was established in the University of Balochistan for the promotion of Pashto. In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language around of 15% of its population (per the 1998 census). However, Urdu and English are
1537-511: The backdrop to weakening Pashtun power following Mughal rule: Khushal Khan Khattak used Pashto poetry to rally for Pashtun unity and Pir Bayazid as an expedient means to spread his message to the Pashtun masses. For instance Khushal Khattak laments in : "The Afghans (Pashtuns) are far superior to the Mughals at the sword, Were but the Afghans, in intellect, a little discreet. If
1590-480: The canals passing through the lands could be controlled. With complete control of their water the Banuchis were now taxed with no future chances of rebellion in years to come under British rule. While Banuchis were weakened and kept busy by two foreign foes (Sikhs and English), the old rivals Wazirs had appeared on the scene, greedy for land were busy annexing many fair outlying fields. It is important to mention that
1643-410: The different tribes would but support each other, Kings would have to bow down in prostration before them" Pashto is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language with split ergativity . In Pashto, this means that the verb agrees with the subject in transitive and intransitive sentences in non-past, non-completed clauses, but when a completed action is reported in any of the past tenses, the verb agrees with
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1696-701: The east of Qaen , near the Afghan border). In India most ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) peoples speak the geographically native Hindi-Urdu language rather than Pashto, but there are small numbers of Pashto speakers, such as the Sheen Khalai in Rajasthan , and the Pathan community in the city of Kolkata , often nicknamed the Kabuliwala ("people of Kabul "). Pashtun diaspora communities in other countries around
1749-629: The easternmost of these languages were recorded in their Middle Iranian stage (hence the "Eastern" classification), while almost no records of the Scytho-Sarmatian continuum stretching from Kazakhstan west across the Pontic steppe to Ukraine have survived. Some authors find that the Eastern Iranian people had an influence on Russian folk culture. Middle Persian/Dari spread around the Oxus River region, Afghanistan, and Khorasan after
1802-443: The eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as
1855-562: The establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931 and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in 1937. Muhammad Na'im Khan, the minister of education between 1938 and 1946, inaugurated the formal policy of promoting Pashto as Afghanistan's national language, leading to the commission and publication of Pashto textbooks. The Pashto Tolana
1908-451: The field of education in the NWFP, had constructed a type of three tiered language hierarchy. Pashto lagged far behind Urdu and English in prestige or development in almost every domain of political or economic power..." Although Pashto used as a medium of instruction in schools for Pashtun students results in better understanding and comprehension for students when compared to using Urdu, still
1961-399: The government of Pakistan has only introduced Pashto at the primary levels in state-run schools. Taimur Khan remarks: "the dominant Urdu language squeezes and denies any space for Pashto language in the official and formal capacity. In this contact zone, Pashto language exists but in a subordinate and unofficial capacity". Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from Avestan or
2014-539: The governor of Bannu with responsibility to collect taxes from Banuchis on behalf of Sikh Emperor. The Banuchis were up against a much smarter and larger enemy now. With Dilasa Khan now post exile, old and out of scene, as expected the Sikhs and the British had an open ground to play. All the forts (no less than 400) from where Banuchis were resisting were destroyed. A fort was constructed at a strategic location from where all
2067-404: The greater Shitak clan includes the sons from his other two wives who are step brothers to Banuchis (Dawar, Tani, Haved and Zalem) as outlined in the table underneath. Like other Pashtuns, Banuchi society is subdivided on patrilineal basis, each individual belongs to a Khel (section) a minor lineage and each Khel (section) than belongs to a major lineage. The purpose of the smaller khels (sections)
2120-420: The hands of Banuchis and Dawars (cousins). A portion of Nadir shah army of Iran entered Banuchi lands in 1738 collecting heavy tribute. The next seventy years Ahmad Shah and his successors newly created kingdom of Kabul maintained an unstable hold on Banuchis with minimal tax collections. As a result, Bannu was given on lease to Sikhs in 1802 - 1808. During Sikh Rule between 1802- 1845 political scene for Banuchis
2173-753: The largely Persian-speaking Tajik population of Central Asia. This appears to be due to the large numbers of Persian-speakers in Arab-Islamic armies that invaded Central Asia and later Muslim governments in the region such as the Samanids . Persian was rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids. Eastern Iranian remains in large part a dialect continuum subject to common innovation. Traditional branches, such as "Northeastern", as well as Eastern Iranian itself, are better considered language areas rather than genetic groups. The languages are as follows: Avestan
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2226-444: The major clan names, Hinjal gate, Sukari gate, Miryan gate, Mandan gate and Haved gate. There are estimated 600,000 banuchi (Shitaks) mostly in Bannu and other parts of KPK and Pakistan. Banuchis (Shitaks) are predominantly Sunni Muslims. Banuchis speak with a local distinct Pashto dialect which is closer to regional languages (Dawar & Waziri). Well known Banuchi food is Painda and Wresha. ●Capt Dr Baghdad Khan Umerkhel ,was
2279-483: The native elements of the lexicon are related to other Eastern Iranian languages . As noted by Josef Elfenbein, "Loanwords have been traced in Pashto as far back as the third century B.C., and include words from Greek and probably Old Persian". For instance, Georg Morgenstierne notes the Pashto word مېچن mečә́n i.e. a hand-mill as being derived from the Ancient Greek word μηχανή ( mēkhanḗ , i.e.
2332-413: The newly inhabited Banuchis were mostly at peace with fellow Pashtuns. It is said that while attacking Delhi Amir Timur passed through Banuchi lands with no resistance with some might even have accompanied him. Mughal King Babur invaded Bannu in 1505 and brutally massacred Banuchis (Kevis) who physically resisted him. His successors could not hold the land and Bahadar Shah 1 (Son of Alamgir) suffered badly at
2385-465: The possessed in the genitive construction, and adjectives come before the nouns they modify. Unlike most other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto uses all three types of adpositions —prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions. *The retroflex rhotic or lateral, tends to be a lateral flap [ 𝼈 ] at the beginning of a syllable or other prosodic unit, and a regular flap [ ɽ ] or approximant [ ɻ ] elsewhere. In Pashto, most of
2438-444: The subject if it is intransitive, but with the object if it is transitive. Verbs are inflected for present, simple past, past progressive, present perfect, and past perfect tenses. There is also an inflection for the subjunctive mood . Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (direct, oblique, ablative, and vocative). The possessor precedes
2491-491: The tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana . This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name Afghan ( Abgan ). Abdul Hai Habibi believed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri of the early Ghurid period in
2544-411: The two official languages of Pakistan. Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan . Yet, the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan is Urdu. The lack of importance given to Pashto and its neglect has caused growing resentment amongst Pashtuns. It is noted that Pashto
2597-476: The word-initial position. This phenomenon is however not apparent in Avestan, and remains absent from Ormuri-Parachi. A series of spirant consonants can be assumed to have been the first stage: *b > *β, *d > *ð, *g > *ɣ. The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ has mostly been preserved. The labial member has been well-preserved too, but in most languages has shifted from a voiced bilabial fricative /β/ to
2650-508: The world speak Pashto, especially the sizable communities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia . Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari Persian . Since the early 18th century, the monarchs of Afghanistan have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for Habibullāh Kalakāni in 1929). Persian, the literary language of the royal court, was more widely used in government institutions, while
2703-553: Was all chaos. Sikhs had taken over the Dera Ismail Khan, IsaKhel and Marwats, had now come to Bannu for tax collection. They invaded Banuchis every second or third year. It is during this time that Ghazi Dilasa Khan Banuchi (Surani) of Daud Shah Tappa physically resisted each time and repulsed a much larger Sikh force. "When Sikhs would come to Bannu with fear of Dilasa Khan, they would go with bad memories" Sir Herbert Edwardes. The Sikh appointed Sir Herbert Edward (1847) as
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#17327877432902756-587: Was later incorporated into the Academy of Sciences Afghanistan in line with Soviet model following the Saur Revolution in 1978. Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing". King Zahir Shah (reigning 1933–1973) thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto. In 1936
2809-453: Was officially renamed to Dari . The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In British India , prior to the creation of Pakistan by the British government, the 1920s saw the blossoming of Pashto language in the then NWFP : Abdul Ghafar Khan in 1921 established the Anjuman-e- Islah al-Afaghina (Society for the Reformation of Afghans) to promote Pashto as an extension of Pashtun culture; around 80,000 people attended
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