A blogger named Polyglot(t).ED is learning Pashto. Here are his thoughts on the language. Nice read. PASHTO: THOUGHTS, OPINIONS, & RESOURCES naughtylink said: How is Pashto? I study most of what you have listed, but not Pashto. [and] I’m working on being a Polyglot. I have a huge amount of languages on my list. I was just wondering is Pashto fun? I have been considering added it to the long list. And how hard is it to learn? kh9909 said: […] Please tell me more about your learning of Pashto, like where did you learn it & what books you are using? So, Pashto is an interesting case in a lot of ways. It is an Iranian language; however, it is from the Eastern branch - the majority of which is dead- with languages like Avestan, Bactrian, and Pamir, while what people normally consider to be Iranian languages - Persian (and its numerous dialects), Kurdish, Bakhtiari, Luri, etc. - are actually Western Iranian languages. Despite these differences, a family resemblance can be seen between these two sides, most notably in their lexicons and foundational structures. However, aside from this, sometimes Pashto seems like a completely different language - because it is… Here are some major differences (don’t get scared): phonemes: Pashto contains a number of phonemes not found in Western Iranian languages. Some of these sounds exist in Pashto’s fellow Eastern Iranian languages as well as in its Indic neighbors to the east. Some examples include the retroflex nasal ڼ /ɳ/, the voiced and unvoiced retroflex plosives ډ /ɖ/ and ټ /ʈ/, the voiced and unvoiced retroflex fricatives ږ /ʐ/ and ښ /ʂ/ (found in some dialects), and the retroflex rhotic ړ /ɭ̆/). Another common phonetic feature found in Pashto is its voiced and unvoiced dental affricates ځ /d̪͡z̪/ and څ /t͡s/. In English and Western Iranian languages, these are considered consonant clusters (i.e. cats or duds). Technically, these sounds are nothing new and not difficult for a non-native speaker. However, when Pashto has a word like څخه /t͡sxa/ or /t͡sxə/ (the postposition meaning “from”) it feels like a triple consonant cluster for English speakers, and this is something incredibly unnatural for us; whereas in Pashto this is just another double consonant cluster and no big deal. Over time, and with practice, these consonant clusters prove to be easier than one would think, but they take a lot of practice to become accustomed to. consonant clusters: In addition to the consonant clusters that I already mentioned, there are also cases of actual triple consonant clusters. I don’t have an example (because even native speakers had a hard time trying to find one for me) but I’ve been told they do exist. However, I will say, after studying Arabic where (except in dialect) it is not possible to have two consecutive syllables without any vowels, it takes some effort to switch to Pashto where one word may not have a vowel at all or only one vowel. circumpositions: while the majority of Indo-European languages contain prepositions, Pashto has circumpositions. Let’s define a few things first: - adposition: a word that denotes the spatial or temporal relation between its object and another word. - preposition: an adposition that precedes its object. - postposition: an adposition that follows its object. - circumposition: an adposition that contains 2 parts, one precedes the object while the other follows. Consider the following: The Pashto word(s) for “in” is “په … کښې” /pə … kṣḥe/ where the object of the preposition is placed in between the two words (i.e. “in the university” “په پوهنتون کښې” /pə pohantūn kṣḥe/. Now these circumpositions exist most commonly in a more formal register of Pashto. In dialects and colloquial speech, most speakers leave out either the preposition or the postposition portion due to environmental factors (i.e. the oblique/genitive د before the modified noun) or for ease of speech. However, this is still something that native English (or other language) speaker will have to deal with. cases: Pashto has 4 cases: nominative, oblique I & II, and vocative. If you know Hindi/Urdu, you’ll be fine. If you know an IE language with 5+ cases, you need to learn to view these in a different way, because they’re not the same. However, they’re not too difficult. spatiality in 3rd person pronouns: Like Hindi/Urdu, Pashto conveys distance (near/far or visible/invisible) in its 3rd person pronouns. Not too difficult, but different. split-ergativity: I’m going to try to explain this concept in the most basic way possible. Obviously, if you continue to learn Pashto, then you’ll learn more about the complexities of how this works. For those of you who are linguists, please don’t judge me for my oversimplification of ergativity. If you know a language that takes case, we know that the accusative is used for the direct object of a sentence. For example, “I hit the ball”. “I” is the subject so it would take nominative and “the ball” is the direct object so it would take accusative. Languages that act in this way are called accusative languages. There is a subject and an object and the verb is conjugated to the subject. If a language is ergative, is acts oppositely. So, while the meaning of the previous sentence (to an English speaker) remains “I hit the ball”, in an ergative language the verb “to hit” would conjugate to match the object in gender and number. The subject of the sentence would then take a different case (usually the oblique case in most ergative languages). Pashto has split ergativity. This means that it is only ergative in past tenses. More correctly, the verb is ergative in tenses with perfective aspect. So in the simple past or in any “perfect tense” the verb will conjugate to match the object and the subject will take the oblique case. This is probably one of the most difficult aspects of Pashto grammar. So, now that I’ve scared you thoroughly let me tell you this. Pashto is manageable. I don’t believe in the idea of an impossible language or in a language that is the most difficult. Yes, Pashto is not easy. Hell, I’m great with languages and Pashto trips me up sometimes; but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It may take a little bit more effort, but it can definitely be done. Now, unfortunately there are not a whole lot of resources out there. In addition to the books I’m about to list and link, don’t forget about the community of bloggers that are out there. I am here; and while, I’m not a native speaker, I’m on the same journey as you so I’m here to help. Additionally, there are a lot of native speakers or L2 Pashto speakers blogging on tumblr. I follow a decent number of them and a lot of them follow me. If you want to ask them for help, they’re there. They’re not your private teachers; they have lives too, but they’re usually willing to answer questions. Now here are the resources I have and use: Pashto: An Elementary Textbook Pt 1 - Rahmon Inomkhojayev This is one of the main books I use. It’s good. There’s a lot of fluff meant for classroom use, but it’s good. Pashto: An Elementary Textbook Pt 2 - Rahmon Inomkhojayev I don’t own this book yet. But I need to get it soon. Pashto: An Intermediate Textbook - Rahmon Inomkhojayev This has not been published to the public yet. However, I’m assuming once it is, it will be broken into 2 parts and sold for $65 a piece like the elementary book. However, you can buy the draft copy (a kid from my Dari class is its editor and he says the final copy won’t be published for a bit) for only $45 from CELCAR at IU. Let me know if you want the link to purchase it. Beginning Pashto Textbook & Workbook - Habibullah Tegey & Barbara Robson This is a great resource. It’s dryer than the Inomkhojayev text, but it’s good (and free). There’s actually a whole series by Tegey and Robson that I’m working on getting my hands on. This PDF is both the textbook and the work book, I had mine printed and bound separately for all of $12. Intermediate Pashto Textbook & Workbook - Habibullah Tegey & Barbara Robson This is also both a textbook and workbook. I haven’t had it bound yet, because I’m not intermediate yet, but it shouldn’t cost too much. Reference Grammar of Pashto - Habibullah Tegey & Barbara Robson Also a great reference resource Pashto Reader - Habibullah Tegey & Barbara Robson I’m not advanced enough for this book yet, but I love it’s set-up. It presents a text, gives vocabulary, and then has comprehension questions in Pashto following it. There’s also a version of this in transliteration (which I refuse to use) and a version with copies of the original texts. Conversational Pashto - Habibullah Tegey & Barbara Robson This is the manual; however, its useless without the tapes. I’m working on figuring out how to get audio tapes or MP3s from ERIC. Pashto for 4G and 8G These are Pashto textbooks for the 4th and 8th grades in Afghanistan. Obviously, they’re a little on the difficult side, because they’re completely in Pashto, but… why not have them? Introduction to Pushtu - Qazi Rahimullah Khan I’m working on scanning this to PDF. It’s an older book that places transliteration next to all of the Pashto (blech). Additionally, it follows an older method of foreign language pedagogy, so it’s very dry. But it’s not a bad resource to have. A Reader of Pashto - Herbet Penzl I don’t have this book (yet), but I’ve heard great things about it. It’s on my “Wish List”. For practicing with natives, hop on Verbling or Interpals or any other language exchange site As, I said: this isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. Personally, as a language nerd, I think Pashto is a lot of fun, simply because it’s like nothing I’ve ever worked with before. Additionally, I have my own academic reasons for studying it. I hope some of my summary and my resources help. Feel free to keep asking questions and to check in with your progress! د خدای په امان polyglotted.tumblr/post/56646017758/pashto-thoughts-opinions-resources
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 06:24:04 +0000
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