Everything you always wanted to know about Pashto but were afraid to ask

Pashto (pronounced “peshto”) is the Iranian language of the Pathans. It can also be transliterated to be Pushto, Pakhto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Paxto or Pushtu.

Also known as “Afghani” and “Pathan” and a member of the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages, Pasto is spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. There are three dialects of Pashto: Northern Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan; Southern Pashto, spoken mainly in Afghanistan; and Central Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan. There are also Pashto communities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

There are approximately 35-45 millions speakers of Pashto in the world. In 1936, it was made, by royal decree, the official language of Afghanistan. Since that time, the spelling has been revised quite a bit and today, both Dari and Pashto are the official languages of Afghanistan.

Like Urdu and Farsi, Pashto derives its alphabet from the Arabic alphabet (and the Arabic alphabet derives itself from the Persian alphabet) but it is almost completely modified as Pashto, unlike Arabic, is not a Semitic language.

Among the US military, Pashto is a popular language to learn because it’s easier to learn than Arabic. U.S. soldiers have also used various handheld devices to speak Pashto and Dari in Afghanistan. 

Pashto is a subject-object-verb language where adjectives come before nouns. There is also gender specificity for nouns and adjectives and an intricate verb system with several tenses.

I think Pashto looks a bit like Thai. Here is a sample of some common software UI terms in Pashto:

·         Online (په کرښه)

·         Website (ګورتځاى)

·         Email (برېښليک)

·         Browser (لټونګر)

·         Message (پېغام)

·         Font (ليکبڼه)

·         Software (پوستکالى)

·         Login (ننوتل)

·         Logout (وتل)

·         Username (کارن نوم)

·         Password (شفر)

It's a Dragon Year! 龙年

In the Chinese calendar, it is the year 4710, and the Year of the Dragon(龙年).  So popular and important is a “Dragon Year”, that the Chinese birthrate increases. The dragon is the more powerful and blessed of the other 11 animals so it is considered a very important year to have a child or to start something new.

Joining the dragon in the 12 year cycle of animals is the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the snake, the horse, the sheep/goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog and the pig.

The Chinese New Year will be celebrated on January 23, 2012 as the date is based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is the biggest holiday celebrated among Chinese people. It originally lasted for four weeks but now it usually lasts about 3-4 days.

Houses will be cleaned, windows will be painted red, dumplings will be eaten, flowers will be placed as a decoration, symbols of the dragon will be everywhere and red envelopes with money will be given out to children for luck and prosperity in the new year. Fireworks are usually on hand to wake up the dragon so he will bring spring rain to the crops and to scare away any misfortune.

Why is the dragon so revered and special? It is the only animal in the Chinese zodiac that is not real. Over 4,000 years ago, there were many tribes in China. The tribes had animals as emblems. Two of the larger tribes unified and chose the dragon as their symbol. Today, the Han Chinese still call themselves the descendants of the dragon.

The dragon also is seen as a power king who is made up of many different animals such as the tiger, snake, fish and eagle.

My son happened to be born during the last dragon year. I’ll expect big things from him now!

新年快乐!