What is your favourite word in Pashto?

[زده کوونکی]

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Dear brother all languages are related. Alhamdulilah.

There is even the equivalent of "Pakhtun" in English. I apologise as I cnt disclose everything as it is part of my work which needs to be published, Insha Allah.

Manana

Walaikum As-Salam.

Brother your argument that all languages are related is indeed very interesting, I have myself, on a few occasions noticed similarities between certain languages - even though they are both distinct and distant from each other.

I cannot wait to find out the English equivalent of Pakhtun!

I hope to read your work one day soon, God willing.

All the best

[Nurzai]

Hahah that's cool. Kidnapping by Talibs - that's awful, I can't imagine what your family members must have gone through. I know a guy that got kidnapped in Peshawar and he was never able to recover from it. I guess that's the price you have to pay to be rich and famous in a poor and devastated country.

BTW I mean when I say Kandahar, in the historical sense, it includes almost all of the surrounding areas as well, like Ruzgan, Zabul, Helmand, Zhob, etc

yeah sure, PM could work if you want.

My profile is zdah-kawunkay which means one who learns or student.

Ohhh ok zdha karoonkawai okay lol I know , my reading is kinda rusty but I'm decent . I was close. Pashto zdhakawoma xD

[زده کوونکی]

Here's another one:

In Pakhto, "jinay" means girl. Balochi equivalent = "jinak" (similar to other dialects of Pashto where girl is "jinkay" or "jinakay" -plural, "injuni" or "injunakyan" but in Kandahari girl is "njily".

Similar terms for "lady" or "woman" or even "wife" (including the female organs) are Greek "gyn-", Balochi "jann", Persian "zan" and Slavic "ženy". Due to consonant shifts, these words are analogous to English "queen" and even "c*nt".

[زده کوونکی]

Ohhh ok zdha karoonkawai okay lol I know , my reading is kinda rusty but I'm decent . I was close. Pashto zdhakawoma xD

Letters tend to look similar so mistaking a "z" for "r" is no big deal, especially when the font is small.

Der sha. Za khushal yam che ta Pashto zdha kaway.

TBH my Pashto is actually not the best - especially the grammar.

[Pakthun345]

Raghlal

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Brother Zdah-Kawunkay. Manana.

"Raghlal" means to come, to arrive, to reach, to attain.
However, "to reach" is the etymological meaning of "raghlal".

"Reach" in English has meanings: to arrive at, attain, get to.
"Reach" is from Middle English "rechen", from Old English "raecan" and this is from "reig-" in Indo-European roots.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Warning: the following can be offensive to some.

In Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Pashto, there is a word which is used for the female organ. It starts with a "k" and ends with an "s" - one vowel in between.

In the various Turkic languages (Uzbek and Uyghur are my favorite but I also have knowledge of Azeri, Turkmen and Kazakh - original dialects, not the Russified ex-Shuravi speech), the word "qiz"/"kız"/"gyz" means "girl" and interestingly, it sounds a lot like English "kiss".

The vowel "i" in O'zbekcha/Uyghurche ("y" in Türkmençe and Qazaqşa; "ı" in Turkish Türkçesi) represents a sound in between the short "a" "i" and "u" and schwa of Pakhto, so the two words sound very similar and perhaps the Perso-Arabic profanity as used in Pakhto and Urdu originates from the Turkic usage for "girl".

I'm now going to check if the same profanity is used in the Turkic languages. I think in Kazakh, the word is "qynapşyq". Ok, I have since learned that the Turkic equivalent is "qin"/"qyn"/gyn"/"kın" - sounds a lot like the English and French "C" words - "c*nt" and "con". The Turkmen variant "gyn" mirrors the Greek root but is pronounced differently.

[Pakthun345]

Pashto "Jinaey"

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Brother Zdah-Kawunkaey. Manana.

I will just add that "jaini" is also used for "woman" in the Gathas, ie. Old Avestan. "Jani" is a woman, wife in the Rig-Veda. "Jani" is from the Indic stem/root "jan".

"Gwen-" is the Indo-European root.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Thanks Pakhtun345 bro, I'm going to make more effort to include the Proto-Indo European roots. Perhaps in another thread - we could attempt to reconstruct the earliest stage of Pakhto language, for example, -rd- gave rise to ړ and often "n" became "l", so instead of "wral" وړل the original would have been "wrdan" وردن - very close to Persian "aawardan".

[زده کوونکی]

One more before I go to the office:

In Awadhi and Bhojpuri dialects of Hindustani, "kekra" or "kekar" means "whom". The root would be "kek-". We now that "k" and "c" (softened to an "s" or "ts" sound or palatized to a "ch" sound) are often exchangeable in Indo-Iranian so this corresponds to the standard Pakhto "cok" څوک (pronounced variously as "sok", "tsok", "chok")however, Waziristani and Bannusi dialects bear more resemblance - the "o" of Pakhto becomes "e" so in those accents, it would be "cek" څېک (pronounced variously as "sek", "tsek", "chek")

[Pakthun345]

Pashtunwali/Pakhtunwali

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Brother Zdah-Kawunkaey. Yes. Insha Allah.

1)Pashtunwali/Pakhtunwali

Pashto/Pakhto "wali" etymologically means "value".
"Value" in the sense: principles, morals, ethics, standards of behaviour, code of behaviour.

"Value" from Old French, from "valoir", from Latin "valere" to be worth, be strong.
"Wal-" in Indo-European roots.

Hence, Pashtunwali=Pashtun-Value(s).
Pakhtunwali=Pakhtun-Value(s).

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

assalamu alaykum and hello,

brother zdah-kawunkaey. Yes. Insha allah.

1)pashtunwali/pakhtunwali

pashto/pakhto "wali" etymologically means "value".
"value" in the sense: Principles, morals, ethics, standards of behaviour, code of behaviour.

"value" from old french, from "valoir", from latin "valere" to be worth, be strong.
"wal-" in indo-european roots.

Hence, pashtunwali=pashtun-value(s).
Pakhtunwali=pakhtun-value(s).

Manana

ډېره مننه. کور مو ودان

[زده کوونکی]

First person pronouns with “m” are found across too many languages (not just Indo-European) eg. Persian "man" - Mongol "min"

However, English “I” is related to Pashto زه which sounds a lot like French “je” and even Russian “ya” but more interestingly, if we reverse the Pashto “za” to “az” – there are even more languages that use the same word – Kurdish, Avestan, Pamiri, Ossetian and even Slavic “iz”. I believe this may have been in Proto-Pakhto as well.

Even more interesting is the word Turkic languages use for “self” – spelled variously as o’z/öz/өз/ئۆز – it sounds a lot like Pashto زه with the letters switched around.

[Pakthun345]

Turah of Pashtunwali/Pakthunwali

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Pashto/Pakhto "turah" which is part of Pashtunwali/Pakthunwali is translated as "bravery".

The etymological meaning of "turah" is "dare" in English.
"Dare" in the sense: to have the necessary courage or boldness for something.

"Dare" is from Middle English "daren", from Old English "dearr", derivative of "durran", related to Old High German "turran" to venture. There is also "durst" which is the Archaic past tense and past participle of "dare".
In Indo-European roots there is "dhers-".

We also have "dear". Its archaic meaning is "hard, grievous".
"Dear" is from Middle English "dere", from Old English "deeor" brave, bold, severe.

Let us place the terms together: turah, dare, daren, dearr, durran, turran, dear, dere, deeor, durst, dhers-.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Just crossed my mind:

Pashto "khwakh" or "khwash" spelled khwax خوښ is related to English "choice" and
French "choix", among others like Persian "khush" (happy).

[maneatinglizard]

Anyone else get the distinct feeling that killzai is having a three way conversation with himself?