How old is the Pashto Language?

[Manzareh]

and how similar is it to the pashto spoken in the earli days (talking thousands of years ago)..

[ScimitarXEdge]

this is hard to speculate upon; while there's no evidence of Pashto before the last milennia, unless you consider Amir Kror's references in Pata Khizana as evidence. But even then the style of Pashto exhibited reflects a dialect more recently spoken, which is extremely unlikely that the ancient Pashto dialect remained constant through the centuries.

However, Pashto itself represents phonetic and clitic structures which were predominant within the ancient Indo-Aryan languages such as Avesta. It is on this basis that many linguists surmrise that Pashto is quite possibly older than Farsi. However this is theoretical, as we know nothing about what has actually happened except for the last 1000 years or so.

[graveyardofempires]

this is hard to speculate upon; while there's no evidence of Pashto before the last milennia, unless you consider Amir Kror's references in Pata Khizana as evidence. But even then the style of Pashto exhibited reflects a dialect more recently spoken, which is extremely unlikely that the ancient Pashto dialect remained constant through the centuries.

However, Pashto itself represents phonetic and clitic structures which were predominant within the ancient Indo-Aryan languages such as Avesta. It is on this basis that many linguists surmrise that Pashto is quite possibly older than Farsi. However this is theoretical, as we know nothing about what has actually happened except for the last 1000 years or so.

what is that supposed to mean?

[gadoonwal]

pashtu is 5500 years old language.

[Manzareh]

what is that supposed to mean?

he's talking about dr.habib's findings of the pata khazana in the 19th century which dates back to ancient times however people speculate that he infact made it up and it was a fraudulant document.

[Manzareh]

pashtu is 5500 years old language.

wow would ther be any refrences for that? and how similar was the language of pashto 5500 years ago compared to the pashto of today.

[gadoonwal]

wow would ther be any refrences for that? and how similar was the language of pashto 5500 years ago compared to the pashto of today.

it was different then but the base was the same.
for example the word ,,larmal,,is no more in pashtu but back in the old days it was used for ,,sahar,,(gaiaz).
gharmal for maspakheen
barmal for mazegar.
you can check the 5500 claim in pashtun hsitory books.

[graveyardofempires]

he's talking about dr.habib's findings of the pata khazana in the 19th century which dates back to ancient times however people speculate that he infact made it up and it was a fraudulant document.

i know

what i mean is ,enough of this propaganda of anti pashtuns who say he made that up.

[gadoonwal]

he's talking about dr.habib's findings of the pata khazana in the 19th century which dates back to ancient times however people speculate that he infact made it up and it was a fraudulant document.

no one say alama habibi made it up.
some persains spreading this on net to make fool of people.
pata khazan for the most part is right.

[Manzareh]

no one say alama habibi made it up.
some persains spreading this on net to make fool of people.
pata khazan for the most part is right.

ovcourse its widly excluded from any study of history by most historians. dont blame it on the persians as it was some Italian historian that critisized it the most and someone else called dr.mckenzie said it was made up in 1940's

[Feroz Afridi]

ovcourse its widly excluded from any study of history by most historians. dont blame it on the persians as it was some Italian historian that critisized it the most and someone else called dr.mckenzie said it was made up in 1940's

pa pakhtunkhwa key gann shmir pakhtu aliman ham da yow jaali dastawez boli .pa dagha kasano ke mashahoor muhaqiq Qalanadr momand ye sarkhel dey.
pa rad ke ye yow kitab pata khazana fel mizan likalay dey.

grana wrora manzareh.
da dr.mckenzie kitaab tsa num aw la koma zaya pa laas ratlalay shi?
manana

[Lemar]

It's very old and I guess it has changed from time to time who knows maybe the name has even changed.

[بصير]

Unfortunately it is difficult to accurately answer this question because the first historical account of Pashtuns is in the medieval period but quite obviously Pashtuns are much older than that. To obfuscate the issue even more is the obscure origins of the Pashtuns, who were the ancestors of the Pashtuns?

[khushal]

Unfortunately it is difficult to accurately answer this question because the first historical account of Pashtuns is in the medieval period but quite obviously Pashtuns are much older than that. To obfuscate the issue even more is the obscure origins of the Pashtuns, who were the ancestors of the Pashtuns?

Actually Herodotos and Rigveda mentions the Paktyan tribes living west of the Indus river at about 1100 BC. There are Chinese sources that Talks about the Awghans Tribes living West of the Indus at about 600 AD. The Ancient Persians talk about its untameable tribes on its Eastern frontier.

Did Pashto change over time. Well if you look at liguistics of Pashto people, it varies from place to place, but the ones that live in isolated valleys, most likely they have kept the original or maybe the oldest version of Pashto.

So its pretty old.

[Manzareh]

im quite familiar with our history i know we'v been around a heck of a long time, i know that Pashto is the last surviving language of ancient bactriana/sagdogia/arianna and other satraps of the achemid empire, which is why i was wondering wether the form of the language has stayed the same or not. anyway thanks for your input guys.