Influence of Pashto on the language of Awadh

[زده کوونکی]

ہمار مادری زبان جون ہے، او کر لوگ اودھی کہت ہیں۔ ای بھاشا عام اردو سے کافی الگ ہے اور ہم کے شرم آوت ہے کہ ہم آپن روائتی بولی نا جانی بتیاوے لیکن کا کری، پاکستان ما کونو ای بھاشا ما بات نا کری۔
Hamaar maadri zabaan jon hai, u kar log Awadhi kahat hain. Ie bhasha 'aam Urdu se kaafi alag hai aur ham ke sharam aawat hai ke ham aapan riwayati boli na jaani batiyawe lekin kaa kari, Pakistan ma kaunu ie bhasha ma baat naa kari.

I know you guys are not familiar with the Eastern Urdu dialect of Awadh - it is markedly different from the standard Urdu based on the Delhi Khariboli dialect Unfortunately I am not 100% fluent (no one speaks it in Pakistan except a few senior citizens in Karachi) - I understand it completely because its my mother's language.

There are a lot of differences between this dialect and the Urdu you are familiar with - and also a deep influence of Pashto, not just in vocabulary but also in the grammar and syntax. Let's have a look at some features common to both:

Both Pashto and Awadhi (along with other Eastern Hindi and Bihari, Bengali)
have a future tense in "b-" and a past tense in "-l":

English: I will look
Pashto: زہ به ګورم za ba goram
Awadhi: ہم دیکھب ham dekhab
Urdu: میں دیکھونگا main dekhunga

English: I went home
Pashto: زه کور ته تللی وم za kor ta tlaly wum
Awadhi: ہم گھرے گئلی ham ghare gaili
Urdu: میں گھر گیا main ghar gaya

[زده کوونکی]

Unlike standard Urdu but just like Pashto, we don't usually omit the word "to" - "ta" in Pashto and various forms of "ka" "ko" "ke" in Awadhi.

English: go to the shop
Pashto: dukan ta dza
Awadhi: dukan ko jao
Urdu: dukan jao (omission), dukan par jao (notice how "dukan ko jao" is purely something you would say in "Pathan Urdu")

English: look at me
Pashto: maa ta gora
Awadhi: ham ke dekh
Urdu: mujhe dekho (or "mujh ko dekho" - rare usage)

[زده کوونکی]

Pronunciation:


"f" becomes "ph" in all but the most educated speech - just like Pashto f-p

"q" becomes "k" in all but the most educated speech (though some confuse it with "kh") - just like Pashto q-k but sometimes q-kh

Being an Indic language, there is confusion between "j" and "z" - but not in the same way as in other Hindustani dialects. North and East of Awadh, "z" and "j" merge into the "dz" of Pashto and Nepali. Correspondingly, the "s" and "ch" sometimes become "ts" - especially near the Nepal border and close to Bengal.

[زده کوونکی]

"I am going to the jungle"

Pashto: za dzangal ta dzama / za dzangal ta dar-dzam
Awadhi: ham dzangal ko dzaibe / ham dzangal ko dzahatani
Urdu: main jangal jaraha hoon

"I like it a lot"

Pashto: maa ta ddera khwaxa da
Awadhi: ham ke bahut atsha laage hai / ham ke bahut atsha laagela
Urdu: mujhe bahut achha laga

[Pakthun345]

Awadhi and Pashto/Paktho

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Manana. Just out of curiosity and interest which tribe are you from dear brother?

[زده کوونکی]

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Manana. Just out of curiosity and interest which tribe are you from dear brother?

Walaikum salaam

I am of mixed background so don't identify with one single tribe.

My father's father = Quraishi Arab descended from Abu Jahl (I have proof)
My father's mother = Mohammadzai originally from Kandahar region
My mother = Sayid Gardezi/Arab

Through marriage, my family has absorbed a lot of different nations, including Yusafzai tribe of Lower Dir, KPK and Sicilian Catholics from Palermo, as well as Indian Sikhs from Amritsar.

[Pakthun345]

Zdah-Kawunkaey

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Rora. Masha Allah.

I am from the Wardag/Wardak tribe.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

Rora. Masha Allah.

I am from the Wardag/Wardak tribe.

Manana

Masha Allah. Der aley.

That's why your Pashto is good haha. Tbh Kandahari is sophisticated but we use too much Farsi. Even instead of "psho" or "khpo" we say "andaamona" or "drakht" for tree, "seb" for apple.

I like the Wardag accent very much - it reminds me of the one they speak around Parachinar where I stayed in my childhood.

[jama0112]

How are you related to sicilians though? WHo's sicilian in your family?

[زده کوونکی]

How are you related to sicilians though? WHo's sicilian in your family?

My cousin (father's sister's son) married a Sicilian girl few years ago - went to the wedding Sicily but not the subsequent functions they held in Karachi or Auckland - yes we are international.

His younger brother, a year later, married a Sikh girl from NZ - too far to travel so I wasn't at the wedding.
They're from New Zealand btw - my father's sister moved there with her husband (he is a Rajput himself) and my father's other sister ended up marrying a White guy from New Zealand who immigrated to the UK. Understand?

[Pakthun345]

Zdah-Kawunkaey

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

I have a family tree. We have some old family names.
For example: "Bago" which is Bactrian.

We also have "Baga", which is present in Avestan and Old Persian.
"Baga-" in Gathic Avestan occurs in the sense "portion".
"Baga-" in Old Persian occurs in the sense "distributor", and is used in proper names in ancient Persia.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

I have a family tree. We have some old family names.
For example: "Bago" which is Bactrian.

We also have "Baga", which is present in Avestan and Old Persian.
"Baga-" in Gathic Avestan occurs in the sense "portion".
"Baga-" in Old Persian occurs in the sense "distributor", and is used in proper names in ancient Persia.

Manana

Wow that is quite something that you have such old names in your family tree, brother. I had no idea that ancient Bactrian names would be in use among modern Pakhtuns.

If I look at my family tree, majority names are Arabo-Islamic or the Persianized variants of the same. We do have some older Turkic titles but I think those were bestowed upon us for our service to the Mughalya Darbar, rather than being our own names. I will have a look when I can.

[Pakthun345]

Bago-Bactrian

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

"Bago" was my paternal great-grandfather's sister. "Bago" is Bactrian.

We use the term "angra".
"Angra" is Avestan and means hostile, evil, bad. We use it with the same meaning.
"Angra Mainyu" also is the evil spirit in Zoroastrianism.

"Anger" to make angry; enrage or provoke.
"Anger" is from Old Norse "angr" grief, Latin "angor" anguish.
The Indo-European root is "angh-".

Manana

[Pakthun345]

Morka, maraka, mahrka

Assalamu alaykum and hello,

In Gathic Avestan "maraka" and in Young Avestan "mahrka" mean "death, destruction".
"Maraka" means "epidemic" in Old Indic.

We use "morka" for death, destruction. Hence, we change Gathic Avestan "maraka" to "morka". The usual "a" to "o" vowel change in Pashto/Paktho. We use it in the context of "death fever" where "morka" is the "death" part.

Manana

[زده کوونکی]

Interestingly, in Awadhi as in Pashto, father-in-law is "khosar" instead of standard Urdu "sasur"

Line from a ladies' song:

"morey khosar ji ke dui dui mahaliya - sab se sundar hamaro mahala"
My father in law has two palaces - the most beautiful is my palace

Also in some Eastern Indic langauges, closer to Bengali and Assamese dialects, "sh" changes to "kh" like in Pakhto, so "sundar" (beautiful) becomes "khundar" or "khundor" because of the a-o vowel shift.