Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and its Dialects (Mouton-CASL Grammar Series [MCASL] Book 1)

Pashto/Pushto/Pukhto is a group of varieties used by as many as 30 million people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, yet a grammar describing these varieties collectively has not been published. The CASL Pashto grammar originates from extensive use of both primary and secondary materials. It attends to features of both spoken and written forms of Pashto and exemplifies the latter generously with naturally-occurring sentences. Detailed descriptions are provided of the phonology and orthography and of the inflectional and derivational morphology applied to all major word classes, with special attention to the complex morphology of verb formation and descriptions of the multiple pronominal systems. Notes on some of the prominent syntactic constructions are provided as a descriptive basis for learners of Pashto and for those interested in syntactic properties characteristic of South Asian languages. For the first time, the highly distinctive Middle dialects, including Waziri, receive attention next to the other major dialect groups. A formal grammar focusing on the morphology is an available companion work. Foreword 7 Series Editors’ Preface 9 Preface 11 About this Grammar 31 Scope of this book 31 Orthography 31 Tables and examples 32 Abbreviations and symbols 34 The Pashto Language 37 Background 37 Population of speakers 37 History and classification 38 Dialectal variation 38 Phonology and Orthography 39 Phonetics and phonology 39 Consonants 39 Inventory 39 “Elegant” consonants 39 Vowels 41 Inventory 41 Vowel transcription 41 “Elegant” vowels 43 Middle dialect vowels 43 Stress 45 Orthography 45 The script 45 Letters unique to Pashto 46 Tables of letters and numerals 48 Representation of vowels 55 Word-initial vowels 55 Word-internal vowels 56 Word-final vowels 58 Rationale for transcription system 58 Orthographic variation 59 Pashto Dialects 61 Introduction 61 Characterizing Pashto dialects 61 Dialect marking in this work 64 Dialect marking in tables 64 Dialect marking in interlinear examples 64 The four dialects of General Pashto 65 International differences 66 The Middle dialects 67 Middle dialect vowels 67 Middle dialect consonants 69 Other approaches 70 Two dialects 70 Three dialects 72 Nouns 75 Inflection 75 Gender 75 Number 76 Case 77 Direct case 78 Oblique case 78 Ablative case 78 Vocative case 79 Split ergativity 80 Animacy 80 Inflectional affixation 81 Introduction 81 Stem allomorphy and other morphophonemic alternations 82 Class I 82 Overview 82 Class I masculine nouns 85 Masculine animate nouns in General Pashto 85 Masculine animate nouns in Waziri 91 Masculine inanimate nouns in General Pashto and Waziri 92 Class I feminine nouns in General Pashto and Waziri 97 General Pashto Class I feminine animate nouns 97 General Pashto Class I feminine inanimate nouns 99 Waziri Class I feminine nouns 101 Class II 103 Overview 103 General Pashto Class IIa 105 General Pashto Class IIb 109 Class III 110 Overview 110 Subclassification of Class III in General Pashto 110 Class IIIa 114 Masculine Class IIIa nouns 114 Feminine Class IIIa nouns 115 Class IIIb 117 Masculine Class IIIb nouns 117 Feminine Class IIIb nouns 118 Class III in Waziri 119 Irregular nouns and irregular patterns in General Pashto 122 Kinship terms 123 Arabic borrowings 125 Inflection and agreement of conjoined nouns 127 Derivational morphology and loanwords 128 Derivational morphology of nouns 128 Nouns derived with suffixes 128 Compounds 131 Reduplication of nouns 131 Loanwords 132 Adjectives and Other Noun Modifiers 133 Introduction 133 Inflectional classes in General Pashto and Waziri 133 Inflectional classes of General Pashto adjectives 133 General Pashto Class I 134 Case-marking suffixes 134 Stem allomorphy 134 Class I forms with stem allomorphy 135 Class I forms without stem allomorphy 137 Animacy in Class I adjectives 138 General Pashto Class II 139 Case-marking suffixes 139 Stem allomorphy 140 Class II forms with stem allomorphy 141 Class II forms without stem allomorphy 145 General Pashto Class III 146 Class IIIa 146 Class IIIb 148 General Pashto Class IV (non-declining adjectives) 149 Inflectional classes of Waziri adjectives 151 Waziri Class I 151 Waziri Class II 152 Waziri Class III 152 Determiners and definiteness 154 Demonstrative determiners 154 The indefinite determiner ‌یو ‌ /yaw/ ‘one’ 160 Non-numerical noun quantifiers 160 The quantifier ‌ټولـ ‌ /ṭol-/ ‘all’ 160 The quantifier ‌هر ‌ /har/, ‌ /ar/ ‘every’ 161 The quantifier ‌هیڅ ‌ /heʦ/ ‘none’ 162 Number names 162 Cardinal numbers in Pashto 163 Morphology 163 Inventory 167 Ordinal numbers in General Pashto and Waziri 174 Reduplication of number names 176 Interrogative adjectives 177 Inflection of conjoined adjectives 179 Derivation of adjectives 180 Derivational suffixes 180 Some Class I derivational suffixes 180 Some Class IIIa derivational suffixes 182 Some Class IV (non-declining) derivational suffixes 182 Negators 182 Compound adjectives 183 Reduplication of adjectives 183 Usage 184 Attributive and predicative adjectives 184 Zero-derivation of nouns from adjectives 185 Comparatives and superlatives 186 Adjectives as adverbs 186 Pronouns 187 Overview 187 Strong personal pronouns 187 Forms in General Pashto and Middle dialects 187 Usage 191 Strong possessive pronouns 193 Weak personal pronouns 194 Forms 194 Usage 196 Occurrence restrictions 196 Possessive constructions 198 Deictoids: ‌را ‌ /rā/, ‌در ‌ /dər/, and ‌ور ‌ /wər/ 199 Oblique pronominal clitics 200 Directional verbal clitics 201 Deictic prefixes 202 Demonstratives 202 Interrogative pronouns 206 Indefinite pronouns 209 Relative pronouns 211 Expressions of coreference 211 Reciprocal pronouns 214 Other pro-forms 214 Verbs 215 Overview 215 Properties of verbs 215 Classifying verbs 216 Verb components 217 Structure of the verb 217 Personal suffixes 221 The infinitive 224 Simplex and complex verbs 226 Overview 226 a-initial verbs 226 Prefixed verbs 228 Denominal verb constructions 230 Conjugation classes 233 Overview of conjugation classes 233 First conjugation class in General Pashto 234 First conjugation class in Middle dialects 237 Second conjugation 239 Third conjugation 240 Forming the aorist in third conjugation verbs 240 A special case of third conjugation verbs: infinitive/past participle + ‌کېدل ‌ /kedə́l/ 242 Stem classes and the four bases 242 The four verb bases 244 Weak verbs (one stem) 245 Strong verbs (more than one stem) 247 Strong verbs with two stems 248 Strong verbs with three or four stems 249 List of strong verbs 254 The causative morpheme 257 The auxiliary to be and the verbalizers ‌کېدل ‌ /kedə́l/ and ‌کول ‌ /kawə́l/ 258 Forms of to be 259 Forms of ‌کېدل ‌ /kedə́l/ ‘to become’ 264 Forms of ‌کول ‌ /kawə́l/ ‘to make; to do‍’ 269 Participles 276 Present participle 276 Past participle 277 Irregularities among past participles 279 Simple verb constructions 279 Present continuous 279 Present aorist 282 Past continuous 284 Past aorist 286 Continuous imperative 288 Aorist imperative 290 Continuous optative 291 Aorist optative 293 Compound verb constructions 295 Perfect constructions 295 Present perfect 295 Past perfect 297 Potential constructions 297 Present potential 298 Past potential 298 Verb usage 299 Uses of the verb to be 299 to be as a copula 299 to be as an auxiliary verb 300 Simple verb constructions 300 Present continuous 300 Negation of present tense verbs 302 Present continuous for expressing future events 303 Present aorist 304 Expressing the future with present aorist plus ‌به ‌ /bə/ 305 Other uses of the present aorist 305 Past continuous 309 Past aorist 311 Imperative 313 Compound constructions: perfect 317 Present perfect 317 Past perfect 320 Negation of perfect tenses 321 Compound constructions: potential 323 Expressing potential present events 323 Expressing potential past events 324 Expressing potential future events 325 Negative 328 Infinitives 329 Infinitives as nouns 329 The periphrastic passive 330 Present participles 333 Adpositions 335 Overview 335 Adpositions and case assignment 336 Assignment of oblique case 337 Assignment of ablative case 338 Assignment of direct case 339 Mixed case-marking inside objects of adpositions 341 Prepositions 342 The prepositions ‌ /də/, /de/, /ye/, /e/ ‘of’ 342 The General Pashto preposition ‌د ‌ /də/ 342 Complex adpositions using ‌د ‌ /də/ 343 The Middle dialect prepositions ‌ /de/, ‌ /ye/, ‌ /e/ 344 Middle dialect complex adpositions using ‌ /ye/ 345 The General Pashto preposition ‌له ‌ /lə/ ‘from’ 346 The preposition ‌بې ‌ /be/ ‘without’ 347 The prepositions ‌په ‌ /pə/, ‌پر ‌ /pər/ 347 The locational ‌په ‌ /pə/, ‌پر ‌ /pər/ ‘on’ 348 The instrumental ‌په ‌ /pə/ ‘with, by means of’ 349 The temporal ‌په ‌ /pə/, ‌پر ‌ /pər/ ‘at, on’ 350 With aspectual verbs 352 The preposition ‌تر ‌ /tər/ ‘'up to'’ 353 The preposition ‌لکه ‌ /leka/ ‘like’ 354 Postpositions 355 Overview 355 The postposition ‌ته ‌ /ta/ ‘to, for’ 356 The postposition ‌سره ‌ /səra/ ‘with’ 357 The postposition ‌ضدی ‌ /zidi/ ‘against’ 357 The postposition ‌و ړاندې ‌ /wṛānde/ ‘before’ 358 The postposition ‌غوندې ‌ /ɣunde/ ‘like’ 358 The postposition ‌باتدې ‌ /bānde/ 358 Some additional postpositions in Middle dialects 359 Circumpositions 359 Circumpositions with ‌د ‌ /də/ 364 General Pashto simple circumpositions with ‌د ‌ /də/ 364 Middle dialect simple circumpositions with ‌ /ye/, ‌ /e/ 366 Complex circumpositions with ‌د ‌ /də/ 367 General Pashto circumpositions with ‌له ‌ /lə/ 376 GP simple circumpositions with ‌له ‌ /lə/ 376 GP complex circumpositions with ‌له...نه ‌ /lə...na/ 380 Circumpositions with ‌په ‌ /pə/ 383 Circumpositions with ‌تر ‌ /tər/ 387 A Middle dialect circumposition with ‌و ‌ /wə/ 389 Coalesced adpositional phrases 390 Pro-adpositional phrases 390 The adpositional phrase ‌کره ‌ /kara/ ‘at the home of’ 391 Adposition usage 392 ‌نه ‌ /na/ vs. ablative case-marking on object 393 ‌د ‌ /də/ and strong pronoun objects 393 ‌په ‌ /pə/ and ‌په...باندې ‌ /(pə...) bānde/ used in a causative construction 393 Omission of pronoun objects of adpositions 394 Postpositions with oblique pronominal clitics 395 Other Lexical Elements 397 Particles 397 The existential particle ‌شته ‌ /šta/ 397 Modal particles 399 The modal clitic ‌به ‌ /bə/ 399 The modal particles ‌دې ‌ /de/ and ‌باید ‌ /bāyad/ 402 The modal particle ‌ښایي ‌ /ṣāyi/ ‘may; must’ 403 The optative particle ‌کاشکې ‌ /kāške/ 403 Affirmation particles 404 The emphatic clitic ‌خو ‌ /xo/ 405 Vocative particles 405 Interjections 406 Adverbs 407 Adverbs of time 408 Adverbs of place 410 Adverbs of manner 412 The adverb ‌سره ‌ /səra/ 415 Adverbs of degree 416 Adverbs borrowed from Arabic 417 Adverbial interrogatives 418 Adjectives as adverbs 421 Reduplication of adverbs 422 Reduplication 423 Full (morphological) reduplication 423 Partial reduplication: echo words 423 Syntax 429 Overview 429 Phrasal syntax 429 Noun phrases 429 Adpositional phrases 430 Verb phrases 431 Light verb constructions 431 Elements in the verbal group 433 The verbal group in General Pashto 433 The verbal group in Middle dialects 435 Negative placement in the aorist verb phrase 436 Main clause sentence types 440 Declaratives 441 Order of elements in declaratives 441 Order of elements in ditransitive main clauses 443 Locative alternation 443 Adpositional phrases with oblique pronominal clitics 444 Passive clauses 444 Interrogatives 447 Yes-or-no questions with the particle ‌آیا ‌ /āyā/ 447 Information questions with interrogative pronouns 448 Affirmation questions with the particle ‌که نه ‌ /kə na/ 449 Imperatives 449 The imperative verb form 449 The negative imperative particle ‌مه ‌ /má/ 450 Generic and existential sentences with ‌شته ‌ /šta/ 451 Other principles of word order in main clauses 451 Weak pronouns 451 Particles 454 Adpositional phrases in main clauses 454 Interpretation of adpositional phrases headed by ‌د ‌ /də/ 454 Some subordinate clause types 455 Relative clauses 455 Noun complement clauses 458 Verb complement clauses 459 Reported speech 462 Subordinate clauses as modifiers 464 Subordinate clauses with time reference 464 Conditional and counterfactual clauses with ‌که ‌ /kə/ ‘if’ 465 Subordinate clauses with ‌ځکه ‌ /ʣəka/ ‘because’ 466 Subordinate clauses expressing result 468 Subordinate clauses expressing reason 469 Subordinate clauses expressing purpose 469 Subordinate clauses of concession 470 Periphrastic causatives 470 Conjunction 472 Coordinating conjunctions 473 ‌او ‌ /aw/ ‘and’ 473 ‌یا ‌ /yā/ ‘or’ 474 ‌خو ‌ /xo/ ‘but’ 475 ‌(او) بیا ‌ /(aw) byā/ ‘then’ 476 Correlative conjunctions 476 Principles of case-marking and agreement 478 Tense-based case-marking and split ergativity 478 Agreement of conjoined items 480 Concordant adverbs 480 Case-marking patterns of verbs of sensation or preference 480 Four denominal verbs of sensation 480 Denominal ‌خوښېږ- ‌ /xwaxeg‐/ ‘like, enjoy’ 481 Three more expressions of preference 482 An unergative or middle voice construction 483 Structure of this Grammar 485 Overview 485 Audience 486 More on uses of this grammar 487 The grammar as a basis for computational tools 487 Building a parser and generator 488 The grammar as a description 490 Spell correction 491 Grammar adaptation 492 Manual grammar building 492 Automated grammar adaptation 493 Formatting the grammar for viewing 494 Sources of Pashto Data 497 Sources of interlinear examples taken from the web 497 List of web pages mined for language data 504 Bibliography 507 Index 514 Spoken by as many as 50 million people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pashto comprises a range of widely diverging varieties. The Center for Advanced Study of Language Pashto Grammar provides a description of the language that is supported by examples presented in native orthography, Roman transcription, morpheme-by-morpheme glossing, and translation. It is designed as a primary reference work for both linguists and students of Pashto