Resources for the Study of
Pashto
Compiled by Maggie Ronkin,
Georgetown University
<ronkinm@georgetown.edu
Websites
Pashto Teachionary, demo of
a language-learning tool from Sprex, Inc., Seattle:
http://cassandra.sprex.com/teachionary/Pashto.html
Work in
Progress
Web-Based Resources for the
Study of Pashto Literature, organized by Dr. Wilma Heston:
http://www.southasia.upenn.edu/pashto/
Sources
Much of this resource list
was by Dr. Elena Bashir of the University of Chicago
ebashir@uchicago.edu
A=UCLA Language Materials
Project
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu
B=InterLit Foundation
http://www.interlitfoundation.org
C=ERIC Database: Copied
Abstracts for Multi-Volume Courses
D=U.S. Library of Congress
(selections from 110 records)
http://www.loc.gov
Ahmed, Akbar S.
(translator). 1975. Mataloona: Pukhto Proverbs. Karachi, PK: Oxford University
Press.
A
collection of proverbs with literal translations and occasional mentions of
equivalents in other languages.
Source=A
Bashir, Elena L. 1991. A
Contrastive Analysis of Pashto and Urdu. Washington, DC: Academy for Educational
Development.
Source=D
Bellew, Henry W. 1867/1980.
A Dictionary of the Pukkhto or Pukshto Language: In Which the Words Are Traced
to Their Sources in the Indian and Persian Languages. Karachi, PK: Pakistan
Publishing House.
A
nineteenth-century Pashto-to-English and English-to-Pashto
dictionary.
Source=A
Bellew, Henry W. 1867/1983.
A Grammar of the Pukkhto or Pukshto Language. London: W. H.
Allen.
A
nineteenth-century pedagogical grammar.
Source=A
Blumhardt, James Fuller and
D.N. MacKenzie. 19??/1965. Catalogue of Pashto Manuscripts in the Libraries of
the British Isles. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Chavarria-Aguilar, Oscar
Luis. 1962. Pashto Instructor’s Handbook. Ann Arbor, MI: Department of Near
Eastern Studies, University of Michigan.
Contains minimal pair and
other types of oral drills for improving Pashto
pronunciation.
Source=A
Chavarria-Aguilar, Oscar
Luis. 1962. A Short Introduction to the Writing System of Pashto. Ann Arbor, MI:
Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of
Michigan.
A
brief introduction to Pashto orthography that explains the relationship between
the script and phonemes.
Source=A
Note: The Instructor’s
Handbook (above) together with A Short Introduction to the Writing System of
Pashto (above) and Herbert Penzl’s A Reader of Pashto (below) were intended to
form an oral language course.
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Textbook, Units 1-7.
Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
A
seven-week, full-time course that includes instruction, listening laboratory
work, and writing practice.
Source=A, C
(below)
Intended (with its
accompanying written and recorded materials) for an intensive language course
which includes instruction, listening laboratory work and writing practice.
Divided into seven units, consisting of five lessons each. Designed to take one
week of class time to complete a unit. Lessons include a summary of goals for
the lesson, review of previously learned material relevant to the lesson,
presentation of new vocabulary, a dialog, fluency practice, sentence structure
presentation, exercises for structural practice, and exercises for conversation
practice. Structural exercises include repetition, completion and
transformation. Conversation exercises include repetition of dialogues and oral
pair work in transformation and expansion of each dialogue. Includes a variety
of topics such as seasons, days and times, prayer, weddings, the family, Pashtun
life and culture, including city and country life, telephoning, asking for and
giving information, etc. Contains maps, photos, illustrations and charts for
cultural background references. Quizzes are provided in the Teachers’ Manual to
be photo-copied and taken by students after units 1,3,5 and 7. Tests are
provided for use after units 2, 4 and 6. Tests and quizzes include an oral
component which is provided on the Textbook tapes following lesson five of each
unit.
Subjects: communicative
competence, culture and customs, grammar instruction, teaching method
theories--audiolingual
Script--Arabic,
tests
Electronic Media
Description: Audio cassettes; textbook
Time Frame: Seven weeks
(thirty hours per week)
Features: Illustrated,
writing system
Available
From
ERIC Document Reproduction
Service, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, VA 22153-2852, Phone:
800.443.3742, Fax: 703.440.1408
Material: General text,
Skill: All, Level: Beginning, Audience: Adult
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Workbook, Units 1-7.
Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Teachers’ Manual, Units 1-7.
Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Writing Manual to Accompany
Units 3-7. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Laboratory Manual, Units
1-7. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Laboratory Tapescripts,
Units 1-7. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Textbook Tapescripts, Units
1-7. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center. 1986. Pashto Basic Course: Workbook Tapescript, Units
1-7. Monterey, CA: Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language
Center.
Source=A
Dorn, Bernhard. 1982. A
Chrestomathy of the Pushtu or Afghan Language: To which is
Subjoined a Glossary in
Afghan and English. Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag.
An
anthology of selections from literary works, religious law, the Bible, and
poetry, with a 250-page English glossary.
Source=A
Enevoldsen, Jens. 1968. An
Introduction to Pakhto. Copenhagen: Dansk Pathan Mission.
A
basic grammar in thirty-nine lessons.
Source=A
Enevoldsen, Jens. 1970/2000.
Sound the Bells, O Moon, Arise and Shine. Sugar Hill, NH: Interlit
Foundation.
A
short collection of proverbs and lines from tappas, with parallel translations,
cultural explanations, and illustrations.
Source=B
Enevoldsen, Jens. 1993. The
Nightingale of Peshawar: Selections from Rahman Baba.
Sugar Hill, NH: InterLit
Foundation.
English translations of
fifty poems from the diwan of the seventeenth-century Persian mystic Abdur
Rahman Baba, with parallel presentations of the original Pashto, linguistic and
cultural annotations, and an introduction.
Source=B
Gilbertson, George W. 1932.
The Pakkhto Idiom: A Dictionary. Hertford, UK: Stephen Austin and
Sons.
The
first of two volumes of a comprehensive dictionary of Pashto idiomatic
phrases-covers ‘a’ to ‘l’-arranged by key words.
Source=A
Hanley, Barbara. 1970.
Concise English-Pushtu Dictionary / Da Inglisi Aw Pushto
Qamus. Kabul: Da Pohane
Wizarat. (Available from Malik Book Depot, Chowk Urdu Bazaar, Lahore,
PK.)
4,000 words with romanized
and Pashto scripts; includes a phonetic chart and a method of converting
Nagrahari pronunciation to Kandari pronunciation.
Source=A
India Office Library and
Records. 1990. Catalogue of the Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, and Kashmiri Manuscripts
and Documents in the India Office Library and Records. Compliled by S. Quraishi.
London: British Library.
Source=D
Khaliq, Q. A. 1973. Fifty
Lessons to Learn Pushto with Fluency and Accuracy. Peshawar, PK:
Ferozsons.
A
short functional introduction with vocabulary, conversations, drills, and
exercises. No table of contents, instructions, or answers.
Source=A
Khan, Qazi Rahimullah. 1992.
The Modern Pushtu Instructor. New Delhi: Asian Educational
Services.
The
first of two volumes for attaining the proficiency expected of British civil
service and military personnel. Grammar, reading and writing exercises, and
prose composition.
Source=A
Lorenz, Manfred. 1982.
Lehrbuch des Pashto (Afghanisch) / von Manfred Lorenz.
Edition 2., durchgesehene
Aufl. Leipzig : Verlag Enzyklopèadie.
A
German-language textbook for a basic Pashto course in seven
units.
Source=reviewer
recommendation
Lorimer, John Gordon. 1902.
Grammar and Vocabulary of Waziri Pashto. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendant
of Government Printing, India.
Source=D
M.
R. M. Staff. 1984. A Pashto Newspaper Reader. Kensington, MD: Dunwoody
Press.
An
intermediate-level sample of fifty-one newspaper articles on political, social,
and civic topics with English translations.
Source=A
No
author listed. 1989. English-Pushtu Dictionary. New Delhi: Publications
India.
An
820-page English-to-Pashto dictionary, with a list of common
abbreviations.
Source=A
Olson, Randall with Mohammad
Afzal Rashid. 1996. Speaking Afghan Pashto: Eastern Afghan Dialect. Sugar Hill,
NH: InterLit Foundation.
A
basic intensive course on the eastern Afghan variety designed for NGOs,
development agencies, and academics. Dialogues, pronunciation drills,
grammatical explanations, exercises, comprehension drills, vocabulary lists, and
proverbs.
Source=B
Paper, Herbert H. 1964. A
Short Grammatical Outline of Pashto. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics. (Available from
Mouton and Company, The Hague, Netherlands.)
A
brief introduction to the sound system, morphology, and syntax of Pashto, which
will aid dictionary users.
Source=A
Penzl, Herbert. 1965. A
Reader of Pashto. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. (Available from
Ambassador Books, Toronto, Ontario, CA.)
An
introduction to reading several text genres in twenty-one units comprised of
texts, romanized transcriptions, glosses, cultural and linguistic-dialectal
notes, and English translations.
Source=A
Raverty, H. G. 18??/1986. A
Dictionary of the Puk’hto, Pus’hto or Languages of the Afghans: with Remarks on
the Originality of the Language and Its Affinity to the Semitic and Other
Oriental Tongues. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
A
brief dictionary to accompany a nineteenth-century grammar by the same author
(below).
Source=A
Raverty, H. G. 18??/1986.
The Pushto Manual: The Language of the Afghans: Comprising a Concise Grammar;
Exercises and Dialogues; Familiar Phrases, Proverbs, and Vocabulary. New Delhi,
India: Cosmo Publications.
The
title says it all.
Source=A
Raverty, H. G. 1860/1887. A
Grammar of the Puk’hto, Pus’hto, or Language of the Afghans. New Delhi: Asian
Educational Services.
A
nineteenth-century grammar that includes theories of the 1850s on the origins of
the Pashtun and Pashto.
Source=A
Rudelson, Justin John. 1998.
Central Asia Phrasebook. 1998. Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Publications.
A
travelers’ phrasebook containing sections on Uighur, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazakh,
Paskto, and Tajik, as well as briefer phase lists for other Central Asian
languages.
Source=A
Shafeev, D.A. 1964. A Short
Grammatical Outline of Pashto. Herbert H. Paper, translator and editor.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
[See also the entry under
‘Paper’ above.]
Source=D
Tair, Muhammad Navaz and T.
C. Edwards. 1982. Rohi Mataluna / Pashto Proverbs.
Peshawar, PK: Pashto
Academy, University of Peshawar.
A
collection of Pashto proverbs with translations into
English.
Source=reviewer
recommendation
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Glossary
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Textbook.
This textbook is a component
of “Beginning Pashto,” a set of materials (including a student workbook,
teachers’ manual, glossary, and tapescripts) that teaches the Pushto language.
The language taught is Afghan Pushto, particularly the standard central district
dialect spoken in Kabul and in the official media. The text provides 14 units of
study; each unit is approximately 10 hours of class work, and therefore, is
sufficient for 2 semesters of academic language training. The first unit of
study teaches the Pushto writing system and consists of the following sections:
(1) Greeting and Goodby Phrases; (2) Pushto Pronunciation; (3) The Pushto
Alphabet Letter Shapes; and (4) Diversions. The remaining 13 units of study
present the language through dialogues and readings on various topics (e.g.
food, shopping, weather, family, etc.), with accompanying presentations on
grammar and vocabulary, and exercises for oral practice and conversation. Each
unit also contains a diversion (a proverb, poem, or story) intended to amuse the
student, and to provide a glimpse of Pushto folk literature. The dialogues
revolve around the activities of a group of Pashtuns and Americans at an
American university. The readings, for the most part, describe Pashtun life and
customs in Afghanistan and are related to the topic in the corresponding
dialogue. (GLR)
ERIC database
abstract
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Workbook.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Teachers’ Manual.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Textbook
Tapescript.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1990. Beginning Pashto: Workbook
Tapescript.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1991. Intermediate Pashto: Interim Pashto-English
Glossary.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Brabara Robson. 1991. Intermediate Pashto: Textbook.
The
textbook for intermediate level Pushto instruction consists of 14 units (15-28)
on a variety of cultural topics and linguistic structures. Cultural topics
include engagement and marriage, children's education, agriculture and related
subjects, the family, Pashtun history, genealogies of major Pashtun tribes, the
Pashtun code of behavior, Afghan government and politics, Moslem traditions, and
village life. Grammar topics include perfective participles, relative clauses,
the imperfective participle, “can” phrases, comparisons, conditional statements,
relatives, and past and present unreal conditions. Each unit contains a dialogue
or story in Pushto, a new vocabulary list, notes on new grammatical structures,
related exercises for language practice and comprehension, and additional brief
readings. (MSE)
ERIC database
abstract.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1991. Intermediate Pashto: Teachers’
Manual.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1991. Intermediate Pashto: Workbook.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1992. Pashto Reader.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1992. Pashto Reader Passages in
Transcription.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1992. Pashto Reader Originals.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah 1993.
Pashto-English Glossary for the CAL Pashto Materials
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1993. Pashto Conversation: Manual.
Source=A
Tegey, Habibullah and
Barbara Robson. 1993. Pashto Conversation: Tapescript.
Source=A
Thorburn, S. S. 1876/1978.
Bannu: Our Afghan Frontier. Lahore, PK: Niaz Ahmed, Sang-e-Meel Publications.
[Original in the Library of Congress].
Reprint of a late
nineteenth-century book, the second half of which covers 406 proverbs, with
translations.
Source=A,
D
Trumpp, Ernest. 1969.
Grammar of the Pashto or Language of the Afghans, Compared
with the Iranian and
North-Indian Idioms. Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag.
Reprint of a 412-page
descriptive grammar covering parts of speech, the sound system, morphology,
syntax, etc.
Source=A
Wardak, Giljan Woro. 1990.
Pushto Shud / Pashto Teacher. Peshawar, PK. Pak-German Bas-Ed,
University.
Thirty-eight lessons with
exercises, focusing on conversational skills, translation, grammar,
pronunciation, and vocabulary.
Source=A
Work in
Progress
Standard
Proficiency/Competency Examination for Pashto, under development
by
Dr.
Benedicte Grima Santry, University of Pennsylvania,
b.santry@verizon.net
Proposal to the
SALRC
ACTFL currently provides no
proficiency testing for Pashto. Neither does the University of Pennsylvania,
where the language is taught. This project will fill that gap. The exam will
test four skill areas: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, writing,
and spoken proficiency. Each skill area will be broken into four proficiency
levels: novice, low intermediate, high intermediate and advanced, according to
the levels used by the ACTFL OPI testing.
The
listening comprehension portion will be presented as a series of spoken lines,
short dialogues and longer passages of increasing difficulty, followed by
questions in English, and multiple choice answers. The selections will include
both recordings by a native speaker, as well as authentic materials recorded
live from media sources and digitalized on disc.
The
reading comprehension portion will present a series of texts in Pashto,
beginning short at the novice level and lengthening to longer texts of
increasing difficulty to the advanced level. Each text will be followed by
questions that test the understanding of meaning with multiple choice answers. A
wide variety of genres will be used in this section, both original and taken
from already existing sources.
The
writing portion will require the examinee to compose a short paragraph in
Pashto, using various grammatical structures reflecting the expectations of each
level. The oral proficiency section of the exam will assess functional speaking
ability. It will contain a collection of structured dialogue situations and
conversation topics aimed at each level, and will follow the ACTFL guidelines
for testing. This examination will not be web-based, but presented on
disc.