Proto Forms in Pashto Phonology and the Puzzle of Pashtun-Pathān

Farooq Babrakzai

Farooq Babrakzai Defense Language Institute

Keywords: Pashtun, Pathan, Proto Forms, in Pashto

Abstract

This paper examines three previous views about the origin of the word Pashtun and its relation to the Indic word Pathan. These include earlier oral traditions according to which the title Pathan was given to Qais Abdul Rashid, the putative ancestor of Pashuns; the derivation of Pashtun through folk etymology from Baxdi, the earlier name of Balkh, the historic city in northern Afghanistan; and through common developments in Persian and Waziri Pashto. However, these views are based on a single word and focus on the cultural and historical identity of Pashtuns, but do not reflect the linguistic realities of Pashto / Persian and the related Aryan languages. This paper introduces proto forms in Pashto, presents data from Persian and Pashto as evidence to systematically show how all the related words Pashtun, Pathān, Paktiā, Paktikā, and Pakhtā developed from the single source word paktā- which was a place name south of the Hindukush Mountain range.

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