The Closeness of Aryan Languages
and Their Comparison with Pashto
Abdul Hai Habibi
When a person thinks about words and sounds of a language and conducts research on material which linguists has made available for comparative studies of languages and examines the roots and rules of the structure of languages he will find a closeness between Aryan languages. This shows these languages are from one family.
If we evaluate the Pashto language with such a perspective we will see that Pashto has striking closeness to all Aryan languages, especially with Vedic, Sanskrit and Avesta. Elements of these languages are vested in Pashto which reveals the historical vigor of the language.
Like living things words have characteristics and life and follow certain rules and regulations. We can find elements for words and words in different languages have the same roots with their own meaning. This is true in every language. In essence words and phrases are constructed from sounds and two or three sounds forms the basis of a word and if other sounds are added its meaning changes. In this short paper I will expound upon on this foundation and show the closeness of Pashto with other Aryan languages.
First we need to look at the rule corresponding to the changing of words. We see that with striking out a letter or juxtaposing letters words fall under certain rules which we will elaborate here. The oxen (غويي) was an important animal in the life of Aryans as they formed farming communities. In Pashto the elements of this noun are ع and و . In Sanskrit the singular is gayo (گيو) and plural gawes (گاوس). In Pashto a herd of oxen is called a gawes (گاوس).
This element is present in all Aryan languages. In old German it is cho, in new German kuh, in English cow, in Slavic language goyaw (gorom) and in the new Serbian language gordar (ghoba), in Russian gowayniya (cow meat), and gosopudin (boss) and gos pura are in use in southern Slavic languages, which means owners of oxen. In old Sanskrit an oxen was called a gup. The Sanskrit guthra (cowshed) is from the same root and later it became the name of a family and household.[1] In Pashto numerous names have been derived from cow (غويي) with the elements (غ،و=گ،و) such as غوا، غوجل، غوبه، غوبون، گوروان، غوباړي، گوبا، گورم، گوار، گوي. If we compare these words with the mentioned Aryan words or if we compare them with the gawo (گوو) of Avesta, the gow (گو) of Pahlavi, or the gaw (گاو) of Persian we can see the closeness of Aryan languages. In Pashto guwar, goyer, goram (گوار، گوير، گورم) are one and the same. This word was guwara (گواره) in Sanskrit and it converted to gawara (گاواره) in Persian which is strikingly close to guwar.
Max Muller, the famous linguist says: Poets write poetry from words and if we pay attention to each word we will see that the word is also a part of the poetry because it proves to us what our ancestors did and what thoughts were in their minds.
For example the word peter (father) has three meanings:
1. Provider of food.
2. Caretaker.
3. Leader
These three thoughts have a strong relationship and reflect depth and scrutiny of thought. When we conduct scientific analysis of a word it reveals deep secrets and mysteries of humans.[2]
Based on this we consider every word of a language to be a universe of its own and through analysis we can figure out its important intent. In Sanskrit pathi is an elder, leader and keeper. The first letter of this word is (pae) and tae and rae are later associated with it.
The Pashto plar (father), pat, palal, palana, paal are all from this root and the meaning of caretaker is hidden in the letters pae and thae. In Sanskrit pitri is father. The Greek pateras (by means of) also has the same element. The patar of Latin, the German vater and English father have been derived from the Teuton father, the Italian padri and French pere all contain the (p,t,r) elements.[3]
Ma is a word which by nature is embedded with the meaning of measuring and distribution. This is because the responsibilities of mother are these very same things in a family as the mother is the distributor of food in the house. In all Aryan languages this element is linked to this name. For example the more (مور) of Pashto which is also pronounced as mare (مير), due to dialectical inference, comes from the root of ma. In other languages tae and rae have been added to it. The maathar of Sanskrit, mather of Avesta, mitera of Greek, mater of Latin, the Slavic mater, the Russian mati, the German mutter, the English mother, the Italian and Spanish madre, and the French mere are all from one root. There are other words which have stemmed from ma such as maas which in Pashto is myasht (month), mah in Persian, mahina in Hindi, and miyatas in Slavic languages. The connotation is that a month represents a division in time and in the majority of Aryan languages it is conveyed to mean a name.[4]
The basic words of languages are expressions such as mother, father, and names of other relatives and such words are present in all languages. Conveyance of a thought starts from these words. Now that we have looked into the analysis of the words mother and father let us provide explanations of some other words.
Wror (brother)ورور and khor (sister) خور: The elementary letters of brother are wow and rae. Wow is transposed with bae and tae and daal are also used with it but sister is from khae, tae, rae. Khae is sometimes transposed with hae, seen, and sheen. Tae is sometimes used or is not used.
Pashto wror khor
Sanskrit behratar swasaar
Avesta beratar hunhar
Latin frater soror
Teutonic brothar sustaar
German bruder schwester
English brother sister
Italian fratello sorella
Persian beradar khwahar
Lur (daughter) لور: The elements of this name are lam, wow, and rae. The Pashto name is short and light, but it is heavy in some other languages.
Sanskrit duhitar
Avesta daghtar
Persian dukhtar
German tochter
English daughter
Irish daer
Russian dotchka
Lewar ليور (brother in law): The elementary letters are lam and rae.
Pashto lewar
Sanskrit dewar
Persian ewar
Russian dior
Lithuanian dioras
Greek daer
Latin lewar
Murr مړ (dead): In Sanskrit (meem, rae) are the elementary sounds for death, the Pashto meen, rae are similar. Murr (dead), marrtoob (laziness), mrraam (like dead), mrramja (like lazy), mrrena (death) are all from the same stem. These elements are in most Aryan languages used for death and the Persian murg and murda are close to it but in other Aryan languages it has a different root.
The original Aryan home was at a distance from a river, and when they dispersed they were able to recognize rivers. The Slavic and Teutonic tribes, which lived on the banks of the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, found these seas to be extremely stormy. From the old Aryan aarey (آري) they derived a name for sea which represented a place of death as such:[5]
Slavic morey
Latin mari
Italian mari
Spanish mari
French mer
German meer
Shakara (sugar) شکر، کند: Sugar cane produces a sweet product (brown sugar ball) which is called gurra or shakara in Pashto. In Sanskrit it is sharkara. The name is so common that in Sami languages it is sakar and in European languages it is:
Latin sakaram
English sugar
Slavic sakar
German zucker
Italian zucchero
Spanish azucar
French sucre
Arabic sakar
Farsi shakar
The elementary letters seen=sheen, kaf, gaf and rrae are seen in all languages. The refined product of shakar is called kand (sugar cube) which has become qand in Persian. This is an old name and it was khand in Sanskrit.[6] In Avesta it is the name of a sweet. Since shakar and kand were transported from India to Arabia the Arabs changed the Sanskrit kahand to qand.[7] They also called it qandid the plural of which is qanud and qanaded.[8] Candy and sugar candy exists in European languages which is the name of qand.[9]
A glance at these words show their basic letters are (ک=ق=خ) and (د=ډ=ذ=ږ), hence kahand, qand, and kand are from the same root and it is possible the khaza of Avesta and khozh of Pasho, both of which mean sweet are related to these words because the conversion of kaf to khe is common and the dal=zal=zhe sounds are similar. Dal is converted to zal which was common in old Farsi such as mekund=mekunaz. In Pashto the Persian guzar is called gudar where the zal is converted to a daal as both are from the same stem. Zae and zhae are also transposed such as duzakh=duzhakh [10] (دوزخ=دوږخ ).