Wanetsi

Professor Prods Oktor Skjærvø states: According to Encyclopædia Iranica Waṇetsi branched off from the other Pashto dialects in the Middle Iranian stage: Research The first known linguistic research on Waṇetsi was conducted in 1929 by Georg Morgenstierne. Since then linguists like Josef Elfenbein have worked and researched on this archaic Pashto dialect. In his book "Tarin aw Tarīno", Syed Khair Muhammad Arif has also included a small dictionary of Waṇetsi. ٙBut much work remains to be done on understanding Waṇetsi. Poetry The Waṇetsi Poet Nizamuddin Nizami Tarin, a Spin Tarin from Chawter, has also compiled poetry in the language. An excerpt from his poem in Waṇetsi: Music The singer Khayam Tareen (خيام ترين) has also sung songs in Waṇetsi. == Phonology ==

Consonants • Waṇetsi has [] and [] for Pashto ښ and ږ, respectively. • څ does not merge with [s] but can be pronounced as [] and ځ does not merge with [z] but can be pronounced as []. • [] is dropable in Waṇetsi e.g. هغه becomes اغه • There is a marked spontaneous tendency to palatalize "ī" as "yī" and "ē" as "yē"; and to labialize "ū" as "wū" and "ō" as "wo". Initial delabialization is common in "wū" as "ū" and "wō" as "ō". • The stressed short "á" is often lengthened, and an unstressed long "ā" shortened. • The standard weakening of final vowels in Waṇetsi makes the masculine-feminine gender distinction much less audible: [ə] and [a] are not phonemically distinct when unstressed in any position. But stressed final ә́ is kept apart from stressed á as in general Pashto. Nasalisation Waṇetsi also has vowel nasalisation which is transcribed as / ̃/ or ں in the Pashto alphabet. Stress Verbs Like Pashto, verbs have final stress in the imperfective aspect and initial stress in the perfective aspect. Examples: Words Stress can also change the meaning of words, as in Pashto. Example: == Subdialects ==

Tarīno is subdivided into the Harnāi variety and the Chawter variety. == Grammatical comparison with general Pashto ==

Adpositions Possessive The possessive postposition غه is used instead of د Example: Idiomatic Expression Tareeno also varies from Pashto in idiomatic expression. Example: نهير /nahī́r/ “thought” - used with the verb to hit Verbal Suffixes First Person Suffix The first person verbal suffixes also change: Second Person Suffix Some verbal suffixes like the feminine third person suffix [ه and ې] are the same: Third Person Suffix Past Suffix Like standard Pashto the third person suffix for verbs with the root وتل the third person past suffix is different for the singular and plural. == Comparison with general Pashto ==

Poetry The following is provided by Zamir Gulbahar (ظمير ګلبهار), a Tareeno poet from Harnai: Lexical Comparison The following list has been provided by the Waṇetsi poet Nizamuddin Nizami Sentence Comparison Sample 1 The following examples have been provided by Nizamuddin Nizami Sample 2 The following examples have been provided by Nizamuddin Nizami Sample 3 The following examples have been provided by Nizamuddin Nizami Sample 4 The following examples have been provided by Nizamuddin Nizami == Grammar ==

Nouns - Morphology Class 1 • Masculine Animate: mə́ser - elder (In general Pashto: mə́sər • Masculine Animate: lewә́- wolf • Masculine Animate: xar- donkey • Masculine Animate: pšə́ - tom-cat (in general Pashto: piš) • Masculine Inanimate: dārū́ - medicine • Masculine Inanimate: kor - house • Feminine Animate: pšī - cat (in general Pashto: piśó) • Feminine Inanimate: lyār - way (in general Pashto: lār) • Feminine Inanimate: xwā́šī - mother-in-law • Feminine Inanimate: čaṛə́ - mother-in-law • Feminine Inanimate: lergā́ - stick Class 2 • Masculine Animate: yirźá - bear (in general Pashto: يږ [yәẓ̌, yәg, yәź]) • Masculine Animate: spa -dog (in general Pashto: spáy) • Masculine Inanimate: wagaṛá -village (in general Pashto: kə́lay) • Feminine Animate: spī - female-dog (in general Pashto spə́i) Class 3 • Masculine Inanimate: špaźmi -moon (in general Pashto spoẓ̌mə́i, a feminine noun) • Feminine Inanimate: méle -celebration (in general Pashto melá) Class 4 • Masculine Animate: spor- horseman • Masculine Inanimate: rebún - shirt Class 5 • Masculine Animate: ğal Agglutinative Formation The (e)ya case is agglutinative. Demonstratives In Waṇetsi اغه [aɣa] functions for both Pashto دغه (this) and هغه (that). Verb Infinitive Where as General Pashto employs the ل [ә́l] to the past stem to make it infinitive, Waṇetsi employs نګ [ang] to the past stem to make it infinitive. == Bibliography ==