- 1. Which language family does Pashto belong to according to scholars?
A) Dravidian
B) Indo-Aryan
C) Western Iranian
D) Eastern Iranian
- 2. Which of these is mentioned as a language related to Pashto's characteristics?
A) Arabic
B) Bactrian
C) Sanskrit
D) Urdu
- 3. Who lived between 64 BCE and 24 CE and wrote about the lands west of the Indus?
A) Mohammad Hotak
B) Amir Kror Suri
C) Strabo
D) Khushal Khan Khattak
- 4. What term was used to refer to the Pashtuns from the 3rd century CE onward?
A) Greco-Bactrian
B) Mughal
C) Ghurid
D) Afghan (Abgan)
- 5. Who claimed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to the 8th century?
A) David Neil MacKenzie
B) Nile Green
C) Abdul Hai Habibi
D) Lucia Serena Loi
- 6. What is the name of the manuscript that contains an anthology of Pashto poets?
A) The Mughal Chronicle
B) The Avestan Text
C) The Afghan History
D) Pə́ṭa Xazāná
- 7. Who supposedly wrote the Pə́ṭa Xazāná under the patronage of Hussain Hotak?
A) Pir Roshan
B) Mohammad Hotak
C) Ahmad Shah Durrani
D) Rahman Baba
- 8. Which scholar disputed the authenticity of Pə́ṭa Xazāná?
A) David Neil MacKenzie
B) Amir Kror Suri
C) Abdul Hai Habibi
D) Nazo Tokhi
- 9. What does 'Pata Khazana' mean in English?
A) Hidden Treasure
B) Pashtun History
C) The Afghan Sword
D) Ancient Verse
- 10. When did Pashto poetry start becoming popular according to the text?
A) 16th century
B) 3rd century
C) 8th century
D) 20th century
- 11. Who is credited with inventing the Pashto alphabet?
A) Ahmad Shah Durrani
B) Rahman Baba
C) Pir Roshan
D) Khushal Khan Khattak
- 12. Who was the founder of the Durrani Empire?
A) Mohammad Hotak
B) Ahmad Shah Durrani
C) Pir Roshan
D) Amir Kror Suri
- 13. Which historical power ruled during the time the Pashtun literary tradition grew?
A) Persian
B) Ghurid
C) Mughal
D) Greco-Bactrian
- 14. What did Khushal Khan Khattak use Pashto poetry for?
A) To invent the alphabet
B) To translate Greek texts
C) To rally for Pashtun unity
D) To praise the Mughal rulers
- 15. Which language did Nile Green suggest Pashto literature was intended to supplant?
A) Arabic
B) Sanskrit
C) Bactrian
D) Persian
- 16. Who established the Anjuman-e Islah al-Afaghina in 1921?
A) Taimur Khan
B) Abdul Qadir
C) Bacha Khan
D) Tariq Rahman
- 17. How many people attended the Anjuman-e Islah al-Afaghina's annual meeting in 1927?
A) 100,000
B) 18,000
C) 50,000
D) 80,000
- 18. What entity was the Pashto Academy Peshawar modeled after?
A) Anjuman-e Islah al-Afaghina
B) Pashto Tolana
C) The Pakistan Language Board
D) University of Balochistan
- 19. In what year was the Pashto Academy Peshawar formed?
A) 1974
B) 2023
C) 1955
D) 1921
- 20. Where was a Department of Pashto established in 1974?
A) University of Punjab
B) University of Balochistan
C) University of Peshawar
D) University of Islamabad
- 21. According to the 2023 census, what percentage of Pakistan's population speaks Pashto as their first language?
A) 5.5%
B) 10.5%
C) 25.2%
D) 18.1%
- 22. What are the two official languages of Pakistan?
A) Pashto and Urdu
B) Punjabi and Urdu
C) English and Pashto
D) Urdu and English
- 23. What is the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan?
A) Arabic
B) Pashto
C) Urdu
D) English
- 24. What is the status of Pashto at the federal level in Pakistan?
A) Secondary official status
B) National language status
C) No official status
D) Primary official status
- 25. Who remarked that Urdu squeezes and denies space for the Pashto language?
A) Taimur Khan
B) Tariq Rahman
C) Robert Nicols
D) Bacha Khan
- 26. According to Robert Nicols, how is the language hierarchy in the NWFP described?
A) Four-tiered hierarchy
B) Three-tiered hierarchy
C) Equal status for all
D) Two-tiered hierarchy
- 27. What is the primary reason given for the government's discouragement of the Pashto Movement?
A) Low population of speakers
B) Economic instability
C) Lack of teachers
D) Irredentist claims from Afghanistan
- 28. In state-run schools, at what level has the government introduced Pashto?
A) Primary levels
B) University level
C) High school level
D) Secondary level
- 29. Which regions are noted as having Pashto as a regional language?
A) Islamabad and Lahore
B) Punjab and Sindh
C) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan
D) Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
- 30. To which language family does Pashto belong?
A) Dravidian
B) Indo-European
C) Sino-Tibetan
D) Semitic
- 31. What is another historical name for Pashto used in Persian literature?
A) Kabulistani
B) Dari
C) Afghani
D) Pathani
- 32. What percentage of Afghanistan's population speaks Pashto as their mother tongue?
A) 35–45%
B) 50–60%
C) 10–20%
D) 70–80%
- 33. Which language is the other official language of Afghanistan alongside Pashto?
A) Dari
B) Urdu
C) Arabic
D) Hindi
- 34. In which province of Pakistan is the largest Pashtun population in the world potentially located?
A) Sindh
B) Punjab
C) Balochistan
D) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- 35. When was the Pashto Society (Pashto Anjuman) established?
A) 1931
B) 1937
C) 1919
D) 1946
- 36. What is the nickname for the Pashtun community in Kolkata?
A) Pathani
B) Sheen Khalai
C) Afghanis
D) Kabuliwala
- 37. In what year did King Zahir Shah formally grant Pashto the status of an official language?
A) 1931
B) 1978
C) 1936
D) 1964
- 38. In what year was Afghan Persian officially renamed to Dari?
A) 1978
B) 1936
C) 1929
D) 1964
- 39. Besides Pakistan and Afghanistan, where are small communities of Pashto speakers found?
A) Turkey
B) India
C) China
D) Russia
- 40. What is the basic word order of Pashto?
A) Object–subject–verb
B) Verb–subject–object
C) Subject–verb–object
D) Subject–object–verb
- 41. How many genders do Pashto nouns and adjectives have?
A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) Four
- 42. How many cases do Pashto nouns and adjectives possess?
A) Four
B) Two
C) Three
D) Six
- 43. In a genitive construction in Pashto, what is the word order?
A) Possessor precedes the possessed
B) Possessor follows the verb
C) Possessed precedes the possessor
D) Possessor and possessed are interchangeable
- 44. Which of the following is an inflected mood in Pashto?
A) Imperative
B) Indicative
C) Conditional
D) Subjunctive
- 45. From which language is the Pashto word 'mečə́n' (hand-mill) derived?
A) Arabic
B) Old Persian
C) Ancient Greek
D) Hindi-Urdu
- 46. What is the Persian-derived word commonly used instead of the classical Pashto word 'plâz'?
A) gunāhā́n
B) takht
C) badxwə́i
D) yagānagí
- 47. In what specific context does the classical word 'plâz' still survive?
A) In modern poetic literature only
B) In dialects as 'bride-room'
C) In ancient religious texts
D) In official government documents
- 48. What script is the Pashto alphabet based on?
A) Perso-Arabic
B) Devanagari
C) Latin
D) Cyrillic
- 49. How many new letters did Bayazid Pir Roshan introduce to the Pashto alphabet in the 16th century?
A) 46
B) 4
C) 13
D) 45
- 50. How are stress markers represented in Latin Pashto?
A) Under consonants
B) As prefixes
C) Over vowels
D) As suffixes
- 51. What is the common name for the 'hard' northern grouping of Pashto?
A) Pax̌tō
B) Tareeno
C) Karlani
D) Paṣ̌tō
- 52. Which Pashto dialect is described as the most distinctive?
A) Afridi
B) Kandahar
C) Yusapzai
D) Tareeno
- 53. Which of these is classified as a Northern variety dialect?
A) Kakar
B) Shirani
C) Wazirwola
D) Afridi
- 54. Which of these is classified as a Southern variety dialect?
A) Mangal
B) Kakar
C) Khosti
D) Wardak
- 55. The Kandahar dialect is also known as what?
A) Central Ghilji
B) South Western dialect
C) North Eastern dialect
D) Northern Karlani
- 56. What is the meaning of 'yagānagí'?
A) Uniqueness
B) Sin
C) Throne
D) Bride-room
- 57. What kind of variety is Literary Pashto considered to be?
A) Natural
B) Ancient
C) Spoken
D) Artificial
- 58. According to the text, what is the region associated with the North Western dialect?
A) Peshawar
B) Kandahar
C) Central Ghilji
D) Kabul
- 59. What is Colye's perspective on 'Standard' Pashto?
A) It is strictly southern
B) It is complex with multiple varieties
C) It is a singular, defined dialect
D) It does not exist at all
- 60. According to David MacKenzie, how are Pashto dialects primarily differentiated?
A) Lexically
B) Morphologically
C) Syntactically
D) Phonologically
- 61. In what year was the first grammar book of Pashto verbs written?
A) 1805
B) 1715
C) 1772
D) 1808
- 62. What is the Pashto term for a proverb?
A) Matalúna
B) Matál
C) Kalam
D) Lughāt
- 63. Which calendar do Pashtuns use in Afghanistan?
A) Solar Hijri calendar
B) Gregorian calendar
C) Lunar calendar
D) Vikrami calendar
- 64. Which calendar do Pashtuns use in Pakistan?
A) Lunar calendar
B) Solar Hijri calendar
C) Vikrami calendar
D) Gregorian calendar
|