- 1. Which language family does Pashto belong to according to scholars?
A) Eastern Iranian
B) Western Iranian
C) Indo-Aryan
D) Dravidian
- 2. Which of these is mentioned as a language related to Pashto's characteristics?
A) Bactrian
B) Urdu
C) Sanskrit
D) Arabic
- 3. Who lived between 64 BCE and 24 CE and wrote about the lands west of the Indus?
A) Amir Kror Suri
B) Mohammad Hotak
C) Strabo
D) Khushal Khan Khattak
- 4. What term was used to refer to the Pashtuns from the 3rd century CE onward?
A) Ghurid
B) Greco-Bactrian
C) Afghan (Abgan)
D) Mughal
- 5. Who claimed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to the 8th century?
A) David Neil MacKenzie
B) Lucia Serena Loi
C) Abdul Hai Habibi
D) Nile Green
- 6. What is the name of the manuscript that contains an anthology of Pashto poets?
A) The Afghan History
B) Pə́ṭa Xazāná
C) The Avestan Text
D) The Mughal Chronicle
- 7. Who supposedly wrote the Pə́ṭa Xazāná under the patronage of Hussain Hotak?
A) Ahmad Shah Durrani
B) Mohammad Hotak
C) Pir Roshan
D) Rahman Baba
- 8. Which scholar disputed the authenticity of Pə́ṭa Xazāná?
A) David Neil MacKenzie
B) Nazo Tokhi
C) Amir Kror Suri
D) Abdul Hai Habibi
- 9. What does 'Pata Khazana' mean in English?
A) Ancient Verse
B) Hidden Treasure
C) Pashtun History
D) The Afghan Sword
- 10. When did Pashto poetry start becoming popular according to the text?
A) 16th century
B) 3rd century
C) 20th century
D) 8th 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) Pir Roshan
B) Ahmad Shah Durrani
C) Amir Kror Suri
D) Mohammad Hotak
- 13. Which historical power ruled during the time the Pashtun literary tradition grew?
A) Greco-Bactrian
B) Persian
C) Mughal
D) Ghurid
- 14. What did Khushal Khan Khattak use Pashto poetry for?
A) To rally for Pashtun unity
B) To invent the alphabet
C) To praise the Mughal rulers
D) To translate Greek texts
- 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) Tariq Rahman
B) Bacha Khan
C) Abdul Qadir
D) Taimur Khan
- 17. How many people attended the Anjuman-e Islah al-Afaghina's annual meeting in 1927?
A) 50,000
B) 80,000
C) 18,000
D) 100,000
- 18. What entity was the Pashto Academy Peshawar modeled after?
A) Pashto Tolana
B) University of Balochistan
C) Anjuman-e Islah al-Afaghina
D) The Pakistan Language Board
- 19. In what year was the Pashto Academy Peshawar formed?
A) 1921
B) 1955
C) 2023
D) 1974
- 20. Where was a Department of Pashto established in 1974?
A) University of Balochistan
B) University of Punjab
C) University of Islamabad
D) University of Peshawar
- 21. According to the 2023 census, what percentage of Pakistan's population speaks Pashto as their first language?
A) 10.5%
B) 25.2%
C) 5.5%
D) 18.1%
- 22. What are the two official languages of Pakistan?
A) Urdu and English
B) Pashto and Urdu
C) English and Pashto
D) Punjabi and Urdu
- 23. What is the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan?
A) Pashto
B) English
C) Urdu
D) Arabic
- 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) Robert Nicols
B) Taimur Khan
C) Tariq Rahman
D) Bacha Khan
- 26. According to Robert Nicols, how is the language hierarchy in the NWFP described?
A) Equal status for all
B) Four-tiered hierarchy
C) Three-tiered hierarchy
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) Lack of teachers
C) Irredentist claims from Afghanistan
D) Economic instability
- 28. In state-run schools, at what level has the government introduced Pashto?
A) High school level
B) University level
C) Primary levels
D) Secondary level
- 29. Which regions are noted as having Pashto as a regional language?
A) Islamabad and Lahore
B) Punjab and Sindh
C) Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
D) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan
- 30. To which language family does Pashto belong?
A) Semitic
B) Dravidian
C) Indo-European
D) Sino-Tibetan
- 31. What is another historical name for Pashto used in Persian literature?
A) Kabulistani
B) Pathani
C) Dari
D) Afghani
- 32. What percentage of Afghanistan's population speaks Pashto as their mother tongue?
A) 50–60%
B) 10–20%
C) 35–45%
D) 70–80%
- 33. Which language is the other official language of Afghanistan alongside Pashto?
A) Dari
B) Arabic
C) Urdu
D) Hindi
- 34. In which province of Pakistan is the largest Pashtun population in the world potentially located?
A) Sindh
B) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
C) Balochistan
D) Punjab
- 35. When was the Pashto Society (Pashto Anjuman) established?
A) 1931
B) 1937
C) 1946
D) 1919
- 36. What is the nickname for the Pashtun community in Kolkata?
A) Sheen Khalai
B) Pathani
C) Afghanis
D) Kabuliwala
- 37. In what year did King Zahir Shah formally grant Pashto the status of an official language?
A) 1936
B) 1978
C) 1964
D) 1931
- 38. In what year was Afghan Persian officially renamed to Dari?
A) 1929
B) 1936
C) 1978
D) 1964
- 39. Besides Pakistan and Afghanistan, where are small communities of Pashto speakers found?
A) Turkey
B) Russia
C) China
D) India
- 40. What is the basic word order of Pashto?
A) Object–subject–verb
B) Subject–verb–object
C) Verb–subject–object
D) Subject–object–verb
- 41. How many genders do Pashto nouns and adjectives have?
A) One
B) Two
C) Four
D) Three
- 42. How many cases do Pashto nouns and adjectives possess?
A) Three
B) Two
C) Six
D) Four
- 43. In a genitive construction in Pashto, what is the word order?
A) Possessor precedes the possessed
B) Possessor follows the verb
C) Possessor and possessed are interchangeable
D) Possessed precedes the possessor
- 44. Which of the following is an inflected mood in Pashto?
A) Subjunctive
B) Imperative
C) Indicative
D) Conditional
- 45. From which language is the Pashto word 'mečə́n' (hand-mill) derived?
A) Old Persian
B) Arabic
C) Hindi-Urdu
D) Ancient Greek
- 46. What is the Persian-derived word commonly used instead of the classical Pashto word 'plâz'?
A) yagānagí
B) badxwə́i
C) takht
D) gunāhā́n
- 47. In what specific context does the classical word 'plâz' still survive?
A) In modern poetic literature only
B) In official government documents
C) In dialects as 'bride-room'
D) In ancient religious texts
- 48. What script is the Pashto alphabet based on?
A) Latin
B) Devanagari
C) Cyrillic
D) Perso-Arabic
- 49. How many new letters did Bayazid Pir Roshan introduce to the Pashto alphabet in the 16th century?
A) 46
B) 45
C) 13
D) 4
- 50. How are stress markers represented in Latin Pashto?
A) Over vowels
B) As suffixes
C) Under consonants
D) As prefixes
- 51. What is the common name for the 'hard' northern grouping of Pashto?
A) Karlani
B) Paṣ̌tō
C) Pax̌tō
D) Tareeno
- 52. Which Pashto dialect is described as the most distinctive?
A) Kandahar
B) Yusapzai
C) Afridi
D) Tareeno
- 53. Which of these is classified as a Northern variety dialect?
A) Afridi
B) Shirani
C) Wazirwola
D) Kakar
- 54. Which of these is classified as a Southern variety dialect?
A) Wardak
B) Khosti
C) Kakar
D) Mangal
- 55. The Kandahar dialect is also known as what?
A) Northern Karlani
B) South Western dialect
C) Central Ghilji
D) North Eastern dialect
- 56. What is the meaning of 'yagānagí'?
A) Bride-room
B) Sin
C) Uniqueness
D) Throne
- 57. What kind of variety is Literary Pashto considered to be?
A) Ancient
B) Artificial
C) Natural
D) Spoken
- 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 complex with multiple varieties
B) It does not exist at all
C) It is a singular, defined dialect
D) It is strictly southern
- 60. According to David MacKenzie, how are Pashto dialects primarily differentiated?
A) Phonologically
B) Lexically
C) Morphologically
D) Syntactically
- 61. In what year was the first grammar book of Pashto verbs written?
A) 1715
B) 1808
C) 1805
D) 1772
- 62. What is the Pashto term for a proverb?
A) Matalúna
B) Matál
C) Lughāt
D) Kalam
- 63. Which calendar do Pashtuns use in Afghanistan?
A) Solar Hijri calendar
B) Lunar calendar
C) Vikrami calendar
D) Gregorian calendar
- 64. Which calendar do Pashtuns use in Pakistan?
A) Solar Hijri calendar
B) Lunar calendar
C) Gregorian calendar
D) Vikrami calendar
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