Published on 27 June 2012
Some notes from:
This was a generally fascinating paper, and very fun to read alongside with ‘A Walk in the Hindu Kush’, about travels in the area fifty years before. Here are some sections I highlighted in my reading:
2.3 LINGUISTIC SITUATION. The national languages of Afghanistan are Dari and Pashto. Both are Indo-European languages, Dari belonging to the West Iranian group of languages and Pashto to the East Iranian group. The Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) lists 46 languages for Afghanistan. Many of these are also spoken in neighboring countries, as borders were drawn without taking into account the locations and boundaries of ethnolinguistic groups. Accoding to the new Constitution of Afghanisatan (in place since 2005), Article 16, the government supports the development and strengthening of minority languages. Even the status of a third national language is ascribed to some languages, in places where the majority speaks them. For example, Pamiri is mentioned as one of them. Little research has been conducted on the minority languages of Afghanistan, and hardly any information about them is available.
The splitting up of Afghanistan is a fascinating topic, particularly the Durand Line. The great game was a ridiculous affair, where European interests basically ignored the locals and carved up the region. This can still be seen today. In the most sobering part of the paper, Medical Situation, there is this quote:
As we were walking through the villages, people often asked us for medicine and said, “Please send us a doctor and an eye doctor. We don’t have a doctor in the valley, and the people just die.”
I suggest reading the paper - it is a very good assessment of the language, and predicts that Munji is not in danger of going extinct soon, thanks to lots of youth learning the language and the people being proud of it. Let’s hope this continues.