Investigating the Adjectival Differences and Similarities in Dari and Pashto Languages
Hasan Ali Mahjour
Abstract
Adjective is amongst the essential and important elements in grammar that expresses the quality and status of a phenomenon or a noun. This element has not been so far comparatively studied in the grammar of Pashto and Dari that are considered as the formal languages in Afghanistan and also as two members of a single language. The author of this article studies adjective in Pashto and Dari comparatively so as to determine and highlight the similarities and differences of them in both languages so that the citizens of this country and the other individuals who want to learn these languages as their second language can be assisted in using the adjectives corresponding to the grammars of the foresaid languages. Adjective has been investigated in Dari in terms of structure, concept and root and, in Pashto, it has been only examined in terms of the concept and there are subsequently found a lot of similarities in general divisions of adjective in terms of the subject but only differences in details. All of the adjectives in Pashto precede the noun and no sign is added between the adjective and the noun in this language whereas an additional sign is added between adjective and noun in Dari; of course, for the adjectives that precede the noun but no sign is added in Dari in the adjectives that precede the noun except for the superlative adjective of the plural nouns. Adjective changes in Pashto in respect to the noun’s gender, number and state but no change is made in the adjective in these regards in respect to the aforesaid considerations. The present article has studied the same subject based on library research and in a comparative way.