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