580 Some Remarks on the Origin of the Afghan people. '[Wo. 6. 



invariably attached to some preceding word, whether a noun, verb, 

 or particle. "When attached to nouns they signify possession or 

 propriety, and with intransitive verbs in the course of conjugation, 

 are used in the place of personal pronouns, and with transitives point 

 out the objective case.* This is also a peculiar feature of the Sindian 

 language, which has several letters in common with Pushto besides 

 its own peculiar ones. The inflexions of the Afghanian verbs too 

 are formed, inflexions are conjugated according to the Arabic and 

 Hebrew system, with two original tenses only — the mdzi or past, 

 and the muzdrce or aorist, the past participle being used in the 

 construction of the compound tenses, with the aid of the auxiliary, 

 to be. Another peculiarity is, that the intransitive verbs agree in 

 gender with the nominative, whilst the transitives are governed both 

 in gender and number by the objective case. In many respects the 

 Pushto syntax agrees with that of the Hebrew, and I have no doubt 

 but that much greater affinity will be found to exist between them, 

 if compared by any one well versed in the latter language. 



The Pushto language is spoken with considerable variation in ortho- 

 graphy and pronunciation, from the valley of Pishin south of Kanda- 

 har, to Kafiristan on the north ; and from the banks of the 

 Helmand on the west, to the Attok, Sindhu, or Indus on the 

 east — throughout the Sama or Plain of the Yusufzo'es, the mountain- 

 ous districts of Bajawer, Panjkoraf, Suwat, and Bunir, to Astor on 

 the borders of Little Thibet — an immense tract of country equal in 

 extent to the entire Spanish peninsula. 



The numerous convulsions to which the country of the children 

 of Afghana has been subjected for the last seventy or eighty years, 

 have necessarily affected their language also ; hence the great varia- 

 tion observable in the orthography and mode of writing of modern 

 Pushto works. On this account, no dependence whatever can be 

 placed on any manuscript of later date than the reign of the founder 

 of the Durani empire — Ahmed Shah Abdali — authors — for it is 

 almost impossible to find two copies of one author, unless written 

 by one person, agreeing on these essential points. I have in my 



* See Hebrew Grammar by Prof. Lee, p. 80, Art. 153, p. 260, Art. 220. 

 London. 1827. 

 f Kor is the Pushto for house, and Pdnj the Persian for five. 



