Language Planning and Policy in Turkey

Article 3 of Turkey’s constitution declared the Turkish language as the official language of Turkey. Turkish is also the language of instruction in all Turkish educational institutions. Other languages are taught as foreign languages in Turkey, including Abkhaz, Laz, Albanian, German, French, Arabic, English, and many others. However, the language of instruction is still Turkish. Similarly, the Turkish constitution prohibits the use of other languages as mother tongues in any Turkish educational institution, according to article 42. Minority languages in Turkey have suffered greatly as a result of this article. The Kurdish language, in particular, has suffered greatly as a result of this.

Many countries, including Northern Cyprus, Turkey, and Cyprus, recognise Turkish as the official language of the state. Croatia, Kosovo, Romania, Bosnia, and North Macedonia have all designated Turkish as a minority language in their respective countries. However, many international organisations, such as the United Nations and the European Union, do not recognise Turkish as their official language. Therefore, the Turkish language has no status in the EU and UN. 

Turkey is a very diverse country, with people of various linguistic and ethnic backgrounds living there. However, the Turkish language is the only one that has attracted the attention of the Turkish government. While other languages were ignored, the Turkish language received a slew of resources aimed at promoting and developing it. Other minority languages, such as Kurdish, have been suppressed as a result of the Turkish government's single language promotion policy. As a result of the Turkish government's language policy, many minority languages in Turkey have been suppressed and silenced.

 Spanish Constitution and Language Policy

Following Dictator Franco's death, work on the constitution began to consolidate Spain's comeback to democracy, which was ratified in 1978. Castilian is recognized as the official language of the state in Article 3 of the Constitution, with citizens having both a responsibility and a right to use it. On the surface, this appears to be little improvement over the language situation under Franco. However, a deeper analysis reveals that law permitting the use of the other language varieties of Spain now exists, marking a significant step forward in the acknowledgement and acceptance of linguistic diversity and multiculturalism in many of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities. However, because the usage and promotion of the multiple Spanish languages is confined to their respective, well-defined geographical zones, Castilian has retained its primacy as the "official Spanish language of the State", also mention in the Article 3.1 of the Spanish Constitution.

This linguistic nationalism indeed has coexisted uneasily with "the other languages of Spain" - as referred by the Spanish Constitution. Languages like Asturian-Leonese, Galaico-Portuguese, Aragonese, Basque, and Catalan speakers create linguistic regions that have withstood invasions and Castilian expansion. The 1978 Constitution establishes co-official status for the state language, Castilian, and native languages within the Autonomous Communities, which is most typically implemented through bi-language schools and initiatives, as well as the existence of local language media. Although Castilian's superior status is guaranteed (at least in law), it experiences competition internally as a result of the recurrent linkage of these regional languages with issues such as Basque nationalism, Catalan independence, and so forth. Therefore, the Spanish Academy's perceived threat to Spanish from these languages is really a matter of relative position between the languages of Spain, rather than code-mixing or linguistic adoptions endangering the purity of Castilian. 

The RAE is particularly focused on preserving, maintaining and growing Spanish as the language of official national use and eventually international affairs. Efforts from RAE members to linguistic debates within the nation are frequently viewed promoting Castilian as an identity element that crosses barriers, integrates communities, and facilitates mutual understanding and communication, whilst the regional languages are hence preserved as cultural heritage rather than major languages, despite their cultural richness and significance. “The Instituto Cervantes” which is a government institution established in 1991 to oversee the spread of Spanish language and Hispanic culture throughout the world, is arguably a more dominant influencer of the language's global status planning. As a state organization, the Cervantes is driven by national language policy and hence promotes Castilian's hegemony over other Spanish tongues, even when it engages into agreements to provide language training for, instance, Galician. This incorporation of minority language education in its global education/ cultural centers illustrates an apparent intention to promote Spain's linguistic diversity in a sort of simulated linguistic inclusivity, while actually reinforcing a notion of linguistic hierarchy, exerting some control over the world's perception of Spain's linguistic diversity.

Some of the most recent and major initiatives to adjust the Academy's focus may be seen in the modifications to the RAE statutes enacted in 1993–1995. The first article states:

“The Academy is an institution with its own legal status whose principal mission is to ensure that the essential unity of the Spanish language maintained across the Hispanic world is not fractured by the changes which the language experiences in its constant adaptation to the needs of its speakers” (Article 18, Real Academia Espanola 1995).

 Multilingualism in Spain

Spain is a historically multilingual state, with Spanish language having many varieties and dialects, however, only one was given prominence. Nation-building theories and policies at the time of the Franco dictatorship in Spain promoted Castilian as the official and public language, and prohibited the use of minority languages in public (i.e., Galician, Basque and Catalan). As a result, a 'Castilian-only' policy emerged, born of the desire to create a culturally, politically, and linguistically homogeneous nation-state. This practice, however, was also an ideology in the pre-Francoism era and subsequently that elevated the use of a single standardized Castilian variation over all other language varieties in Spain, reinforcing the concept that this was an absolute pre-requisite for national unity in that social reality.

The concept that linguistic, social, cultural, and political unity are the foundations of a stable nation-state underpins this standard language discourse as followed in Spain. As a result, speaking a standard language is considered to be a measure of a nation’s power, state's status, and membership. Standardization may be and is used as a control tactic in conjunction with such 'utopian' ideals, and not simply in terms of language use. Language ideologies are inextricably linked to other ideas concerning society's organization and control. There exists several other examples of controversial and ongoing language issues, particularly in multilingual nation-states like Spain.

Spain is a nation where linguistic ideology discussions about the importance, use, and current status of Spanish language occur frequently and widely, at both the expert and public levels. The Castilian language that is so named after its grounds in 'Castile' - the central Iberian Kingdom, has been used to achieve cultural, social, and political hegemony as viewed across the history of the Iberian Peninsula.  With King Alfonso's declaration that the language of Toledo's (city in Spain) upper classes should be employed in literature, science, and administration in the thirteenth century began the efforts toward a standardizing Castilian. 

For some hundred years, linguistic unity and standardization ideals had prevailed in Spain as the twentieth century started. Apart from a brief period of economic prosperity during World War I, political unrest and financial conflicts dominated Spain until after the Civil War of 1936–1939.  These problems that still prevail in Spanish society resulted in a three-year Civil War and a nearly 40-year dictatorship under General Franco. The result was a strong state centralization, with coercive measures directed at populations outside of Castilian control.

Greek Language Policy

 

Officially there is no language policy for Greek but historically it has seen its development in to the Greek society .The debate revolved around the revival of ancient Greek language as a symbol of Greek consciousness and glorious past during the Greek revolution of 1821. There were two camps divide on the question of language at the establishment of modern Greece, one group was of the idea that Archaic Greek language must be purified from the impurity’s Turkish mixture into the Greek language, these ideas were being propagated by the traditionalists. On the other hand, the Liberals were advocating the popularly used language at the time as means for mass education, spiritual cultivation, and national uprising.

Despite all the debate on language, the scholars and literary circles used the archaic form of Greek language for official documentation was endorsed during the formation of Greek state. One thing that seems to be clear that scholars and intelligentsia were key players in deciding the language policy not the federal state, policy aimed at creating and legitimizing the purified form. The form was known as Katharevousa form. Katharo means clean and it was adopted as an official language of modern Greek state, acquired a high value as a continuation of Ancient Greek. Modern Greek language required expansion of its variety in vocabulary which was achieved via internal and external borrowing from existing Greek varieties and from other European languages such as French and English.

Up until the end of World War 1, major Greek cities experienced a rapid expansion of its population and consolidation of the middle class. The young journalists and writers brought new themes into the literature depicting social life of Greeks, the praise of countryside and critique of city life, division of labor and occupation with childhood education provide a new content to the social and political life of Greek. The intelligentsia started demanding recognition of commonly used language for the official and educational purposes in order to enhance the literacy in Greek society. The main reason for slow progress was associated with different language used in Schools and in official matters of the state which majority of the people were unfamiliar with. This debate on language became eminent and it was after 1976 that demoticist movement achieved its success and popular language became an official language.

There is no official language policy in Greece. The Greek is the official language of the state of Greece, and it is taught in schools from primary, secondary and at tertiary level. However, there is the exception to this notion when it comes to international schools whether they are American or German, these schools prefer their own languages in Greece for example at University German studies require having substantial knowledge of German language in order to study. Many courses are also being offered in English language at Greek universities.

In many regions of Greece, the recognition to other languages has also been given for instance allowing Turkish population to learn their language, it shows some form of bilingual or multilingualism emerging in a monolingual country. Moreover, other languages such as Arabic, Bulgarian, Russian etc are also becoming a popular language as means for gaining economic benefits by learning these additional languages along with the Greek.

Greek is widely used in social domains, the street signs are available in both Greek and Latin, in locations where tourists are often found the signs also appear in French, Russian, English, Turkish, Spanish etc. Many media outlets such as TV channels, newsrooms, radio broadcasting, newspapers appear both in Greek and English, at times in some other languages such as Albanian, Arabic and Turkish as well. When it comes to movies, many of the movies are available in Greek but some of the most popular are American Tv shows and movies which are in English languages. Broadcasting related to children are dubbed in Greek language.

Nationalism and Language Planning in Turkey

Turkey is a culturally diverse and multi-lingual country. After the establishment of Turkey in the 1920s, although the Turkish language was not widespread in all the geographical regions of Turkey but still, this language was adopted by the people as a lingua franca (Arslan, 2015). Several languages were spoken in Turkey after the end of the Ottoman Empire among which Arabic, Turkish, and Persian were the three main dominant languages. The Arabic language was used for religious purposes; Persian was used by educated elites and was used in arts, diplomacy, and literature; and the Ottoman Empire's administration language was Turkish (Metz, 1995). Furthermore, there were no language restrictions, and people were free to speak any language they wanted. However, citizens needed to know the Turkish language in order to communicate with the government and administration (Ottoman Empire) (Arslan, 2015). 

Even though events such as the Greek-Turkish population exchange and the Armenian genocide affected Turkey's religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, some minority groups still exist (Zeydanlıoğlu, 2012). After the emergence of Turkey, Kurds were the largest minority group in Turkey and their language was named as the Kurdish language. During the Wat of Liberation in 1919 (which lasted till 1923), Ataturk also showed his support and recognition of the rights of Kurds. He supported the study of the Kurdish language (Gunes, 2012). The Lausanne Treaty, however, did not include this protection and acknowledgement of Kurdish political and cultural rights (Arslan, 2015).

According to the report of the European Commission (2004), between 15 to 20 million Kurds live in Turkey which is 20 to 25% of the total population of Turkey. Subsequently, the Kurdish language is the second most spoken language in Turkey (Öpengin, 2012). Government actions that were both repressive and assimilative had a negative impact on the Kurdish language. In Turkey, this language has been restricted and banned numerous times. The state's support of the Turkish language in all aspects of life has prepared the ground for Turkish language development while neglecting the country's second most spoken language. The language ban culture continued until 2000, and many experts referred to this Turkish government's practice as linguicide. The Turkish government's laws and practices limited the use of the Kurdish language in many spheres of life, including education and politics (Hassanpour A. , 1990; Hassanpour, Sheyholislami, & Skutnabb-Kangas, 2012; Fernandes, 2012; O’Driscoll, 2014).

The development of the Turkish language is linked with the literacy rate of Turkish people at the time of the establishment of Turkey which was only 10%. This was the primary reason for people's lack of opposition to initiatives aimed solely at spreading the Turkish language. It was not difficult for Turkish authorities to enforce solely the Turkish language on their illiterate citizenry at the time. As a result, persuading folks to become Turks and form a united national identity known as Turkish was simple (Arslan, 2015). 

As a result of the greater use of Turkish in all aspects of social, political, and economic life, several minorities in the country have been threatened or denied their existence. Similarly, these planned policies of the government contributed to the decline of numerous formerly spoken languages in the Ottoman Empire (Zeydanlioglu, 2012). As a result, the Turkish language was promoted and given preferential status by the government over other languages. While Turkish is extensively spoken in all aspects of life, other languages are often ignored, and in the case of Kurdish, it has been prohibited. The Kurdish language is now solely used for speaking, and people do not know how to write it (Arslan, 2015).

As the literacy rate increased in Turkey, people started to question the special treatment given to the Turkish language over other languages. In 2003, in order to complete all the requirements of becoming a member of the European Union (EU), the Kurdish language course was introduced in many universities in Turkey. It was due to the struggle made by many political parties and politicians that the Kurdish language was introduced in universities and schools (Arslan, 2015). 

Works Cited

Arslan, S. (2015). Language Policy in Turkey and Its Effect on the Kurdish Language. Master's Theses.

Fernandes, D. (2012). Modernity and the linguistic genocide of Kurds in Turkey. International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Gunes, C. (2012). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. Routledge.

Hassanpour, A. (1990). The language factor in national development: The standardization of the Kurdish language, 1918-1985.

Hassanpour, A., Sheyholislami, J., & Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2012). Introduction. Kurdish: Linguicide, Resistance and Hope. International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Metz, H. C. (1995). Turkey: A Country Study. (W. G. Congress, Producer) Retrieved from http://countrystudies.us: http://countrystudies.us/turkey/

O’Driscoll, D. (2014). Is Kurdish endangered in Turkey? A comparison between the politics of linguicide in Ireland and Turkey. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism.

Öpengin, E. (2012). Sociolinguistic situation of Kurdish in Turkey: Sociopolitical factors and language use patterns.

Zeydanlioglu, W. (2012). Turkey’s Kurdish Language Policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Zeydanlıoğlu, W. (2012). Turkey’s Kurdish Language Policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

 History of the Spanish Language

The Spanish language is ranked as the world’s second-most spoken native language at present and is used by communities in various regions of the world to communicate and express themselves. It has a rich culture and complex historical foundations, as it has been around for more than 1500 years. Spanish was the historical language of many current US states while controlled by the Spanish or Mexican governments. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries today and is spoken by 400 million native speakers worldwide.

The native tongues of the Iberian Peninsula used Proto-Indo-European languages to communicate that lead to paving the way for the Hispanic language. Spanish emerged as a dialect of spoken Latin in the Iberian Peninsula, as contrary to the Classical Latin which was used in literature. The dominant and prominent dialect of Spanish in Europe is considered to be Castellanos or Castilian Spanish, where Hispanics are usually seen to be speaking this dialect. Moreover, the first European settlement in the United States was actually established by Spain what is now called Florida.

The origin of Spanish can be dated back to the times of Roman Empire during which the Peninsula was called as “Hispania”. The Roman Empire conquered Hispania in 218 BC and influenced their culture and customary practices on the locals of the Iberian Peninsula. Its official language was the Latin language introduced by the Romans, however it got mixed with languages Celts and Iberians that were the native languages of the occupants, and it started to take on its own unique flavor. In the 4th century, the growth of this uniqueness was accelerated by a Germanic group called the Visigoths, who invaded and conquered areas of the Peninsula. Latin was spoken by the Visigoths at that time, with their primary influence being on cultural depression on the peninsula, instead of a Germanic influence on the language. Basically this is the crucial pinpoint highlighted by the historians and linguists that mark the beginnings of the Spanish language as we are aware of it today. Then later, in the 8th century when Islam began to take force in the Middle East, Visigoths were followed by Muslim Moorish conquerors and upon their arrival they contributed more than 4,000 Spanish words from Arabic, along with cultural impacts that still remain apparent in the design, art, and architecture of Spain. They used their Arabic-influenced design and architecture to build their most powerful and dominant cities. For instance, “La Alhambra” which is a world heritage site in Granada is viewed to be an ideal example of the Moor influence. However, Words that were adopted from Arabic lost their original pronunciation, so the overall sounds or phonology of Spanish was surprisingly not heavily influenced by Arabic.

Spanish language and culture further expanded with the arrival of Spanish conquerors including Christopher Columbus in America. The native and indigenous civilizations were colonized and forced to adopt Spanish religion, traditions, and the official language. Despite the Spanish efforts being largely focused on eradicating the culture, traditions, religion, and languages of Indigenous populations, their efforts were not very successful since the Indigenous American cultures still remain alive today. The imposition of the Spanish language in the southern Spanish colonies of the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America took words from native dialects and prompted Spanish to evolve once again.

The Royal Spanish Academy, also called as Real Academia Española, was established in 1713, mainly with the purpose of standardizing the language. It approves changes in grammar and the use of specific words and concepts in Spanish. The Academy produced its first dictionary (in six volumes) between 1726 –1739 and is still an authoritative source on Castilian Spanish today, reporting an estimated 93,000 words in its latest edition of 2014. At present, this institution still continues to play its significant role and has a vast impact on the evolution and studies of the origin of Spanish.

 Author: Mahima Khan

Pashto Language Vitality (KPK)

International Language Transmission

The cultural and historical richness of the Pashto language as well as its significance within the context of other languages has been acknowledged across the world. This article explores the contradictions of various historians and philologists in connection with the origin of Pashtos as a main language of South Asia, with special reference to Semitic and Aryan theories, the process of development ofits literature, the dialects of the language and its place within the context of the South Asian linguistic reality. This work also explores the evolution of Pashto literature and critically investigates a recently conducted DNA study that negates Pakhtoon ’s genetic association with Arabs.

 

Community members attitudes towards their own language

The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of parents that they favor or disfavour the use of Pashto in education because parents and maternal languages have very strongest natural attachment with children. A sample from the study was drawn randomly. Cluster sampling technique was used, which included six hundred parents of primary school students. A questionnaire based on two points scale was used for data collection. The collected data was analyzed, and it was found that most of the parents considered Pashto as a mother tongue and the easiest medium of instruction but they did not favor it on the basis that it would not support their children in upcoming education and competitive examinations which are in English. If one wants to enhance parents' involvement, education should be provided through children's mother tongue at the early primary school level while national and international (English) languages should be implemented at onward levels.

Shifts in domains of language use

Domains divide language according to the particular context of its use. Concerning different contexts of research, the domain varies. The purpose of the present research is to explore the sociolinguistic significance of Pashto-English hybridization in the language domains. To explore the area, TV programmes from a Pashto channel Khyber News were selected through purposive sampling. As two episodes from each programme were selected, thus a total of ten programmes were taken for analysis that makes about 10 hours of recording. For data analysis, Kachru’s (1978) framework was used. The findings show that according to different domains of language use, the frequency of hybridized words varied. In the domain of Government and Administration and School and Education, mostly words were hybridized, followed by the domain of Economy, Playground and Street, Military and Courts. The findings reveal that domains have sociolinguistic significance that determines the extent to which language is hybridized

 

Governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies, including official status and use

What Can Be Done?

Just  as  speech  community  members  react  differently  to  language  endangerment,  so  do  linguists, educators and activists to requests for assistance by speech communities. Such requests relate mainly to five essential areas for sustaining endangered languages:

 1.    Basic  linguistic  and  pedagogical  training:  providing  language  teachers  with  training   in   basic   linguistics,   language   teaching   methods   and   techniques,   curriculum development and teaching materials development.

 2.     Sustainable  development  in  literacy  and  local  documentation  skills:  training  local  language  workers  to  develop  orthographies  if  needed,  to  read,  write,  and  analyse  their  own  languages,  and  to  produce  pedagogical  materials.  One  of  the  effective  strategies  here  is  the  establishment  of  local  research  centres,  where  speakers of endangered languages will be trained to study, document and archive their  own  language  materials.  Literacy  is  useful  to  the  teaching  and  learning  of  such languages. 

3.    Supporting   and   developing   national   language   policy:   National   language   policies   must   support   diversity,   including   the   preservation   of   endangered   languages.  More  social  scientists  and  humanists--and  speakers  of  endangered  languages themselves--should be actively involved in the formulation of national language policies.

 4.   Supporting  and  developing  educational  policy:  In  the  educational  sector,  a  number  of  linguists  are  engaged  in  implementing  increasingly  popular  mother  tongue  education  programs.  Since  1953  and  especially  in  the  past  fifteen  years,  UNESCO   has   been   instrumental   in   this   development   through   its   policy   statements.  So-called  mother  tongue  education,  however,  often  does  not  refer  to  education  in  the  ancestral  languages  of  ethnolinguistic  minorities  (in  most  cases  endangered  languages),  but  rather  to  the  teaching  of  these  languages  as  school  subjects.  The  most  common  educational  model  for  teaching  ethnolinguistic  minority children in schools still uses locally or nationally dominant languages as media  of  instruction.  Teaching  exclusivelyin  these  languages  supports  their  spread, at the expense of endangered languages. For example, fewer than 10% of the  approximately  2000  African  languages  are  currently  used  in  teaching,  and  none of these 10% is an endangered language. We favour the inclusion of regional languages in formal education, but not at the expense of ethnolinguistic minorities (The Hague Recommendations on the Educational Rights of National Minorities, 1996;  Skutnabb-Kangas,  2000).  It  has  been  demonstrated  convincingly  that  acquiring bilingual capability need in no way diminish competence in the official language.  5.   Improving  living  conditions  and  respect  for  the  human  rights  of  speaker  communities: Language  documenters,  though  not  directly  involved  in  economic 

 

 

 

Type and quality of documentation

and  social  development,  can  help  governments  identify  overlooked  populations.  For   example ,  national  HIV/AIDS  awareness  or  poverty-alleviation  programs  often  do  not  consider  minority  communities,  especially  if  they  are  illiterate.  Linguists   and educators  can  be  vital  mediators  by  supporting  these  communities  in  formulating  claims  about  their  linguistic  and  other  human  rights.  Conversely,   materials  such  as  those  on  health  care,  community  development  or  language  education  produced  for  these  marginalized  communities  require  specialist  input.  Concepts and content need to be conveyed in a culturally meaningful way

 

 

Response to new domain and media

Pakhtunwali or Pashtunwali is a culture in every sense of the word. Look at it from a variety of angles and you would find it a rich resource in terms of a vibrant worldview and philosophy of life. However, its fuller understanding necessitates a diachronic approach (studying a phenomenon in its historical perspective) followed by a synchronic appreciation (probing the present state and use of the subject under investigation).

Historical analysis of Pakhtunwali is sine qua non in the context of current wave of crisis both in Pakistan and Afghanistan as the phenomenon is generally associated with Pakhtun culture. This perception is the natural corollary of the piecemeal approach to the study of Pakhtunwali over the last two centuries.

Resultantly, our understanding of this culture suffers from distortions, misappropriations, and serious shortcomings.

The piecemeal approach is accompanied by the essentialist attitude of the investigators. The latter approach assigns some permanent characteristics and attributes to a culture and the behaviour of a people is seen as determined by them. It just ‘reduces and otherises’ a culture in terms of stereotyping and constructivism.

Stereotyping and constructing national and socio-cultural identities are generally produced by vested interests. The behaviour of a people is seen in the context of concrete structure of a culture. All this is found in works so far produced on the culture of Pakhtunwali.

Pakhtunwali has been treated this way since the first encounter of Pakhtuns and the British, nay, traces in this regard might be found in the early phase of Pashto literature. The epic of Amir Karor -- the first known Pakhtun poet belonging to the eighth century -- is an important example of Pakhtun heroism and warlike attitude.

The essentialist understanding of Pakhtunwali ignores the process of its social and cultural changes. Questions such as the origin of Pakhtunwali and the historical processes and forces which caused it develop are not being seriously considered by investigators. It follows that discourse of the same nature about Pakhtunwali that is found in Pashto, English and Urdu.

Whether language corresponds to the actual reality or not? It is a hotly contested issue between the two poles of positivism -- objectivity inclined and relativism-oriented. Hence, different discourses are available about the same phenomenon.

It is in this theoretical framework that language of the Pakhtuns (Pashto) and languages about the Pukhtuns (such as English and Urdu) vis-à-vis Pakhtunwali call for serious consideration. The same discourse which is dominantly found in Pashto, English, and Urdu repeats the so-called essentials of Pakhtunwali -- nang (honour), badal  (revenge), paighor (taunt), nanawaate (beseeching pardon), tarburwali (agnatic rivalry) and melmasthia (hospitality) -- in a casual manner.

"These things," as this writer wrote in The Friday Times (February 4-10 2011) "though central to the Pakhtuns’ social life, are in no way the sum-total of Pakhtunwali, and the journalists and anthropologists who repeat them ad nauseam have really not done their homework. In fact, I would like to term this prevalent approach as repeating-Pakhtunwali-parrot-fashion".

Pashto does contain a medley of representations of Pakhtuns and Pakhtunwali made by their political leaders, mystics, religious puritans, literary figures, historians, and the unknown enchanters of folklore. All these forms of representation reflect essentialist attitude and hold in common a certain amount of essence with orientalist understanding of Pakhtun culture.

One exception should be pointed out in all these genres of representation -- the realm of Pakhtun spiritualism epitomised by sufis like Rahman Baba and the Roshania poets.

English sources form the next category of representation of Pakhtunwali. It has a great diversity as people from different socio-cultural, historico-geographical and religio-political backgrounds over the years have investigated the domain of Pakhtunwali.

It is, again, nothing short of ‘repeating-Pakhtunwali-parrot-fashion’ in essentialist mode. No holistic and diachronic analyses are found in these works.

Similarly, Urdu language presents another kind of representation of Pakhtunwali. This is to be generally related to the cultural and political horizon of Pakistan. It might also have political bearings, especially in the context of Indo-Pak and Pak-Afghan geo-strategic realities. As the larger portion of the population has greater access to Urdu media, the essentialist nature of Pakhtunwali gets widely portrayed in Pakistan.

All these understandings do not correspond to the cultural phenomenon of Pakhtunwali. They are merely tenuous representations. And it is purely in essentialist terms, coupled with piecemeal approach, that all the historical episodes of violence are associated with Pakhtunwali. All other internal and external factors, which remain instrumental in any such crises are being simply ignored.

‘Repeating-Pakhtunwali-parrot-fashion’ is an intentional, but also an unintentional in some cases, attempt aiming at socio-cultural and political constructionism. Its unavoidable effect is indoctrination and nurture of generations of Pakhtuns in terms of false consciousness, irrational thinking, and delusions of heroism.

All this provide a fertile ground for viewing individual and collective behaviour as caused by Pakhtunwali, an utter oversimplification of reality in the framework of certain preconceived constraining structures of culture. In this way, the process of social and cultural changes vis-à-vis Pakhtunwali is dehistoricised.

In contrast to the above-mentioned understanding of Pakhtunwali, a diachronic analysis, which would take into account the process of continuity and change and the resultant syncretic and dialectic nature of Pakhtunwali would portray this culture in totally different terms.

The long-awaited contextualisation of Pakhtunwali against the spatio-temporal dynamics in a historical perspective would show the futility and naivety of the essentialist attitude and piecemeal approach.

The diachronic analysis of Pakhtunwali requires situating it in the frontier homeland of Pakhtuns from times immemorial. The concept of frontier area reminds us the two categories of geographical limits by British historian Arnold Toynbee viz cul de sac and roundabout.

The former are closed areas on the fringes having no transit and characteristic of receiving things while the latter are open areas having routes and arteries which traverse them. It implies that roundabout areas happen as being vigorously receiving influences from different directions and radiating them further.

Peripheries turn into centres this way, one may argue. Pakhtun land in history has played such a unique role, a thesis substantiated by Gandhara culture (though a dominant group of academics would deny any contribution by Pakhtuns to Gandhara civilisation, a debate which I would like to avoid here).

Pakhtunwali has developed over centuries and seen phenomenal transformations via syncretic and dialectic processes. Against this backdrop, two different paradigms, with further subdivisions, in the history of Pakhtunwali are found. They are prior to Pakhtuns’ conversion to Islam and in the wake of this conversion.

Utterly disowned by Pakhtuns, investigations in relation to the first category suffer from crucial limitations in terms of lack of vivid literary evidence and the Islamisation of Pakhtun historiography as is clear from the story of the so-called conversion of Qais Abdur Rashid, Pakhtuns’ ancestor, to Islam on the invitation of Hazrat Khalid bin Walid. But all this shall not hinder and turn such investigations as futile pursuits. A viable research design, buttressed by multidisciplinary concerns, can bring success in this regard.

Intensive study of Pashto folklore, new approach to the analysis and interpretation of archaeological data, and anthropological and ethnographic investigations can help us greatly in knowing pre-Islamic layers of Pakhtun culture. Zoroastrian traces, Vedic elements, Buddhistic signs and symbols are still found in abundance in Pakhtun culture.

With the arrival of Islam, Pakhtunwali underwent important transformation. Well-known Pakhtun poets: Hamza Shinwari and Samandar Khan Samandar see, in a greatly exaggerated way, Pakhtunwali as in complete conformity with Islam, a view contradicted by Pashto folklore.

Irrespective of this debate, it should be observed that over the last millennium Pakhtunwali saw phenomenal social and societal changes. Nomadism, sedentism, transition from egalitarianism to feudalism and, lastly, modernism are landmark developments in its history. All these developments have effected fundamental changes in the culture of Pakhtunwali in a historical sense.

This passing reference to the history challenges the essentialist and piecemeal view of unchanging nature of Pakhtunwali. It also reveals its relevance by dint of its mutability in response to new socio-political realities.

It has been practised in conjunction with the dynamics of every new social environment. This necessitates its appreciation in a holistic sense of the concept of culture -- in ideational and ecological contexts.

This new understanding of Pakhtunwali would lead to its welcoming in the process of institution building, policy making and, above all, putting an end to stereotyping. It would help Pakhtuns to live in conformity to the spirit of new circumstances instead, to be determined by purposeful constructions. 

 

 

Availability of materials and language education and literacy

IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS FOR A LANGUAGE ADOPTED AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION According to Farani the important characteristics for language of instruction were as under; v. It should be clear and comprehensible for both educators and learners. vi. Conduction of research should be feasible through it. vii. Its grammatical arrangement should be easy and understandable. viii. It should be fraught with extensive vocabulary. ix. The related language should be used for communication and also understandable countrywide. Zubair suggested and gave his arguments in favor of home language of students as the medium of instruction because it provides home like environment in teachinglearning process for primary school students. He further added that education should be provided in mother language of the students and language second (L2) should be implemented as a subject only from class one (Gillani et al., 2010).

 

Proportion of speakers within the total population

Pashto is the first language of between 40% and 55% (11 to 15.4 million) of the people of Afghanistan, and 10% to 28% (2.8 to 7.8 million) speak it as a second language, and the total is around 18 or 19 million.

Absolute numbers of speakers 

Approximately 40 million people around the world speak Pashto as a native language. Meanwhile, Dutch has only 22 million native speakers. In addition to Afghanistan, 25 million people speak Pashto in Pakistan.