Lesson Eighteen

Dialogue eighteen: Questions about relatives

NOTE:

Coming to grips with how families and relatives fit together is an important part of understanding Pukhtun culture. A useful introduction to family life is the anthropological study of Swat Pukhtuns by Charles Lindholm.

Kinship terms

Paternal kinship chart

NOTE:

ترهٔ زوئ - tru zooy is also called تربُور - tarbóor; and ترهٔ لُور - tru loor may be ترله - turlá.

In learning kinship terms it is a good idea to first ask what relationship someone is to your friend. After the reply see if you can correctly say what the reverse relationship is. The conversation might go like this:

Maternal Kinship chart

Kinship between inlaws

YOU represents a male in this chart

YOU representes a femaile in this chart

Practicing kinship names

You might be wondering how to learn all these new kinship terms. One idea is to put together a collection of your own family pictures and develop a dialogue about each family member. Be aware that it is not appropriate for men to show pictures of females to Pukhtun men, so some creativity may be needed to avoid offense.

Pronunciation drill

Focus on ق - q by practicing tongue twisters:

The past tense

Before starting the past tense it is helpful to be clear on the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs. They operate in very different ways. Transitive verbs involve action on an object (he ate an apple, she hit me, etc.). Intransitive verbs have no object (I was walking, he was asleep, etc.). (See Lessons Seven and Eight.)

The simple past tense of the equative (’to be’) verb

NOTE:

The 2nd person singular and 3rd person feminine plural are slightly different in pronunciation. (IS THIS TRUE? RECHECK)

👆 Ask your helper to teach you this difference.

Examples of the past tense “to be” verb in sentences

NOTE:

The bookish form of the 3rd person masculine plural is ول - wul, but it is not used in normal speech.

Adverbs of time used in the past tense

NOTE:

The adjective تېر - ter is used to modify the time words that point to the past and like other adjectives it is inflected for number and gender.

The verb کېدل - kedúl (to become) in the simple past tense

As we saw in earlier lessons, the auxillary verb کېدل - kedul is irregular and it's perfective aspect forms always start with شـ - sh--. (They are based on the perfective root of کېدل - kedúl (to become), which is شول - shwul.)

Conjugation of the simple past tense of کېدل - kedul (to become)

NOTE:

There is also a bookish form of the 3rd person simple past: شول - shwul.

Examples of the verb کېدل - kedul (to become) used in the simple past.

NOTE:

If you are British, take care with words like بېګا - begáa that end in a long ا - aa sound. It is a common mistake to add an ر - r sound to the end of the word.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This verb کېدل - kedul (to become ) is not to be confused with it's twin, کېدل - kedul (to happen)! These verbs look the same, but the behave differently and mean different things. The perfective forms (like the subjunctive and simple past) of کېدل - kedul (to become) always start with شـ - sh-- while the perfective forms of کېدل - kedul (to happen) always start with وشـ - oosh--.

Look again at an example from above. The first sentence uses کېدل - kedúl (to happen) and so the simple past tense starts with وشـ - oosh--. The second sentence uses کېدل - kedúl (to become) and the simple past tense starts with شـ - sh--

The passive voice in the simple past tense

Earlier we learned that we can put transitive verbs in the passive voice by using کېدل - kedul (to become) with the infinitive. For example, with the transitive verb وینځل - weenzul (to wash)

To say these kinds of passive sentences in their simple past form, we have to change the کېدل - kedúl to its simple past form, and use the perfective root instead of the infinitive (for regular verbs, add a و - oo / w to the front of the infinitive).

Examples of the passive voice in simple past

NOTE:

For all the passive sentences above, the verb agrees with the subject, because there is no object. Later we will see that when there are active transitive verbs with an object, the verb will agree with the object in the past tense. This is part of what’s called “ergativity.”

Intransitive compounds in the simple past tense

Compounds with کېدل - kedul (to became) in the simple past tense

Intransitive compounds made with nouns

Intransitive compounds made with adjectives

Note: The above sentence uses a different word کېدل - kedúl (to happen) so the simple past tense form looks different and begins with وشـ - oosh--.

NOTE:

The verbal adjectives are also inflected according to the number and gender of the subject. See the following examples:

Comprehension drill: Inquiring about the time

NOTE:

Remember to pay attention to the gender of “one” یو - yo / یوه - yuwá

👆 Use a clock or watch to practice asking or telling the time with your helper.

Memorising moment

mataloona

Exercises for Lesson Eighteen

Change the following present tense questions into their simple past tense forms and answer the questions.