SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGE REVIEW
VOL.XVII. No. 1, January 2007.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Abstract. This paper investigates the inflectional properties of Pashto
nouns. The main focus is on the classification of the Pashto nouns in
such a way that further computational work on them becomes easy. The
works of three leading Pashto grammarians, Penzl (1955: 51-65),
Reshteen (1994: 78-91), and Zyar (2003: 44-46) provide the basis for the
proposed classification. The characteristics of nouns, having a particular
type of ending phoneme, are closely observed from a large collection of
examples. Consequently, the Pashto nouns are classified into seven
classes for masculine nouns and seven classes for feminine nouns. The
class membership of each noun is unambiguous and the morphological
rules for these classes are uniform. These uniform rules have been
sketched with the help of Finite State Transducers (FSTs) ready for
implementation. The implementation of these FSTs will result in part of
a morphological analyzer.
1. Introduction
A Pashto noun refers to a person, an animal, an object or thing, a substance, a
state, an event, a quality, an abstract idea or some kind of feeling. An example,
of each of this category respectively, is saɻe ‘man’, ɣwɑ ‘cow’, korsəi ‘chair’,
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obə ‘water’, wiara ‘fear’, bɑrɑn ‘rain’, neeki ‘goodness’, dastur ‘custom’ and
xolus ‘sincerity’.
A Pashto noun can be a subject or an object of a verb. It can be substituted
by pronouns. It can be modified by an adjective. It can have an article or
determiner before it. Consider example (1).
(1)
haɣә
yәw
Xɑista
as
wɑxeest-o.
he-OBL a
beautiful
horse bought(3sg, mas)
‘He bought a beautiful horse.’
In example (1), the pronoun haɣə ‘he’ is the subject and as ‘horse’ is the
object of the verb wɑxeeist-o ‘bought’; the noun as ‘horse’ is modified by the
adjective Xɑista ‘beautiful’ and it takes a determiner yəw ‘one or a’.
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
2
Penzl (1955: 45) says that in nominal phrases the substantive is the center or
head and determines the agreement of the preceding pronouns, numerals and
adjectives. Consider example (2).
(2)
dɑ
wәɻa
jinәi.
this-DIR(fem, sg) little-DIR(fem, sg)
girl-DIR(fem, sg)
‘This little girl.’
In the above nominal phrase, the pronoun dɑ ‘this’ and the adjective wәɻa
‘little’ agree with the noun jinәi ‘girl’ that is a feminine singular direct case
noun. According to Zyar (2003: 44), a noun has a constant meaning without
showing a particular tense.
2. The Inflectional Properties of Pashto Nouns
A Pashto noun has different forms depending on its inflectional properties. The
Pashto noun inflects for three facets described below.
2.1 Gender
Pashto nouns inflect for gender. Most of the Pashto nouns are identified to be
masculine or feminine, by their ending phoneme. For example, a noun that ends
with a consonant is usually a masculine noun e.g. xar ‘he donkey’, while a
noun that ends with -a is usually a feminine noun e.g. xra ‘she donkey’.
However, there are irregular nouns that do not obey this identification rule.
2.2 Number
Pashto nouns inflect for number: singular and plural. There are some regular
rules according to which the plural form of a noun is formed by adding a
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particular suffix that is in accordance with the ending phoneme of the given
singular noun. For example, the plural of the masculine singular noun, that ends
with a consonant and is an animate noun, is formed by adding the suffix -ɑn to
it e.g. the word hәlik ‘boy’ whose plural form is hәlikɑn ‘boys’. There exist
exceptions to this rule that will be called irregular nouns in the discussion to
follow. Only countable nouns inflect for number while uncountable nouns do
not.
2.3 Case
According to Zyar (2003: 49), case refers to the relative condition of a noun in
its surroundings. Some examples are given in (3a–d).
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
(3)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
dɑ
sәɻe
this-DIR
man-DIR
‘This man is doing his work.’
dee
sәɻi
xpәl
this-OBL
man-OBL
‘This man did his work.’
ya
sәɻiya!
O
man-VOC
‘O man!’
zә
dee
sәɻi
I-DIR this-OBL man-OBL
‘I am giving work to this man.’
3
xpәl
kɑr-kәw-i.
his work-doing(3sg)
kɑr wәkɻ-o.
his work did(3sg)
ta kɑr wәrko-m.
to work giving(1sg)
In the above examples, the same noun saɻe ‘man’ is used but having
different cases.
Case is used in Pashto to show the function of a noun or noun phrase in a
sentence by inflection. A noun in different cases may function as a subject, as
an object, as a possessor or as an addressee. Different authors of Pashto
grammar identify different number of cases for the Pashto noun. Reshteen
(1994: 121-134) has identified five cases and Zyar (2003: 49-51) has identified
seven cases for the Pashto noun. Penzl (1955: 63-66) has identified four
morphological cases for a Pashto noun that is followed in this work because a
thorough study of the conjugation of the Pashto nouns reveals these four cases.
2.3.1 The direct case
A noun in direct case serves as the subject of the present transitive verbs, as the
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subject of all the intransitive verbs, and as the object of the past transitive
verbs. The object of a transitive verb is also in direct case. Some examples are
given in (4a–d).
tʃәlәw-i.
(4)
(a)
sәɻe
gɑde
man-DIR
car-DIR driving(3sg)
‘The man is driving a car.’
(b)
gɑdi
sәɻe
wә-wәhәl-o.
car-OBL
man-DIR
hit(3sg)
‘A car hit the man.’
(c)
sәɻe
zi.
man-DIR
going(3sg)
‘The man is going.’
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
4
sәɻe
lɑɻ-o.
an-DIR went(3sg)
The man went.’
In all of the above examples, the direct case noun sәɻe ‘man’ serves different
purposes. It must be kept in mind that in the direct case, the singular nouns are
just like the base form. The dictionary entries for nouns are in the direct case.
(d)
2.3.2 The oblique case-I
A noun in oblique case occurs in pre/postpositional phrases. Penzl (1955: 6566) identifies two oblique cases in Pashto that are oblique case-I and oblique
case-II. The oblique case-I occurs with pre/postpositional pairs such as pa …
kee ‘in’, pa … bɑndee ‘on’ and da … lɑndee ‘under’. Examples (5a–c) are
given to illustrate the use of oblique case-I.
wo.
(5)
(a)
haɣa
pa-gɑdi-kee
nɑst
he-DIR in-car-OBL-I sitting
was(3sg)
‘He was sitting in a car.’
(b)
haɣә pa-xpәl-gɑdi-bɑndee yәw sәɻe wә-wәhәl-o.
he-OBL on-his-car-OBL-I a man-DIR hit(3sg)
‘He hit a man with his car.’
(c)
da-patili-lɑndee
or bәl-kɻ-a!
under-the-cooking pot-OBL-I fire light-do(2sg)
‘Light fire below the cooking pot!’
Moreover, the subject of the past transitive verbs is in the oblique case-I. An
example is given in (6).
tʃәlәwәl-o.
(6)
sәɻi
gɑde
man-OBL-I
car-DIR was driving(3sg)
‘The man was driving a car.’
In addition to the above function of the oblique case-I noun, it serves many
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other purposes that are described below.
• Dative case: A noun in oblique case-I can serve as the indirect object
(dative case) of all the ditransitive verbs. An example is given in (7).
(7)
hәlik xpәl mәlgәri-la kitɑb warkawi.
boy his friend-OBL-I(OBJ2)-to book(OBJ1) giving(3sg)
‘The boy is giving a book to his friend.’
• Instrumental case: Instrumental case noun shows a noun that is used as
an instrument in performing an action. A noun in oblique case can
serve as the instrumental object. It must be kept in mind that in
Pashto, the instrumental case nouns come after a preposition pa ‘on’
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
(8)
•
(9)
(10)
5
and sometimes before a postposition sara ‘with’. An example of the
latter case is given in (8):
hәɣә
kɑʃoɣee
sara
dodәi
wәxwәɻa.
he
spoon-OBL-I
with
meal(fem)
ate(3sg, fem)
‘He ate his meal with the help of a spoon.’
The intransitive verbs do not take an object. However, the verbs such
as wәyәl ‘to say’, xandəl ‘to laugh’, and jaɻәl ‘to weep’, called hukmi
mutɑddi mәsdәruna by Reshteen (1994: 321), sometimes take two
arguments, one is the subject and another one is a postpositional
phrase. This postposition contains an oblique case-I noun and a
postposition ta ‘to’. Examples are (9) and (10).
Xәzee
mәɻi
ta
jɑɻi.
women
dead-OBL-I
to
weeping(3pl).
‘The women are weeping to the dead person.’
hәɣә
xpal
malgari
ta
wәxandәl.
he
his
friend-OBL-I
to
smiled
‘He smiled at his friend.’
2.3.3 The oblique case-II
A noun in this case is used to denote the origin of a verb. Penzl (1955: 65)
recognizes this noun case in Pashto and gives it the name oblique case-II. The
prepositions da ‘from’ and la ‘from’, and the pre/postpositional pair tar …
poree ‘up to’ are used as with a noun in oblique case-II. Examples are (11) and
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(12).
(11)
da-kora
rɑwә-wәtam.
from house-OBL-II
came out(1sg)
‘I came out of the house.’
(12)
tar-peeXawara-poree
zam.
up to-Peshawar-OBL-II going(1sg)
‘I am going upto Peshawar.’
According to Khattak (1988: 50), it is the vocative case that is used with
pre/postpositions that is called the oblique case-II by Penzl (1955: 65).
However, the use of nouns in vocative case cannot be justified in such a
situation. For example, there is no justification of using a noun in vocative case
in (13).
(13)
zә
da-kora
rɑwә-wәtam.
I
from house-OBL-II
came out(1sg)
‘I came out of the house.’
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
6
The noun kora ‘house’ that is equivalent to kor-na ‘house’ cannot be
considered to be in vocative case. Rather, it is another case that is oblique caseII. To justify the existence of oblique case-II, one may observe that the vocative
form of the feminine noun mor ‘mother’ is moree ‘O mother!’, but its oblique
case-II is mora ‘mother’ the use of which is shown in (14).
tɑ
dɑ
xabara
tar-mora-poree wә-rasawәla?
you
this
news(fem)
to-mother
told(3sg, fem)
‘Did you tell this news to your mother?’
It is evident from this discussion that the oblique case-II exists in Pashto.
(14)
2.3.4 The vocative case
The vocative case is the noun case used to address someone. The addressing
particles such as ya and ay are also used with the nouns in vocative case. A
noun in vocative case can be singular or plural. Examples are (15-17).
(15)
ya
xodɑya!
O
God-VOC
‘O God!’
(16)
ay
mɑʃuma!
O
child-VOC
‘O child!’
(17)
ya
xalqo!
O
people-VOC
‘O people!’
The singular form of vocative case noun is formed using the suffix –a.
However, the plural form of vocative case nouns is just like the oblique case-I
plural nouns.
3. The Classification of Pashto Nouns
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CASE STUDY: "Building The Benetton System", Werner Ketelhoehn. Benetton, having been around since 1965 has had some massive changes and events to respond to and so I feel that a timeline of the events since the company was founded to be of significant use. 1960's; Development of Lucianos competitive advantage (discussed later). 1965 - Benetton was founded and the first factory was opened in ...
It has already been mentioned that a Pashto noun can be identified to be
masculine or feminine nouns by observing its ending phoneme. Broadly, Pashto
nouns can be divided into two categories: animate and inanimate. The nouns
that refer to living things are animate nouns. Most of the animate nouns have
their masculine and feminine pairs. Some examples are:
Masculine nouns: xәr ‘he donkey’, as ‘horse’, nikә ‘grandfather’,
wror ‘brother’, plɑr ‘father’
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
7
Feminine nouns: xra ‘she donkey’, aspa ‘mare’, nyɑ ‘grandmother’,
xor ‘sister’, mor ‘mother’
Reshteen (1994: 83) further classifies these nouns as those having different
masculine and feminine forms. These are the nouns where the masculine forms
are totally different from the corresponding feminine forms. Examples are:
Masculine form: nikә ‘grandfather’, wror ‘brother’, plɑr ‘father’
Feminine forms: nyɑ ‘grandmother’, xor ‘sister’, mor ‘mother’
Feminine forms are also constructed from the corresponding masculine
forms. These are the nouns where the feminine forms are derived from the
masculine forms by inflection. That is, to form the feminine noun, the
inflectional morphemes for feminine form are added to the masculine form’s
stem. Examples are xәr ‘he donkey’ and insɑn ‘he human’, whose feminine
forms are xra ‘she donkey’ and insɑna ‘she human’ respectively.
There are, however, many nouns that are either masculine or feminine.
According to Reshteen (1994: 89-90), these are nouns that refer to small
animals, insects and some of the birds in which there is no need to distinguish
between male and female. Examples are kab ‘fish’, meege ‘ant’, matʃay ‘bee’,
wraga ‘flea’, and lɑtu ‘top’.
The inanimate nouns do not necessarily have a masculine-feminine pair.
Most of these nouns are identified to be masculine or feminine nouns by their
ending phonemes. A noun (animate or inanimate) will be masculine if the
pronoun that replaces it is masculine; the adjective that modifies it is
masculine; the determiner (if any), used with it, is for the masculine or most
importantly the verb, (usually a copula verb) that is used with it, is in
agreement with a masculine subject or object (depending on the tense).
An
example is (18).
(18) dɑ
yaw-mazbut-meez
de.
this
a(mas)-strong(mas)-table(mas)
is(3sg, mas)
‘This is a strong table.’
Here, the determiner yaw ‘one’, the adjective mazbut ‘strong’, and the
copula verb de ‘is’ are all in agreement with a masculine noun. So, meez ‘table’
is a masculine noun.
On the other hand, a noun is said to be a feminine noun if it can be replaced
by a feminine pronoun; the determiner (if any), that is used with it, is for
feminine; it is modified by a feminine adjective, or the verb used with it is in
agreement with a feminine subject or object (depending on the tense).
An
example is (19).
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
8
(19) dɑ
yawa-mazbuta-korsəi
da.
this
a(fem)-strong(fem)-chair(fem)
is(3sg,fem)
‘This is a strong chair.’
Different Pashto grammarians such as Zyar (2003: 44-46), Reshteen (1994:
78-91) and Penzl (1955: 51-62) categorize the Pashto nouns into masculine and
feminine classes according to their final phonemes. Bellew (1986: 10-30) and
others have also contributed significantly to the investigation about Pashto
nouns. A brief discussion, on the classification of the first three leading
grammarians (two native and one non-native), is given below.
Zyar (2003: 44-46) categorises the Pashto nouns in a very simplified and
clear manner. Reshteen (1994: 78-91) has given a more detailed classification.
There are, of course, some unsolved problems in Reshteen’s classification
whose solution can be seen in Zyar’s work. For example, Reshteen says that the
feminine nouns that end in a consonant (a masculine noun’s ending phoneme)
are inanimate. But the nouns such as mor ‘mother’, xor ‘sister’, lur ‘daughter’,
and tror ‘aunt’ refer to animate feminine beings. Zyar (2003: 45) gives answer
to this question by saying that the nouns that refer to a feminine relative and
end in a consonant are feminine nouns.
Penzl’s (1955: 51-62) classification of the Pashto nouns can be considered as
the best one, among the three, because of the following facets of the Pashto
nouns:
Livingness and non-livingness of the object designated by the noun
The type of stress on the ending phoneme of the noun
The livingness or non-livingness is important because it reveals some
properties of a given noun. For example, an inanimate noun that ends in a
consonant has a plural form ending in una. An example is koruna ‘houses’ that
is the plural form of ‘house’. An animate noun that ends in a consonant
constructs its plural by adding the suffix -ɑn to it. An example is dostɑn
‘friends’ that is the plural form of dost ‘friend’.
The type of the stress (loud or weak) on the ending phoneme of a noun is
important because the degree of this stress affects the properties of a noun. For
example, a masculine noun that ends in a loud-stressed e such as saɻe ‘man’
has a direct plural form ending in a loud-stressed i that is saɻi ‘men’. On the
other hand, a masculine noun that ends in a weak-stressed e such as malgare
‘friend’ has a direct plural form that ends in a weak-stressed i that is malgari
‘friends’. This difference between loud and weak stress can be observed only in
spoken Pashto. In Pashto, stress plays an important role and according to Penzl
(1955: 41), every Pashto word has one loud-stressed syllable. Penzl has
considered the phonological aspects of the Pashto nouns in his classification of
nouns, which is, indeed an excellent work.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
9
4. The Proposed Classification of Nouns
The conjugation of Pashto nouns forms the basis for the proposed classification
of Pashto. This classification is made in such a way that the groups of nouns
that show similar characteristics are merged in a single class.
4.1 The First Masculine Class
The first masculine class consists of the masculine nouns that end in
consonants. Some examples are plɑr ‘father’, insɑn ‘human’, dukɑn ‘shop’,
and kor ‘house’. These nouns are either animate or inanimate. Although, there
is some difference in the conjugation of animate and inanimate nouns, these
have many common characteristics such as the maximum number of forms this
type of nouns can have. That is why these are kept in a single group. The
following are the characteristics of the nouns included in this class:
1. Some of the animate nouns of this class form their feminine by adding
weak-stressed a to their ends.
2. The direct singular and the oblique case-I singular forms of these nouns are
identical.
3. The direct plural is formed.
4. By adding the suffix -ɑn to the animate nouns.
5. By adding the suffix -una to the inanimate nouns.
6. The oblique case-I plural of this type of nouns is formed by adding weakstressed o to the end of the direct plural form.
7. The oblique case-II singular and the vocative singular forms of this type of
nouns are identical.
8. This type of nouns can have at most four forms.
An FST for these nouns is given in Fig. 1.
There are many nouns in this class that show a lot of stem variation in its
different forms. Reshteen (1994: 78-91) has tried to categorize these nouns by
giving the rules for the morphophonemic changes during the conjugation of a
particular type of nouns. Nevertheless, it is not predictable in which noun(s)
these changes will take place. That is why these are called irregular nouns.
These are discussed below.
a. Some of the nouns in which the second last, or the middle, alphabet is
quiet u or i such as poXtun ‘Patan’.
This type of nouns show irregularity in feminine formation (if applicable)
and direct plural formation. The feminine formation of this type of nouns is
given below.
i.
Delete the quiet u or i and add the vowel a to the consonant before
this u or i.
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
ii.
10
Add loud-stressed a at the end of the output of the above step.
An example is poXtun. Its feminine formation is given below.
i.
ii.
poXtun– u + a poXtan
poXtan +a poXtana ‘female Patan’
3
4
1
2
5
6
7
Fig. 1 First masculine class
•
•
The direct plural of this type of noun is formed from the corresponding
feminine form. It is discussed below.
i.
Add ɑ before the third last alphabet of the feminine
form.
ii.
Replace the ending a by ə.
An example is:
i.
poXtana-na+ɑ+na poXtɑna
ii.
poXtɑna – a+ə poXtɑnә ‘plural of Patan’
The oblique case-I plural form of this type of nouns is formed by
replacing the ending of the feminine form by loud-stressed o. An
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
11
example is poXtano. An FST for such type of the first masculine class
is given below.
3
1
2
4
5
6
7
Fig. 2 Irregular nouns of first masculine class
b. Some of the masculine nouns that have encountered changes:
The nouns such as asba i.e. ‘the caretaker of horses’, xarba i.e. ‘the
caretaker of donkeys’ and ɣoba i.e. ‘the caretaker of bulls’ are actually
asbun, xarbun and ɣobun respectively (Reshteen, 1994: 78-91).
These
nouns have encountered changes in them. The conjugation of these type of
nouns is done just like the nouns given in the previous part (i.e. part-a).
For
example, the direct plural form of asba is asbɑnә.
c. The noun composed of two consonants connected by a vowel such as
xar ‘donkey’.
This type of nouns also shows irregularity in feminine formation (if any)
and plural formation. This is discussed below.
•
The feminine form of this type of nouns is formed by deleting the
connecting vowel and adding loud-stressed a to it. An example is
xra ‘she donkey’ that is the feminine form of xar ‘he donkey’.
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
12
•
The direct plural of this type of nouns is formed by replacing the
ending a of the feminine form by ə. An example is xrə ‘donkeys’
that is the direct plural form of xar ‘donkey’.
• The oblique case-I plural form of this type of nouns is formed by
replacing the ending ə of the direct plural by loud-stressed o. An
example is xro ‘donkeys’.
d. Many other nouns that end in consonants.
There are many other nouns of this class that are irregular. They show
irregularity in the form of:
i. Irregular direct plural formation: There are some nouns that are animate,
but they form their direct plurals by adding the suffix una to them. An
example is as ‘horse’ whose direct plural form is asuna ‘horses’. There
are also some nouns that are inanimate, but they form their direct plurals
by adding the suffix ɑn to them. An example is tut ‘mulberry’ the direct
plural of which is tutɑn ‘mulberries’.
ii. Stem variation: There are many nouns in this class that show a lot of
stem variation in their different forms. An example is zwe ‘son’ the
direct plural form of which is zɑman ‘sons’.
4.2 The Second Masculine Class
This class consists of the masculine nouns that end in loud-stressed e. Some
examples of this type of nouns are saɻe ‘man’, marɣe ‘bird’, spe ‘dog’ and
patke ‘turban’. The nouns that are included in this class have the following
common characteristics:
1. Some of the animate masculine nouns of this class form their feminine by
replacing the ending e by əi.
2. The direct plural of these nouns is formed by replacing the ending e of the
direct singular by loud-stressed i.
3. The oblique case-I plural of this type of nouns is formed by replacing the
ending i of the direct plural by loud-stressed o.
4. The direct plural, oblique case-I and case-II singular forms of the nouns of
this class are identical.
5. The vocative of the nouns of this class is formed by adding a to their direct
plural form.
6. The nouns in this class can have at most four forms.
An FST for the second masculine class is shown in Fig. 3.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
13
3
1
2
4
5
6
7
Fig. 3 Second masculine class
4.3 The Third Masculine Class
The nouns of this class end in weak-stressed e. Some examples are malgare
‘friend’, kɑnɻe ‘stone’, kale ‘village’, and take ‘point’. The following are the
characteristics of the nouns that are included in this class.
i. Some of the animate masculine nouns of this class form their
corresponding feminine forms by replacing the ending e by weakstressed ee.
ii. The direct plurals of the nouns of this class are formed by replacing the
ending e by weak-stressed i.
iii. Their oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending i of their
direct plural by weak-stressed o.
iv. Their oblique case-I singular, oblique case-II singular and direct plural
forms are identical.
v. The vocative form of the nouns of this class is formed by adding a to the
end of the direct plural form.
vi. This type of nouns can have at most four forms.
An FST for the third masculine class is shown in Fig. 4.
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3
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2
4
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6
7
Fig. 4 Third masculine class
4.4 The Fourth Masculine Class
This class consists of the Pashto masculine nouns that end in ə. Some examples
are trə ‘uncle’, nikə ‘grandfather’, kɑrɣә ‘crow’ and rɑnjә ‘lamp black’. The
characteristics of the nouns that are included in this class are:
i. If the noun refers to a human or its part of body, then:
The direct plural is formed by replacing ə by una. There are some
irregular nouns in this class. An example is wrɑrә ‘nephew’, which
forms its direct plural by stem-vowel alternation and replacing ə by
una, that is wreeruna ‘nephews’.
The oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending a of the
direct plural form by weak-stressed o.
These properties of the fourth masculine class are shown in the FST, given in
Fig. 5.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
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3
1
2
4
5
Fig.5 Fourth masculine class
ii. If the noun refers to an animal or a bird, then their direct plural is
formed by replacing ə by ɑn and their oblique case-I plural is formed by
adding weak-stressed o to the direct plural form. Fig. 6 shows these
nouns computationally.
1
2
3
4
Fig. 6 Animals’ or birds’ nouns of the fourth masculine class
iii. The direct singular, oblique case-I singular, oblique case-II singular and
the vocative case are identical.
iv. Can have at most three forms.
v. If it is a material noun, then the noun itself is either in singular form or
is in the direct plural form. In the first case, the direct singular and plural
forms are identical. For example, weeXtə ‘hair’. In this case, the oblique
Mohammad Abid Khan and Fatima Tuz Zuhra
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case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending ə by loud-stressed o. If
there is an ɑ at the second position or after a bunch of alphabets that are
without any vowel i.e. quiet, then this ɑ is deleted in oblique case-I
plural formation. An example is ranjo that is the oblique case-I plural of
rɑnjә ‘lamp black’. This type of nouns can have at most two forms as
shown in Fig. 7.
1
1
2
3
2
3
4
4
5
Fig. 7 Material nouns in the fourth masculine class
4.5 The Fifth Masculine Class
This class consists of the Pashto masculine nouns that end in u or ɑ. Some
examples are sɑndu ‘wife’s sister’s husband’, kadu ‘pumpkin’, alu ‘potato’,
bɑbɑ ‘grandfather’, lɑlɑ ‘elder brother’ and sandɑ ‘male buffalo’. The common
characteristics of the nouns of this class are given below.
i. The direct plurals of the nouns of this class are formed by adding gɑn in
case of the nouns ending in ɑ and by adding gɑn or ɑn in case of the
nouns ending in u. In case of ɑn, the vowel of the alphabet before the
final u is deleted (i.e. it becomes quiet).
An example is tʃɑqwɑn
‘knives’. The noun sandɑ ‘male buffalo’ has either sandɑgɑn or sandgɑn
as its direct plural form. The later is formed by deleting the ending ɑ
from the noun and adding gɑn to it.
ii. The oblique case-I plurals of the nouns of this class are formed by
adding weak-stressed o to the end of their direct plurals.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
17
iii. The direct singular, oblique case-I and case-II singular, and the vocative
singular forms are identical.
iv. This type of nouns can have at most three forms.
The FST in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 shows the fifth masculine class.
3
1
2
4
5
Fig. 8 Fifth masculine class nouns ending in ɑ
1
2
4
5
3
Fig. 9 Fifth masculine class nouns ending in u
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4.6 The Sixth Masculine Class
This masculine class consists of the Pashto masculine nouns that end in aw.
Some examples are palaw ‘side’, kandaw ‘a place between two mountains’, and
law ‘reaping’. The nouns of this class have the following common
characteristics.
i. The direct plurals of these nouns are formed by adding the suffix una to
them. The ending vowel of this suffix is weak-stressed a.
ii. Their oblique case-I plurals are formed by replacing the ending a of the
direct plurals by weak-stressed o.
iii. Their oblique case-II singulars are formed by adding a to their direct
singular forms.
iv. The nouns of this class can have at most four forms.
The sixth masculine class is shown computationally in Fig. 10, using an
FST.
3
1
4
2
5
6
Fig. 10 The sixth masculine class
4.7 The Seventh Masculine Class
The nouns of this class end in i. Some examples are motʃi ‘cobbler’, darzi
‘taylor’, and qɑzi ‘judge’. They have the following characteristics (depicted in
Fig.11):
i. Their direct plurals are formed by adding the suffix ɑn to them.
ii. Their oblique case-I plurals are formed by adding weak-stressed o to the
end of their direct plurals.
iii. Their direct singular, oblique case-I and case-II singular, and vocative
singular forms are identical.
iv. These nouns can have at most three forms.
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3
1
2
4
5
Fig. 11 The seventh masculine class
4.8 The First Feminine Class
This class consists of the Pashto feminine nouns that end in weak-stressed a in
their direct singular forms. Some examples are Xaza ‘woman’, aspa ‘mare’,
and naXa ‘target’. The common characteristics of the nouns of this class are
given below.
i. Their direct plural is formed by replacing the ending a by weak-stressed
ee.
ii. Their oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending ee of the
direct plural by weak-stressed o.
The direct plural, oblique case-I singular, oblique case-II singular and
vocative singular forms are the same except the nouns ending in ɑna,
for example, insɑna ‘female human’, musalmɑna ‘female muslim’,
and pɑlawɑna ‘female athlete’. In case of these types of nouns, the
direct plural form is different from the other forms mentioned above.
For example, the direct plural of insɑna ‘female human’ is insɑnɑnee
‘female humans’ that is different from its oblique case-I, case-II and
vocative singular forms that is insɑnee.
iii. This type of nouns has mostly three forms. But in some cases, these
nouns can have four forms (e.g. insɑnɑna).
Fig. 12 shows the computational view of the first feminine class.
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Fig. 12 The first feminine class
4.9 The Second Feminine Class
This class consists of the Pashto feminine nouns that end in loud-stressed a or
ə. Some examples are ʃpa ‘night’, meelmana ‘female guest’, meela ‘fair’, tʃɑɻә
‘large knife’, and xolə ‘mouth’. The common characteristics of the nouns of
this class are given below.
i. The direct plural is formed by replacing the ending a or ə by loudstressed ee.
ii. The oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending ee of the
direct plural by loud-stressed o.
iii. The direct plural, oblique case-I singular, oblique case-II singular and
vocative singular (if any) forms are identical.
iv. This type of nouns can have at most three forms.
There are, however, some irregular nouns in this class that show variation in
stems of their different forms. Some examples are:
tʃɑɻә ‘large knife’, the direct plural of which is tʃaɻee.
a.
b.
tyɑrә ‘darkness’, the direct plural of which is tyaree.
It can be observed that in the direct plural formation, the ɑ after one or two
quiet alphabets has been deleted. Fig. 13 shows this class of feminine nouns.
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
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3
1
2
4
5
Fig. 13 The second feminine class
4.10 The Third Feminine Class
This class consists of the Pashto feminine nouns that end in loud-stressed ɑ, o
and the animate feminine nouns ending in i. Some examples are ɣwɑ ‘cow’,
nyɑ ‘grandmother’, ʃɑ ‘back’, bizo ‘monkey’, zɑngo ‘cradle’, and mɑmi ‘aunt’.
The common characteristics of the nouns of this class are given below.
i. The direct plural is formed by adding weak-stressed suffix gɑne to the
direct singular form.
ii. The oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending ee of the
direct plural form by weak-stressed o.
iii. The direct singular, oblique case-I singular, oblique case-II singular, and
the vocative singular form (if any) are identical.
iv. This type of nouns can have at most three forms.
The third feminine class is shown computationally in Fig. 14.
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Fig. 14 The third feminine class
According to Penzl (1955: 61), the direct plurals of the feminine nouns,
ending in ɑ and o, is formed by adding the suffix wee to it. However, in
Yousafzai Pashto, the suffix gɑnee is used for direct plural formation of these
nouns.
4.11 The Fourth Feminine Class
This feminine class consists of the Pashto inanimate feminine nouns that end in
i. Some examples are Xɑdi ‘festivity’, wror-wali ‘brotherhood’, dosti
‘friendship’, and duʃmani ‘enmity’. The nouns in this class have the following
characteristics.
i. The direct plural is formed by replacing the ending i by əi.
ii. The oblique plural is formed by replacing the ending əi of the direct
plural by loud-stressed o.
iii. The direct plural, oblique case-I, oblique case-II singular, and vocative
singular (if any) are identical.
iv. The nouns of this class can have at most three forms.
These nouns are shown in Fig. 15.
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3
1
2
4
5
Fig. 15 The fourth feminine class
4.12 The Fifth Feminine Class
The nouns of this feminine class end in əi. Some examples are marɣәi ‘bird’,
spəi ‘bitch’, hosəi ‘hare’, and marəi ‘throat’. The nouns in this class have the
following properties.
i. The direct singular, direct plural, oblique case-I and case-II singular, and
the vocative singular (if any) forms are identical.
ii. The oblique plural is formed by replacing the ending əi of the direct
form by loud-stressed o.
iii. These nouns can have at most two forms.
iv. Some of the feminine nouns of this class are irregular that is, some of
these nouns encounter morphophonemic changes during their
conjugation. For example, the direct plural of jinəi ‘girl’ is jinəkəi
‘girls’. In case of these irregular nouns, the nouns of this class can have
three forms.
The fifth feminine class is shown by the FST in Fig. 16.
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3
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Fig. 16 The fifth feminine class
4.13 The Sixth Feminine Class
This class consists of the Pashto feminine nouns that end in weak-stressed ee.
Some examples are malgaree ‘friend’, xwɑXee ‘mother-in-law’, and yawee
‘plough’. The nouns in this class (shown in Fig. 17.) have the following
characteristics.
i. The direct plural is either the same as the direct singular or is formed by
adding ɑnee to the direct singular form.
ii. The oblique plural is formed by replacing the ending ee of the direct
plural by weak-stressed o.
iii. The direct singular, oblique case-I and case-II singular, and vocative
singular (if any) forms are identical.
iv. The nouns in this class can have two or three forms.
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3
1
2
4
5
Fig. 17 The sixth feminine class
4.14 The Seventh Feminine Class
This feminine class consists of the Pashto feminine nouns that end in a
consonant. Some examples are mor ‘mother’, xor ‘sister’, lur ‘daughter’, tror
‘aunt’ and yor ‘husband’s brother’s wife’. The nouns in this class show the
following characteristics.
i. The direct plural formation of this type of nouns is both regular and
irregular. If it is regular, the suffix yɑnee is added to the direct singular
form. The final phoneme of this suffix is weak-stressed. An example is
troryɑnee ‘aunts’ that is the direct plural form of tror ‘aunt’. In case of
irregular formation, some morphophonemic change occurs. An example
is lunɻa ‘daughters’ that is the direct plural of lur ‘daughter’.
ii. The oblique case-I plural is formed by replacing the ending ee of the
direct plural by weak-stressed o.
iii. The direct singular and oblique case-I singular forms are identical.
iv. The oblique case-II form is constructed by adding the suffix a to the
direct singular form.
v. The vocative singular is formed by adding weak-stressed ee to the direct
singular.
vi. These nouns can have at most five forms. For example, mor ‘mother’,
myandee, myando, mora, and moree.
The seventh feminine class is shown by the FST in Fig. 18.
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Fig. 18 The seventh feminine class
5. Justification of the Proposed Classification of Nouns
This classification of nouns is better than the other ones because this is done
from the computational point of view. There is a need to provide the computer
with regular rules for each particular class of nouns (or any grammatical
category).
The classifications done by other authors are not suitable due to the
following reasons.
• Zyar (2003: 44-46) and Reshteen (1994: 78-91) identify the ending
morphemes of the Pashto nouns; they also identify the suffixes for the
nouns’ conjugations but do not classify these nouns properly. That is
why their classification of nouns is not much suitable from
computational point of view. However, in the proposed classification,
their work was very helpeful..
• Penzl’s (1955: 51-62) classification can be regarded an excellent
classification of nouns but the membership for many classes is not
predictable in this classification. For example, the author says that the
first masculine class consists of inanimate nouns but later on, he
includes some animate nouns in this class due to some common
characteristics of them. This is difficult to be implemented on a
computer. Also, he identifies a particular set of suffixes (more than one)
for the members of a single class, but does not tell which of these nouns
will use which suffix.
The classification done here is better than the others because it tries to
separate the nouns having different characteristics and merges the nouns having
The Computational Morphology of Pashto Nouns
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the same characteristics. The main concerns in this classification are to make
the membership of a particular class of noun predictable and to give regular
morphological rules for each class of the nouns.
6. Conclusion
This paper provides a detailed account of the morphology of Pashto nouns. The
facets for which a Pashto noun inflects are discussed. The ending phonemes of
masculine and feminine nouns are identified by studying the work of different
Pashto grammarians. The characteristics of different nouns, ending in different
phonemes, are observed. Finally, a classification of the Pashto nouns is
proposed based on these observations. Finite State Transducers, for each of the
class, have also been given. This could be used for building a Morphological
Analyzer for Pashto nouns.
References
Bellew, H. W. (1986).
Pashto Instructor – A Grammar of the Pukkhto Language.
Peshawar: Saeed Book Bank and Subscription Agency.
Moomand, Q., et al. (1994).
Daryaab Pashto Dictionary. Peshawar: N.W.F.P Textbook
Board.
Penzl H. (1955).
A Grammar of Pashto. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Reshteen, P. S. (1994).
Pashto Grammar. Peshawar: University Book Agency, Khyber
Bazar.
Zuhra, F. et al. (2005).
The Computational Morphology of Pashto. MSc Thesis.
Department of Computer Science, University of Pashawar.
Zyar, M. A. (2003).
Pashto Grammar. Peshawar: Danish Publishing Association, Qissa
Khwani Bazar.
