Masidwola ( ps, ماسیدوله, meaning "of the Mehsuds"), Mehsudi, or Maseedwola is a dialect of Waziristani.

Background

Waziristani is an east-central

Pashto dialect Pashto dialects ( ps, د پښتو ژبګوټي də Pəx̌tó žәbgóṭi) can be divided into two large varieties: Northern Pashto and Southern Pashto. Each of the two varieties of Pashto is further divided into a number of dialects. Northern P ...

spoken in

South Waziristan South Waziristan District ( ps, سويلي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) was a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before splitting in to Lower South Waziristan District and Upper South Waziristan District and ...

, Southeastern parts of

North Waziristan North Waziristan District ( ps, شمالي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanis ...

, parts of Bannu and

Tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, and in certain adjacent districts of

Paktika Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...

Khost Khōst ( ps, خوست) is the capital of Khost Province in Afghanistan. It is the largest city in the southeastern part of the country, and also the largest in the region of Loya Paktia. To the south and east of Khost lie Waziristan and Kurram ...

and

Paktia Paktia (Pashto/Dari: – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 6 ...

provinces of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The Masidwola dialect is almost identical to the dialect spoken around

Urgun Urgun ( ps, ارګون) is the main town of the Urgun District of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. With an estimated population of 10,665,Paktika province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharan ...

)

Wazirwola Waziristāní ( ps, وزیرستانۍ), also known as Wazirwóla ( ps, وزیرواله, meaning "of the Wazirs") and Wazirí, is a central Pashto dialect spoken in North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Waziristani differs in pronunciation and ...

dialect and the Bannuchi dialect of Bannu, somewhat resembles the dialect spoken by

Khattak The Khattak ( ps, خټک) tribe are a prominent Pashtun tribe located in the Khattak territory, which consists of Karak, Nowshera, Kohat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. History Khushal Khan Khattak A warrior poet by the name of ...

s in Karak and has distant resemblance with

Afridi The Afrīdī ( ps, اپريدی ''Aprīdai'', plur. ''Aprīdī''; ur, آفریدی) are a Pashtun tribe present in Pakistan, with substantial numbers in Afghanistan. The Afridis are most dominant in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal ...

dialect . The dialects of

Loya Paktia Lōya Paktiā ( ps, لويه پکتيا; lit. Greater Paktia) is a historical and cultural region of Afghanistan, comprising the modern Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, and Paktika, as well as parts of Logar

like Zadrani are also very closely related, except that they are of the harsh northern variety.

Phonology

Masidwola differs significantly in pronunciation and grammar from the standard literary Pashto based on the larger

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and

Yousafzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...

dialects. The vowels � and of standard Pashto yield � and respectively, so aʂtobecomes ɑʃtein Masidwola. Rozi Khan Burki claims that in Waziristani is that the phonemes �and � along with their voiced counterparts, �and � have merged into the phonemes �and � both of which also exist in the nearby

Ormuri Ormuri (Pashto: ارموری ژبه) fa, زبان ارموری; literally, "Ormuri language") also known as ''Baraki, Ormur, Ormui or Bargista '' is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in Southeast Afghanistan and Waziristan. It is primarily spo ...

or Warmuri language of Burkis of

Kaniguram Kānīgūram ( ps, کانيګورم) is a town in South Waziristan, Pakistan about 10 km south of the town of Ladha. Located within the heart of Mahsud land in Waziristan, Kaniguram is the principal place associated with the Ormur or Burki ...

, South Waziristan. But Pashto linguists such as Josef Elfenbein, Anna Boyle or Yousaf Khan Jazab have not noted this in Waziri Phonology.

Lexicon

The standard Pashto word for "boy", "هلک" alək is rarely heard in Masidwola. Instead, "وړکای" uɽkaimeaning "little one" is used. The word "ləshki" əʃkiis used instead of the standard "لږ" əʐ "a little bit". The pronoun موږ ( uʐor ung, meaning "we", is pronounced iʒin Masidwola.

Orthography

Masidwola, like many other obscure Pashto dialects, is almost never written, and its speakers may use standard Pashto as a literary language. Masidwola Pashto is spoken by various tribes, by the

Burki The Ormur ( ps, اورمړ), also called Burki or Baraki ( ps, برکي), are an Eastern Iranic people mainly living in Baraki Barak, Logar, Afghanistan and in Kaniguram, South Waziristan. Despite speaking their own distinct Eastern Iranian l ...

and ''Dawarwola'' by the

Dawari Dāwaṛ ( ps, داوړ) is a Karlani Pashtun tribe mostly inhabiting North Waziristan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The Dawaris inhabit the Tochi Valley and speak the Dawari dialect of Pashto. History The Dawars originally li ...

. There are slight differences in pronunciation, for example, the phonemes ͡sand ͡zcan become and or even ͡ʃand ͡ʒ depending on the tribe or area the speaker is from.

Notes

Linguist List
*Lorimer, John Gordon (1902). ''Grammar and Vocabulary of Waziri Pashto''.

References