Investigating Social Factors in Linguistic Changes in Afghanistan

Mullajan Rahmani and Mir Ahmad Faizmand

Volume 6 Issue 1 | Jun 2023

DOI: 10.31841/KJSSH-6.1-2023-61

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Abstract

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic, linguistic and religious country and more than 30 ethnic and linguistic groups live in it, however, the official languages of this country are Pashto and Dari. Hence the unofficial languages of different ethnic groups during time have led to the forgetting of some of them and the predominance of official and dominant languages. Some language changes include administrative, educational and academic formalities, environmental factors, people's lack of awareness of preventing the destruction of the language and its ethnic identity, the existence of civil wars and even foreign political and cultural factors. The languages of a number of ethnic groups like the language of an ethnic group Hazaras, Imaq, Qazalbash, Qirqiz, Arab, Sadat, and Parachi has been reduced and forgotten due to various environmental, political, administrative, natural conditions, forced decisions and motives have caused their language to be forgotten and destroyed. Even the Pashto language, which is the official and national language of Afghanistan, in a large number of localities, regions and provinces where Pashtuns lived, their ethnic language has forgotten. The general factors of this forgetting and changing the language are the marginal status of these ethnic groups among the large ethnic groups, administrative, educational and academic formalities, political and compulsory pressures, civil wars, and the lack of awareness of the people to prevent the destruction of the language and thereby their linguistic and ethnic identity. The purpose of the current research is to investigate and analyze the linguistic changes of different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is to introduce the forgotten languages of Afghanistan's ethnic minorities, why and how the languages of small ethnic groups are disappearing, and what should be done? The research method of this article is descriptive and analytical, and the means of collecting library information is the use of articles, books, internet resources and observation.
Keywords: Language, changes, Afghanistan, Social factors