An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan/Afghan terms

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An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan

By H. W. Bellew

The Oriental University Institute, Woking, 1891

Notes

Here are given the Afghan terms with equivalent English meaning and language in bracket if not afghan as appeared in the book An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan.

Al = native of-, e.g. Al Khuzi ("native of Khuza")
Albania = "mountainous country"
-ani = "those of" or "belonging to" which the Baloch add to the names of their clans and sections the Persian possessive plural termination -ani,
-āni (which is sometimes changed to -ānri or -āri), corresponding to the Indian -ka. or -ki, and the Afghan -khel and -zi. In Balochistan, whether clans of the Brahwi or of the Baloch, Most of the names of the clans and sections of both these great tribes end in the Persian plural form (possessive) -āni.
Aspi Tazi = "Arab horse"
Awe (Oe) = house habitation (Turki)
Ayisi = of the moon (Turkey)
Barohi = mountaineers or Highlanders
Bozdar = Buzdar Persian for "goat-herd,"
Brokpa = Highlander
Buzdar = Persian for "goat-herd,"

Chirogh-kush— Lights out
Dāg or dāgah = In Pukhto means a bare, flat plain, generally hard, and strewed with pebbles, and is here applied as the name of the elevated plateaux of hard, pebbly, and mostly bare soil, which constitute a characteristic feature of the Tobah highlands.
Dāgh = mountain (Turkey)
Daghistan = "mountainous country"
Dakmac = to call
Dehwar = villager
Darada = mountaineer
Dre-nghari = Three hearths or families
-gal, -gali = names corresponds to the Hindi -Kula and Pukhto -Khel and is also found unaltered in some of the Balochistan tribes ; it means "clan," or "tribe," or "family," or association."
Ghar = Sanskrit gir, " mountain,"

Hamsayah = Dependent, vassals
Jhok = Ushturyani settled sections of the tribe live in small movable huts of mud-plastered wicker work made from the tamarisk, which they build in the form of a village called jhok
Jirgah = Council
Kadal = Persian Kada ("house")
Kadala = movable huts, made of wicker frames of tamarisk twigs plastered with clay
-kal = names corresponds to the Hindi -Kula and Pukhto -Khel and is also found unaltered in some of the Balochistan tribes ; it means "clan," or "tribe," or "family," or association."
-khel = used for kula by Pathans
Khilichi = Swords-men
Khwar = River in Pukhto
Kir = gir (mountain)
Kiri = Cluster or camp
Kizhdi = The nomadic Ushturyani live entirely in the black-hair tents called kizhdi which they pitch in small clusters
Kirata = Kirada, "of the Kir"
Koh = mountain (Persian)
Kohistan = mountainous country

Pachada = Hard clay
Paru-ka = mountaineer
Pukhta - mountaineer's hard pronunciation of the Persian Pushta, which means "mountain" "hill range
Roh = mountain
Roh-wala = native of Roh
Roshanya = the Enlightened
Rustam = name of an indigenous hero of fabulous times, and may mean simply "mountaineer."
Sabak-takin = Yclept Sabak
Sagi Tazi = "Arab dog"
Shahi/Shaho = Of the King
Spin = White
Spin Gundi = White faction
Spin Tarin = White or Superior Tarin
Star Vaziri = Great Vaziri
Syāna-koh = Syana mountain, on the north-eastern borders of Balochistan
Syāni = Pathan tribe's name
Tāgh = mountain (Turkey)
Tāz = " servile, menial, low-bred, subject"
Tazkira = Memoirs
Thum = Governor (Chinese)
Toi == Pukhto noun meaning "rivulet," Kanigoram, etc.
Tor - Black
Tor Tarin = Black or Inferior Tarin