Sunday, June 06, 2010

Good ol' Days In Afghanistan?

Here's a pretty interesting look at what Afghanistan was like back in the 50s and 60s, assuming it's true. What makes me wonder is the first picture of the record store. The only writing I can see is in English. I would think there would at least be an Arabic version of the sign alongside the English one if that was really in Afghanistan.

Hat tip to Radley Balko for the link.

3 Comments:

At 4:01 PM, Blogger Joel Mielke said...

Fred, why would you expect Arabic signs in an Afghan shop?

 
At 12:46 PM, Anonymous Mr. Nice said...

What Fred said is not incorrect. Pashto, Dari (Farsi) are written with a form of the Arabic alphabet.

The original written languages of Afghanistan looked like ancient Persian writing which fell out of use in favor of the Arabic alphabet. Sorta like how Quốc Ngữ replaced Chữ nôm writing in Vietnam.

 
At 5:44 PM, Blogger Joel Mielke said...

Sorry Mr. Nice, but Pashto, like Kurdish, uses a modified Arabic script, but the languages are unrelated to Arabic. Arabic signs in Afghanistan would only be intelligible to those literate in Arabic.

Yes, Vietnamese is a modified Roman, but it is not related to Latin. It's nice of you to try to defend Fred's ignorance though.

 

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