Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 August 31

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August 31

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"Da" Afghanistan Bank

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What does "da" mean in Da Afghanistan Bank (Pashto: د افغانستان بانک‎; Dari: بانک مرکزی افغانستان‎). "Central"? "The"? --Error (talk) 15:24, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if this is the answer, Error, but wikt:د#Pashto says (under "Etymology 2")
Preposition
د • (dë)
of

--ColinFine (talk) 15:37, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That makes a lot of sense. Pashto grammar#Prepositions has
Mark possession e.g. د سړي لاس [A man's hand]
So it seems that Pashto puts noun phrases before their main nouns. However that article also says:
The salient exception to the head-final principle can be found in adpositional phrases, given the existence of prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions
  Resolved
--Error (talk) 15:50, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
My word that's quite a mouthful. I didn't know Robert John Gorham was a Pashtun. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:54, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]