| Comment | I don't know whether there is a Pakistani user of this forum, but, if there is one - or, perhaps, someone else who can explain all this, I would be grateful, because, although I am English, I confess I find it confusing.
I have only relatively recently discovered that the term "Paki" is always perjorative. I have known for a long time that it is in practice used perjoratively by people with certain prejudices which I do not share, but that is another matter.
It is the linguistic question which interests me. I had always believed that the suffix "-istan" meant "land of" in various languages. Hence Afghanistan where the Afghans (sometimes also called Afghanis) live, Tajikistan the land of the Tajikis, Uzbekhistan the land of the Uzbekhs, and so on for Kurdistan, Turkmenistan and probably others. Why is it that we don't refer to Afghanistanis, Tajikistanis, Uzbekhistanis, Kurdistanis and so forth, but we are expected to use the word "Pakistanis", which in the wider context I have indicated, seems somewhat unnatural? |
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