Pashto

Also known as Pushto, Pushtoo, Pashto language, Pushto language, Afghani language, Pashtun, Pashtun language, Afghan

Pashto (, ; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan. It was also known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().

AI overview

Pashto is a language spoken by millions of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it holds official status in Afghanistan. As an Eastern Iranian language, it belongs to the same broader language family as Persian and Kurdish, and has been documented in historical texts under the name Afghani.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Language.ld1: Central Pashto
Language.lc2: pbu
Language.ld2: Northern Pashto
Language.lc3: pbt
Language.ld3: Southern Pashto
Language.lingua: 58-ABD-a
Language.image: Pashto.svg
Language.image_class: skin-invert-image
Language.imagecaption: The word written in the Pashto alphabet
Language.map: Map of Pashto-speaking areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.svg
Language.mapalt: A map of Pashto-speaking areas
Language.name: Pashto
Language.pronunciation: , , ,
Language.states: AfghanistanPakistan
Language.ethnicity: Pashtuns
Language.speakers: L1: million
Language.date: 2017–2023
Language.ref: <ref name="e28

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Pashto.svg

Show 9 more facts

Commons category: Pashto language
Wikimedia language code: ps
native label: پښتو
exact match: publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/PUS
P10369: Encyclopédie
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 38600000
P11012: Sierra del Carche
entry in abbreviations table: अफ़॰
P13311: 2012 Sparta Prague Open

Sources (9)

via Wikidata · CC0

~22 min read

Article

29 sections

Contents

Geographic distribution
Afghanistan
Pakistan
History
Grammar
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Vocabulary
Classical vocabulary
Writing system
Dialects
Literary Pashto
Criticism
Literature
Poetry example
Proverbs
Phrases
Greeting phrases
Colors
List of colors
List of colors borrowed from neighbouring languages
Times of the day
Months
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

Spoken as a native language mainly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari, and the second-largest language in Pakistan, spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan. Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto speakers is estimated at around 35 million to 55 million. Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns.