Pashto

Pashto (also known as Pushto or Pukhto) is an Iranic language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken by ethnic Pashtuns in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It is the official language of Afghanistan, and an official language of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.^[7] It is spoken by the Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pashtuns, its speakers, make up majority of the population in Afghanistan. They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and second largest ethnic group in Pakistan, where it is the official provincial language in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (افغانی, Afghāni).^[8]

Pashto
پښتو
Pashto written in Pashto script (Naskh style).
Pronunciation	] [paʂˈto], [paçˈto], [puxˈto]
Native to	Afghanistan; province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Region	Pashto Region
Ethnicity	Pashtun people
Native speakers	40–60 million (2007–2009)[1][2]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Iranian Northeastern[3] Pashto
Standard forms	Northern Pashto Southern Pashto
Dialects	Kabuli Kandahari Yusufzai Khattak Wola Paktia Other Pashto dialects
Writing system	Arabic (Pashto alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Afghanistan[4]
Recognised minority language in	Pakistan[5]
Regulated by	Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan Pashto Academy (Pakistan)[6]
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ps
ISO 639-2	pus
ISO 639-3	pus – inclusive code Individual codes: pst – Central Pashto pbu – Northern Pashto pbt – Southern Pashto wne – Waneci
Linguasphere	58-ABD-a
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Pashto belongs to the Indo-European languages family. It has two main dialects, western dialect and eastern dialect. The small difference between these two dialects is in the use of sounds.

Related pages

• Languages of Afghanistan
• Languages of Pakistan