Pashto
Pashto (Naskh: پښتو - [paʂˈto]; also transliterated Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, or Pushtu), also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. The number of Pashto-speakers is estimated to be 30-40 million, and as defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, Pashto is an official and national language of the country.
Spoken in Afghanistan: east, south, southwest and some parts of north and northwest; Pakistan: northwestern provinces (NWFP, northern Balochistan, and some parts of Northern Areas); some parts of northeastern Iran; and the rest of Pashtun diaspora Region South-Central Asia
Total speakers: approx. 26 million
Ranking 33
Language family: Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Eastern Iranian
South Eastern
Writing system: Naskh (Arabic alphabet)
Official status: Official language of Afghanistan (official) Pakistan (provincial)
Regulated by Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan
Language codes:
ISO 639-1 ps
ISO 639-2 pus
ISO 639-3 variously:
pus – Pashto (generic)
pst – Central Pashto
pbu – Northern Pashto
pbt – Southern Pashto
In Afghanistan, Pashto is promoted as the first state language, and article 20 of the Constitution of Afghanistan states that the Afghan National Anthem "shall be in Pashto..." Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan that are used for the administration of the government throughout the country. Pashto is also used in education, literature, office and court business, media, and in religious institutions, etc. It is a repository of the cultural and social heritage of the country. In Pakistan, Pashto is not an official language, but it is one of the provincial languages spoken by the Pashtuns living in Pakistan, in the NWFP, FATA and Balochistan.
Pashto is an S-O-V language with split ergativity. Adjectives come before nouns. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masc./fem.),[22] two numbers (sing./plur.), and four cases (direct, oblique I, oblique II and vocative). The verb system is very intricate with the following tenses: present, subjunctive, simple past, past progressive, present perfect and past perfect. In any of the past tenses (simple past, past progressive, present perfect and past perfect), Pashto is an ergative language; i.e., transitive verbs in any of the past tenses agree with the object of the sentence.
