Pashto
Indo-Aryan language of Afghanistan and Pakistan
Pashto (, PASH-toh; پښتو, Pəx̌tó, [pəʂˈto, pʊxˈto, pəʃˈto, pəçˈto]) is an Eastern Iranian language, belonging to the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. In historical Persian literature, it was also referred to as Afghani (افغانی, Afghāni).
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.
Geographic distribution
A national language of Afghanistan, Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact number of speakers is unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 35–45% of the total population of Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, Pashto is spoken by 18.1% of its population, mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province.
The public source identifies “Pashto” as indo-Aryan language of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pashto, Indo-Aryan and language.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pashto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.