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Language Information

Pashto, also known as Pashtu, is one of the two major languages of Afghanistan. It is spoken by about 10 million people there—about 60 percent of the population- mostly in the eastern half of the country. It is also spoken in northwestern Pakistanby about 10 million people.

Pashto is the language of the Pathans, the indigenous inhabitants of Afghanistan. Like Persian, it is one of the Iranian languages, and thus part of the Indo-European family. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script, but the alphabet contains a number of letters not to be found in either Persian or Arabic. The term "Pashto" actually refers to the more important of the two dialects- the so-called soft dialect of Afghanistan which preserves the ancient sh and zh sounds. For those parts of Pakistan where the "hard" kh and gh prevail, the language is generally referred to as Pakhto.

Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Indo-Iranian
Branch: Iranian

Writing Sample

Translation

When her petall'd lips are parting,
Whitest pearls do lose their lustre;
When her glance to me is darting.
Fades the fairest flower cluster;
Roses shamed, forget to blossom
Brighter radiance to discover
In the budding of a bosom
Flaunting as to bee the clover;
She the rose, her grace bestowing
On the thorn, that waits her pleasure,
I the fountain, faintly glowing,
Mirror of a garden's treasure,
Lover, loved, together knowing
Rapture passing dream or measure.

—KHUSHHAL KHAN KHATAK, Love in a Garden