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- Pashto - Afghanistan (pus)

Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani. There are approximately 40-60 million native speakers of Pashto-Afghanistan. Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari,and it is the second-largest provincial language of 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 at least 40 million, although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. 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 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan. Since the early 18th century, the monarchs of Afghanistan have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for Habibullāh Kalakāni in 1929). Persian, the literary language of the royal court, was more widely used in government institutions, while the Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue.

In 1936 a royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted Pashto the status of an official language, with full rights to use in all aspects of government and education – despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian. Thus Pashto became a national language, a symbol for Pashtun nationalism.

The constitutional assembly reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to Dari. The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto.

Pashto dialects are divided into two categories, the "soft" southern grouping of Paṣ̌tō, and the "hard" northern grouping of Pax̌tō (Pakhtu). Each group is further divided into a number of dialects. The Southern dialect of Tareeno is the most distinctive Pashto dialect. Southern variety: Abdaili or Kandahar dialect (or South Western dialect), Kakar dialect (or South Eastern dialect), Shirani dialect, Mandokhel dialect, Marwat-Bettani dialect, Southern Karlani group, Khattak dialect, Wazirwola dialect, Dawarwola dialect, Masidwola dialect, Banisi (Banu) dialect.

Northern variety:Central Ghilji dialect (or North Western dialect), Yusapzai and Momand dialect (or North Eastern dialect), Northern Karlani group, Wardak dialect, Taniwola dialect, Mangal tribe dialect, Khosti dialect, Zadran dialect, Bangash-Orakzai-Turi-Zazi dialect, Afridi dialect, Khogyani dialect, Tareeno Dialect

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto
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