Pashto (پښتو‎, IPA: [pəʂ'to], also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto پختو‎, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu, Pathani or Pushtoo and also known as Afghan language^[4][5]) is an Iranian language spoken by Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and Pakistan^[6]. Map of South Asia (see note on Kashmir). ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. ... The Southeastern Iranian languages include some 11 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about many people in Asia; this language family is a part of the Eastern Iranian language family. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Pashto (‎, IPA: also known as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto ‎, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu or Pushtoo) is an Iranian language spoken by Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... The Iranian languages are a part of the Indo European language family. ... Language(s) Pashto (plus second languages from countries of residence) Religion(s) Islam (predominantly Sunni) Pashtuns (Pashto/Urdu/Persian: or پختون , also rendered as Pushtuns, Pakhtuns, Pukhtuns), also called Pathans (Urdu: پٹھان, Hindi: पठान ) or ethnic Afghans (Pashto: افغان )[9][10] are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in eastern and...

Geographic distribution

Geographic distribution of Pashto (purple) and other Iranian languages

Pashto is spoken by about 30 million people in the western provinces of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan of Pakistan (15.4% of the total population)^[7] and by over 15 million people in the south, east, west and a few northern provinces of Afghanistan (ca. 40% of the total population).^[8] In Pakistan, smaller, modern "transplant" communities are also found in Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad). Other smaller communities of Pashto speakers also thrive in northeastern Iran and on the line of control in Northern Kashmir, India. Smaller scattered numbers of speakers exist in India particularly in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh where Pathan colonies were founded.^[9][10] Image File history File links Moderniranianlanguagesmap. ... Image File history File links Moderniranianlanguagesmap. ... The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family. ... The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) (Urdu: Å›imāl maÄ¡ribÄ« sarhadÄ« sÅ«ba شمال مغربی سرحدی صوبہ) is the smallest of the four main provinces of Pakistan. ... The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are areas of Pakistan outside the four provinces, comprising a region of some 27,220 km² (10,507 mi²). // The FATA are bordered by: Afghanistan to the west with the border marked by the Durand Line, the North-West Frontier Province and the Punjab... Balochistan, or Ballsforchinstan, Balochi, Pashto, Urdu: بلوچستان) is a province in Pakistan, the largest in the country by geographical area. ... Sindh (SindhÄ«: سنڌ, UrdÅ«: سندھ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhis. ...   (Sindhi: , Urdu: ) is the largest city in Pakistan and is the provincial capital of Sindh province. ... Hyderabad   or Haidarābād (Urdu/Sindhi: حيدر آباد) is located in the Sindh province of Pakistan (formerly known as Neroon Kot نيرُون ڪوٽ). Formerly the capital of Sindh and known as the city of perfumes, it is now a regional headquarter of the district of Hyderabad. ... Shown in green is the Kashmiri region under Pakistani control. ... , Uttar Pradesh (Hindi: , Urdu: , IPA:  , translation: Northern Province), [often referred to as U.P.], located in central-south Asia and northern India, is the most populous and fifth largest state in the Republic of India. ... The Pashtuns (also Pushtun, Pakhtun (Persian: پختون) (Urdu: پشتون ), or Pathan) or ethnic Afghans[4] are an ethno-linguistic group living primarily in eastern and southern Afghanistan and in North West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Baluchistan provinces of Pakistan. ...

Official status

Pashto is the national and (along with Dari) one of the two official languages of Afghanistan and is widely spoken by pashtuns and other ethnic groups.^[11] It is not the official language in Pakistan, and is spoken by Pashtun communities in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Province . Dari (Persian: ) is the official name for the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan[1] and is a synonymous term for Parsi]. // There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari. ... Baluchistan (or Balochistan), also known as Greater Baluchistan is an arid region of south Asia, presently split between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ...

Dialects

The northern dialect is spoken by about 6,000,000 people, and the southern dialect by about 1,500,000. One of the main features of the dialects is the differences in the pronunciation of these five phonemes (all sounds in IPA): For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

The dialect of Kandahar is the most conservative with regards to phonology, retaining both the dental affricates and the retroflex fricatives, which have not merged with other phonemes. This article is about the city in Afghanistan. ...

Phonology

Vowels

Pashto also has the diphthongs /aj/ /əj/ /aw/ Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Consonants

The sounds /f/, /q/, /h/ are present only in loanwords. Less educated speakers tend to replace them with [p], [k] and nothing, respectively. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Rhotic consonants, or R-like sounds, are non-lateral liquid consonants. ...

The retroflex lateral flap /ɺ̡/ is pronounced as retroflex approximant [ɻ] when final. The Iwaidja language of Australia has both alveolar and retroflex lateral flaps, and perhaps a palatal lateral flap as well. ... The retroflex approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Historical sound changes

Grammar

Pashto is a S-O-V language with split ergativity. Adjectives come before nouns. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for gender (Masculine/Feminine), number (Singular/Plural) and case (Direct/Oblique). Direct case is used for subjects and direct objects in the present tense. Oblique case is used after most pre- and post-positions as well as in the past tense as the subject of transitive verbs. There is definite article, and is quite similar in pronunciation to (The) in English. There is also extensive use of the demonstratives this/that. The verb system is very intricate with the following: Simple 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. In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ... Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour, but employ another syntax or morphology (usually accusative) in some contexts. ... In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... For other uses, see Number (disambiguation). ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ... According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. ... The accusative case of a noun is, generally, the case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... In grammar, a verb is transitive if it takes an object. ... Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ... // Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...

Vocabulary

Pashto, being an Indo-European language, shares many cognates with other related languages. Following the advent of Islam in Afghanistan, the Pashto language has received a significant influx of loan-words from Greek, Arabic, Persian and various Turkic languages. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... Arabic redirects here. ... Farsi redirects here. ... The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family. ...

Writing system

From the time of Islam's rise in South-Central Asia, Pashto has used a modified version of the Arabic script. The seventeenth century saw the rise of a polemic debate which also was polarized along lines of script. The heterodox Roshani movement wrote their literature mostly in the Persianate style called the Nasta'liq script. The followers of the Akhund Darweza, and the Akhund himself, who viewed themselves as defending the religion against the influence of syncretism, wrote Pashto in the Arabicized Naskh. With some individualized exceptions Naskh has been the generally used script in the modern era of Pashto, roughly corresponding with the late 19th and 20th centuries, due to its greater adaptability for typesetting. Even lithographically reproduced Pashto (generally in Pakistan) has been calligraphied in Naskh as a general rule, since it was adopted as standard. For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... A compass rose with South highlighted South is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ... Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. ... Naskh (نسخ, also known as Naskhi or by its Turkish name Nesih) is a specific calligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet. ...

Pashto has several letters which do not appear in any other Arabic script which represent the retroflex versions of the consonants /t/, /d/, /r/, /n/. The letters are written like the standard Arabic ta', dal, ra', and nun with a "pandak", "gharwandah" or also called "skarraen" attached underneath which looks like a small circle; ړ ,ډ ,ټ, and ڼ, respectively. It also has the letters ge and xin (the initial sound of which is like the German ch found in the word "ich") which look like a ra' and sin respectively with a dot above and beneath. Pashto also has the extra letters that has been added to the Arabic alphabet. It has a number of additional vowel diacritics as well, though these often vary in their usage. Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... See also consonance in music. ... Arabic redirects here. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ...

Alphabet

The letters of the Pashto alphabet are:^[12][13]

^{ا ب پ ت ټ ث ج ځ چ څ ح خ د ډ ذ ر ړ ز ژ ږ س ش ښ ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک ګ ل م ن ڼ ه ۀ و ؤ ى ئ ي ې ۍ}

Examples

This article contains only non-IPA pronunciation information which should be expanded with the International Phonetic Alphabet. For assistance, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation).

• Note - The following transliterations represent the Kabuli dialect.

Examples of intransitive sentence forms using the verb "to go" "tləl": Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... In grammar, an intransitive verb is an action verb that takes no object. ...

Command (you masculine-singular):

• khawanze/shawanze (ښوونځى) ta dza! or khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ ša!
• School to go - Go to school!

Command (you masculine-plural):

• khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ šəy!
• Go to school!

Simple Present:

• zə khawanze/shawanze ta dzəm.
• I school to go - I go to school.

• zə ğwāṛəm če khawanze/shawanze ta lāṛ šəm.
• I want that to school go (Masculine-I-verb form) - I want to go to school.

Present Perfect:

• zə khawanze/shawanze ta tləlay yəm.
• I school to gone (Masculine verb form) am - I have gone to school.

Simple Past:

• zə khawanze/shawanze ta wəlāṛəm.
• I school to went - I went to school.

Past Perfect:

• zə khawanze/shawanze ta tləlay wəm.
• I school to gone (Masculine verb form) was - I had gone to school.

Past Progressive:

• zə khawanze/shawanze ta makh kay talay um"
• I school to was going - I was going to school or I used to go to school

Examples of transative sentence forms using the verb "to eat" "xwaṛəl":

Command (You singular):

• Panir wəxora!
• cheese eat - Eat the cheese!

• Panir məxora!
• cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Command (You plural): Paneer (Hindi: पनीर , from Persian پنير sometimes spelled Panir or Paner), is the most common Indian form of cheese. ...

• Panir wəxorəy!
• cheese eat - Eat the cheese!

• Panir məxorəy!
• cheese no-eat - Don't eat the cheese!

Simple Present:

• zə panir xorəm.
• I cheese eat - I eat cheese.

Subjunctive:

• zə ğwāṛəm če panir wəxorəm.
• I want that cheese eat (I-verb form) - I want to eat cheese.

Present Perfect: ما پنېر خوړلی دی

• mā panir xoṛəlay day.
• me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) is - I have eaten cheese.

Simple Past:

• mā panir wəxoṛə.
• me (I-oblique) cheese ate - I ate cheese

Past Perfect:

• mā panir xoṛəlay wo.
• me (I-oblique) cheese eaten (masculine-singular verb form) was - I had eaten cheese.

Past Progressive:

• mā panir xoṛə.
• me (I oblique) cheese was eating (masculine-singular verb form) - I was eating cheese or I used to eat cheese.

Questions Stā num tsə day your name what is - what is your name

See also

• Pashtunization
• List of Pashto language poets
• List of Pashto Language Singers
• Iranian Languages vocabulary comparison table

This is a list of Pashto language poets. ... This is a list of Pashto language Singers. ...

Bibliography

• Schmidt, Rüdiger (ed.) (1989). Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden: Reichert. ISBN 3-88226-413-6. 

• Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. ISBN 0-923891-09-9

Footnotes

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is an American dictionary of the English language published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ... Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. ... WordNet is a semantic lexicon for the English language. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Constitution of afghanistan became the official law of Afghanistan when the 2003 Loya jirga approved it by the consensus on January 4, 2004. ...

External links

Pashto language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Islamic Republic Of Afghanistan Official name of Afghanistan / Afghan issues, articles and news on the Pashtu language
• Pashto dictionaries in German, French, English and Spanish[1]
• Pashto to English Dictionary [2]
• H. G. Raverty. A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or Language of the Afghans. Second edition, with considerable additions. London: Williams and Norgate, 1867.
• Freeware Online Pashto Dictionaries
• Dr. Kabir Stori (ډاکتر کبیر ستوری)
• Pashto (پښتو ېده کړه)
• afghanan(افغانان)
• Khyber.Org - Khyber Gateway
• AEAS
• ( Talafghan.com تل افغان خپلواکه ناپېيلې فرهنګي ټولنيزه وېب پاڼه )
• Pashtoonkhwa(د پښتنو ټولنيز ولسوليز ګوند پښتونخوا/ افغانستان)
• TolAfghan (ټول افغان)
• Benawa.com: Kandahar Afghanistan (بېنوا ويب پاڼه - افغانستان)
• Hewad Afghanistan - هېواد افغانستان
• Pashto.org - Da Pashto Network
• Yaw Afghan (Free Pashto software, fonts etc.)
• Afghan Adabi Baheer (د افغان ادبي بهير)
• Gorbat.org (ګوربت كلتوري ټولنه)
• LawangOnline Pashto magazine (لونګ مجله)
• First Unicode Pashto Discussion Board from Pukhtoonkhwa دستار پښتو حجره
• Google in Pashto

• VOA News - Pashto (د امریکا غږ - پښتو)
• Azadi Radio (د آزادۍ راديو)
• BBC News - Pashto
• CRI Radio پښتو (Pashto)
• Deutsche Welle Pashto - د المان غږ
• Deutsche Welle Pashto Radio - د المان غږ راديو
• AVT Khyber - Pashto TV

• UCLA article
• Ethnologue report for Pashto
• GRN report for Pashto
• Hindi/Urdu-English-Kalasha-Khowar-Nuristani-Pashtu Comparative Word List
• Download free english-pashto dictionary
• د پښتو ژبی ډیر ارزښتناکه کورتپانه
• An cultural pashto web site
• Shamshad Tv is the only and the best Pashto television in Afghanistan
• The Pashto software localization and development

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ... Henry George Raverty (1825-1906) was a British Indian Army officer and linguist. ...

Pashto Computer Fonts

• Free fonts:
  • Download Free Pashto Font for ASCI condes and other softwares
  • Download Free Pashto Font (zip format)
  • Download Free popular Pashto fonts
  • Download Free Pashto Font (win32 executable) site1
  • Download Free Pashto Font (win32 executable) site2
  • Wazu Japan - Free and Non-free Pashto Fonts