pashto

{{Further|Languages of Afghanistan|Languages of Pakistan}}

A national language of Afghanistan,{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445534/Pashto-language |title=Pashto language |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=7 December 2010}} 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%{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/afghanistan/|title=Languages: Afghanistan|work=Central Intelligence Agency|publisher=The World Factbook|access-date=27 October 2020}} (48% L1 + L2){{Cite book|title=Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world|last1=Brown|first1=Keith|author2=Sarah Ogilvie|year=2009|publisher=Elsevie|quote=Pashto, which is mainly spoken south of the mountain range of the Hindu Kush, is reportedly the mother tongue of 60% of the Afghan population.|isbn=978-0-08-087774-7|page=845|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC&pg=PA845|access-date=7 April 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=64&menu=004 |title=Pashto |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles |work=UCLA International Institute: Center for World Languages |access-date=10 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103185916/http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=64&menu=004 |archive-date=3 January 2009 |url-status=dead }} (50%){{Cite encyclopedia| last = Kieffer| first = Ch. M.| year = 1982| chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-v-languages|chapter=AFGHANISTAN v. Languages |quote="Paṧtō (1) is the native tongue of 50 to 55 percent of Afghans".|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|access-date=11 October 2020}} of the total population of Afghanistan.

In Pakistan, Pashto is spoken by {{sigfig|15.42|2}}% of its population,{{cite web |url=http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|title=Government of Pakistan: Population by Mother Tongue|work=statpak.gov.pk|publisher=Pakistan Bureau of Statistics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217220529/http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|archive-date=17 February 2006|access-date=18 July 2016}}{{Cite web |title=Population by mother tongue |url=http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/tables/POPULATION%20BY%20MOTHER%20TONGUE.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010134307/http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/tables/POPULATION%20BY%20MOTHER%20TONGUE.pdf |archive-date=2014-10-10 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=www.pbs.gov.pk}} mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province, areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Islamabad. Pashto speakers are found in other major cities of Pakistan, most notably Karachi, Sindh,{{cite web|author=Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy|date=17 July 2009|title=Karachi's Invisible Enemy |url=https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2009/07/karachis_invisi.html|access-date=24 August 2010|publisher=PBS}}{{cite web|date=24 August 2009|title=In a city of ethnic friction, more tinder|url=http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090825/FOREIGN/708249931|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116211443/http://www.thenational.ae/|archive-date=16 January 2010|access-date=24 August 2010|publisher=The National}}{{cite magazine|date=28 August 2010|title=Columnists {{pipe}} The Pakhtun in Karachi|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/43827/the-pakhtun-in-karachi/|access-date=8 September 2011|magazine=Time}}[http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=5] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121209085408/http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=5|date=9 December 2012}}, thefridaytimes which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in the world.{{Cite journal |last=Lieven|first=Anatol |date=2021-05-04|title=An Afghan Tragedy: The Pashtuns, the Taliban and the State |journal=Survival|volume=63|issue=3|pages=7–36|doi=10.1080/00396338.2021.1930403|s2cid=235219004 |issn=0039-6338|doi-access=free}}

Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in India, Tajikistan,{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=PBT |title=Pashto, Southern |work=SIL International |publisher=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 14th edition |year=2000 |access-date=18 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626003043/http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=PBT |archive-date=26 June 2008 }} and northeastern Iran (primarily in South Khorasan Province to the east of Qaen, near the Afghan border).{{Cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=iran |title=Languages of Iran |work=SIL International |publisher=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |access-date=27 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204023910/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=iran |archive-date=4 February 2012 }} In India most ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) peoples speak the geographically native Hindi-Urdu language rather than Pashto, but there are small numbers of Pashto speakers, such as the Sheen Khalai in Rajasthan,{{Cite news |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tattooed-blue-skinned-hindu-pushtuns-look-back-at-their-roots/article22645932.ece|title=Tattooed 'blue-skinned' Hindu Pushtuns look back at their roots|newspaper=The Hindu|date=3 February 2018|last1=Haidar|first1=Suhasini}} and the Pathan community in the city of Kolkata, often nicknamed the Kabuliwala ("people of Kabul").{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-32377276|title = The 'Kabuliwala' Afghans of Kolkata|work = BBC News|date = 23 May 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/155394/hindu-pashtun-shilpi-batra-sheenkhalai-afghanistan/|title = Hindu Pashtuns: How One Granddaughter Uncovered India's Forgotten Links to Afghanistan|date = 8 August 2018}} Pashtun diaspora communities in other countries around the world speak Pashto, especially the sizable communities in the United Arab Emirates{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AE |title=Languages of United Arab Emirates|work=SIL International|publisher=Ethnologue: Languages of the World|access-date=27 September 2010}} and Saudi Arabia.

Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari Persian.Modarresi, Yahya: "Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan, 1911–1916." In: Sociolinguistics, Vol. 3, Part. 3. Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill (eds.). Berlin, De Gryuter: 2006. p. 1915. {{ISBN|3-11-018418-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=LMZm0w0k1c4C&pg=PA1914] 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,Lorenz, Manfred. "Die Herausbildung moderner iranischer Literatursprachen." In: Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung, Vol. 36. Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Akademie Verlag, Berlin: 1983. P. 184ff. was more widely used in government institutions, while the Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue. King Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926–1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism" after the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, which restored Afghan control over their foreign policy. In the 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931Other sources note 1933, i.e. Johannes Christian Meyer-Ingwersen. Untersuchungen zum Satzbau des Paschto. 1966. Ph.D. Thesis, Hamburg 1966. and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in 1937. Muhammad Na'im Khan, the minister of education between 1938 and 1946, inaugurated the formal policy of promoting Pashto as Afghanistan's national language, leading to the commission and publication of Pashto textbooks.{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|pages=17|language=en}} The Pashto Tolana was later incorporated into the Academy of Sciences Afghanistan in line with Soviet model following the Saur Revolution in 1978.{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|language=en}}

Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing".Tariq Rahman. "Pashto Language & Identity Formation in Pakistan." Contemporary South Asia, July 1995, Vol 4, Issue 2, p151-20. King Zahir Shah (reigning 1933–1973) thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto.István Fodor, Claude Hagège. Reform of Languages. Buske, 1983. P. 105ff. In 1936 a royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted Pashto the status of an official language,Campbell, George L.: Concise Compendium of the world's languages. London: Routledge 1999. 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.Hussain, Rizwan. Pakistan and the emergence of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan. Burlington, Ashgate: 2005. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TRW_M_xybyYC p. 63.] 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.Dupree, Louis: "Language and Politics in Afghanistan." In: Contributions to Asian Studies. Vol. 11/1978. p. 131–141. E. J. Brill, Leiden 1978. p. 131.Spooner, Bryan: "Are we teaching Persian?" In: Persian Studies in North America: Studies in Honor of Mohammad Ali Jazayery. Mehdi Marashi (ed.). Bethesda, Iranbooks: 1994. p. 1983. The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto.

{{Further|List of Pashto-speaking universities}}

In British India, prior to the creation of Pakistan by the British government, the 1920s saw the blossoming of Pashto language in the then NWFP: Abdul Ghafar Khan in 1921 established the Anjuman-e- Islah al-Afaghina (Society for the Reformation of Afghans) to promote Pashto as an extension of Pashtun culture; around 80,000 people attended the Society's annual meeting in 1927.{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|pages=109|language=en}} In 1955, Pashtun intellectuals including Abdul Qadir formed the Pashto Academy Peshawar on the model of Pashto Tolana formed in Afghanistan.{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Michael Edward|url=https://archive.org/details/fightingwordslan00brow|title=Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia|last2=Ganguly|first2=Sumit|publisher=MIT Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0262523332|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fightingwordslan00brow/page/n83 71]|url-access=limited}} In 1974, the Department of Pashto was established in the University of Balochistan for the promotion of Pashto.{{Cite web|title=Department of Pashto|url=http://web.uob.edu.pk/uob/departments/Pashto/index.php|access-date=2021-09-07|website=web.uob.edu.pk}}

In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language around of {{sigfig|15.42|2}}% of its population (per the 1998 census).{{cite web|title=Government of Pakistan: Population by Mother Tongue|url=http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217220529/http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|archive-date=17 February 2006|access-date=18 July 2016|work=statpak.gov.pk|publisher=Pakistan Bureau of Statistics}} However, Urdu and English are the two official languages of Pakistan. Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan.Septfonds, D. 2006. Pashto. In: Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world. 845 – 848. Keith Brown / Sarah Ogilvie (eds.). Elsevier, Oxford: 2009. Yet, the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan is Urdu.{{Citation|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|author-link=Tariq Rahman |editor=Craig Baxter|editor-link = Craig Baxter |title=Education in Pakistan a Survey |series=Pakistan on the Brink: Politics, Economics and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFNtVqYqAwEC&q=medium+of+instruction+in+pakistan&pg=PA172|year=2004|publisher=Lexington Books|page=172|isbn=978-0195978056}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1134809/|title=Will change in medium of instruction improve education in KP?|first=Bushra|last=Rahim|date=28 September 2014|work=dawn.com|access-date=18 July 2016}}

The lack of importance given to Pashto and its neglect has caused growing resentment amongst Pashtuns.{{Cite book|title=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan|author=Daniel Hallberg|year=1992|publisher=Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics|volume=4|page=36 to 37|isbn=969-8023-14-3|url=http://www-01.sil.org/sociolx/pubs/32847_SSNP04.pdf|access-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712204446/http://www-01.sil.org/sociolx/pubs/32847_SSNP04.pdf|archive-date=12 July 2018|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.mashaalradio.org/content/article/25466375.html|title=د کرښې پرغاړه (په پاکستان کې د مورنیو ژبو حیثیت) |work=mashaalradio.org|date=22 July 2014 |access-date=18 July 2016}}{{cite report|title=Teaching and learning in Pakistan: the role of language in education |url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/pakistan-ette-role-of-language-in-education.htm |author=Hywel Coleman |year=2010 |publisher=British Council, Pakistan |access-date=24 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104060039/http://www.britishcouncil.org/pakistan-ette-role-of-language-in-education.htm |archive-date=4 November 2010 }}{{Cite news|last=Mohmand|first=Mureeb|date=27 April 2014|title=The decline of Pashto|work=The Express Tribune|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/700836/the-decline-of-pashto|access-date=|quote="...because of the state's patronage, Urdu is now the most widely-spoken language in Pakistan. But the preponderance of one language over all others eats upon the sphere of influence of other, smaller languages, which alienates the respective nationalities and fuels aversion towards the central leadership...If we look to our state policies regarding the promotion of Pashto and the interests of the Pakhtun political elite, it is clear that the future of the Pashto language is dark. And when the future of a language is dark, the future of the people is dark."}} It is noted that Pashto is taught poorly in schools in Pakistan.{{Cite journal|last=Carter|first=Lynn|date=|title=Socio-Economic Profile of Kurram Agency|url=|journal=Planning and Development Department, Peshawar, NWFP|volume=1991|pages=82|via=}} Moreover, in government schools material is not provided for in the Pashto dialect of that locality, Pashto being a dialectically rich language.{{Cite journal|last=Carter and Raza|date=|title=Socio-Economic Profile of South Waziristan Agency|url=|journal=Planning and Development Department, Peshawar, NWFP|volume=1990|pages=69|quote=Sources say that this is mainly because the Pushto text books in use in the settled areas of N.W.F.P. are written in the Yusufzai dialect, which is not the dialect in use in the Agency|via=}} Further, researchers have observed that Pashtun students are unable to fully comprehend educational material in Urdu.{{Cite journal|last=Hallberg|first=Daniel|title=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan|url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/21/84/102184639558058261191157258320075530940/32847_SSNP04.pdf|journal=National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguisitics|volume=4|pages=36|quote=A brief interview with the principal of the high school in Madyan, along with a number of his teachers, helps to underscore the importance of Pashto in the school domain within Pashtoon territory. He reported that Pashto is used by teachers to explain things to students all the way up through tenth class. The idea he was conveying was that students do not really have enough ability in Urdu to operate totally in that language. He also expressed the thought that Pashto-speaking students in the area really do not learn Urdu very well in public school and that they are thus somewhat ill prepared to meet the expectation that they will know how to use Urdu and English when they reach the college level. He likened the education system to a wall that has weak bricks at the bottom.}}

Professor Tariq Rahman states:{{Cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|title=The Pashto language and identity-formation in Pakistan|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233372024|journal=Contemporary South Asia |date=July 1995|volume=4|issue=2|pages=151–20|doi=10.1080/09584939508719759|via=Research Gate |issn = 0958-4935 }}{{Blockquote|"The government of Pakistan, faced with irredentist claims from Afghanistan on its territory, also discouraged the Pashto Movement and eventually allowed its use in peripheral domains only after the Pakhtun elite had been co-opted by the ruling elite...Thus, even though there is still an active desire

among some Pakhtun activists to use Pashto in the domains of power, it is more of a symbol of Pakhtun identity than one of nationalism."|Tariq Rahman|The Pashto language and identity-formation in Pakistan|source=}}Robert Nicols states:{{Cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/17296|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice|date=2011-12-09|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-21765-2|pages=279|language=en}}

{{Blockquote|"In the end, national language policy, especially in the field of education in the NWFP, had constructed a type of three tiered language hierarchy. Pashto lagged far behind Urdu and English in prestige or development in almost every domain of political or economic power..."|3=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors|source=Pashto Language Policy and Practice in the North West Frontier Province}}

Although Pashto used as a medium of instruction in schools for Pashtun students results in better understanding and comprehension for students when compared to using Urdu, still the government of Pakistan has only introduced Pashto at the primary levels in state-run schools.{{Cite book|last=Khan|first=M. Taimur S.|url=https://www.academia.edu/42225525|title=Pakistanizing Pashtun: The linguistic and cultural disruption and re-invention of Pashtun|publisher=American University|year=2016|location=|pages=72|quote=Urdu which is the native language of only 7.57 per cent of Pakistanis (though widely spoken as the national language and lingua franca in Pakistan) dominates all other local languages; and Pashto which is the native language of 15.42 per cent of the total population has no official recognition beyond primary school...Despite its limited scope, the Pashto-medium schools were a success as the "achievement tests showed an improvement in Pashto medium schools as compared to Urdu medium schools". Nonetheless, the better results have so far not motivated the government to introduce Pashto-medium schools at a larger scale in Pashtun populated areas.}} Taimur Khan remarks: "the dominant Urdu language squeezes and denies any space for Pashto language in the official and formal capacity. In this contact zone, Pashto language exists but in a subordinate and unofficial capacity".{{Cite book|last=Khan|first=M. Taimur S.|url=https://www.academia.edu/42225525|title=Pakistanizing Pashtun: The linguistic and cultural disruption and re-invention of Pashtun|publisher=American University|year=2016|pages=96–97}}

Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from Avestan or a variety very similar to it, while others have attempted to place it closer to Bactrian.{{cite book |last=Darmesteter |first=James |title=Chants populaires des Afghans |year=1890 |location=Paris}}Henning (1960), p. 47. "Bactrian thus 'occupies an intermediary position between Pashto and Yidgha-Munji on the one hand, Sogdian, Choresmian, and Parthian on the other: it is thus in its natural and rightful place in Bactria'."{{cite book |last1=Hotak |first1=Muhammad |last2=Habibi |first2=Abd al-Hayy |title=The Hidden Treasure: A Biography of Pas̲htoon Poets |year=1997 |page=21 |quote=With regard to Morgenstierne's statement that the language is affiliated with eastern Iranian languages there is ample evidence to consider it a Bactrian language.}} However, neither position is universally agreed upon. What scholars do agree on is the fact that Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian.{{cite book |last1=Comrie |first1=Bernard |title=The world's major languages |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge}}{{cite web|title=AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧto|url=http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|access-date=10 October 2010|work=G. Morgenstierne|publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica|quote=Paṧtō undoubtedly belongs to the Northeastern Iranic branch.|archive-date=22 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122024645/http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|url-status=usurped}}

Compare with other Eastern Iranian Languages and Old Avestan:

Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana. This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name Afghan (Abgan).{{Cite web |url=http://www.alamahabibi.com/English%20Articles/Afghan_and_Afghanistan.htm |title=Afghan and Afghanistan |work=Abdul Hai Habibi |publisher=alamahabibi.com|year=1969|access-date=24 October 2010}}{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/129450/History?anchor=ref261360|title=History of Afghanistan|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=22 November 2010}}{{Cite book|title=Afghanistan – a country without a state?|last1=Noelle-Karimi|first1=Christine|author2=Conrad J. Schetter |author3=Reinhard Schlagintweit |year=2002|publisher=IKO|location=University of Michigan, United States|isbn=3-88939-628-3|page=18|quote=The earliest mention of the name 'Afghan' (Abgan) is to be found in a Sasanid inscription from the third century AD and their language as "Afghani".}}{{cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian//pf?file=03501051&ct=92 |title=Events Of The Year 910 (1525) |page=5 |editor=John Leyden, Esq. M.D. |editor2=William Erskine, Esq. |work=Memoirs of Babur |publisher=Packard Humanities Institute |year=1921 |access-date=10 January 2012 |quote=To the south is Afghanistān. There are ten or eleven different languages spoken in Kābul: Arabic, Persian, Tūrki, Moghuli, Afghani, Pashāi, Parāchi, Geberi, Bereki, Dari and Lamghāni. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114042010/http://persian.packhum.org/persian//pf?file=03501051&ct=92 |archive-date=14 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}

Abdul Hai Habibi believed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri of the early Ghurid period in the 8th century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana. Pə́ṭa Xazāná ({{lang|ps|پټه خزانه}}) is a Pashto manuscript{{cite web|title=Pata Khazana|url=http://patakhazana.home.comcast.net/~patakhazana/Khazana.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723045855/http://patakhazana.home.comcast.net/~patakhazana/Khazana.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2011|access-date=27 September 2010}} claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor Hussain Hotak in Kandahar; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as David Neil MacKenzie and Lucia Serena Loi.David Neil MacKenzie: David N. Mackenzie: The Development of the Pashto Script. In: Shirin Akiner (Editor): Languages and Scripts of Central Asia. School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ. of London, London 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-7286-0272-4}}.p. 142Lucia Serena Loi: Il tesoro nascosto degli Afghani. Il Cavaliere azzurro, Bologna 1987, p. 33 Nile Green comments in this regard:{{Cite book|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.001.0001/acprof-9780190247782|title=Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-049223-6|pages=37–38|language=en-US|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.001.0001|editor1-last=Green|editor1-first=Nile}}

{{Blockquote|text="In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as the eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as a promoter of the wealth and

antiquity of Afghanistan's Pashto culture."|title=Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes}}

From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are Bayazid Pir Roshan (a major inventor of the Pashto alphabet), Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Nazo Tokhi, and Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Durrani Empire. The Pashtun literary tradition grew in the backdrop to weakening Pashtun power following Mughal rule: Khushal Khan Khattak used Pashto poetry to rally for Pashtun unity and Pir Bayazid as an expedient means to spread his message to the Pashtun masses.{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|pages=93|language=en}}

For instance Khushal Khattak laments in :{{Cite book|last=Raverty|first=Henry G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAXCtwEACAAJ|title=Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, Literally Translated from the Original Pushto, with Notices of the Different Authors, and Remarks on the Mystic Doctrine and Poetry of the Sūfis|date=2015|publisher=Cosmo Publications|isbn=978-81-307-1858-3|pages=127|language=en}}

{{Blockquote|text="The Afghans (Pashtuns) are far superior to the Mughals at the sword,

Were but the Afghans, in intellect, a little discreet.

If the different tribes would but support each other,

Kings would have to bow down in prostration before them"|title=Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans|author=Khushal Khan Khattak|source=}}

{{Main|Pashto grammar}}

Pashto is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language with split ergativity. In Pashto, this means that the verb agrees with the subject in transitive and intransitive sentences in non-past, non-completed clauses, but when a completed action is reported in any of the past tenses, the verb agrees with the subject if it is intransitive, but with the object if it is transitive. Verbs are inflected for present, simple past, past progressive, present perfect, and past perfect tenses. There is also an inflection for the subjunctive mood.

Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masculine and feminine),Emeneau, M. B. (1962) "Bilingualism and Structural Borrowing" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106(5): pp. 430–442, p. 441 two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (direct, oblique, ablative, and vocative). The possessor precedes the possessed in the genitive construction, and adjectives come before the nouns they modify.

Unlike most other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto uses all three types of adpositions—prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions.

{{Main|Pashto phonology}}

*The retroflex rhotic or lateral, tends to be a lateral flap [{{IPA link|𝼈}}] at the beginning of a syllable or other prosodic unit, and a regular flap [{{IPA link|ɽ}}] or approximant [{{IPA link|ɻ}}] elsewhere.D.N. MacKenzie, 1990, "Pashto", in Bernard Comrie, ed, The major languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, p. 103Herbert Penzl, 1965, A reader of Pashto, p 7

{{See also|Pashto_dialects#Lexemes}}

In Pashto, most of the native elements of the lexicon are related to other Eastern Iranian languages. As noted by Josef Elfenbein, "Loanwords have been traced in Pashto as far back as the third century B.C., and include words from Greek and probably Old Persian".{{Cite book|last=Kaye|first=Alan S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6jmziooEk0C|title=Phonologies of Asia and Africa: (including the Caucasus)|date=1997-06-30|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-019-4|location=|pages=736|language=en}} For instance, Georg Morgenstierne notes the Pashto word {{lang|ps|مېچن}} {{Transliteration|ps|mečə́n}} i.e. a hand-mill as being derived from the Ancient Greek word {{lang|grc-x-koine|μηχανή}} ({{Transliteration|grc|mēkhanḗ}}, i.e. a device).{{Cite book|last=Morgenstierne|first=Georg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXEMAQAAMAAJ|title=A New Etymological Vocabulary of Pashto|date=2003|publisher=Reichert|isbn=978-3-89500-364-6|location=|pages=48|language=en}} Post-7th century borrowings came primarily from Persian and Hindi-Urdu, with Arabic words being borrowed through Persian,John R. Perry, "Lexical Areas and Semantic Fields of Arabic" in Éva Ágnes Csató, Eva Agnes Csato, Bo Isaksson, Carina Jahani, Linguistic convergence and areal diffusion: case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic, Routledge, 2005. p. 97: "It is generally understood that the bulk of the Arabic vocabulary in the central, contiguous Iranian, Turkic and Indic languages was originally borrowed into literary Persian between the ninth and thirteenth centuries" but sometimes directly.{{Cite journal|jstor=4030748|title=Areal Lexical Contacts of the Afghan (Pashto) Language (Based on the Texts of the XVI-XVIII Centuries)|author=Vladimir Kushev|volume=1|journal=Iran and the Caucasus|pages=159–166|year=1997 |doi=10.1163/157338497x00085}}{{Cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qUJAAAAIAAJ&q=pashto+vocabulary+hindustani&pg=PA75|quote=At the same time Pashto has borrowed largely from Persian and Hindustani, and through those languages from Arabic.|title=Census of India, 1931, Volume 17, Part 2|pages=292|journal=Times of India|year=1937|access-date=7 June 2009|last1=Census Commissioner|first1=India}} Modern speech borrows words from English, French, and German.{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/594900 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|author=Herbert Penzl|date=January–March 1961|title=Western Loanwords in Modern Pashto|volume=81|issue=1|pages=43–52|jstor=594900}}

However, a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto.{{cite book|author1=Carol Benson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdREAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|title=Language Issues in Comparative Education: Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Non-Dominant Languages and Cultures|author2=Kimmo Kosonen|date=13 June 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-6209-218-1|pages=64}}{{cite book|author=Ehsan M Entezar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdTJgCSPsGwC&q=pashto+purification&pg=PA89|title=Afghanistan 101: Understanding Afghan Culture|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4257-9302-9|page=89}}

Here is an exemplary list of Pure Pashto and borrowings:{{Cite book|title=A dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or language of the Afghans|author-link=Henry George Raverty|last=Raverty|first=Henry George Rahman|year=1867|edition=2|publisher=Williams and Norgate|location=London |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/raverty/}}{{Cite web|url=https://qamosona.com/G/index.php|title=Qamosona.com|website=qamosona.com}}

Due to the incursion of Persian and Persianized-Arabic in modern speech, linguistic purism of Pashto is advocated to prevent its own vocabulary from dying out.{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}{{cite book|author1=Carol Benson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdREAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|title=Language Issues in Comparative Education: Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Non-Dominant Languages and Cultures|author2=Kimmo Kosonen|date=13 June 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-6209-218-1|pages=64–}}[http://www.hewad.com/mohammadgul/ Muhammad Gul Khan Momand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128042752/http://www.hewad.com/mohammadgul/ |date=28 January 2021 }}, Hewād Afghanistan

There is a lot of old vocabulary that has been replaced by borrowings e.g. {{lang|ps|پلاز|nocat=y}} {{lang|ps-Latn|plâz|nocat=y}}{{Cite web | title=پلاز - Pashto English Dictionary 2015 [Ahmad Wali Achakzai] | url=https://qamosona.com/G3/index.php/term/,6f57b19b61545da79b9ea5acae615c.xhtml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625102459/https://qamosona.com/G3/index.php/term/,6f57b19b61545da79b9ea5acae615c.xhtml | access-date=2025-03-21 | archive-date=2021-06-25}} 'throne' with {{lang|fa|تخت}} {{lang|fa-Latn|takht}}, from Persian.Pata Khanaza by M. Hotak (1762–1763), translated by K. Habibi page 21, [http://alamahabibi.net/English_Articles/E_Pata_Khazana__Pashto-Eng.pdf Alama Habibi Portal.]{{Cite book |last=Habibi |first=Khushal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsP9T48RnUEC&q=pata+khazana&pg=PA188 |title=The Hidden Treasure: A Biography of Pas̲htoon Poets |date=1997 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-0265-5 |pages=225 |language=en }} Or the word {{lang|ps|يګانګي|nocat=y}} {{lang|ps-Latn|yagānagí|nocat=y}}{{Cite web | title=يګانګي - Pashto English Dictionary 2015 [Ahmad Wali Achakzai] | url=https://qamosona.com/G3/index.php/term/,6f57b19b61545da79b9ea5aeac5d53a6.xhtml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625095303/https://qamosona.com/G3/index.php/term/,6f57b19b61545da79b9ea5aeac5d53a6.xhtml | access-date=2025-03-21 | archive-date=2021-06-25}} meaning 'uniqueness' used by Pir Roshan Bayazid.{{Cite journal |last=Faqir |first=Faqir Muhammad |year=2014 |title=The Neologism of Bayazid Ansari |url=http://khyber.org/pacademy/journal/pdf/2014-Pasht-43-Faqir-TheNeologi.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014062439/http://khyber.org/pacademy/journal/pdf/2014-Pasht-43-Faqir-TheNeologi.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=14 October 2021 |journal=Pashto |volume=43 |issue=647–648 |pages=147–165 }} Such classical vocabulary is being reintroduced to modern Pashto.{{Cite book |last=Pashtoon |first=Zeeya A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YKACSQAACAAJ&q=zeeya+a+pashto+dictionary |title=Pashto–English Dictionary |date=2009 |publisher=Dunwoody Press |isbn=978-1-931546-70-6 |pages=144 |language=en }} Some words also survive in dialects like {{lang|ps|ناوې پلاز}} 'the bride-room'.{{Cite web |last=Momand |first=Qalandar |title=Daryab Pashto Glossary |url=https://qamosona.com/G/index.php/term/,63b05a9daea7a56f69b05aae5cada65c.xhtml}}

Example from Khayr al-Bayān:

: {{nq|{{lang|ps|2=

... بې يګانګئ بې قرارئ وي او په بدخوئ کښې وي په ګناهان

}}}}

: Transliteration: {{lang|ps-Latn|... be-yagānagə́i, be-kararə́i wi aw pə badxwə́i kx̌e wi pə gunāhā́n|italic=no}}

: Translation: "... without singularity/uniqueness, without calmness and by bad-attitude are on sin ."

{{Main|Pashto alphabet}}

Pashto employs the Pashto alphabet, a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet or Arabic script.{{cite book |first=John |last=Hladczuk |title=International Handbook of Reading Education |date=1992 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313262531 |page=148 |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalhan0000unse_l7a6/page/148 }} In the 16th century, Bayazid Pir Roshan introduced 13 new letters to the Pashto alphabet. The alphabet was further modified over the years.

The Pashto alphabet consists of 45 to 46 letters{{cite book |last1=Ullah |first1=Noor |title=Pashto Grammar |date=2011 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-4567-8007-4 |page=5 }} and 4 diacritic marks. Latin Pashto is also used.BGN/PCGN romanization{{cite web|title=Romanization system for Pashto|url=http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/Romanization_Pashto.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619102945/http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/Romanization_Pashto.pdf|archive-date=2012-06-19|access-date=2012-02-04}}{{cite web|title=NGA: Standardization Policies|url=http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/romanization.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213212545/http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/romanization.html|archive-date=2013-02-13|work=nga.mil}} In Latin transliteration, stress is represented by the following markers over vowels: ә́, á, ā́, ú, ó, í and é. The following table (read from left to right) gives the letters' isolated forms, along with possible Latin equivalents and typical IPA values:

{{Main|Pashto dialects}}

Pashto dialects are divided into two categories, the "soft" southern grouping of Paṣ̌tō, and the "hard" northern grouping of Pax̌tō (Pakhtu).{{cite book |last1=Claus |first1=Peter J. |last2=Diamond |first2=Sarah |last3=Ann Mills |first3=Margaret |title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka |date=2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780415939195 |page=447| language=en}} Each group is further divided into a number of dialects. The Southern dialect of Tareeno is the most distinctive Pashto dialect.{{Listen|type=speech|header={{lang|ps|اوږد}} {{gloss|long}} - in different dialects|filename=اوږد.ogg|title=South Western (Kandahar)|description=IPA: {{IPA|/uʐd/}}|filename2=اوږد-ګ.ogg|title2=North Western (Jalalabad)|description2=IPA: {{IPA|/uɡd/}}|filename3=اوږد-خوست.ogg|title3=Northern (Khost)|description3=IPA: {{IPA|/wuɡd/}}|filename4=اوږد-کندز.ogg|title4=Southern (Kunduz)|description4=IPA: {{IPA|/wuʐd/}}|filename5=اوږد-يسپزی-يوسفزی.ogg|title5=North Eastern (Yusapzai)|description5=IPA: {{IPA|/u.ɡəˈd/}}}}1. 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

2. 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

3. Tareeno Dialect

Literary Pashto is the artificial variety of Pashto that is used at times as literary register of Pashto. It is said to be based on the North Western dialect, spoken in the central Ghilji region. Literary Pashto's vocabulary, also derives from other dialects.{{Cite thesis |type=Master's thesis |last=Coyle|first=Dennis Walter|date=2014-01-01|title=Placing Wardak Among Pashto Varieties|url=https://commons.und.edu/theses/1635 |publisher=University of North Dakota}}

There is no actual Pashto that can be identified as "Standard" Pashto, as Colye remarks:

{{Blockquote|text="Standard Pashto is actually fairly complex with multiple varieties or forms. Native speakers or researchers often refer to Standard Pashto without specifying which variety of Standard Pashto they mean...people sometimes refer to Standard Pashto when they mean the most respected or favorite Pashto variety among a majority of Pashtun speakers."|title=Placing Wardak among Pashto Varieties|source=page 4}}

According to David MacKenzie, there is no real need to develop a "Standard" Pashto:{{Cite journal|last=MacKenzie|first=D. N.|date=1959|title=A Standard Pashto|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/609426|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=22|issue=1/3|pages=231–235|jstor=609426|issn=0041-977X}}{{Failed verification|date=February 2025}}

{{Blockquote|text="The morphological differences between the most extreme north-eastern and south-western dialects are comparatively few and unimportant. The criteria of dialect differentiation in Pashto are primarily phonological. With the use of an alphabet which disguises these phonological differences the language has, therefore, been a literary vehicle, widely understood, for at least four centuries. This literary language has long been referred to in the West as 'common' or 'standard' Pashto without, seemingly, any real attempt to define it."|title=A Standard Pashto|source=page 231}}

{{Main|Pashto literature and poetry}}

Pashto-speakers have long had a tradition of oral literature, including proverbs, stories, and poems. Written Pashto literature saw a rise in development in the 17th century mostly due to poets like Khushal Khan Khattak (1613–1689), who, along with Rahman Baba (1650–1715), is widely regarded as among the greatest Pashto poets. From the time of Ahmad Shah Durrani (1722–1772), Pashto has been the language of the court. The first Pashto teaching text was written during the period of Ahmad Shah Durrani by Pir Mohammad Kakar with the title of Maʿrifat al-Afghānī ("The Knowledge of Afghani [Pashto]"). After that, the first grammar book of Pashto verbs was written in 1805 under the title of Riyāż al-Maḥabbah ("Training in Affection") through the patronage of Nawab Mahabat Khan, son of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, chief of the Barech. Nawabullah Yar Khan, another son of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, in 1808 wrote a book of Pashto words entitled ʿAjāyib al-Lughāt ("Wonders of Languages").

An excerpt from the Kalām of Rahman Baba:

{{nq|{{lang|ps|2=

زۀ رحمٰن پۀ خپله ګرم يم چې مين يم

چې دا نور ټوپن مې بولي ګرم په څۀ

}}}}

Pronunciation: {{ipa|[zə raˈmɑn pə ˈxpəl.a ɡram jəm t͡ʃe maˈjan jəm

t͡ʃe dɑ nor ʈoˈpən me boˈli ɡram pə t͡sə]}}

Transliteration: {{Transliteration|ps|Zə Rahmā́n pə xpə́la gram yəm če mayán yəm

Če dā nor ṭopə́n me bolí gram pə tsə}}

Translation: "I Rahman, myself am guilty that I am a lover,

On what does this other universe call me guilty."

{{See also|Pashto literature and poetry#Proverbs}}

Pashto also has a rich heritage of proverbs (Pashto matalúna, sg. matál).{{cite book |last=Zellem |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Zellem |year=2014 |title=Mataluna: 151 Afghan Pashto Proverbs |publisher=Cultures Direct Press |isbn=978-0692215180}}Bartlotti, Leonard and Raj Wali Shah Khattak, eds. (2006). Rohi Mataluna: Pashto Proverbs, (revised and expanded edition). First edition by Mohammad Nawaz Tair and Thomas C. Edwards, eds. Peshawar, Pakistan: Interlit and Pashto Academy, Peshawar University. An example of a proverb:

{{nq|{{lang|ps|2=اوبه په ډانګ نه بېلېږي}}}}

Transliteration: Obә́ pə ḍāng nə beléẓ̌i

Translation: "One cannot divide water by [hitting it with] a pole."

{{gallery items

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(255,0,0)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|سور/ سره}}}} sur/sra [red]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(0,128,0)}}| šin / šna [green]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(159,0,197)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|کینخي}}}} kinaxí [purple]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(0,0,0)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|تور/ توره}}}} tor/tóra [black]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(0,0,255)}}|šin / šna [blue]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(255,255,255)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|سپین}}}} spin/spína [white]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(150,75,0)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|نسواري}}}} naswārí [brown]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(255,227,2)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|ژېړ/ ژېړه}}}} žeṛ/žéṛa [yellow]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(238,130,238)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|چوڼيا}}}} čuṇyā́ [violet]

|{{color sample|w=10|rgb(190,190,190)}}|{{nq|{{lang|ps|خړ / خړه}}}} xәṛ/xə́ṛa [grey]

}}

• {{nq|{{lang|ps|نارنجي}}}} nārәnjí - orange [from Persian]
• {{nq|{{lang|ps|ګلابي}}}} gulābí - pink [from Hindustani, originally Persian]
• {{nq|{{lang|ps|نيلي}}}} nilí - indigo [from Persian, ultimately Sanskrit]]

File:Ps-times.jpg

Pashtuns use the Vikrami calendar:{{Cite book|last=Jazab|first=Yousaf Khan|title=An Ethno-Linguistic Study of the Karlanri Varieties of Pashto|publisher=Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=342–343}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Hallberg |first=Daniel G. |year=1992 |title=Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri |series=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan |volume=4 |publisher=National Institute of Pakistani Studies |isbn=969-8023-14-3 |oclc=1034637486}}
• {{cite book |last=Morgenstierne |first=Georg |author-link=Georg Morgenstierne |orig-date=1926, pub. by Aschehoug, Oslo |title=Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan |series=Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning Serie C I-2 |isbn=978-0-923891-09-1 |year=2007 |publisher=Ishi Press International |location=New York}}
• {{cite book |last=Penzl |first=Herbert |author-link=Herbert Penzl |title=A Grammar of Pashto: A Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan |isbn=978-0-923891-72-5 |year=2009 |publisher=Ishi Press |location=New York |orig-date=1955, pub. by American Council of Learned Societies, Washington, DC}}
• {{cite book |last=Penzl |first=Herbert |title=A Reader of Pashto |year=2009 |publisher=Ishi Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-923891-71-8 |orig-date=1962, pub. by University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Schmidt |editor-first=Rüdiger|title=Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum |publisher=L. Reichert |location=Wiesbaden |year=1989 |isbn=3-88226-413-6}}

• {{cite journal |last=Morgenstierne |first=Georg |title=The Place of Pashto among the Iranic Languages and the Problem of the Constitution of Pashtun Linguistic and Ethnic Unity |journal=Paṣto Quarterly |volume=1 |issue=4 |year=1978 |pages=43–55}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Boyle David |editor1-first=Anne |editor2-last=Brugman |editor2-first=Claudia |title=Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and its Dialects |location=Berlin, Boston |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |date=2014 |doi=10.1515/9781614512318|isbn=978-1-61451-303-2 }}

{{InterWiki|code=ps}}

{{Commons category|Pashto language}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Wikivoyage|Pashto phrasebook|Pashto|a phrasebook}}

• [http://www.thepashto.com/ Pashto Dictionary with Phonetic Keyboard & Auto-Suggestion]
• [https://pukhtoogle.com/pashto Pashto Phonetic Keyboard]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110613163011/http://www.khyber.org/publications/pdf/pashtolangformation.pdf Pashto Language & Identity Formation in Pakistan]}}
• Henry George Raverty. [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/raverty/ A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or Language of the Afghans]. Second edition, with considerable additions. London: Williams and Norgate, 1867.
• D. N. MacKenzie, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051024005638/http://khyber.org/publications/026-030/standardpashto.shtml "A Standard Pashto"]}}, Khyber.org
• [http://www.qamosona.com/ Freeware Online Pashto Dictionaries]
• [http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/pashto/pashlex1.html A Pashto Word List]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111223185020/http://www.afghanwiki.com/en/index.php?title=Pashto Origins of Pashto]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130310001121/http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=194326&sid=1628823 Resources for the Study of the Pashto Language]

{{Pashto language|state=expanded}}

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