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Pushtu (پښتو; also known as Afghan, Pushto, Pashto, Pashtoe, Pashtu, and Pukhto) is the language spoken by the ethnic Afghan otherwise known as the Pashtun people who inhabit Afghanistan and the Western provinces of Pakistan.
History
The language is believed to have originated in the Kandahar/Helmand areas of Afghanistan. Persian often dominates over Afghan/Pashto in Afghanistan in everyday government use since the capital was moved to Kabul from Kandahar in the 18th century.
Classification
Pushtu is presently classified in the Southeastern Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages.
From the time of Islam's rise in Central Asia, Pushtu has used a modified version of the Perso-Arabic script. In recent years, however, because of the Internet, it has become increasingly easier to write Pushtu in the Latin script.
It is alongside Persian, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan,
Geographic distribution
Pushtu is spoken by about 17 million people in in the south, east and a few northern provinces of Afghanistan, as well as the western provinces of Pakistan. It is spoken by circa 36% of Afghanistan population who are of the Pashtun tribe, as well as by ethnic Pashtuns who live on the other side of the disputed Durand Line in present day Pakistan.
Official status
Pushtu is one of the two official languages of Afhganistan. The other is the Persian language.
Dialects
The northern dialect is spoken by about 9,685,000 people, and the southern dialect by about 8,206,000 people.
Vocabulary
It has some Arabic and Persian words incorporated in it.
Writing system
From the time of Islam's rise in Central Asia, Pushtu has used a modified version of Perso-Arabic script. In recent years, however, because of the Internet, it has become increasingly popular to write Pushtu in the Latin script.
Examples
External links
da:Pashto
de:Paschtu
fr:Pashto
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