Afghanistan is home to anything from 40 to 59 different languages. Dari and Pashto are the official and most generally spoken languages in Afghanistan, with 77 percent and 48 percent of the population speaking them, respectively. Dari, or Farsi, is the official name for the Persian dialect spoken in the country and is commonly used as a common language.

1. Facts About the Afghanistan Language
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Facts About the Afghanistan Language
Afghanistan is home to anything from 40 to 59 different languages. Dari and Pashto are the
official and most generally spoken languages in Afghanistan, with 77 percent and 48
percent of the population speaking them, respectively. Dari, or Farsi, is the official name for
the Persian dialect spoken in the country and is commonly used as a common language.
Uzbeki (11 percent), English (6%), Turkmeni (3%), Urdu (3%), Pashai (1%), Nuristani
(1%), Arabic (1%), and Balochi (1%), respectively, follow the two official languages (1
percent ).
TWB performed a survey of 65 community radio broadcasters in Afghanistan in 2020,
representing a fourth of all community radio stations. The most common broadcasting
languages, according to the report, are Dari and Pashto. Adverts, short audio clips, and
sporadic language mixing in talk shows and call-in shows are the mainstays of broadcasts
in foreign languages. Dedicated programs in another language that provide in-depth
information are uncommon.
Pashto Facts: Interesting Facts

2. Is Pashto a language you’ve heard of?
Unfortunately, you’re not the only one who hasn’t. The majority of Americans are unaware
of it, yet it is something we should be aware of. It’s the Pashtun language, which has been
spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan for thousands of years. The following are five
fascinating Pashto facts.
1) The Pashto language is one of Afghanistan’s two official languages.
Dari, which is related to Persian, is the other language. For millennia in Afghanistan, the two
languages have coexisted. Pashto was once the primary language of the Pashtuns. The
Afghan aristocracy, including the kings and governing class, spoke Dari.
Pashto became an essential emblem of Afghan identity during the 1920s and 1930s. As a
result, members of the ruling elite started learning both languages. As a result, Pashto was
proclaimed the official language of Afghanistan by King Zahir Shah in 1936.
Dari is vocalized by more than half of Afghans now, and the government widely employs it.
However, while children’s education is offered in both languages, most universities only
offer Dari courses.
2) Pashto speakers outnumber Dutch speakers by roughly two to one.
Pashto is expressed as a leading language by about 40 million people all over the world. In
the meantime, just 22 million people speak Dutch as a native language.
Pashto is spoken by 25 million people in Pakistan, in addition to Afghans. Tajikistan has a
small population that talks about the language. There are Pashto-speaking expat
communities all over the world, of course.
3) The Arabic Naskh script is used to write Pashto.

3. Although Arabic and Pashto are linguistically distinct, you can mistake written Pashto for
Arabic if you don’t speak either language because they employ nearly identical scripts.
Because the languages are so dissimilar, Pashto utilizes a modified form of Naskh, with
extra characters added to indicate sounds unique to Pashto but not to Arabic. It is why the
Pashto script includes 44 letters instead of the conventional Arabic 28.
To accommodate the differing script, you may need to make some design adjustments while
translating from English to Pashto. It’s also essential to use compatible typefaces. Display
faults, on the other hand, can convert a good translation into gibberish.
4) Pashto dialects are divided into two or three groups.
Pashto dialects differ by geography, as they do with other languages. However, there are
two to three main dialect groupings, depending on whatever source you consult:
● Pakistan’s Northern Pashto language.
● Afghanistan’s Southern Pashto language.
● Pakistan’s Central Pashto language. Some sources classify languages as “Northern”
or “Southern.”
5) Oral literature has a long history in Pashto.
Longer poems and stories are part of this tradition. Landay’s are a type of short folk poetry
written by women that depicts the struggles and tribulations of daily life for Afghan
women. To the beat of a drum, they’re usually sung out loud. They’re difficult to translate,
but Poetry Magazine has a fantastic selection online.

4. Afghanistan’s languages
Afghanistan is home to around 30 different languages. Dari (Afghan Persian) and Pashto are
the two primary languages (an eastern Iranian language). Dari and Pashto are
Indo-European languages that are linked to the majority of European languages, including
Swedish.
Afghanistan languages are Dari and Pashtu, both written in Arabic characters. Several
national languages are also spoken. These are also local official languages in areas where a
third national language, such as the Turkic languages Uzbek, Turkmen, or Balochi, Pashai,
Nuristani, and Pamiri, is spoken by the majority of the population in addition to the two
official languages.
Children who are native speakers of these languages have the right to attend school in their
native tongue in these places. However, legal rights and actual possibilities are not
necessarily the same. There are also more frequently spoken dialects, such as Hazaragi, a
Dari-related Persian dialect.
Is learning Pashto difficult
Why is learning Pashto so tricky? Both Afghanistan and Pakistan speak Pashto. It’s written
in Perso-Arabic, a writing system based on the Arabic alphabet but comparable to it. The
order in which nouns and verbs go depends on the tense.
Is Pashto a dialect of Farsi?
Dari and Farsi are not the same languages as Pashto. Dari is frequently learned by native
Pashto speakers, while few Dari speakers have a decent command of Pashto. Although
formal Farsi and Dari are relatively similar, distinctions in pronunciation and word usage
are more noticeable when they are spoken informally.
What nations have Pashto as a native
language?
Pashto is an Indo-Iranian language spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran that belongs
to the southeastern Iranian branch. Pashto is divided into three varieties: Northern Pashto

5. (spoken primarily in Pakistan), Southern Pashto (spoken primarily in Afghanistan), and
Central Pashto (spoken primarily in Pakistan).
What languages are connected to Pashto?
Pashto, often spelled Pashtu and Pakhtu, is an Indo-European language that belongs to the
Iranian division of the Indo-Iranian group. Pashto has several traits with the Indo-Aryan
group of Indo-European languages as a result of extensive borrowing.