Pashto (also called Pakhto, Pushtu, Afghan, and other variations) belongs to the Eastern branch of the Iranian group in the Indo-European family of languages. In 1936, it became the second official language of Afghanistan, after Dari, and was used as the working language in local parliaments in some provinces of Pakistan (including the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan).
Pashto is the language of the Pashtun tribes. Traditionally, the Pashtuns are nomads. They inhabit a big area in the eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan (including the provinces Nangarhar, Paktia, Kandahar, Kabul, Farah, Ghazni and others) and the western regions of Pakistan (including the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan, Waziristan, Peshawar, and others). As an example of their nomadic lifestyle, Pashtuns can spend the summer in Afghanistan and the winter in Pakistan. They do not recognize the borderline between Afghanistan and Pakistan. To understand the reason for this, we must go back into their history.
Afghanistan has an important strategic location in the Middle East and was an object of territorial claims for many years. The British Empire tried to occupy the Afghan lands three times, but Afghanistan retained its independence. However, according to an agreement between the Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and British representative Mortimer Durand in 1893, the territory of the Pashtun tribes ("Pashtunistan") was divided by the borderline (the so-called "Durand Line") into two parts: the first one under the authority of the Afghan Amir and the second one under the power of the British Crown (joined to British India). When the British Empire collapsed and independent India and Pakistan were established, the Afghan Parliament announced the repeal of the "Durand Line" and backed the Eastern Pashtuns in their struggle for separation from Pakistan. However, this position was not supported by international opinion and the problem of the so-called "divided people" remains unsettled. As a result, about 10 million Pashtuns now live in Afghanistan (40-50% of the population), 9.5 million live in Pakistan, and 1 million live in Iran and other countries (including India, UK, and the UAE).
While almost every Pashtun tribe has its own dialect, most dialects fall into two main groups. Dialects such as Mohmandi, Afridi, Yusufzai, Ghilzai, and others belong to the Northern (or Northeastern or Eastern) group with centers in Peshawar and Jalalabad (hereinafter referred to as the Northern dialect or Pakhto). Dialects such as Durani (Kandahari), Kakar, Khatak, and others belong to the Southern (or Southwestern or Western) group with the center in Kandahar (hereinafter referred to as the Southern dialect or Pashto). Some dialects, such as Waziri and others, do not fall into the two main groups and are considered separate.
There are differences between the dialects within each group. For example, there are differences between the dialects in Peshawar and Jalalabad inside the Northern group. However, there is an 80% lexical similarity between the two main dialects.
Historically, the Pashto literary language was based on the Kandahari dialect of the Southern group because the founder of the Afghan state Ahmad Shah Durani was also one of the great poets and founders of the literary Pashto. However, the literary language then adopted many words, phrases, grammatical rules, and pronunciations from Northern dialects because most Pashtuns in the country spoke only the Northern dialect.
The Pashto literary language continues to evolve. The official Pashto language in Afghanistan and the language of radio and television is based on the so-called Kabul or central dialect. It combines the grammatical structure of the Northern and Southern dialects and, for the most part, uses the pronunciation of Northern dialect.
This grammar guide reflects the hybrid nature of the Pashto language and describes the main distinctive features of the two main dialect groups.
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