pbt ISO 639

پښتو‎‎ (Pax̌tō) Autonyms

Pashto, Southern

  • Geography

    AF Badghis, Farah, Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, Nimroz, Uruzgan, and Zabul provinces.
  • Language Cloud

A language of Afghanistan

pbt
Kandahari Pashto, Qandahari Pashto, Southwestern Pashto
پښتو‎‎ (Pax̌tō)
13,320,000 in Afghanistan, all users. L1 users: 9,840,000 in Afghanistan (2017). L2 users: 3,480,000 (2021). Total users in all countries: 19,733,930 (as L1: 16,253,930; as L2: 3,480,000).
Badghis, Farah, Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, Nimroz, Uruzgan, and Zabul provinces.
Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Southern Pakistan
1 (National). Statutory national language (2004, Constitution, Article 16(1)).
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern, Southeastern, Pashto
Durani. Lexical similarity: 80% between northern and southern varieties of Pashto. A member of macrolanguage Pushto [pus].
SOV; noun head final; gender (masculine/feminine); no articles; case-marking (3 cases); verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; passives; tense and aspect; causatives.
Afghan government has worked since 1930s to standardize and publicize it. All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Some also use Dari [prs], especially those who are educated or have business in Dari-speaking provinces. A few also use Urdu [urd].
Pashto is one of two national languages taught in schools. Low literacy rate, especially in non-urban locations and among women. Taught in all primary and secondary schools in predominantly Pashto-speaking areas; taught as subject in primary schools in some other regions. Literature. Newspapers. Periodicals. Radio. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. Bible portions: 2011–2019.
Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab], used in print. Arabic script, Nastaliq variant [Aran], used in handwriting and for book titles.
Muslim.
OLAC resources in and about Pashto, Southern
Pashto, Southern
154,000 in United Arab Emirates (2020).
Unestablished
Non-indigenous. Came from Afghanistan. Muslim.
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Pashto, Southern
10,300 in Belgium (2020 census), based on nationality.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Pashto, Southern
81,500 in Germany (2020 census), based on nationality.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Pashto, Southern
1,530 in Finland (2021 census).
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Pashto, Southern
40,300 in United Kingdom (2011 census).
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Pashto, Southern
113,000 in Iran (1993). Population does not include refugees.
Razavi Khorasan and South Khorasan provinces: Afghanistan border east of Qa’en.
5 (Dispersed)
Also use Iranian Persian [pes].
Different from Northern Pashto [pbu] of Pakistan and India. Muslim.
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Pashto, Southern
5,960,000 in Pakistan (2017 census).
Balochistan province: Loralai, Mastung, Quetta, Pishin, Sibi, and Ziarat districts, and adjacent areas; Khyber Pakhtunkwa province: Dera Ismail Khan district; Punjab province: Dera Ghazi Khan district.
Southeastern Pashto, Quetta Pashto.
5 (Dispersed)
Some Pashto educated in Urdu [urd] medium schools mix the languages. Used as L2 by Waneci [wne].
Muslim.
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Pashto, Southern
19,400 in Sweden (2020 census), based on nationality.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Pashto, Southern
32,400 in Tajikistan (2017).
Khatlon region.
5 (Dispersed)
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Pashto, Southern
1,500 in Turkmenistan (Leclerc 2019b), based on ethnicity.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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