Pashto is a member of the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages and has about 25-30 million speakers. There are three main varieties of Pashto: Northern Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan; Southern Pashto, spoken mainly in Afghanistan, and Central Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan.

Pashto was made the national language of Afghanistan by royal decree in 1936. Today both Dari and Pashto are official languages there. Since then, the Pashto spelling system has been revised to some extent.

Pashto first appeared in writing during the 16th century in the form of an account of Shekh Mali's conquest of Swat. It is written with a version of the Arabic script. There are two standard written forms: one based on the dialect of Kandahar, the other on the dialect of Peshawar.

The name Pashto is thought to derive from the reconstructed proto-Iranian form, parsawā 'Persian language. In northen Afghanistan speakers of Pashto are called Pakhtūn; in sourthen Afghanistan they are known as Pashtūn, and as Pathān or Afghan in Pakistan.

Pashto at a glance

• Linguistic affliation: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Southeastern

• Approximate number of speakers: 25-30 million

• Spoken in: Afghanistan and Pakistan

• First written in: 16th century

• Status: one of the official languages of Afghanistan

• Alternative names: Pushtu, Pushto, Pukhto, Afghan