ABSTRACT
Pashto is a principal language in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is spoken natively by over half the population of Afghanistan, an estimated 7.5 million, and an estimated 14 million (ca. 90 percent of the population) in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. It is also spoken natively in Baluchistan, the province of Pakistan which lies directly south of central Afghanistan, and by a community of over two million native Pashto speakers in Karachi. There are also about 50,000 native Pashto speakers in Iran.
