Pashayi | |
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Native to | Afghanistan |
Ethnicity | Pashayi people |
Native speakers
|
400,000 (2000–2011) |
Indo-European
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously: aee – Northeastern glh – Northwestern psi – Southeastern psh – Southwestern |
Glottolog | pash1270 |
Linguasphere | 59-AAA-a |
Pashayi or Pashai (sometimes referred to colloquially in neighbouring languages as "Shari") is a group of languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Laghman, Nuristan, Kunar, and Nangarhar Provinces in Northeastern Afghanistan. It belongs to the Dardic branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. Most speakers are bilingual in Pashto with a literacy rate of about 25%, with the Pashayi languages having no written form prior to 2003. There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:
A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.