Afghanistan is an ancient country in Central Asia, which for many millennia served as a crossroads of many cultures, whose carriers actively moved across the Eurasian continent. The language spoken in Afghanistan depends on the region of the country. The official languages in the state are Pashto and Dari.
Linguistic history of Afghanistan
Very rich and varied history of the country begins to be revealed already in the name itself, the etymology of which seems complex and interesting. According to one version, the Persian word "afghan" is found in the name, denoting silence and silence. At the same time, the word "augan", found in the Turkic languages, is translated as departed, retired, hidden. Both variants of this etymology are external, that is, they are not self-names, and both of them encode not only the history of the peoples of Afghanistan, but even the geography of the area.
The word "Afghan" for peoples living in Central Asia or itsconquered, similar to the Russian word "German", that is, a person who does not speak the native language of the one who encountered a Pashto or Dari speaker.
At the same time, the word "augan" could characterize the tribes hiding in the mountains from numerous conquerors. Fortunately, the relief and a large number of hard-to-reach areas favored this kind of escape. It was geography that was a frequent reason why the invaders could not completely conquer the country. There have always been hard-to-reach mountainous regions in which local residents could find shelter from the guns of the interventionists.
State history and its impact on the linguistic composition of the population
Actually, the word "Afghans" - as a definition of local residents - appears in written monuments in 982, but then it meant all the tribes that lived along the Indus River. For the first time, Islamic conquerors began to actively use this word, not wanting to delve into the intricacies of the local ethnic balance.
The language spoken in Afghanistan is due to the region's very ancient history. The founders of the first states on the territory of modern Afghanistan were representatives of the Indus civilization, then the Persian royal dynasty of the Achaemenids came there, then Alexander the Great came to Central Asia, whose empire was partially inherited by the Seleucids, who were replaced by the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. All these states existed on the Afghan lands before our era. Therefore, it is not surprising that inin today's Afghanistan, many languages are spoken.
Two official languages
The languages of interethnic communication in Afghanistan are two state languages - Pashto and Dari. The Pashto language is spoken in most parts of the country, in neighboring Pakistan, as well as in the vast Pashtun diaspora. Despite the fact that Pashto belongs to the group of Eastern Iranian languages, its phonetics reveals the influence of neighboring Indian languages. Also, the influence of foreign peoples is found in the vocabulary. In addition to Pashtun, Persian, Arabic and Indian words are found in the language.
The Dari language is an Afghan-Persian language spoken by Afghan Tajiks, Charaymaks, Hazaras and some other minor ethnic groups. It is worth noting that Dari speakers have no difficulty communicating with Persian and Tajik speakers, as the languages are related.
Answering the question of what language is written in Afghanistan, it is worth saying that, unlike Pashto, which uses Arabic script, Dari uses its own system, which is significantly different from Perso-Arabic.
Non-state common languages
Any national language spoken in Afghanistan is quite often spoken outside of it. This is due to the fact that Afghanistan is not a mono-ethnic state.
In addition to the two official languages, Uzbek, Pashai, Balochi, Nuristani, and Pamir languages are also widely spoken,which, besides Afghanistan, are also spoken in Pakistan, China and Tajikistan. Thus, what language is spoken in Afghanistan is due to the historical setting.
