| Pashayi | ||||||
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| Spoken in | Afghanistan | |||||
| Native speakers | unknown (108,000 cited 1982)[1] | |||||
| Language family |
Indo-European
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| Language codes | ||||||
| ISO 639-3 | variously: aee – Northeastern glh – Northwestern psi – Southeastern psh – Southwestern |
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| Linguasphere | 59-AAA-a | |||||
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Pashayi - also known as Pashai - is a language (or 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 Indo-European language family, and is on the Dardic group of the Indo-Aryan branch.[2]
It was spoken by over 216,842 people who are predominantly Muslim. Most of them are bilingual in Pashto with a literacy rate of about 25%, with the Pashai language having no written form prior to 2003.[3]
There are four main varieties, which are all mutually unintelligible: the Northeastern, the Northwestern, the Southeastern and the Southwestern. The inhabitants of the Korengal Valley in the Pech District of Kunar Province speak a variety of Pashai Language.
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