Southern Pashto ( ps, جنوبي/سهيلي پښتو) comprises the South Western (

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

: ) and South Eastern () dialects.

South Western

Kandahārí Pashtó ( ps, کندهارۍ پښتو), also known as, Southwestern Pashto, is a

Pashto dialect Pashto dialects ( ps, د پښتو ژبګوټي də Pəx̌tó žәbgóṭi) can be divided into two large varieties: Northern Pashto and Southern Pashto. Each of the two varieties of Pashto is further divided into a number of dialects. Northern P ...

, spoken in southern and western

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, including the city of

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

. Kandahari Pashto is spoken in

Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...

Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...

, most of Urozgan, Farah, and

Nimruz Nimruz or Nimroz (Dari: ; Balochi: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and north of Balochistan, Pakistan, also borde ...

southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Ghor Ghōr (Dari: ), also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in the western Hindu Kush in central Afghanistan, towards the northwest. The province contains eleven districts, encompassing hundreds ...

, the districts of Murghab,

Ghormach Ghormach ( ps, غورماچ) or Ghowrmach is a town in Badghis Province in northwestern Afghanistan. It serves as the center of Ghormach District. Climate With a mild and generally warm and temperate climate, Ghormach features a hot-summer Medi ...

, Muqur, and Jawand in

Badghis Bādghīs ( Dari: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northwest of the country, on the border with Turkmenistan. It is considered to be one of the country's most underdeveloped provinces, with the highest povert ...

, and parts of

Zabul Zabul (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It has a population of 249,000. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963. Historically, it was part of the Zabu ...

, Paktika, and

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

provinces of Afghanistan. It is also spoken in parts of the provinces of Razavi Khorasan and

South Khorasan South Khorasan Province ( fa, استان خراسان جنوبی ''Ostān-e Khorāsān-e Jonūbī'') is a province located in eastern Iran. Birjand is the centre of the province. The other major cities are Ferdows, Tabas and Qaen. In 2014, it ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, where they numbered roughly 120,000 (in 1993). It is one of the most archaic varieties of

: the Kandahari dialect retains archaic retroflex

sibilants Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...

, and (in other dialects, they have shifted to ʃ/x and ʒ/g). Kandahari also has the affricates and .

Lexical Variation

According to the "Pashto Dialectal Dictionary ( ps, پښتو لهجوي قاموس)" published by the

Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan ps, , native_name_a = , native_name_r = , type = Government agency , seal = , seal_size = , seal_caption = , seal_alt = , logo = , logo_si ...

the following is noted in

province:

South Eastern

In the South Eastern dialect, and in South Western sometimes change to ʃ and ʒ. Whilst and are generally pronounced.Hallberg, Daniel G. 1992. Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 4. In all 3rd-person pronouns 'h' is not articulated. And distinction in 'he' and 'she' pronouns is not noted.

Kākaṛi

Kākaṛi is classed as Southeastern dialect. The following has been noted:

Sherani

According to Josef Elfenbein, Sherani Pashto can be classed either as South Western or South Eastern. Word choice can be distinct:

Marwat-Bettani

In Marwat-Bettani the following is noted: Compare the words

Comparison with Karlāṇi varieties

Marwatwala agrees with other Karlāṇi varieties in the phonetic change in ښ as � Example:

Rendition of ش

It is noted by Yousuf Khan Jazab, in Marwatwala ش can be rendered as . Example:

References

Languages of Pakistan Languages of Afghanistan Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pashto dialects Varieties of Pashto {{ie-lang-stub