Editing Pashto (section)

===Afghanistan===
Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with [[Dari Persian]].<ref name="socioling">Modarresi, Yahya: "Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan, 1911–1916." In: ''Sociolinguistics'', Vol. 3, Part. 3. Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill (eds.). Berlin, De Gryuter: 2006. p. 1915. {{ISBN|3-11-018418-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=LMZm0w0k1c4C&pg=PA1914]</ref> Since the early 18th century, [[List of heads of state of Afghanistan|the monarchs of Afghanistan]] have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for [[Habibullāh Kalakāni]] in 1929).<ref name=rahman /> Persian, the literary language of the royal court,<ref>Lorenz, Manfred. "Die Herausbildung moderner iranischer Literatursprachen." In: ''Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung'', Vol. 36. Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Akademie Verlag, Berlin: 1983. P. 184ff.</ref> was more widely used in government institutions, while the [[Pashtun tribes]] spoke Pashto as their [[First language|native tongue]]. King [[Amanullah Khan]] began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926–1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism" after the [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]] in 1919, which restored Afghan control over their foreign policy.<ref name=rahman /> In the 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society ''Pashto Anjuman'' in 1931<ref>Other sources note 1933, i.e. Johannes Christian Meyer-Ingwersen. Untersuchungen zum Satzbau des Paschto. 1966. Ph.D. Thesis, Hamburg 1966.</ref> and the inauguration of the [[Kabul University]] in 1932 as well as the formation of the [[Pashto Academy]] (Pashto ''Tolana)'' in 1937.<ref name="hussain" /> Muhammad Na'im Khan, the minister of education between 1938 and 1946, inaugurated the formal policy of promoting Pashto as Afghanistan's national language, leading to the commission and publication of Pashto textbooks.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|pages=17|language=en}}</ref> The Pashto Tolana was later incorporated into the Academy of Sciences Afghanistan in line with Soviet model following the [[Saur Revolution]] in 1978.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|language=en}}</ref>

Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing".<ref name=rahman>Tariq Rahman. "Pashto Language & Identity Formation in Pakistan." ''Contemporary South Asia'', July 1995, Vol 4, Issue 2, p151-20.</ref> King [[Mohammed Zahir Shah|Zahir Shah]] (reigning 1933–1973) thus followed suit after his father [[Mohammed Nadir Shah|Nadir Khan]] had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto.<ref>István Fodor, Claude Hagège. ''Reform of Languages''. Buske, 1983. P. 105ff.</ref> In 1936  a [[royal decree]] of Zahir Shah [[Formality|formally]] granted Pashto the status of an official language,<ref>Campbell, George L.: ''Concise Compendium of the world's languages''. London: Routledge 1999.</ref> with full rights to use in all aspects of government and education – despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian.<ref name="hussain">Hussain, Rizwan. ''Pakistan and the emergence of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan''. Burlington, Ashgate: 2005. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TRW_M_xybyYC p. 63.]</ref> Thus Pashto became a [[national language]], a symbol for [[Pashtun nationalism]].

The [[1964 Constitution of Afghanistan|constitutional assembly]] reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to [[Dari language|Dari]].<ref>[[Louis Dupree (professor)|Dupree, Louis]]: "Language and Politics in Afghanistan." In: ''Contributions to Asian Studies''. Vol. 11/1978. p. 131–141. E. J. Brill, Leiden 1978. p. 131.</ref><ref>Spooner, Bryan: "Are we teaching Persian?" In: ''Persian Studies in North America: Studies in Honor of Mohammad Ali Jazayery''. Mehdi Marashi (ed.). Bethesda, Iranbooks: 1994. p. 1983.</ref> The lyrics of the [[Afghan National Anthem|national anthem of Afghanistan]] are in Pashto.

{{Further|List of Pashto-speaking universities}}