Pashayi languages

Pashayi
Pashayi
Pashai
زبان پشه‌ای; Zabân Pašhây
	Pashayi in Nastaliq
Native to	Afghanistan
Ethnicity	Pashayi people
Native speakers	400,000 (2000–2011)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Pashayi; ; ; ;
Writing system	Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; aee – Northeastern; glh – Northwestern; psi – Southeastern; psh – Southwestern
Glottolog	pash1270
Linguasphere	59-AAA-a
	Linguistic map of Afghanistan; Pashayi is spoken in the purple area in the east.

Pashayi or Pashai (پشه اې ژبه) is a group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Kabul (Surobi District) provinces in Northeastern Afghanistan.

The Pashayi languages had no written form prior to 2003. There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:

Northeastern: Aret, Chalas (Chilas), Kandak, Korangal, Kurdar dialects
Northwestern: Alasai, Bolaghain, Gulbahar, Kohnadeh, Laurowan, Najil, Nangarach, Pachagan, Pandau, Parazhghan, Pashagar, Sanjan, Shamakot, Shutul, Uzbin, Wadau dialects
Southeastern: Damench, Laghmani, Sum, Upper and Lower Darai Nur, Wegali dialects
Southwestern: Ishpi, Isken, Tagau dialects

A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.

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