Languages

Afghanistan's linguistic landscape is dominated by two official languages — Dari and Pashto — alongside smaller Iranic, Turkic, and Nuristani tongues spoken in mountain valleys and borderlands. Both major languages belong to the Indo-European family, yet they descend from distinct Iranian branches and carry very different histories of power, literature, and identity.

• Dari — Afghanistan's Persian — the court language, the lingua franca
• Pashto — the Pashtun tongue — Afghanistan's national language and one of its official voices