Central Pashto

Central Pashto (Pashto: منځنۍ پښتو‎ manźanəi pax̌to) is the standardized variety of Pashto which serves as a prestige Pashto dialect, and is based on the Ghilji dialect, spoken in the central Ghilji region, which covers the eastern Afghan region of Paktika, northern Zabul, southern Ghazni, Kabul (including Afghan capital Kabul) and some surrounding region. Central Pashto's vocabulary, however, also derives from Southern Pashto. Central Pashto is the literary variety of Pashto used in Afghan media.

Central Pashto has been developed by Radio Television Afghanistan and Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan in Kabul. It has adopted neologisms to coin new terms from already existing words or phrases and introduce them into the Pashto lexicon. Educated Standard Pashto is learned in the curriculum that is taught in the primary schools in the country. It is used for written and formal spoken purposes, and in the domains of media and government. This dialect of Pashto has been chosen as standard because the Pashtuns from north, south, east and west as well as those living in Pakistan, India and all around the world widely understand this dialect.

There has also been an effort to adopt a written form based on Latin script, but because of linking the Perso-Arabic based script with the religious views of Afghans, the effort of adapting a Roman alphabet has failed. However, Pashto is widely written in Latin script outside Afghanistan by the 2nd and 3rd generation of Pashtun refugees many of whom never learned how to read and write the Perso-Arabic based Pashto alphabet.