The Most Similar Languages to Pashto

Pashto, an Indo-European language primarily spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan, shares significant linguistic and cultural affinities with several other languages. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Pashto are Persian, Kurdish, Zazaki, Balochi, and Mazandarani.

1. Persian (50.6)
   Persian is the most widely spoken of the Iranian languages and has had a significant historical influence on Pashto. Both languages share a common ancestor and thus retain many cognate words. Persian has profoundly influenced Pashto vocabulary, due to centuries of Persian cultural and political dominance in the region.
2. Kurdish (50.6)
   Kurdish is primarily spoken in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The two languages show strong typological similarities. In fact, linguists often point out that the syntactic alignment and verbal morphology of Kurdish are closer to Pashto than to Persian.
3. Zazaki (45.7)
   Spoken by the Zaza people in eastern Turkey, Zazaki is a lesser-known language that shares several deep linguistic features with Pashto. Although Zazaki has been heavily influenced by Turkish in terms of vocabulary and syntax due to its sociolinguistic context, its core grammatical features align closely with those of Pashto.
4. Balochi (45.4)
   Spoken primarily in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Balochi has long been in contact with Pashto, particularly in Balochistan and southwestern Afghanistan. The two languages share a significant number of cognates and exhibit similarities in their syntax and verb morphology.
5. Mazandarani (45.3)
   Mazandarani is spoken along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. Although it is less closely related to Pashto than Balochi or Kurdish, both languages have preserved several ancient Indo-Iranian root words. Contact between Mazandarani and Pashto speakers is rare due to geographic separation, the roots of both languages are similar.

(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)