Direct case is used for subjects and direct objects in the present tense. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for gender (Masculine/Feminine), number (Singular/Plural) and grammatical case (Direct/Oblique). Pashto is a Subject-Object-Verb language with split ergativity. The dialect of Kandahar is the most conservative with regards to phonology, retaining both the dental affricates and the retroflex fricatives, which have not merged with other phonemes. The northern dialect is spoken by about 6,000,000 people, and the southern dialect by about 1,500,000. It is not the official language in Pakistan, and is spoken by Pashtun communities in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Province. Pashto is the national language of Afghanistan and the official languages of Afghanistan (along with Dari) and is widely spoken by Pashtuns and other ethnic groups. Other smaller communities of Pashto speakers also thrive in northeastern Iran and in India, particularly in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, where Pathan colonies were founded. In Pakistan, smaller, modern 'transplant' communities are also found in Sindh, Karachi, Hyderabad. Pashto is spoken by about 45 million people in the western provinces of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan of Pakistan (25.4% of the total population) and by over 23 million people in the south, east, west and a some of northern provinces of Afghanistan (ca.

Pashto grammar verba