The status of the state language in the constitutions of Afghanistan

This article analyzes the issue of a difficult ethno linguistic situation, the factors of its occurrence, the status of the state language and languages in the Constitutions adopted in the history of Independent Afghanistan and language policy in the country. Representatives of more than 20 nationalities live in Afghanistan, which belong to the Iranian, Turkic, Arab, North Indian and Dravidian ethnic groups, the languages and dialects spoken by the population exceed more than 30. In 1747, from the time of the founding of Afghanistan until 1936, the only state language was Dari, and to this day has the status of being widely used as a language of interethnic communication. According to Article 16 of the 2004 Constitution, the official languages are Pashto and Dari. In areas where the majority of the people speak in any one of Uzbek, Turkmen, Pashayi, Nuristani, Balochi or Pamiri languages, any of the aforementioned language, in addition to Pashto and Dari, shall be the third official language. The simultaneous functioning of two languages, and in some regions three languages as an official state language, has resulted in bilingualism and multilingualism among the population.