The Parachi Alphabet

Parachi is a severely endangered Eastern Iranian language spoken by approximately 2,000–5,000 people in the Panjshir Valley and surrounding areas of northeastern Afghanistan. It belongs to the Parachi–Ormuri subgroup of Eastern Iranian, making it more closely related to Ormuri (spoken in Logar, Afghanistan and Waziristan, Pakistan) than to either Pashto or Persian. The ISO 639-3 code for Parachi is prc. Parachi is considered one of the most endangered languages of the Hindu Kush region.

Parachi uses the standard 32-letter Perso-Arabic script — the same alphabet as Dari and Persian (Farsi). This includes the 28 Arabic base letters plus 4 letters unique to Persian: پ (pe /p/), چ (che /tʃ/), ژ (zhe /ʒ/), and گ (gaf /ɡ/). The script follows the Afghan Dari orthographic tradition, as Parachi is spoken in an environment where Dari is the dominant written language. Short vowels are not written in everyday text.

Parachi and Pashto are both Eastern Iranian languages, but they belong to different subgroups within Eastern Iranian. Parachi belongs to the Parachi–Ormuri subgroup, while Pashto belongs to a separate branch. Despite being geographically close and sharing the same general script family, the two languages are not mutually intelligible. Parachi's closest living relative is Ormuri, not Pashto. Both Parachi and Pashto are distinct from Persian (Farsi/Dari), which belongs to the Southwest Iranian branch.

Parachi is classified as severely endangered by the Endangered Languages Project. With an estimated 2,000–5,000 speakers — primarily in the Panjshir Valley of northeastern Afghanistan — Parachi has no significant official status and very limited written use. The language is under strong pressure from Dari, the dominant language of the region. Parachi's small and declining speaker community and the absence of institutional support make it one of the most at-risk languages of the Hindu Kush.

Parachi is spoken primarily in the Panjshir Valley and adjacent areas of northeastern Afghanistan, including parts of Kabul Province. The Panjshir Valley runs northeast of Kabul along the Panjshir River. Parachi speakers are ethnically distinct from the dominant Tajik and Pashtun communities of the region. Due to its small speaker population and geographic concentration, Parachi's survival is closely tied to language shift pressures from Dari, the regional lingua franca and official language of Afghanistan alongside Pashto.

Parachi belongs to the Parachi–Ormuri subgroup of the Eastern Iranian branch of the Iranian language family, within the larger Indo-Iranian sub-family of Indo-European. The Eastern Iranian branch also includes Pashto, the Pamir languages (Shughni, Wakhi, Munji, etc.), and Ossetic. Parachi's closest relative is Ormuri, spoken in Logar Province, Afghanistan and Waziristan, Pakistan. Both Parachi and Ormuri preserve archaic Eastern Iranian phonological features not found in the larger Iranian languages.