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Amongst the Iranian languages, the phonology of Pashto is of middle complexity, but its morphology is very complex.

Consonants

Ear

was Visible

a Type of Dance

Fog

Car, Vehicle

a Rock; Profit, Benefit

The phonemes /q/, /f/ are only found in loanwords, and tend to be replaced by /k/, /p/ respectively. Some educated speakers may also have /ʔ, ʕ, ħ/ in Arabic loanwords.

• Voiceless stops and affricates /p, t, ʈ, t͡s, t͡ʃ, k/ are all unaspirated; they have slightly aspirated allophones prevocalically in a stressed syllable, almost like English.
• /ʂ, ʐ/ are heard as palatal fricatives in the Northwestern dialect.
• /ɽ/ is a voiced retroflex flap most of the time, but tends to be a lateral flap at the beginning of a syllable or other prosodic unit, and a regular flap or approximant elsewhere.

Dialects

Dialectal allophones represented by ښ and ږ. The retroflex variants are used in the Southwest dialects whereas the post-alveolar variants are used in Southeast Dialects. The palatal variants are used in the Wardak and Central Ghilji dialects. In the North Eastern dialects ښ and ږ merge with the velar .

Phonotactics

Pashto syllable structure can be summarized as follows; parentheses enclose optional components:

• (C₁ C₂ (C₃)) (S₁) V (S₂) (C₄ (C₅))

Pashto syllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset, consisting of one or two consonants; an obligatory syllable nucleus, consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and/or followed by a semivowel; and an optional syllable coda, consisting of one or two consonants. The following restrictions apply:

• Onset
  • First consonant (C₁): Can be any consonant, including a liquid (/l, r/).
  • Second consonant (C₂): Can be any consonant.
  • Third consonant (C₃ ): Can be any consonant. (see #Consonant Clusters below)
• Nucleus
  • Semivowel (S₁)
  • Vowel (V)
  • Semivowel (S₂)
• Coda
  • First consonant (C₄): Can be any consonant
  • Second consonant (C₅): Can be any consonant

Consonant clusters

Pashto has a lot of word-initial consonant clusters in all dialects; some hundred such clusters occurs. However, there is no consonant gemination.

Examples

An edited list from the book Pashto Phonology by M.K. Khan:

Vowels

Most dialects in Pashto have seven vowels and seven diphthongs.

• Tegey & Robson (1996) also include near-close vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/.

Prehistory

There are many complexities on the development from Proto-Iranian into the modern Pashto vowel inventory (romanization will be used here):

• *a > ā /ɑ/ in a stressed closed syllable (lā́s < *jásta- "hand")
  • ā > o before w (owə́ < *haftá) or if there is u or w in the next syllable (pox < *paxwá-); sometimes also in adjectives (corb < *čarpá)

Diphthongs

Elfenbein notes that the long diphthongs are always stressed, whilst the short diphthongs may or may not be stressed.

Orthography of diphthongs

Stress

Pashto has phonemic variable stress, unique amongst Iranian languages.

For instance, in verbs to distinguish aspect:

Basic word stress

Stress is indicated by the IPA stress marker .

In general, the last syllable is stressed if the word ends in a consonant and the penultimate syllable is stressed if the last syllable ends in a vowel. !

Masculine Words ending in "ə"

These have final stress generally.

Feminine Words ending in "o"

These end in a stress /o/.

Wordings ending in Aleph

Words ending in IPA /ɑ/ i.e. ا are stressed in the last syllable.

Exceptions

Word meanings also change upon stress.

Intonation

Questions

WH-Questions follow a hat pattern of intonation: a rise in pitch followed by a fall in pitch.

تاسو چېرته کار کوئ

Yes/No-Questions end in a high intonation: a rise in pitch.

غنم يې ورېبل ؟

Contrastive focus

When a word is contrasted with another word it carries a low then high pitch accent, followed by a sharp fall in pitch accent.

نه له د نه کشر يم

Dialectal phonology

Consonants

This diagram is based on Anna Boyle's division of the dialect variations on geographic regions:

Regional Variation

This diagram however does not factor in the regional variations within the broad geographic areas. Compare the following consonant and vowel differences amongst regions categorised as Northern dialects:

Or the difference in vowels and diphthongs in North Eastern Pashto:

Alveolo-palatal fricative

Rozi Khan Burki claims that the Ormuri alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ may also be present in Waziri. But Pashto linguists such as Josef Elfenbein, Anna Boyle or Yousaf Khan Jazab have not noted this in Waziri Phonology.

Vowels

Waziri vowels

The Vowel Shift

Corey Miller notes that the shift does not affect all words.

In Waziri dialect the [ɑ] in Standard Pashto becomes [ɔː] in Northern Waziri and [ɒː] in Southern Waziri.

In Waziri dialect the stressed [o] in Standard Pashto becomes [œː] and [ɛː]. The [o] in Standard Pashto may also become or .

In Waziri dialect the stressed [u] in standard Pashto becomes [iː].

When [u] in begins a word in standard Pashto can become [jiː] or

Elfenbein also notes the presence of the near-open vowel .

Apridi vowels

Apridi has the additional close-mid central rounded vowel /ɵ/.

Diphthongs in dialects

The diphthongs varies according to dialect.

Yousaf Khan Jazab notes that the diphthong /əɪ/ becomes /oi/ in the Khattak Dialect in the verbal suffix /ئ/, but it remains as the diphthong /əɪ/ in the nominal/adjectival /ۍ/ example: مړۍ /ma.ˈɽəɪ/ "meal".

Nasalisation of vowels

As noted by Yousaf Khan Jazab, the Marwat dialect and the Bansiwola dialect have nasalised vowels also. It is also noted in the Waṇetsi/Tarin dialect.

These are indicated by the diactric mark / ̃ /.

Notes

1. With some corrected IPA for words mentioned therein . Sources of correction: Kaye (1997), Zeeya Pashtoon (2009) and Qamosona.com

References

1. Elfenbein (1997), p. 736.
2. Tegey & Robson (1996), p. 15.
3. David (2014), p. 9.
4. David (2014), p. 35.
5. D.N. MacKenzie, 1990, "Pashto", in Bernard Comrie, ed, The major languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, p. 103
6. Herbert Penzl, 1965, A reader of Pashto, p 7
7. ^ Elfenbein (1997), p. 737.
8. Khan, Muhammad Kamal (2020-04-08). Pashto Phonology: An Evaluation of the Relationship between Syllable Structure and Word Order. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-1-5275-4925-8.
9. David (2014), p. 11.
10. Tegey & Robson (1996), p. 17.
11. Cheung, Johnny (2011). "Selected Pashto Problems II. Historical Phonology 1: On Vocalism and Etyma". Iran and the Caucasus. 15 (1–2): 169–205. doi:10.1163/157338411X12870596615557.
12. Elfenbein (1997), p. 751.
13. Bečka, Jiří (1969). A Study in Pashto Stress. Academia.
14. Tegey & Robson (1996), p. 25.
15. David, Anne Boyle (2015-06-16). Descriptive Grammar of Bangla (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 56 and 109. ISBN 978-1-5015-0083-1.
16. Tegey & Robson (1996), p. 56.
17. David (2014), p. 68.
18. "Pashto Intonation Patterns". Interspeech 2017.
19. David (2014), pp. 31–34.
20. ^ Coyle 2014.
21. "Dying Languages: Special Focus on Ormuri". Pakistan Journal of Public Administration. 6. No. 2. December 2001. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012.
22. Elfenbein (1997), pp. 740–749.
23. David (2014), pp. 37–40.
24. Jazab (2017), pp. 69–70.
25. Miller, Corey (2014-05-12). "The Waziri Chain Shift". Journal of Persianate Studies. 7 (1): 125. doi:10.1163/18747167-12341267. ISSN 1874-7167.
26. ^ Elfenbein (1997), p. 748.
27. Elfenbein (1997), p. 749.
28. Elfenbein (1997), p. 746.
29. Elfenbein (1997), pp. 740, 750–751.
30. Elfenbein (1997), pp. 751–753.
31. Rensch, Calvin Ross (1992). Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan: Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri. National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. pp. 79–146.
32. Jazab (2017), pp. 64–65.
33. Jazab (2020), p. 189.
34. Jazab (2020), pp. 187–188.
35. Jazab (2017), p. 65.
36. Jazab (2017), pp. 60–61.

Bibliography

• Coyle, Dennis (2014-01-01). Placing Wardak Among Pashto Varieties (MA). University of North Dakota.
• David, Anne Boyle (2014). Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and Its Dialects. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-61451-303-2.
• Elfenbein, Josef (1997). "Pashto Phonology". In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.). Phonologies of Asia and Africa: Including the Caucasus. Eisenbrauns. pp. 733–760. ISBN 978-1-57506-019-4.
• Jazab, Yousaf Khan (2017). An Ethno-Linguistic Study of the Karlanri Varieties of Pashto. Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9789694181004. OCLC 1001287442.
• Jazab, Yousaf Khan (2020-09-19). "A Diphthong Related Issue in Pashto Script and Its Solution". Pashto. 49 (659). ISSN 0555-8158.
• Tegey, Habibullah; Robson, Barbara (1996). A Reference Grammar of Pashto (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.

• Pashto
• Iranian phonologies