Pashto phonology

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

Consonants

^1. The voiced velar nasal is not represented by a separate letter in the Pashto alphabet, but naturally occurs as an allophonic variant of the voiced alveolar nasal before velar consonants.
^2. The voiceless uvular plosive and the voiceless labiodental fricative primarily appear in loanwords borrowed from Persian of Arabic origin. In Pashto, the former tends to be replaced with the voiceless velar plosive or the voiceless velar fricative, and the latter tends to be replaced with the voiceless labiodental plosive.
^3. The voiced and voiceless alveolar affricates remain in the Kandahar and Quetta dialects, as well as among majority of the Karlani dialects. In the Derajat region, these respectfully tend to be simplified to the voiced and voiced palato-alveolar sibilant affricates. Whereas in the Northwestern and Northeastern Dialects, they are simplified to the voiced and voiceless alveolar fricatives.
^4. The voiced postalveolar fricative exists within the majority of Pashto dialects, but changes to the voiced alveolar fricative in the Derajat region and the Northwestern Dialect, and to the voiced palato-alveolar sibilant affricate in the Northeastern Dialect, specifically in Peshawar and Swat.
^5. The Pashto letters and have the most variation in pronunciations; from the archaic Kandahar voiced and voiceless retroflex sibilant fricatives, which had shifted to the voiced and voiceless palatal fricatives in the Northwestern Dialect, and from it to the voiced velar plosive and the voiceless velar fricative in the Northeastern Dialect. On the other hand, it got simplified to the voiced and voiceless postalveolar fricatives, specificlally in the Quetta and Derajat Dialects.
^6. The Pashto letter is mostly pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative, and as a voiceless uvular fricative in some accents of the Northeastern Dialect, particularly in the regions of Peshawar and Swat.
^7. The Pashto letter 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.
^8.The Pashto letter is pronounced with a voiced alveolar trill when it is typically used at the beginning of a syllable, and the voiced alveolar tap or flap is pronounced in between vowels and in word-end position.

Voiceless stops and affricates are all unaspirated; they have slightly aspirated allophones prevocalically in a stressed syllable, almost like English.

Dialects

Dialectal allophones represented by ښ and ږ. The retroflex variants are used in the southwestern dialects, whereas the post-alveolar variants are used in southeastern dialects. The palatal variants are used in the Wardak and Central Ghilji dialects. In the northeastern dialects, ښ and ږ merge with the velar.

Phonotactics

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

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 : Can be any consonant, including a liquid.
*Second consonant : Can be any consonant.
* Third consonant : Can be any consonant.
Nucleus
* Semivowel
* Vowel
* Semivowel
Coda
* First consonant : Can be any consonant
* Second consonant : 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
Two consonant clusters	,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and etc.
Three consonant clusters	,,, etc.

Examples

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

	IPA	Meaning
V		'was'	و
VC		'horse'	اس
VCC		'loose'	ارت
CV		'you'	ته
CVC		'many, very'	ډېر
CVCC		'wet'	لوند
CCV		back	ملا
CCVC		'hard'	کلک
CCVCC		'life'	ژوند
CCCV		'mouth'	خوله
CCCVC		'sister-in-law'	ندرور
CCCVCC		'chewing '	شخوند

Vowels

Most dialects in Pashto have seven vowels and seven diphthongs.

	Front	Central	Back
Close
Mid
Open

Tegey & Robson also include near-close vowels // and //.

Prehistory

There are many complexities on the development from Proto-Iranian into the modern Pashto vowel inventory :*a > ā in a stressed closed syllable

* ā > o before w or if there is u or w in the next syllable ; sometimes also in adjectives

Diphthongs

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

Stress

Pashto has phonemic variable stress, unique amongst Iranian languages.
For instance, in verbs to distinguish aspect:

Imperfective verb	Meaning	Perfective verb	Meaning
	'I was sitting'		'I sat down'
	'I was sitting'		'I sat down'
	'I shall be sitting'		'I shall sit'

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.

Example	IPA	Meaning
رنځور		'sick'
رنځوره		'sick'
کورونه		'houses'
ښځو		'women'
لاندې		'below'
ځمکپوهنه		'geography'

Masculine words ending in "ə"

These have final stress generally.

Example	IPA	Meaning
تېره		'sharp'
لېوه		'wolf'

Feminine words ending in "o"

These end in a stressed /o/.

Example	IPA	Meaning
بيزو		'monkey'
پيشو		'cat'
ورشو		'meadow, pasture'

Wordings ending in aleph

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

Example	IPA	Meaning
اشنا		'familiar'
رڼا		'light'

Exceptions

Word meanings also change upon stress.

Word	IPA	Meaning 1	IPA	Meaning 2
جوړه		'well'		'pair'
اسپه		'mare'		'spotted fever'

Intonation

Questions

WH-Questions follow a hat pattern of intonation: a rise in pitch followed by a fall in pitch.
Yes/No-Questions end in a high intonation: a rise in pitch.

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.

Dialectal phonology

Consonants

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

Dialect	ښ	ږ	څ	ځ	ژ
Southwestern dialects e.g., Sharkhbun dialects
Southeastern dialects e.g., Ghurghusht and Lodi dialects
Central dialects – Karlani dialects
Northwestern dialects e.g., Wardak and Ghilji dialects			and	and	and
Northeastern dialects e.g., Kharshbun dialects

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:

	Meaning	Swat	Peshawar
ودرېږه	'stop'
جنۍ	'girl'

Alveolo-palatal fricative

Rozi Khan Burki claims that the Ormuri alveolo-palatal fricative and 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

Vowel shift

Corey Miller notes that the shift does not affect all words.
In the Waziri dialect, in Standard Pashto becomes in northern Waziri and in southern Waziri.

	Meaning	Standard Pashto	N. Wazirwola	S. Wazirwola
ماسته	'yogurt'
پاڼه	'leaf'

In the Waziri dialect, the stressed in Standard Pashto becomes and. The in Standard Pashto may also begin with a glide:,.

	Meaning	Standard Pashto	Wazirwola
لور	'sickle'
وړه	'flour'
اوږه	'shoulder'
اوس	'now'

In the Waziri dialect, stressed in Standard Pashto becomes.

	Meaning	Standard Pashto	Wazirwola
موږ	'we'
نوم	'navel'

When begins a word in Standard Pashto, it can become or w.

	Meaning	Standard Pashto	Wazirwola
اوم	'raw'
اوږه	'garlic'
اوده	'asleep'

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

Apridi vowels

Apridi has the additional close-mid central rounded vowel.

Diphthongs in dialects

The diphthongs varies according to dialect.

Standard pronunciation	Apridi	Yusupzai	Waziri	Mohmand	Baniswola/Bannuchi	Wanetsi
						a
						ˈa
			ˈəɪ ˈe			ˈi


					,

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

Nasalisation of vowels

As noted by Yousaf Khan Jazab, the Marwat and Bansiwola dialects have nasalised vowels also. It is also noted in the Waṇetsi/Tarin dialect.
These are indicated by the diacritic mark.

Standard	Marwat	Meaning
بوی	بویں	'smell'