Pashto phonology

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

Consonants
The phonemes, are only found in loanwords, and tend to be replaced by ,  respectively. Some educated speakers may also have /ʔ, ʕ, ħ/ in Arabic loanwords.
 * Voiceless stops and affricates are all unaspirated; they have slightly aspirated allophones prevocalically in a stressed syllable, almost like English.
 * /, / are heard as palatal fricatives [, ] in the Northwestern dialect.
 * 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.
 * Second consonant (C2): Can be any consonant.
 * Third consonant (C3 ): Can be any consonant. (see 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 // and //.

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

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 [ˈ].

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.

Questions
WH-Questions [who, where, when etc] follow a hat pattern of intonation: a rise in pitch followed by a fall in pitch.


 * تاسو چېرته کار کوئ
 * [ tā́so ↗čérta kār kawə́ɪ↘ ]

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


 * غنم يې ورېبل ؟
 * [ ğanə́m ye wә́rebəl↗ ]

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
 * [ na↘ lə ↗də nə kə́shər yə́m↘ ]

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 // 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.

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

In Waziri dialect the in Standard Pashto  becomes  in Northern Waziri and  in Southern Waziri.

In Waziri dialect the stressed in Standard Pashto  becomes   and. The in Standard Pashto may also become  or. In Waziri dialect the stressed  in standard Pashto  becomes. When  in begins a word in standard Pashto can become   or [w] Elfenbein also notes the presence of the near-open vowel [ æ].

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 // becomes  // in the Khattak Dialect in the verbal suffix /ئ/, but it remains as the diphthong // 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 / ̃ /.