Pashto alphabet

The Pashto alphabet (پښتو الفبې) is transliterated vis-à-vis Perso-Arabic scriptural denotation with additional glyphs added to accommodate phonemes used in Pashto.

History

Roshani script

Excerpt from Khayr al-Bayān, written in Pashto in Nastaʿlīq script in 1651. The book was originally written by Bayazid Pir Roshan in the 16th century

In the 16th century, Bayazid Pir Roshan from Waziristan invented the Roshani script to write Pashto. It had 41 letters:

ا /ɑ, ʔ/	ب /b/	پ /p/	ت /t̪/	ټ /ʈ/	ث /s/	ج /d͡ʒ/	چ /t͡ʃ/	څ /t͡s/	ح /h/	خ /x/
د /d̪/	ډ /ɖ/	ڊ /d͡z/	ﺫ /z/	د· /ʐ/	ﺭ /r/	ړ /ɺ˞, ɻ, ɽ/	ﺯ /z/	ږ /ʒ/
ڛ /s/	س /s/	ش /ʃ/	ښ /ʂ/	ص /s/	ض /z/	ط /t̪/	ظ /z/	ع /ʔ/	غ /ɣ/
ف /f,p/	ق /q, k/	ک /k/	ګ /ɡ/	ل /l/	م /m/	ن /n/	ڼ /ɳ/	و /w, u, o/	ه /h, a, ə/	ي /j, i, e/

28 of his letters came from the Arabic alphabet. He introduced 13 new letters into the Pashto alphabet. Most of the new letters he introduced i.e. ګ ,ښ ,ړ ,ډ ,څ ,ټ and ڼ are still written in the same form and are pronounced almost in the same way in modern Pashto. The sound system of the southern dialect of modern Pashto preserves the distinction between all the consonant phonemes of his orthography.

Pir Roshan also introduced the letter ږ (rē with dot below and dot above) to represent /ʒ/, like the ⟨s⟩ in pleasure, for which modern Pashto uses ژ instead. Modern Pashto uses the letter ږ to represent the sound /ʐ/ (northern dialect: /g/), but for that sound, Pir Roshan used a letter looking like ·د (dāl with central dot). His letter ڊ (dāl with dot below) to represent /d͡z/ has been replaced by ځ in modern Pashto. He also used ڛ (sīn with three dots below), an obsolete letter from the medieval Nastaʿlīq script, to denote the letter س (representing /s/) only in the isolated form. The Arabic ligature ﻻ (lām-alif) was also used. Two of his letters, پ and چ, were borrowed from the Persian alphabet.

1958 congress in Kabul

In August 1958, Pashtun intellectuals held a congress in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the goal of standardizing the Pashto alphabet. During the congress, a number of standardizations were proposed in the use of the modern Pashto alphabet.[1]

Form

The Pashto Alphabet

Two of the special Pashto letters: x̌in/ṣ̌in and γ̌ē/ẓ̌e

Pashto is written in the Arabic Naskh. It has several letters which do not appear in any other Arabic script. The letters representing the retroflex consonants /ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ɭ̆/ and /ɳ/ are written like the standard Arabic te, dāl, re and nun with a small circle attached underneath (known as a "panḍak", "ğaṛwanday" or "skəṇay"): ړ, ډ, ټ, and ڼ, respectively. The letters ښ and ږ (x̌īn/ṣ̌īn and ǵe/ẓ̌e) look like sīn (س) and re (ﺭ) respectively with a dot above and beneath.

The letters representing /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ look like a ح with three dots above and an hamza (ء) above; څ and ځ.

Pashto has ی, ې, ۀ, and ۍ for additional vowels and diphthongs as well.

Pashto uses all 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, and shares 3 letters (چ, پ, and ژ) with Persian and Urdu in the additional letters.

Stress

Pashto employs stress:[2] this can change the aspect of the verb and the meaning of the word. The Arabic alphabet does not show stress placement, but in transliteration it is indicated by the use of acute accent diactric: ´ over the vowel.

Example

Diactric	Pashto	Transliteraltion	Stress in Bold
á	ډله	ḍála	ḍá-la
ó	اوړى	óṛay	ó-ṛay
ā́	شاباس	šā́bās	šā́-bās
ә́	ګڼل	gaṇә́l	ga-ṇә́l
í	ناخوښي	nāxwaṣ̌í	nā-xwa-ṣ̌í
ú	اوږه	úẓ̌a	ú-ẓ̌a
é	بې ښې	be ṣ̌é	be-ṣ̌é

Letters

Pashto has 45 letters and 4 diacritic marks. The Southern (S), Northeastern (NE) and Northwestern (NW) dialects of Pashto are included.

Name	IPA		Transliteration	Contextual forms			Isolated	ALA-LC Romaniz.	Latin	Unicode (Hex)
	Symbol	English Examples		Final	Medial	Initial
alep or alif	[ɑ]	bark	ā	ـا	ـا	آ, ا	آ, ا	ā	Ā ā	U+0627, U+0622
be	[b]	born	b	ـب	ـبـ	بـ	ب	b	B b	U+0628
pe	[p]	peel	p	ـپ	ـپـ	پـ	پ	p	P p	U+067E
te	[t̪]		t	ـت	ـتـ	تـ	ت	t	T t	U+062A
ṭe	[ʈ]		ṭ	ـټ	ـټـ	ټـ	ټ	ṭ	Ṭ ṭ	U+067C
se^2	[s]	biscuit	s	ـث	ـثـ	ثـ	ث	s̱	S s	U+062B
jim	[d͡ʒ]	jug	j (or ǰ)	ـج	ـجـ	جـ	ج	j	J j	U+062C
če	[t͡ʃ]	cheese	č	ـچ	ـچـ	چـ	چ	ch	Č č	U+0686
he^2	[h]^3	house	h	ـح	ـحـ	حـ	ح	ḥ	H h	U+062D
xe	[x]	loch (Scottish)	x	ـخ	ـخـ	خـ	خ	kh	X x	U+062E
tse ce	[t͡s] / [s]	cats	ts (or c)	ـڅ	ـڅـ	څـ	څ	ṡ	C c	U+0685
dzim źim	[d͡z] / [z]	adze	dz (or j)	ـځ	ـځـ	ځـ	ځ	ż	Ź ź	U+0681
dāl	[d̪]		d	ـد	ـد	د	د	d	D d	U+062F
ḍāl	[ɖ]		ḍ (or dd)	ـډ	ـډ	ډ	ډ	ḍ	Ḍ ḍ	U+0689
zāl^2	[z]	zoo	z	ـذ	ـذ	ذ	ذ	ẕ	Z z	U+0630
re	[r]	rain	r	ـر	ـر	ر	ر	r	R r	U+0631
ṛe^4	[ɽ]		ṛ (or rr)	ـړ	ـړ	ړ	ړ	ṛ	Ṛ ṛ	U+0693
ze	[z]	zoo	z	ـز	ـز	ز	ز	z	Z z	U+0632
že	[ʒ] / [d͡z]	vision, delusion, division	ž	ـژ	ـژ	ژ	ژ	zh	Ž ž	U+0698
ẓ̌ey (S) ǵey (NW) gey (NE)	[ʐ] (S) [ʝ] (NW) [g] (NE)	vision or gift	ẓ̌ (S) γ̌/ǵ (NE) g (NE)	ـږ	ـږ	ږ	ږ	ẓh (S) g'h (NW) gh (NE)	Ǵ ǵ (or Ẓ̌ ẓ̌)	U+0696
sin	[s]	biscuit	s	ـس	ـسـ	سـ	س	s	S s	U+0633
šin	[ʃ]	shoot	š	ـش	ـشـ	شـ	ش	sh	Š š	U+0634
ṣ̌in (S) x̌in (NW) x̌in (NE)	[ʂ] (S) [ç] (NW) [x] (NE)		ṣ̌ (S) x̌ (NW) x (NE)	ـښ	ـښـ	ښـ	ښ	ṣh (S) k'h (NW) kh (NE)	X̌ x̌ (or Ṣ̌ ṣ̌)	U+069A
swād^2	[s]	see	s	ـص	ـصـ	صـ	ص	s	S s	U+0635
zwād^2	[z]	zoo	z	ـض	ـضـ	ضـ	ض	z	Z z	U+0636
twe^2	[t]	think	t	ـط	ـطـ	طـ	ط	t	T t	U+0637
zwe^2	[z]	zebra	z	ـظ	ـظـ	ظـ	ظ	z	Z z	U+0638
ayn^2	[ɑ]	bark	a	ـع	ـعـ	عـ	ع	ʻ	nothing	U+0639
ğayn	[ɣ]		gh (or γ)	ـغ	ـغـ	غـ	غ	gh	Ğ ğ	U+063A
pe or fe^2	[f] / [p]^5	peel	f	ـف	ـفـ	فـ	ف	f	F f	U+0641
qāp	[q] / [k]^6	keep	q	ـق	ـقـ	قـ	ق	q	Q q	U+0642
kāp	[k]	keep	k	ـک	ـکـ	کـ	ک ^7	k	K k	U+06A9
gāp	[ɡ]	get	g	ـګ	ـګـ	ګـ	ګ ^8	g	G g	U+06AB
lām	[l]	lamb	l	ـل	ـلـ	لـ	ل	l	L l	U+0644
mim	[m]	minute	m	ـم	ـمـ	مـ	م	m	M m	U+0645
nun	[n]	near	n	ـن	ـنـ	نـ	ن	n	N n	U+0646
ṇun	[ɳ]		ṇ (or nn)	ـڼ	ـڼـ	ڼـ	ڼ	ṇ	Ṇ ṇ	U+06BC
wāw	[w], [u], [o]	watch soup	w, u, o	ـو	ـو	و	و	w, ū, o	W w, U u, O o	U+0648
ğwə́nḍa he round hē	[h], [a]	hey ; stuck (Cockney)	h, a	ـه	ـهـ	هـ	ه	h, a	H h, A a	U+0647
kajíra he large-pretty hē	[ə]	bird (Received Pronunciation)	ə	ۀ	–		ۀ ^13	ə	Ə ə	U+06C0
tsərgánda ye obvious yē	[j], [i]	yacht; week (General American)	y, i	ـي	ـيـ	يـ	ي	y, ī	Y y, I i	U+064A
úǵda ye long yē	[e]	eight [Note: [e] is not lengthened]	e	ـې	ـېـ	ېـ	ې ^9	e	E e	U+06D0
nāriná ye masculine yēor wə́ča ye dry yē	[ai], [j]^10	gay	ay, y	ـی	ـ	ـ	ی ^9	ay, y	Ay ay, Y y	U+06CC
x̌əźiná ye feminine yē or lakə́i ye tail yē	[əi]	kind	əi	ـۍ	ـ	ـ	ۍ ^10	ạy	Əi əi	U+06CD
fālí ye verbal yē	[əi], [j]^12	kind or see	əi, y	ـئ	ـئـ	ئـ	ئ ^9,^12	ạy, y	Əi əi, Y y	U+0626

Notes

• ^1 In the beginning of a word, آ (alif with madda) represents the long vowel /ɑ/ in words borrowed from other languages (e.g. آغا – āğā, a title).[3] In the beginning of a word, the alphabet ا (alif) represents the consonant /a/, e.g. اسپه – aspa, "mare".[4] In the middle or end of a word, ا represents the long vowel /ɑ/ which is following a consonant (e.g. کال – kāl, "year"; and نيا – nyā, "grandmother").[5][6] In the beginning of a word, the alphabet Alif can also be used with a diactric mark [often not written] e.g. اِ (alif with a zer) as in اِسلام – Islām, "Islam (the religion)".[7]
• ^2 Ten letters, ق ف ع ظ ط ض ص ح ﺫ ث, appear only in loanwords which of Arabic origin through Persian borrowings. Eight of these, ع ظ ط ض ص ح ﺫ ث, represent no additional phonemes of Pashto, and their pronunciation is replaced with other phonemes.
• ^3 ح /h/ tends to be omitted in pronunciation when at the end of a word, e.g. اصلاح is always pronounced as [isˡlɑ].
• ^4 The letter ړ represents /ɽ/ [8]
• ^5 The phoneme /f/ ف occurs only in loanwords. It tends to be replaced with /p/ پ.
• ^6 The phoneme /q/ ق occurs only in loanwords. It tends to be replaced with /k/ ک.
• ^7 It is also common to write the letter ک as ك.
• ^8 It is also common to write the letter ګ as and گ.
• ^9 In informal texts, ی as well as ې are sometimes replaced by the letter ے, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• ^10 ی represents /ai/ when it is following a consonant (e.g. لرګی – largay, "wood"), and represents /j/ when it is following a vowel (e.g. دوی – duy, "they").
• ^11 The letter ئ represents /j/ after a vowel, e.g. جدائي – judāyi, "separation".
• ^12 It is also common to write ﺉ with the hamza over the right side of the letter – ٸ.
• ^13 The letter ۀ is only represented at the end of a word, e.g. تېرۀ – terə, "sharp". The vowel /ə/ when present between consonants is unrepresented by the ۀ alphabet, e.g. ننوتل – nənawatəl, "to enter".
• ^14 Some dialects to omit the letter غ in some words, e.g. consider the following words; دغه = دا، دغوی = دوی، دغه هومره = دومره، دغلته = دلته، هغلته = هلته، دغه سی = داسی

Historical letters now in disuse

The superscribed element of the letter ځ in earlier varieties was not hamza-shaped, but was very similar to little kāf of the letter ك.[9] Such shape of the upper element of the letter is hard to find in modern fonts.

Since the time of Bayazid Pir Roshan, ڊ (dāl with subscript dot) was used for /d͡z/, which was still used in the Diwan of Mirza written in 1690 CE,[1] but this sign was later replaced by ځ.

Another rare glyph for /d͡z/ is ج֗, a ج with the same dot above.

Diacritic marks

The Pashto diacritic marks: zwarakay, pēš, zēr, and zwar

The four diacritic marks are used:

Diacritic	Unicode	Name	Translit.	IPA	Latin
َ	U+064E	zwar	a	[a]	a
ٙ	U+0659	zwarakay	ə	[ə]	ə
ِ	U+0650	zer	i	[ɪ]	i
ُ	U+064F	peš	u	[ʊ]	u

Notes

• The diacritic marks are not considered separate letters. Their use is optional and are usually not written; they are only occasionally used to distinguish between two words which would otherwise appear similar, like the words ملا - back (body part) and مُلا - Mullah.
• In Arabic loanwords, the tanwin fatha (ً) can be used, e.g. مَثَلاً – masalan, "for example".

"Ye" letters

"Ye"-letters in Pashto alphabet

Letter	Pashto name	Unicode name	Transliteration	IPA	Position in a word	Example
ي	tsərgánda ye^5	ARABIC LETTER YEH	y, i	[j], [i]	can appear anywhere	يم yəm ('I am')
ې	úǵda ye^4	ARABIC LETTER E	e	[e]	middle or end	يې ye ('you (sing.) are')
ی	nāriná ye^1	ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH	ay when following a consonant	[ai]	end	ستوری stóray ('star')
			y when following a vowel	[i]	end	دوى duy ('they')
ۍ	x̌əźiná ye^2	ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH TAIL	əi	[əi]	end	وړۍ waṛә́i ('wool')
ئ	fālí ye^3	ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE	əi	[əi]	end	يئ yəi ('you (plur.) are')
			y	[j]	middle	جدائي judāyí ('separation')

Indications at the End of a Word

• ^1 If ى follows a consonant in a word, it indicates the word is masculine singular and in the direct case. At the end of verbs it is used to form verbal participle in the masculine.
• ^2 If ۍ ends a word it always indicates that the word it occurs in is feminine.
• ^3 If ئ occurs at the end of a verb, it indicates the verb is in second person plural form.
• ^4 If ې appears at end of nouns and adjectives it indicates that those are feminine. At the end of verbs it is used as verbal suffix and to form verbal participle in the feminine. It also ends certain circumpostions.
• ^5 If ي occurs at the end of a verb, it indicates the verb is in third person plural present form. At the end of nouns and adjectives it indicates that the word is masculine in the singular oblique case, plural direct case. It also used in the non-declining adjective class.

Romanisation

The following table gives the letters' isolated forms, along with possible Latin equivalents and typical IPA values:

ا ā /ɑ/	ب b /b/	پ p /p/	ت t /t̪/	ټ ṭ /ʈ/	ث s /s/	ج j /d͡ʒ/	ځ ź, dz /d͡z/	چ č /t͡ʃ/	څ c, ts /t͡s/	ح h /h/	خ x /x/
د d /d̪/	ډ ḍ /ɖ/	ﺫ z /z/	ﺭ r /r/	ړ ṛ /ɺ,ɻ, ɽ/	ﺯ z /z/	ژ ž /ʒ/	ږ ǵ (or ẓ̌) /ʐ, ʝ, ɡ/	س s /s/	ش š /ʃ/	ښ x̌ (or ṣ̌) /ʂ, ç, x/
ص s /s/	ض z /z/	ط t /t̪/	ظ z /z/	ع ā, ’ /ɑ, ʔ/	غ ğ /ɣ/	ف f /f/	ق q /q/	ک k /k/	ګ g /ɡ/	ل l /l/
م m /m/	ن n /n/	ڼ ṇ /ɳ/	و w, u, o /w, u, o/	ه h, a /h, a/	ۀ ə /ə/	ي y, i /j, i/	ې e /e/	ی ay, y /ai, j/	ۍ əi /əi/	ئ əi, y /əi, j/

Dialect Vowels

Waziristani has the following vowels:

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i			u
Close-mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ	œ		ɔ
Open	a			ɒ

These can be romanised

IPA	Waziri Dialect	Romanisation	Notes	With stress
ɔ	North	å	as in Scandinivian	ǻ
ɒ	South
œ	Both	ö	as in German	ö́
ɛ	Both	ɛ	by the Greek	ɛ́

In the Marwat dialect and in the Karlāṇi dialects presence of nasalised vowels has been noted.[10] As such the nasalised vowels be transcribed in the following ways:

Nasalised IPA	Romanisation	With Stress
ɑ̃	ā̃	ā̃́
ã	ã	ã́
ẽ	ẽ	ẽ́
ĩ	ĩ	ĩ́
ũ	ũ	ṹ
õ	õ	ṍ
ə̃	ə̃	ə̃́

Other propositions

In January 2019, Anwar Wafi Hayat, Afghan researcher and writer proposed new Latin based alphabet for Pashto with the hope to make literacy and language acquisition easy.[11] His findings outline that the current Perso-Arabic script is a misfit for Pashto language and hinders literacy and economic development. Latin based Pashto alphabet, called Rumi Pashto script, consists of 42 letters:[11]

No

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Latin

Aa

Āā

Bb

Cc

Dd

Ƌ̣ƌ̣

Ee

Əə

Ɛ̓ἐ

Ff

Gg

Ġ̣ġ̣

Hh

Ii

Îî

Jj

J̈̇j̈̇

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Arabic

َ زبر

ا، آ

ب

څ

د

ډ

ې

ۀ

غ

ف

ګ

ږ

ح ، ه

ِ زېر

ي

ج

ژ

ک، ق

ل

م

ن

No

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

Latin

N̥n̥

Oo

Pp

Rr

ɺ̥ɹ̥

Ss

S̈̇s̈̇

Ṩṩ

Tt

Ṭṭ

Ꞇ́ ꞇ͘ /kh

Ꞇ̴  ꞇ̴ /ch

Uu

Ūū

Ww

Yy

Zz

Z͑z͑

Ay ay

Ai ai

Əi əi

Arabic

ڼ

و

پ

ر

ړ

س، ص، ث

ش

ښ

ت

ټ

خ

چ

ُ پیش

وو

و

ی

ذ، ز، ظ

ځ

ی

ۍ، ئ

ۍ

The following table contains Pashto text part of the Afghanistan National Anthem in the proposed Rumi alphabet.

Paṩto in Rūmî Script	Pashto in Arabic Script
Millî Surūd	ملي سرود
Dā watan Afɛ̇ānistān day	دا وطن افغانستان دی
Dā izzat də har Afɛ̇ān day	دا عزت د هر افغان دی

Pashto Keyboards

• Pashto Arabic Keyboard for macOS [Guide: download]
• Pashto phonetic keyboard online

See also

• Pre-Islamic scripts in Afghanistan

Notes

1.^ As 2nd Person Singular - example: ته کور ته ځې [you are going home]. And as Past Feminine 3rd Person Plural - example: هغوی ګډېدې [They (women) were dancing)

2.^ Example: پرې, پې, تر...پورې etc

3. ^ Example: سړی تللی و [the man had gone]

4. ^ Example: خځه تللې وه [the woman had gone]

References

1. D. N. MacKenzie, "A Standard Pashto", Khyber.org
2. Bečka, Jiří (1969). A Study in Pashto Stress. Academia.
3. Pashto-English Dictionary
4. Pashto-English Dictionary
5. Pashto-English Dictionary
6. Pashto-English Dictionary
7. mohammedanisme in Dutch and Flemish-Pashto Dictionary
8. Kaye, Alan S. (1997-06-30). Phonologies of Asia and Africa: (including the Caucasus). Eisenbrauns. p. 742. ISBN 978-1-57506-019-4.
9. Ivanov, Vladimir; Novgorodova, Irina. "L2/01-316. Arabic Letter Final/Isolated Kaf Sign" (PDF). www.unicode.org. Unicode, Inc.
10. Khan Jazab, Yousaf (2017). An Ethno-linguisitic Study of the Karlani Varieities of Pashto. Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar. pp. 60–64.
11. Hayat, Anwar. "The Impact of Arabic Orthography on Literacy and Economic Development in Afghanistan".

Bibliography

• Awde & Sarwan (2002). "Pashto dictionary & phrasebook", page 24.

External links

• khyber.org
• pcgn.org.uk (PDF)
• loc.gov (PDF)
• abnea.com (PDF)
• eki.ee (PDF)
• Pashto English-English Pashto Dictionary Phrasebook Romanized (Nicholas Awde)