Pashto Language
From Afghan Watan Encyclopedia
Pashto language is spoken in Afghanistan and north western parts of modern Pakistan. It is written in Arabic script that is written from right to left, along with Arabic, Persian/Dari, Urdu, Balochi, Kurdish, Kashmiri, Lahnda, Sindhi, Uyghur, Berber languages, Moplah (Dialect of Malayalam), Malagasy and Sulu[1]. Like Arabic and Persian and unlike Urdu vowels are marked only sporadically only to indicate pronunciation, otherwise they are omitted.
Like languages written in Arabic script, Pashto also has additional sounds that are unique to the language and these are presented by a derived form to the already existing Arabic alphabets. It uses almost all the alphabets used in Arabic language and adds 15 more alphabets to it, 3 of which are shared with Farsi language, these are پ چ ژ.
The alphabets additional to Arabic ټ ښ ځ څ ڼ ګ ډ ړ ژ ږ ﺉ ې ۍ are derived from arabic alphabets but dots or ring (pandak) is added to the already existing Arabic alphabets. For example Pashto letter ښ (sẖeen or scheen) is derived from the Arabic letter س (seen) and one dot is place above and another below the skeleton of the letter س.
- Retroflex consonants written with “pandak” (ring): ټ ڼ ډ ړ
- Velar fricatives: gey ږ and xin<font size=""4"" ښ
- Dental affricates: dz ځ and ts څ
ګ which is equivalent to Persian گ is not a retroflex consonant but is written with pandak. It has been written in both forms in the past but in modern times ګ can be identified as the Pashto Gaf.