Phonological Differences
Eastern Iranian languages have wide-spread sound changes, e.g. č > c, d > ð > l, and b > v/w, as shown in the table below.
| Avestan | Pashto | Munji | Sanglechi | Wakhi | Shughni | Parachi | Ormuri | Yaghnobi | Ossetic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aēva- "one" |
yaw | yu | vak | yi | yiw | žu | sō | ī | iu |
| čaθwārō "four" |
calṓr | čfūr | cəfúr | cībɨr | cavṓr | čōr | cār | tafór | cippar |
| hapta "seven" |
ōwə | ōvda | ōvδ | ɨb | ūvd | hōt | wō | avd | avd |
| dasa "ten" |
las | los / dā1 | dos | δas | δis | dōs | das | das | dæs |
| gav- "cow" |
γwā | γṓw | uγūi | γīw | žōw | gū | gioe | γov | x”ug |
| brātar- "brother" |
wrōr | vəróy | vrūδ | vīrīt | virṓd | byā | marzā2 | virūt | ærvad |
Another sound change found in the Shughni–Yazgulyam branch and Pashto dialects is ṣ̌ > x̌ > x, e.g. "meat" is ɡuṣ̌t in Wakhi but changes to guxt in Shughni, and Southern Pashto γwaṣ̌a ("meat") changes to γwax̌a in Central Pashto and γwaxa in Northern Pashto.
The neighboring Indo-Aryan languages have exerted a pervasive external influence on Eastern Iranian, as it is evident in the development in the retroflex consonants (in Pashto, Wakhi, Sanglechi, Khotanese, etc.) and aspirates (in Khotanese, Parachi and Ormuri).
Read more about this topic: Eastern Iranian Languages
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