Writing System
Pashto employs the Pashto alphabet, a modified form of the Persian alphabet which on its part is derived from the Arabic alphabet. The reason for this is that it is not a Semitic language, and thus it is modified. It has extra letters for Pashto-specific sounds. Since the 17th century Pashto has been primarily written in the Naskh script, rather than the Nasta'liq script used for neighboring Persian and Urdu languages. The Pashto alphabet consists of 44 letters, and 4 diacritic marks. The following table gives the letters' isolated forms, along with the Latin equivalents and the IPA values for the letters' typical sounds:
| ا ā, nothing /ɑ, ʔ/ |
ب b /b/ |
پ p /p/ |
ت t /t̪/ |
ټ ṭ /ʈ/ |
ث s /s/ |
ج j /d͡ʒ/ |
ځ ź /d͡z/ |
چ č /t͡ʃ/ |
څ c /t͡s/ |
ح h /h/ |
خ x /x/ |
| د d /d̪/ |
ډ ḍ /ɖ/ |
ﺫ z /z/ |
ﺭ r /r/ |
ړ ṛ /ɺ˞~ɻ/ |
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 nothing /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, ū, o /w, u, o/ |
ه h, a, ə /h, a, ə/ |
ي y, ī /j, i/ |
ې e /e/ |
ی ay, y /ai, j/ |
ۍ əi /əi/ |
ئ əi, y /əi, j/ |
Pashto is written from right to left.
Read more about this topic: Pashto Language
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