Introduction

How to use this book

This book is intended to be a guide for those wishing to begin learning the Yusufzai dialect of Pakistani Pukhto that is spoken in and around Peshawar, Mardan and the Swat vallay.

Click on words and phrases to hear them, and try to imitate and memorize what you hear. It’s best to start by memorizing phrases that you want to be able to say, and then practice by trying to talk to Pukhto speakers.

Feel free to jump around and let your curiosity guide you, but also try to work through the chapters. Try to understand the different words and grammar forms. Don’t worry about memorizing every single word or phrase, but memorize the ones that you find interesting or useful. Play around with the exercises and try to say different things using the patters and rules in the grammar.

The sounds of Pukhto

The first challenge in learning Pukhto is to hear and then produce the different sounds that have to be mastered. These early exercises will have to be revisited frequently to teach the tongue new habits.

A number of sounds found in Pukhto are not found in English. It is helpful to be able to write these new sounds in phonetic form. This book uses a modified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet to help you. Phonetics simply provide a guide to the sounds, which can only be learned from a Pukhtun patient enough to correct you. You can best best master the new sounds by repeating what you hear from a Pukhtun helper.

In addition, the sounds of Pukhto vary according to region. There are some major differences in the sounds of the various Pukhto dialects, even within Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. The phonetic chart below represents the sounds of the language as spoken in and around Peshawar and the Swat vallay, although some indication of dialect differences has been given.

A summary of the sounds of Yusufzai Pukhto

Pukhto has a reputation for being a harsh-sounding language. The harshness is generated by guttural sounds that are made at the back of the throat. Other “hard” or “retroflex” sounds are made when the tongue is held behind the hard palate and flicked forward. In this book the hard sounds appear in capital letters. ړ - R, ډ - D, ټ - T, and ڼ - N. With a little practice most learners can soon master these hard consonants, as well as the guttural sounds kh - خ / ښ and غ - gh.

But Pukhto is not all guttural or hard. There are also “soft” or “dental” sounds that are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth. Again, there are no exact equivalents of these sounds, which include د - d, ت - t. In fact to begin with many learners find they are unable to hear the difference between the hard and soft sounds, let alone make them.

Again, lots of practice and attentive listening will be the kay to correct usage. (Please note that the charts below are arranged in an order similar to that of the English alphabet.)

👆 Practice these sounds with your language helper using the following chart and tables. Repeat each of the words after your language helper. The meanings of the words are not important.

NOTE:

A 👆 indicates that action needs to be taken by the teacher or language helper, or by the student and teacher or helper working together.

Consonants

Few of the consonants are exactly the same as those used in English, and many are not found in English at all. It will take constant repetition to form new habits of pronunciation for these sounds, but working hard at it now will reap big dividends for years to come. These are the distinctive sounds that give Pukhto its special identity.

Sorry, not all recordings for the following sounds and words are present. For all sounds and words check back soon.

Vowels

Short vowels

In Pashto script short vowels are not written in the middle of a word, but they are written with a ا at the beginning of a word and a ـه at the end of a word.

NOTES:

The short “a” can sometimes be very short, sounding almost like the “e” in “get” in English. In some of these cases, we will write the “a” as “ă” to emphasize the shortness. For example: ور - wăr, سر - săr

Long vowels

NOTES:

1. The vowel chart is simply a guide to pronunciation. The letters listed for each vowel are only some of the possibilities, as vowel sounds in Pukhto are very fluid. In addition, vowels are not always written, but can be indicated by a diacritical mark (as in Arabic, Farsi, etc). For example, the most common vowel sound in Pukhto u is usually not written as a separate letter, even though it exists as a distinct sound.

2. The three vowel sounds aa, a, and u, are quite fluid in Pashto, particularly between aa and a and between a and u. Regional differences in pronunciation mean that some speakers will use a clear aa sound while a speaker from another area might pronounce the same letter with more of an a . Likewise, one speaker will use an a where another might use an u. You will need to listen carefully to your tutor to catch these distinctions.

3. An ́◌ accent is ádded on vówels to show what sýllable the áccent falls on.

4. When it’s needed to show that to phonetics letters are seperate sounds and not a digraph, a backtick ` is used. For instance sh makes an sh but s`h is an s followed by a h sound.

Dipthongs

Diphthongs are made by gliding from one vowel sound to another vowel sound. Diphthongs are often found at the end of words in Pukhto.

Sound recognition

👆 The following exercises will help you differentiate between similar sounding letters. Have your helper read a word, and then you point to which of the two letters you think the word contains. The focus here is on the sounds, so ignore the meaning of the words altogether.

Focus on: ر - r ړ - R

Focus on د - d ډ - D

Focus on ت - t ټ - T

Focus on ق - q ک - k

Focus on ا، آ - aa ا - a

Focus on غ - gh خ - kh

Focus on ے - ay ۍ - uy

Kay to abbreviations

A number of abbreviations are used in this book to indicate gender and to classify words grammatically. A kay to these abbreviations is listed below:

In addition, a forward slash ( / ) is used to divide the singular and plural forms while a comma or a semicolon is used to separate different meanings. Alternative pronunciations or spellings are indicated by [ ].

The Pukhto alphabet

Diacritics

Diacritics are sometimes used to show which vowels or sounds are used when it would otherwise be ambiguous or unwritten.

Words ending in a u (shwa) sound will often be written with a ـهٔ to show that the ـه on the end really is a u and not an a.

NOTE:

1. The letters ے and ی both appear as ـیـ in the middle of a word.

2. In Pashto script the short vowels (a, i, u, U) are not written in the middle of words. They are written a ا at the beginning of a word and a ـه at the end of a word. Diacritics can be optianally used to show which short vowel is being used.

3. When a word starts with one of the long vowels (ی - ee, ې - e, و - o, or و - oo), it is prefixed with a silent ا in front. For example:

   • ایسارېدل - eesaaredul
   • اوسېدل - osedúl
   • اوږه - ooga

The exception to this is when و - oo is a prefix at the beginning of a verb.

2. There is another very common standard found in most dictionaries and many printed materials which uses some letters differently: