Pashto alphabet

The Pashtun font is a font for the letters spelling of Pashto, one of the East Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages belonging mainly spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan language. It includes depending upon counting 40 to 44 letters and is based on the Persian alphabet, which in turn is a modified form of the Arabic alphabet. As Arabic is a pure Pashto italics and is written from right to left. Although the Pashtun language has no standard variety, one in the entire language area largely uniform orthography has been in the use of writing emerged. The origins of writing probably coincides with the beginnings of Pashtun literature in the 16th century, but its exact origins are unclear.

The development of writing

Pashto has in comparison to other smaller South Asian languages long literary tradition. The oldest known document in Pashto is a dated on September 6, 1651 a copy of the Islamic mystic Bayazid Ansari work. The Chair al - Bayān ( خیرالبیان - " The best revelation" ) titled collection of religious verse is written in four languages - in addition to Pashto also in Arabic, Persian and Punjabi. Bayazid al - authored the Chair Bayān about one century earlier and used for the Pashtun sections a modified Arabic script, but still differed from today's Pashtun sensitive.

Whether Bayazid when writing the Chair al - Bayān to previously undiscovered older writings oriented or whether he actually verschriftlichte the first to the Pashtun language, is not known. In the fourteenth century manuscripts dated in choresmischer language have related spellings on some ostiranischer phonemes, suggesting a common older tradition of both fonts. However, this evidence could not be clearly confirmed from the known manuscripts in Pashto.

Documents that were occasionally mentioned in the literature until the mid- 20th century than earlier writings and therefore could prove an older font tradition, were classified as counterfeit or false datings later. Special negative fame because of Pata Chazāna ( پټه خزانه - " The Hidden Treasure " ), to have discovered the Afghan literary scholar Abdul Hay Habibi, 1944 in Kandahar claimed. The document contains an allegedly wrote in 1729 anthology of Pashto poetry, in the works of unknown poets are listed that date back to the eighth century. The entire manuscript, and is bandied older writings are mostly classified in the Iranian as a forgery.

The non-religious primarily Pashtun literature dates back to the early 17th century and was founded by the clan of Chattaks, whose most important representatives of the poet Chuschhāl Chan chattak was. Although the Chattaks Bayazid older writings were probably known, they adapted independently of him, the Persian alphabet and adapted it to the Pashtun phonemic system. The Chattaks are often called the founder of modern Pashtun Scripture, it is their own writing system was not as Bayazid alphabet but in accordance with the orthography used today. Her clan was located in the northeast of the Pashtun -speaking area, but they said probably one of the current south-western dialect of Kandahar similar own coloring and built it on the writing system. This is cited as a possible explanation that the Pashtun font is better adapted to today the southwestern dialects than in the northern and eastern varieties.

The largely uniform modern orthography can be traced back to the 18th century. The earliest known document that was written in this orthography, is a native of Peshawar copy of a sofa by Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1750. At what time and in what circumstances this today, often referred to as a standard orthography writing system has been formed, is still controversially discussed.

Other modifications that should increase the consistency of the spelling, it came in 1936, attained the status of Pashto as an official language of Afghanistan. Among the most important changes here included the introduction of two new characters that largely prevailed in the result, not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan. When writing style has prevailed since the end of the 19th century not only in print but also in manuscripts Arab Nash font, although some authors such as Bayazid with the Persian alphabet also took over the Persian Nastaliq writing style in the beginning of the Pashtun font.

The letters of the alphabet

The Pashtun alphabet is based on the Perso- Arabic alphabet, which was widely used by the position of Persian as a lingua franca and dominant written language in the Pashtun language area. As in many writing systems that are based on the Arabic alphabet, Arabic lute representing letters out of respect for the scriptures of the Koran were not reallocated exclusively. Instead, the Perso- Arabic alphabet was largely unchanged and for the posting of specific phonemes Pashtun new modified letter of Scripture have been added.

Overall, the alphabet was enlarged compared to the Arabic alphabet to basic 16 letters, four of which are already in the Persian script. Eight of the additional letters are used exclusively in the Pashtun font to represent the not yet existing in the Persian in Arabic phonemes. Four of the letters representing the newly created typical of the Pashtun retroflex sounds and were derived by the addition of a small circle, the so-called Pandak of existing letters. The retroflex nasal was not until 1936 with the Afghan writing reform assigned its own letter. Previously, it was the sound of the digraph represents نړ, which was made up of the letters now and Rre. The other retroflex letters are, however, already been used for the standardization of the writing in the 18th century.

The letters Dze and Tse were introduced to the letters of the two alveolar affricates. Originally represents both the voiced and the voiceless affricate by the same character that was derived from the Arabic Dschim by the addition of three points. A written differentiate the two sounds occurred only with the reform of 1936. Here to represent the voiced affricate the three points were replaced by a Hamza character. The other two newly created Pashtun letters Ssin and Zze be written by one point above and below the Arabic basic form. They are characterized by an extremely dialect- dependent pronunciation and are called in some regions Xin and Ge. This dialect dependence relates to a lesser extent, the pronunciation of the letters Dze and Tse.

There are also additional modified forms of the Arabic Je ( ي ) to differentiate the important for the Pashtun grammar Vokalauslaute. In addition, the spelling of some letters in comparison to the Arab was slightly modified. There is no consensus in the literature, the extent to which a total of five variants of the more independent letters represent, so that the number of letters of the alphabet Pashtun is specified depending on the perspective of 40 to 44.

Like all Arabic -based Pashto writings is an italic font, the letters are connected both in print and in manuscript with the following characters. The letters thus occur in four forms - initial, medial, final and isolated form - on, depending on whether they are individually at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word respectively. Ten letters can not be connected to the left and therefore have no initial and medial form.

The alphabet

The classification of the additional letters in the Perso- Arabic alphabet is largely uniform in the literature, only in the order within the on the basic shape of Dschim ( ج ) building group, there are slight variations. The order of the alphabet presented in tabular form here follows the Pashto Pashto Descriptive Dictionary to the Department of Linguistics of the Afghan Academy of Sciences, the applicable standard reference work for the Pashtun language. The pronunciation given in the table is based on the south-western dialect of the Pashtun, the so-called Kandahari, which is assumed to lie mostly as the written standard language is based.

Typography

The Persian Gaf for the posting of the g- Loud is commonly used in a variant ګ the Pashtun own, but occasionally, the original Persian form maintained گ. For the Kaf ك also the Arabic symbol is used instead of the Persian spelling ک often. The letters Alif Lam ل and ا are usually connected to the existing also in Persian and Arabic ligature لا. A subsequent Lam Mim م on one is also represented by a specially Pashtun ligature. The remaining ligatures of Arab or Persian script are not used. This often causes problems in the use of computer fonts, as these are mostly developed by non- Pashto - speakers on the basis of Arabic and Persian writings and automatically insert Persian Arabic ligatures.

Vocalization

To display short vowels, the diacritic system that comes in Arabic in the Koran as well as occasionally in other contexts such as in textbooks and on the spelling of loan words for use, was taken over and expanded to include a fourth vowel signs. The so-called Zwarakay is a horizontal line above the letter, featuring a short e, the so-called schwa [ ə ]. The vocalization, however, remain in the Pashtun even rarer than in Arabic.

In addition, the original consonants representing letters Alif, Waw and more, as well as the non-aspirated He also be used for letters of vowel sounds. Afghan linguist they therefore called auxiliary letters ( امدادي حروف, imdādi huruf ). Based on the Arabic orthography represent Alif, Waw and long vowels and diphthongs, depending, during the He is used to override of short Vokalauslauten, which can not be characterized by diacritical characters. This different sensitivity of short and long vowels is applied differently in Arabic not always consistent. So also pronounced short vowels are increasingly using the letter Vav and Je written.

In contrast to WAW and more the function of the consonants Alif is visible only in the form: A simple Alif beginning of a word is used as a support character without their own sound value for the three - almost never advertised - vocalization; the Zwarakay does not occur word-initially. Moreover, it is at the beginning of the word as a dummy letter Vav and the more progress if they represent long vowels. This silent Alif is merely an inherited from the Arabic orthographic convention, since the the Alif in Arabic and Persian assigned consonantal phonetic value of Glottisschlags in Pashtun does not exist. Is the Alif beginning of a word is not silent, but represents the long vowel ā, so it is characterized by an added Madda. The Alif Madda as explained in Arabic as a ligature of two consecutive alifs.

The variants of the more

The Pashtun alphabet contains a total of five letters, which are based on the form of the Arabic Je and represent with the exception of the j- Loud generally vowels. The vocal intonation in the Pashtun dialect is, however, very dependent, so that the phonetic values given are only approximations to the actual pronunciation.

The Persian alphabet also the Persian variant of the more without the two diacritical points were taken in the final position. The original Arabic form is also used and is often referred to as Sachta Je ( سخته يې - " The Hard " ) referred. Here, the simple Persian takes more usually a consonant function with the phonetic value [j ] while the Arab Depending on the long vowel [i ] represents. However, this distinction is by no means uniform, often the two forms are used interchangeably. In the initial and medial form, they are indistinguishable anyway.

Three own Pashtun variants were created to the case of interest to the Pashtun grammar endings - to allow [ əy ] - [ e] and. The long [e ] is represented by a more with two superimposed instead juxtaposed diacritical points. This letter is usually Madschhula Je ( مجهوله يې - " The unknown " ) because it does not occur in other Arab- based fonts. In addition, the term pasta Depending ( پسته يې - " The soft " ) is used to distinguish it from the time i representing Sachta Depending. The two remaining forms to take very special functions: A more with an additional downward stroke is used to write the ending [- əy ] certain feminine nouns. This letter is therefore ( ښځينه يې - "The feminine " ) Ṣchadzina Depending called. For pronounced similarly ending of verbs in the second person plural, however, is both a generator used more with mounted Hamza character, the so-called Fe'li Je ( فعلي يې - " The verbal ").

With the addition of the different variants depending there are many more opportunities to tender of vowels as in Arabic or Persian in the Pashtun font. This is reinforced by the tendency to use the waw and the Sachta The counter to the traditional orthography also for the posting of short vowels.

Different spellings of Vokalauslaute

In Pakistan, especially in the region of Peshawar, there are occasional variations in the writing of some of the final vowels. These overrides are therefore sometimes referred to as Peshawar orthography. For the spelling of the long e while the pasta is more the Urdu alphabet borrowed from Bari used Je ( ے ) instead. In addition, the non-aspirated He in cases where it represents instead of the consonant h a short Vokalauslaut, characterized by a mounted Hamza character ( ۀ ). More rarely, Ṣchadzina The Fe'li and more by a Bari Depending with attached Hamza ( ۓ ) to be replaced.

Borrowed and elegant phonemes

Ten of the 44 letters represent the Pashtun foreign sounds and appear exclusively in Arabic and Persian loanwords. Therefore, they are Arabic letters ( عربی حروف, Arab huruf ) called or borrowed sounds, the remaining 34 characters contrast as the base sounds ( اصلي آوازونه, asli āwāzuna ) or true letters ( صحیح حروف, saheeh huruf ) refers. Many Pashtuns formed try three of the borrowed letters - Hey ح, Fe ف ق and Qaf - speak out for their original phonetic value in Arabic. Most of the speakers their phonetic value but is simply substituted by familiar Pashtun phonemes. These three sounds are therefore also referred to as elegant phonemes. The remaining seven characters are borrowed only allographs and represent the Pashtun no additional phonemes. Your pronunciation is done with the next Pashtun representation of the original Arabic According to value. This leads to an over- representativeness of the Pashtun font. Thus, there are, depending on the dialect four to six letters with the phonetic value [s ] and three or four letters with the phonetic value of [z ].

The linguist Herbert Penzl described the upscale pronunciation of phonemes as elegant Hyperurbanismus than literal pronunciation, which is intended to highlight only their own mastery of the written language in the context of low literacy paschtunischsprachigen areas.

Occurrence of letters

In 2007, a frequency analysis of the letters of the alphabet Pashtun was conducted under the auspices of the Afghan Ministry of Communications for the first time. The accuracy of the results, however, was limited by the inconsistent spellings of individual characters as well as the limited and unbalanced available text corpus. The letter at the most frequently used of the Pashtun alphabet is therefore compatible with a relative frequency of about 12% of the Vav, followed by Alif with about 10%, the non-aspirated He at 8.5% and the Arabic form of the more with just under 8% relative frequency. Summing however, all five variants of the more together, this represents 16.5 % the most frequently used characters is Is usually used purely Pashtun letter the retroflex Rre With just over 1% relative abundance.

The controversy surrounding the origin of the modern orthography

The pronunciation of the Pashto is regional and tribal depends highly differentiated, a standard variety does not exist. However, despite the variety of very different, yet to be fully explored dialects there is a largely uniform orthography, retracing the phoneme in the Kandahar region:

"The standard Pashto orthography follows the phonemic distinctions as found in the Kandahar dialect. Even the speakers of dialects where the number [ of] phonemes Differs from the Kandahar dialect use this standard orthography whenthey write. Even In Their dialect, eg, as in Peshawar, zz Has coalesced with g, ss with kh, dz with z, ts with s, They accept the Kandahar orthography as standard and try to make its phonemic distinctions in writing. "

" The standard orthography of Pashtun follows the phonemic distinctions, as they occur in the dialect of Kandahar. Even speakers of dialects whose Phonemzahl differs from Kandahardialekt use when writing this standard orthography. Even if have collapsed in their dialect, such as in the Peshawar, zz and g, ss and kh, dz and z and ts and s, they recognize the Kandahar orthography as the default and try writing to measure their volume boundaries. "

Such a standard orthography is possible because the Pashtun dialects differ little morphologically, but only phonetically. Therefore, the different varieties are usually classified according to the pronunciation of each letter. Conversely, an attempt was made by comparison of the orthography to close with the different dialects on the history of the Pashtun font. Play a prominent role in the four consonants Tse څ, Dze ځ, Ssin ښ and Zze ږ whose regional sound shift is particularly pronounced. The classification shown the pronunciations in four basic dialects follows the Iranisten David Neil MacKenzie and was represented by Michael MT Henderson and Oktor Skjærvøund.

The different pronunciations of Ssin ښ are in addition to the absence of a standardized Transliterationssystems the reason for the diversity of Latin transcriptions for the word Pashtu ( پښتو ): The Kandaharis speak [ pəʂto ], the people of Quetta are talking to [ pəʃto ] living in the northwest of the language area Pashtuns on [ pəçto ] while speaking in Peshawar [ paxto ]. In non-scientific transliteration these pronunciations correspond to different spellings such as Pashto, Pachto, Paxto or - leaning to the English - Pukhto.

Based on the discussion shifts of four letters can be the correspondence of writing and southwestern dialect understand: While in Kandahari dialect all four letters represent sounds that are foreign to both the Arabic and Persian, which the characters assigned to the northeastern varieties phonemes are already completely covered by the persian- Arabic alphabet. This correspondence is the most important indication of a Pashtun origin of the Scriptures in the Kandahar region.

The Norwegian Linguist Georg Morgenstierne however, objected that in the 16th century, the differentiation of the lute was probably still have been present in the northeastern dialects. Neil MacKenzie also referred to the different spelling of the oldest Pashto document of Bayazid Ansari, the 'll also be detected in other Pashtun writings by the end of the 17th century, and to the case of the vowels in the modern orthography, especially the Finaldiphthonge, the more corresponding with the northeast than the southwest phonetics.

MacKenzie therefore postulated a spoken until the 18th century standard variety of the Pashtun, which have the southwestern consonant system connected to the vocal phonetics of northeastern dialects. This he called the Standardpaschtu variety, which later today dialects are said to have developed, he thought as the basis of the Pashtun writing in the 17th century. Ultimately, however, were the origin and development of the Pashtun orthography not be clarified, since historical sources in Pashto are neither old enough nor in sufficient number are available.