Pashto dialects

[2]According to David Neil MacKenzie, a consonant shift took place in the northern parts of Pashtunistan in several phases in the medieval era.

[4] The shift was likely complete before the Pashto book Khayr al-Bayān was written by Bayazid Pir Roshan from Waziristan in 1651.

North Western Pashto is spoken, in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan, in the central Ghilji or Ghilzai region.

[11] The differences between the standard varieties of Pashto are primarily phonological, and there are simple conversion rules.

Two of the key phonemes whose pronunciation vary between the different Pashto dialects are ښ and ږ.

[13] The dialects spoken by the tribes from the Karlani confederacy of Pashtuns are lexicologically different and very varied.

The nine phonemes represented in the column headings below show key phonetic differences between the dialects.

Dialectical Map of Pashto : An edited map of the Pashtun tribes , from Olaf Caroe ’s “The Pathans”. The North Eastern dialects have been highlighted in dark blue, the North Western dialects in light blue, the North-Central (North Karlāṇi) is pink, the South-Central (South Karlāṇi) in red, the South Eastern in orange and the South Western in yellow. [ 1 ]