Amongst the Iranian languages, the phonology of Pashto is of middle complexity, but its morphology is very complex.
Consonants[]
| Labial | Denti- alveolar |
Alveolar | Retroflex | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular / Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | prenasalized | ⁿd̪ | ᵑɡ | ||||||
| voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | k | (q) | ||||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | ɡ | |||||
| Affricate | prenasalized | ⁿdʒ | |||||||
| voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | prenasalized | ᵐz | |||||||
| voiceless | (f) | s | ʂ | ʃ | (ç) | x | h | ||
| voiced | z | ʐ | ʒ | (ʝ) | ɣ | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||
| Rhotic | r | ɭ̆ | |||||||
- The phonemes /q/, /f/ are only found in loanwords, and tend to be replaced by /k/, /p/.
- /n/ has non-phonemic allophones: [ŋ] before /k/ and /ɡ/, [ɳ] before /ʈ/ and /ɖ/, [ɲ] before /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, and [m] before /b/ and /p/.
- /ɳ/ is a voiced retroflex nasal flap, narrowly transcribed [ɽ̃]
- Voiceless stops and affricates /p, t, ʈ, t͡s, t͡ʃ, k/ are all unaspirated, like Spanish, other Romance languages]], and Austronesian languages; they have slightly aspirated allophones prevocalically in a stressed syllable, almost like English.
- /ʂ~ç/ and /ʐ~ʝ/ are dialectal allophones (represented by ښ and ږ), The retroflex variants [ʂ, ʐ] are used in the Southwest dialects whereas the palatal variants [ç, ʝ] are used in the Wardak and Central Ghilji dialects. Some Northern dialects merge them with the velar /x, ɣ/.
- /h/ is dropped in most Southwest dialects and Waṇētsī.
- /r/ is a voiced alveolar flap, single in most dialects.
- /ɭ̆/ is a voiced retroflex lateral flap. As it does not have a dedicated IPA symbol, it can also be commonly represented as /ɺ̢, ɺ̣/.
Vowels[]
Most dialects in Pashto have seven vowels and seven diphthongs.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a | ɑ |