can you know if someone is actually from Afghanistan or not based of English accent?

[Ambatin]

is this just another case of Pakis or Indics pretending to be Afghans?

makes no sense why Afghans should sound like Punjabis and other Indics, when the languages are supposed to be so different and sound so different.


Maybe it's a Pashtun thing, as I notice Persian speakers sound more middle eastern-ish.

Do Afghan and Paki Pashtuns have an Indic type English accent?

[Traveller]

I don't know about Farsiwans but Pashtuns don't really have a clear accent that you can point out. Most Pashtuns I know who grew up in KPK(including my parents) have this thing where you can tell that English isn't their first language but at the same time they don't have a distinct accent that jumps at you when they speak. It's not like Desis and Arabs where you can immediately tell where they're from by the way they talk.

[maneatinglizard]

Afghans have a softer accent than Indians or Arabs (or Turks), but not as soft as Iranians. Some peculiarities depend on region/ethnicity. For example, villager Pashtuns will generally have trouble pronouncing the letter f, or may confuse it with p (so you may hear an Afghan calling pizza “fizza”).

I don't know about Farsiwans but Pashtuns don't really have a clear accent that you can point out. Most Pashtuns I know who grew up in KPK(including my parents) have this thing where you can tell that English isn't their first language but at the same time they don't have a distinct accent that jumps at you when they speak. It's not like Desis and Arabs where you can immediately tell where they're from by the way they talk.

The Paki Pashtuns I’ve heard all speak English with a clear Desi accent. Isn’t that how it’s taught in KP? I’ve always assumed so because otherwise it makes no sense for people to have an accent that doesn’t match their native language.

[Traveller]

The Paki Pashtuns I’ve heard all speak English with a clear Desi accent. Isn’t that how it’s taught in KP? I’ve always assumed so because otherwise it makes no sense for people to have an accent that doesn’t match their native language.

Really? I have come across people with Desi accents but it didn't seem that common to me, none of the immigrant Pashtuns where I live have an accent like that. And even when people do speak with a Desi accent it is a "weak" Desi accent(I've noticed that in India and Pakistan the farther west you go the less "strong" the accent becomes. This happens to the point where apparently foreign companies have an easier time neutralizing the accents of Pakistani employees than they do Indian employees). It might be because I'm used to it and I haven't really interacted with American Afghans so I don't know how Afghans speak English. If that is true it is probably because of education. Pakistani English has its own peculiar accent and lexicon and education has probably standardized the language. Another thing to remember is that until recently(and even now I think) a lot of the teachers in NWFP/KPK were Urdu-speaking Muhajirs and that might have had an effect as well.

[Traveller]

Pukhtotroll - My name is aitezaz, i am teacher and i love...
The accent of the man speaking in this video is very typical of people in my family and other Peshawaris I know.

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

I can EASILY tell when someone is Pashto zuban by the way they say their T's in a certain way and their R rolls

also anything with a "V" in it, they say as a "W", anything with an F, they say with a P, especially if they're Kandari. They also "slur" some sounds together. It's very typical of a Pashto speaker.

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

By the way, why are we giving Black Pakistani/Killzai's troll names any serious credence? Ambatin is another Black Pakistani account.

[salman47]

It has a softer touch, slow speaking, at the end of speaking a sentence it is like total wreck(words pronounced quickly together so much so that it is difficult to tell what has been said). These are my observation of my frnd circle.
Also all of the non-Pashtuns have trouble understanding my english accent. But thats just me, dont know about u all.

P.S. 'fu ck' is used very loosely by Pashtun speaking English as a learned/2nd language.

[Charsi Malang]

Afghans have a softer accent than Indians or Arabs (or Turks), but not as soft as Iranians. Some peculiarities depend on region/ethnicity. For example, villager Pashtuns will generally have trouble pronouncing the letter f, or may confuse it with p (so you may hear an Afghan calling pizza “fizza”).



The Paki Pashtuns I’ve heard all speak English with a clear Desi accent. Isn’t that how it’s taught in KP? I’ve always assumed so because otherwise it makes no sense for people to have an accent that doesn’t match their native language.

Agree with you. The Pakhtuns in Pakistan when they speak English their accent is very Desi but I think that’s to do with the fact that they learn it from people with that accent.

[torkham]

Hard to tell if one is from Afghanistan by their English pronunciation, however it is easier to eliminate the indo-paks or middle-easterners since their English pronunciations are so heavily influenced by their mother tongues.

Listen to some people talking in English on YT: Fatima Gailani, Hekmat Karzai, Zalmai Khalilzad (lol), Ashraf Ghani then compare their accents with those of Ziauddin Yusufzai (loool), Mahmood Achakzai, Saleem Safi.

Forget about Arabs, lost cause.

For me accents and pronunciation reflect a person's individuality. As long as I can understand what is being said, bas, that's good enough for me.