A Look at the Karlani Dialects of Paktia and Wardak - For Haris

[Hakim Khan Urgonai]

We have huge groups among Zadran tribe,some among us say yee who are closer to Mangal,the rest say "eyy" = yes.

Yes, accents tend to change depending on area.

How do you say moon? We say "spozhmaii/spogmaii"

[Afghanistan2010]

moon we say = miyasht it is because the month is depended on the moon we have for month and moon the same word.

but we also say sometimes spogmai.

[pashtun_rise]

And what do culture and tradition we call in different dialects?

[Friend]

moon we say = miyasht it is because the month is depended on the moon we have for month and moon the same word.

but we also say sometimes spogmai.

There is a difference
Moon is spogmai and miyasht is crescent

[khushal]

We don't use "yeh", we say "wo" but "ya" means no in our dialect, like Kandaharis.

Its a good thing you clarified that, this whole time I thought they were saying yes like the mangal while they meant no.

[khushal]

I have never heard Khosti dialect in my life.
Is it much different than ours, Khushala?

I understand Zazai and Zadranan perfectly well.

My problem is with the Mashreqi, Kandahari and Peshawri dialects.
The deep Kandahari dialect is just out of reach for me because I hardly have talked to any in real life.

Khostai dialect is understandable if you understand mangal, zazai, zadran dialects.
The peshwar dialect is the worst for me. They mix alot of urdu/hindko words in it.

[pashtanajan]

nengolay cant be cooking since we say nengolay pokh ka.

where are you from?

Kunduz/Nangarhar-Nuristan

I don't know, but I asked my mother and that's what she told me. : And, I've heard it a few times. But, I might be wrong. Although, I'm sure it has something to do with cooking.

[Hakim Khan Urgonai]

moon we say = miyasht it is because the month is depended on the moon we have for month and moon the same word.

but we also say sometimes spogmai.

We also use myast/myasht for moon sometimes, but mainly we use it for month.

[Hakim Khan Urgonai]

The peshwar dialect is the worst for me. They mix alot of urdu/hindko words in it.

I found it hard to understand at first, but gradually got used to it.

Bannuchi is the hardest for me.

[Hakim Khan Urgonai]

And what do culture and tradition we call in different dialects?

Kultur/farhang/dod/dastor/riwaaj, maybe a few more words.

[زده کوونکی]

I wrote this 6 years ago when this forum was very different place.
Thread started by me in 2012 but its still relevant today

[Charsi Malang]

* This piece of writing contains the standard Pashto transcription as used by normal Pashtuns in place of IPA for ease of understanding.



The dialect of Wardag is very similar to the language of the Mangal, Zazi and Zadran. However, the way most Wardag speak is almost indistinguishable from the Zazi dialect. This dialect is spoken in Khost, Paktia and Kurram, where my grandmother's roots are.

I have lived in Parachinar for 3 years from 2003-2006 and during this time I was exposed to the Zazi, Mangal and Turi dialects which are all very similar to each other and to that of the Wardag, Afridi, Orokzai, Bangash and Zadran - all Karlani tribes, excluding the Wazir, Bannuchi, Khattak and Khostwal which are significantly more divergent than other Karlani dialects due to a more obvious vowel change, unique lexis and certain grammatical differences. One thing that sets the Wardag dialect apart from the rest of those mentioned, however, is the tendency of many (educated, upper-class) Wardags to incorporate Dari words into their speech.

The Karlani dialects all have some common features = the "aa" of other dialects becomes "o" or even "u". I do not know the reason for this, perhaps the mountain Karlani tribes have preserved the original Persian pronunciation of this phoneme as is evident in early Pashto borrowings from Persian, eg. The "Standard Pashto" change from the Persian "aa" to "o" in words like "khob" for "khwaab" and "khor" for "khwaahar".

Often similar changes occur in the pronunciation of words beginnning with "w" or a vowel so that they start with a "y" as in "wayam" [I say] = "yayam". Also, the final "m" in first person verb conjugations such as in the example above is not pronunced in many Karlani dialects and is replaced by a nasal "an" sound as in French.

Also worth noting is that no Karlani dialect has "zama" and "sta" for "mine" and "yours"; instead "de mo / e mo" and "de to / e to" are used. This is a sign of the Karlani dialects being archaic as "e mo" and "e to" or " de mo" and "de to" make more sense than "zma" or "sta", which appear to be contractions.

Because the "de" meaning "of" is often contracted to "e" in the Karlani dialetcs, it mirrors the Persian "ezafe" system, eg. "Khana-e-tu"= your house, literally house of you. Similarly in Pashto we say "e to kor", also meaning "house of you". Though obviously, Pashto and Perisan grammar differs greatly.

Many Zazi pronunce "ts" as "s" and "dz" as "z", especially those of Kurram and Khost. As far as I know, Wardags say "ts" and "dz". Another variation that can occur in the Zazi dialect is the use of the hard "kh" or "x" (as in "khamakha") in place of the softer "kh" (as in "khaar"/city). Sorry, its hard to explain this becuase both sounds are commonly transcribed using "kh".

Another potential difference is the fact that many Wardag say "mugh" instead of "mung", which is standard in Zazi of all three settlements; Maidan [Khost], Aryob [Paktia] and Kurma. Quite interstingly, this same merge of "gh" and "g/zh" also occurs in Northern Paktika/Southern Ghazni (mainly Sharan, Katawaz, Qarabagh, Andar and Muqur) which is Ghaljai territory.

As far as neighbouring Karlani dialects like Mangal and Zadran are concerned, in relation to Wardag and Zazi, they sound much more harsh although you will still understand them. Many words are specific to Karlani dialects or are used differently from other dialects, such as "tikala/atkala/tkala" for "dodaii" and "workai" for "halak". Also, "ghagedal/zhaghedal" is used in place of "khabare kawal" as this would sound strange to many rural Karlani (and Ghalji) Pashtuns. This is also true for Paktikawalan like me.

The area of Bermal is mainly inhabited by the Wazir and the Kharoti and I have never heard of any Wardags currently settled down there (Bermal is basically the one of the closest places to Wana from Afghanistan without crossing any borders), but if Marwats can migrate from Katawaz to Lakki, then surely Wardags can come from Bermal.

Now, that wretched table on Wikipedia has been tortured many a time. I was the one who edited it originally, but later other self-proclaimed "linguists" proceeded to f**** it all up with their own faulty data.

In that table, where it says "Zadran", the phonemes shown next to it are wrong. The Zadran dialect does not change "o" for "e" and "u" for "i" like the Waziri, Khostwal and Bannuchi do. I know this becuase the Zadran are our neighbours in Urgun.

Using the terms "Western" and "Eastern" Afghan dialects of Pashto is more suitable than using the misinformed, yet traditional "Southern"/"Northern"differentiation as Nangarhar is in the East and Kandahar is in the West. In Paktika, all dialects are mixed up and spoken at the same time. I have explained this before, I believe.

The phonemes [ç] and [ʝ] shown for many dialects on said table should be changed to [X] and [γ]/[g] as these paint a more accurate picture of the Pashto language.


Hakim Khan.

Fantastic post brother wherever you are. Many thanks for acknowledging and mentioning words that we say normally in our dialect yet never hear other Pakhtuns use at all.

We always in our dialect say:

E moo-for we or ours as opposed to zamung
Tikala- for bread or a meal as opposed to dodai
Urkai- for boy as opposed to alak
Yayam-to say or saying-as opposed to wayam

There are certain other words we use that I have never heard other Pakhtuns use such as:

Zeyre- swearing/obscenities
Oya- eggs
Mangor-snake
Meysht-moon
Meyr-sun
Oore-over there
Shodde-milk

[maneatinglizard]

I read this a while back, and noticed some mistakes in the description of Zazi Pashto. I guess that's what happens when you learn a language by listening to songs. Anyway, it seems like people were catching onto killzai's lies when he mixed up various dialects, I'm surprised no one outright called him out on it. I'm a little disappointed that we had people from the various tribes he was lying about that didn't catch his errors lol.

By the way, it's thread like this (along with the blatant attacks on Islam he makes on his other accounts) that are the reason I think this loser needs to be permanently banned (along with all his alts). He's purposely spreading misinformation about Pashto and Pashtuns. We already have a problem with a lack of good information on our language and culture in English, the BS this obsessive weirdo spreads just makes the situation worse.

It's funny because I only recently learned that "Hakim Khan Urgonai" was killzai, but I had planned on adding to this thread, and correcting some of the errors, for a long time now.

It's also funny that killzai is adamantly denying that ShahiZai, kanishka, Pakhtun345, etc. are him, when his comment on this thread proves that he has a history of making fake personalities up and lying about various tribes. Dude wont stop PMing me as Pakhtun345.

[زده کوونکی]

I read this a while back, and noticed some mistakes in the description of Zazi Pashto. I guess that's what happens when you learn a language by listening to songs. Anyway, it seems like people were catching onto killzai's lies when he mixed up various dialects, I'm surprised no one outright called him out on it. I'm a little disappointed that we had people from the various tribes he was lying about that didn't catch his errors lol.

By the way, it's thread like this (along with the blatant attacks on Islam he makes on his other accounts) that are the reason I think this loser needs to be permanently banned (along with all his alts). He's purposely spreading misinformation about Pashto and Pashtuns. We already have a problem with a lack of good information on our language and culture in English, the BS this obsessive weirdo spreads just makes the situation worse.

It's funny because I only recently learned that "Hakim Khan Urgonai" was killzai, but I had planned on adding to this thread, and correcting some of the errors, for a long time now.

It's also funny that killzai is adamantly denying that ShahiZai, kanishka, Pakhtun345, etc. are him, when his comment on this thread proves that he has a history of making fake personalities up and lying about various tribes. Dude wont stop PMing me as Pakhtun345.

I'm only going to say this: when an account is me, I can admit it. The usernames you keep associating me with (including Pakhtun345) is not me.

And of course I make mistakes in Pashto, I even make mistakes in my first language English, as you've probably seen.

[maneatinglizard]

I'm only going to say this: when an account is me, I can admit it. The usernames you keep associating me with (including Pakhtun345) is not me.

You're a lying piece of garbage, why should anyone believe you? You seem to think you have some sort of legitimacy that would cause me to believe your words. You don't. You're a serial liar and phony.

I'm actually amazed you're willing to put your face out there when everyting else about you is a fraud. You'd think a human would have enough shame to at least keep themselves anonymous, but you seem to have some pride in being worthy of no respect.

Everyone can tell they're your accounts. Yes, you pathetically conversed with yourself for like 5 hours between your Zdakawoonkay and Pakhtun345 accounts, attempting to spread disinformation about "connections" between Awadhi and Pashto.

And of course I make mistakes in Pashto, I even make mistakes in my first language English, as you've probably seen.

The problem isn't that you make mistakes, it's that you're a phony who pretends to know more than he actually does. As Hakim Khan Urgonai, you pretended to be from Khost, and to have lived among the speakers of these dialects. If you had just come out and said you heard these dialects in songs and wanted to discuss them, there'd have been no problem. But because you have a neurotic need to lie, you invented a fake personality and attempted to legitimize yourself as someone who is teaching rather than learning.

And you're still doing that. Your pashto grammar is pretty bad (I'm actually surprised at it considering you clearly have learnt a large vocabulary from all the songs you listen to), and yet you come here offering to teach Pashto for a fee.

You're actually a lot like Dhul Fiqar. A weirdo who needs to get out more, but instead acts like he knows more than he does, and spends all his time spreading misinformation on the internet. I don't know what about this board attracts your kind, but you need to go away and never come back.

We need a separate forum for people like killzai, Dhul Fiqar, and Karachi. We can call it "Pashtun Forum Rejects," or maybe "Wannabe Pashtun Forums." Just let them spread their stupidity among themselves. Maybe Iblis and the like can occasionally step in to remind them of how pathetic they are lol.