Pashto
Indo-European family · Iranian branch · Eurasia
Pashto is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Uvular Consonants, WALS codes Pashto as “Uvular continuants only”, a value held by 11 of the 567 languages coded, French and German among them.
On Number of Cases, WALS codes Pashto as “3 case categories”, a value held by 9 of the 261 languages coded, Greek (Modern) and Paumarí among them.
Contrast Pashto with Hindi or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Pashto, rarest first.
- Lateral ConsonantsLaterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral29 of 567
- Weight-Sensitive StressNot predictable26 of 500
Inside the Indo-European family
Pashto matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 39 of the 55 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (71%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 11th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Pashto; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Pashto for 55 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 50 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Pashto shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, but not initially | 87 of 469 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Absent: no rhythmic stress | 98 of 323 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | No weight, or weight factor unknown | 261 of 500 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Two | 50 of 257 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by reduplication | 85 of 251 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion in both tense and aspect | 24 of 193 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material) | 153 of 193 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Postpositions | 577 of 1,184 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Polar Questions | Interrogative intonation only | 173 of 955 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |