PHONOLOGICAL VARIATIONS IN REGIONAL ACCENTS: A CASE STUDY OF PASHTO DIALECT

Abstract

The study of phonological variability in regional accents is important to the understanding of language diversity and how it affects communication. The present study employ, in the Pashto context, how phonetic characteristics vary across different dialects. Fieldwork and acoustic analysis allows us to search for vowel shifts, consonant articulation, and intonation patterns. The results show phonological indicators in the Pashto as spoken by communities from distinct geographical regions. It also considers sociolinguistic considerations of this variation and highlights the importance of further studies to improve language documentation and maintenance.