An Articulatory Analysis of English Consonants Produced by Pashto Native Speakers of Different Dialects

Abstract

This perceptual study explores the challenges faced by Pashto ESL learners in articulating
nine English consonants. The study focuses on identifying the most problematic sounds and
providing a learnable solution. Previous studies examined around six troublesome consonantal
sounds, however, this perceptual and productive study focuses on the targeted consonantal
sounds. The primary goal of the study is to determine why Khilji, Khatak, and Afridi dialects
of Pashto speakers struggle with these sounds. The study examines the phonetic and
phonological differences between the two languages and how these disparities affect the
articulation of Pashto native speakers. The study is designed based on the Contrastive Analysis
Theory formulated by Lado (1967). For this, nine consonants were selected for recording,
which include the voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/, the voiced labio-dental fricative /v/, the
voiceless dental fricative /θ/, the voiced dental fricative /ð/, the voiced post-alveolar fricative
/ʒ/, the voiceless velar stop /k/, the voiceless alveolar ridge stop /t/, the voiced labio-velar
approximant /w/ and the voiced alveolar stop /d/. By utilizing the purposive sampling
technique, six participants were selected from colleges and universities in Karachi speaking
three different dialects of Pashto. Pashto speakers recorded the speech stimuli as per protocols
of the study. The results reveal that Pashto ESL learners find the voiceless labio-dental
fricative /f/, voiceless velar stop /k/, voiceless alveolar ridge stop /t/, and voiced alveolar stop
/d/ less challenging to articulate. On the other hand, the most problematic sounds were voiced
and voiceless inter-dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, voiced labio-dental fricative /v/, voiced Alveo-
palatal fricative /ʒ/ and voiced labio-velar approximant /w/. The finding reveals that the
difference in sound systems between the two languages and the absence of sounds in their
native language cause Pashto native speakers to have difficulty in pronouncing these sounds.
The finding is not in line with the previous studies in terms of articulation variations on account
of dialectal features

Note:

Keywords: English consonants, articulation, Pashto ESL learners, dialects, and problematic sounds