ODNI · 2011

Pashto Standardized Transliteration System for Personal Names (2011)

Authority

odni

Year

2011

Source script

Arabic Arab · 160

Destination script

Latin Latn · 215

Language

Pushto; Pashto

Pashto is a language characterized by its variability. The challenges of reaching a universally acceptable transliteration standard for personal names are posed both by the dialect spread trending roughly from the southwest to the northeast parts of its geographic area, and also by the competing influences of Dari and Urdu. Given the lack of any dominant standard on some points, it has been considered necessary to define a certain degree of flexibility within this standardization system in order to enable it to capture the variability of the language it seeks to reflect. A great effort has also been made to research and reflect common usage in the Pashto- speaking areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to define rules which capture these trends to the best extent possible. However, a respect for the norms of usage has also been balanced with the need for consistency and intelligibility. Therefore, there are cases where a less common spelling will be the preferred usage under the guidance of this system. Lastly, specific names that cannot be incorporated gracefully into the rules described below are included with case-by-case preferred spellings in a list near the end of this document.