ENGLISH PROBLEMATIC CONSONANTS FOR PASHTO SPEAKERS

The present study aims to look into the problems faced by Pashto speakers, while learning English. The study particularly focuses on the pronunciation of English consonants, which are not found in Pashto phonemic inventory. It further looks into the role of L1 in the pronunciation of the target English consonants. The study identifies that five English consonants namely, the labio-dental voiceless fricative /f/, the labiodentals voiced fricative /v/, the dental voiceless fricative /θ/, the dental voiced fricative /ð/ and the post-alveolar voiced fricative /?/ are problematic for Pashto speakers. The study further shows that these consonants are replaced by L1 sounds: 1) English labio dental fricative /f, v/ are pronounced as bilabial voiceless stop /p/ and bilabial approximant /w/; 2) English dental fricatives /θ, ð/ are replaced by dental stops /t?, d? / ; 3) palatal voiced fricative /?/ is replaced by palato-alveolar voiced affricate /d?/. It is suggested that English language learners with Pashto background should be properly trained to acquire correct English pronunciation.