Arabic Letter Yeh with Tail

It marks a word-final diphthong, especially in feminine forms. A diphthong is one vowel sound that glides into another; here it starts with an unstressed “uh” and moves toward “ee.” In Pashto spelling, this ending appears especially on feminine nouns and adjectives.

Pashto extends the Perso-Arabic script to represent its own sounds. Khayr al-bayān, a mid-sixteenth-century book about Pashto writing, gives a full alphabet and instructions for representing Pashto sounds. The clearer split among related yeh spellings is tentatively placed in the 1970s or 1980s, as typesetting and work by the Pashto Academy, a language institution, pushed toward more distinct forms.

How do I type ۍ?

Use a Pashto input layout; a general Arabic layout may not include this key. On Microsoft Windows, the Pashto (Afghanistan) layout maps Shift+S to ۍ as of 2026-09-05. Check that this layout is selected; other Pashto layouts can differ.

Which yeh should I use?

Follow the Pashto spelling system used by the text. Afghan and Pakistani Pashto do not always assign the same yeh forms to the same sounds. A common teaching distinction uses ۍ for feminine noun and adjective endings and ئ for some second-person plural commands, but spellings of final diphthongs vary. Follow the convention of the text you are reading or writing.