hello, i am looking to buy bar end shifters for my vintage raleigh pursuit. i have put vision tt bars on it, and i need bar end shifters. the rear freewheel is 5sp and groupset is 2. it is friction shifting. i am wondering weather if i buy 10 speed bar end shifters, is one shifter 5 speed and the other 2 speed? if so which ones should i get that are friction compatable?

It doesn't quite work that way. If you want friction bar end shifters, you can pick up a pair of the dia compe bar end shifters:

Dia-Compe ENE Bar-End Shifters

okay how do bar end shifters work then? new to all this

For such a rudimentary question about basic C&V technology a bit of research on your part may be order, rather than having an article written by a poster to spoon feed you.

You do have that google-thing? This took <30 seconds to find:

Upgrading Bicycle Gearing

-Bandera