Example of writing in the Urdū alphabet- Zabān-e-Urdū-e-mo'alla

The Urdu alphabet is the script used for the Urdu language. It is modification of the Perso-Arabic script, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet. Like the script of Semitic languages, Urdu is written from right to left. Urdu is typically written in a different style of the script, Nasta'liq, whereas Arabic is more commonly written in the less-calligraphic Naskh style. The phrase Zaban-e Urdu-e Mualla written in Urdu Urdu () is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family that developed under Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, and Sanskrit influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing the Arabic language, which is the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. ... Arabic ( or just ), is the largest member of the family of Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic. ... Naskh (نسخ, also known as Naskhi or by its Turkish name Nesih) is a specific calligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet. ...

Usually, bare transliterations of Urdū into Roman letters omit many phonemic elements that have no equivalent in English or other languages commonly written in the Roman alphabet. It should be noted that a comprehensive system has emerged with specific notations to signify non-English sounds, but it can only be properly read by someone already familiar with Urdū, Persian, or Arabic for letters such as:ژ خ غ ط ص or ق and Hindi for letters such as ڑ. This script may be found on the Internet, and it allows people who understand the language but without knowledge of their written forms to communicate with each other. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati...

History

The Urdū language developed during the Mughal Empire under the influences of Hindi and Persian. A modified version of the Nast'alīq script was developed to suit this language. After the invention of the typewriter, the Nasta'liq script used for Urdu could not be typeset. Therefore Urdū newspapers were made from hand-written masters (called katib or khush-navees) until the late 1980s. The Daily Jang was the first Urdū newspaper composed in Nasta’liq on computer. There are efforts underway to develop more sophisticated and user-friendly Urdū support on computers and the Internet. Nowadays, nearly all Urdū newspapers, magazines, journals, and periodicals are composed on computers via various Urdū software programs. The Mughal Empire at its greatest extent. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati... Persian (local name: FārsÄ« or PārsÄ«) is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ... Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. ... The Daily Jang () is the largest Urdu language newspaper of the world, published by the Jang Group simultaneously from Pakistans main cities, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Multan, as well as from London (UK) as well for circulation throughout Europe. ...

Nasta'liq

Main article: Nasta'liq script

The Nasta'liq calligraphic writing style began as a Persian mixture of Naskh and Ta'liq. After the Mughal conquest, Nasta'liq became the preferred writing style for Urdu/Hindustānī. It is the dominant style in Pakistan, and many signs in India use it. Nasta'liq is more cursive and flowing than its Naskh counterpart. Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. ... It has been suggested that Persian language#Arabic Alphabet be merged into this article or section. ... Naskh - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... taliq is the arabic word for suspension. ... Naskh - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Alphabet

A list of the Urdū alphabet and pronunciation is given below. Urdū contains many historical spellings from Arabic and Persian, and therefore has many irregularities. The Arabic letters yaa and haa both have two variants in Urdū: one of the yaa variants is used at the ends of words for the sound [i], and one of the haa variants is used to indicate the aspirated consonants. The retroflex consonants needed to be added as well; this was accomplished by placing a superscript ط (to'e) above the corresponding dental consonants. Several letters which represent distinct consonants in Arabic are conflated in Persian, and this has carried over to Urdū. Some of the original Arabic letters are not used in Urdu. This is the list of the Urdu letters, giving the consonant pronunciation. Many of these letters also represent vowel sounds. In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ...

The Urdū alphabet, with names in the Devanāgarī and Latin alphabets

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1000x775, 204 KB) Summary hand made urdu alphabets File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1000x775, 204 KB) Summary hand made urdu alphabets File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Vowels

Vowels in Urdu are represented by letters that are also considered consonants. Many vowel sounds can be represented by one letter. Confusion can arise, but context is usually enough to figure out the correct sound. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Vowel chart

This is a list of Urdu vowels found in the initial, medial, and final positions.

Romanisation	Pronunciation	Final	Medial	Initial
a	[ə]
ā	[ɑː]
i	[ɪ]
ī	[iː]
u	[ʊ]
ū	[uː]
e	[eː]
ai	[ɛ]or[ɑɪ]
o	[oː]
au	[ɑu]

For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Short vowels

Short vowels ("a", "i", "u") are represented by marks above and below a consonant. In linguistics, vowel length is the duration of a vowel sound. ...

For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Alif

Alif (ا) is the first letter of the Urdu alphabet, and it is used exclusively as a vowel. At the beginning of a word, alif can be used to represent any of the short vowels, e.g. اب ab, اسم ism, اردو urdū. Also at the beginning, an alif (ا) followed by either of vā'o (و) or ye (ی) represents a long vowel sound. Vā'o (و) or ye (ی) alone at the beginning would represent a consonant.

Alif also has a variant, call alif madd (آ). It is used to represent a long "ā" at the beginning of a word, e.g. آپ āp, آدمی ādmi. An the middle or end of a word, long ā is represented simply by alif (ا), e.g. بات bāt, آرام ārām.

Vā'o

Vā'o is used to render the vowels "ū", "o", and "au", as well as the consonant "w" & "v".

Ye

Ye is divided into two variants: choṭī ye and baṛi ye.

Choṭī ye (ی) is written in all forms exactly as in Persian. It is used for the long vowel "ī" and the consonant "y".

Baṛī ye (ے) is used to render the vowels "e" and "ai" ([eː] and [æː] respectively). Baṛī ye is distinguished in writing from choṭī ye only when it comes at the end of a word.

Use of specific letters

Retroflex letters

Retroflex consonants were not present in the Persian alphabet, and therefore had to be created specifically for Urdū. This was accomplished by placing a superscript ط (to'e) above the corresponding dental consonants. Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... It has been suggested that Persian language#Arabic Alphabet be merged into this article or section. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ...

Do cashmī he

The letter do cashmī he (ھ) is used in native Hindustānī words, for aspiration of certain consonants. The aspirated consonants are sometimes classified as separate letters, although it takes two characters to represent them.

See also

• Shahmukhi
• Devanagari
• Nasta'liq script
• Hindustani
• Hindustani orthography
• Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization

Shahmukhi (شاہ مکھی) is a script used to record the Punjabi language. ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) Devanāgarī (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ... Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. ... The word Hindustani is an adjective used to denote a connection to India, or, more precisely, the historical region that encompasses Northern India, Pakistan, and nearby areas. ... Hindustani, Hindi, and Urdu have been written in several different scripts. ... The Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization scheme was proposed by the late Syed Fasih Uddin and the late Quader Unissa Begum for the Romanization of Urdu-Hindustani. ...

External links

• Urdu alphabet
• Urdu alphabet with Devanagari equivalents
• NLA Urdu letters