In writing, short vowels are represented by special symbols above or below the word. However, these diacritics are often left off written Urdu, so you can't always tell how a word should be pronounced, unless it's in context. There are similarities in English, with a word like 'wind' - 'The wind blows' and 'Wind up the clock'.
Once again, the diacritics are often left out so you have to work out the pronunciation of the word based on its context. The seven long vowels in Urdu sound similar to these English sounds: The 'a' in 'father' The 'ee' in 'seed' The 'oo' in 'boot' The 'o' in 'order' The 'au' in 'Australia' The 'e' in 'help' The 'a' in 'apple' Getting used to reading words without diacritics can be a bit tricky at first, so most books for people learning Urdu or for children tend to include them.
But most other forms of written Urdu, such as street signs and general publications don't bother with diacritics. The other thing to bear in mind is that two of the letters which represent vowels can also represent consonants. Dots play an important part in the Urdu alphabet. The placement of a dot can change one letter into a different letter. When saying web or email addresses, the words hyphen , slash , dot and at are all pronounced as in English.
Languages of the world : Interesting facts about languages. A Guide to Arabic : Facts, phrases and videos. A Guide to Persian : The alphabet and more. Share this page. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled.
While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. In India, though, some scholars, especially Shams-ur-Rahman Farooqi, objected to this and emphasised that the 'reformation' was uncalled-for and that one should follow the vogue rather than linguistics.
Here I must mention an interesting fact a few years ago, Shams-ur-Rahman Farooqi wrote 'Lughaat-i-rozmarra', a book on the correct usage of Urdu, and insisted that Urdu had 35 letters p. In the same book, he gave a list mentioning the number and correct sequence of Urdu letters — expelling the aspirant sounds — and the list shows 38 of them p. For the last five years or so, Dr Atash Durrani of the NLA has been promoting the idea that Urdu has 58 letters and even in some publications of the Authority the claim has been repeated.
The logic followed by him is that the computerisation of Urdu requires certain letters that do not exist in Urdu alphabet but are used in writing Urdu. Many scholars disagree with him. Here I must first admit that Dr Durrani has been relentlessly working for Urdu's computerisation for the last 10 years or so and has played a vital role in it along with NUST, FAST, the NLA and other institutions and individuals who have made it their life's goal to catapult Urdu into the cyberspace and into the next century.
But the question is why does the English language has the same 26 letters and yet the computerisation and cyber-age have not had any effect on it? In his new book 'Urdu ittelaiyaat' Dr Atash Durrani, while making out a case for 58 letters, has answered the question. He says that International Phonetic Alphabet IPA has solved many problems for English as far as pronunciation is concerned and since Urdu does not have such a system it will have to have new letters to be able to correctly and fully show the sounds that certain Urdu words have but Urdu letters do not represent them properly.
Dr Durrani has his own reasoning and sees everything from a technological point of view, but in his enthusiasm for cyber Urdu he has perhaps gone a bit too far.
But he admits that scholars disagree on the five letters that he has added to Urdu alphabet. The book is a collection of articles Dr Durrani has written from time to time on Urdu Informatics.
Published by the NLA, the book opens new vistas for techno geeks who love Urdu. With Dr Atash Durrani's hard work and vision Urdu has got a conspicuous position in the domain of technology. He hopes that this beginning today provides a solid foundation for Urdu's brighter tomorrow in a world that is steeped in technology.
The lovers of Urdu are naturally rejoiced at the inception of a new discipline named Urdu Informatics and no doubt Dr Durrani has played a pioneering role in it but one feels that sensitive issues like the number of letters in the Urdu alphabet need a consensus.
The NLA must not be oblivious of sensitivities such as Urdu script, Urdu orthography, Urdu alphabet and number of letters that have caused bitter and prolonged controversies in the past. Aside from that aspect, the book is a must for the students of Urdu, informatics and, of course, Urdu Informatics.
Controversy over number of letters in Urdu alphabet Published June 15, Facebook Count. Twitter Share. Read more. On DawnNews. Latest Stories. Most Popular Must Read.
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