Urdu/Alphabet
< Urdu
Urdu اردو
Reading & Writing
Introduction Nasta'liq
Alphabet Transliteration
Lessons
Basic Intermediate
Elementary Advanced
Exercises
Reference
Vocabulary Dialects
Grammar Linguistic Terms
Related Wikibooks
Hindi Persian
Miscellaneous
Appendices Random lessons
The Urdu alphabet is derived from the
Persian (Farsi) and the Arabic alphabet,
where majority of the letters are borrowed
from Arabic while only four alphabets are
primarily borrowed from Persian. Very
seldom, letters may be borrowed from
Sanskrit. Even though the letters actually
are inherited from these languages, the
names used for these letters differ in
some cases, for instance, letters ‘bay’ and
‘tay’ in Urdu are called only ‘baa’ and ‘taa’
in Arabic.
In Urdu, composition of alphabets based
on three formations, former or pre ( ترکیِب
)سابق, after ( )ترکیِب الحقand parallel ( ترکیِب
)طرفین. For example, in با, the formation of
Aliph ( )اwith Bay ( )بis pre formation
([ )ترکیِب سابق1] (http://termexplained.org/%
d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%af%d9%88/urdu-alph
abets-%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%81%d
9%90-%d8%aa%db%81%d8%ac%db%8c/) .
Below is a table of all the Urdu letters
along with their names and the phonetic
pronunciation of their names. It is also
specified as to which language the letter is
borrowed from and the respective keys to
press on a keyboard. For the purposes of
following the text in this book, Latin
alternatives are provided with the
alphabet.
Phonetic Borrowed
Alphabet Name Keyboard[1] Voice[2]
pronunciation from
pronounced
ا Aliph Arabic J Vowel
[əlɪf]
pronounced
ب Bay Arabic I Labial
[beː]
pronounced
پ Pay Persian Y Labial
[peː]
pronounced
ت Tay; with soft ‘t’ Arabic U Dental
[t̪eː]
pronounced
ٹ Tay; with hard ‘T’ Sanskrit Shift + U Retroflex
[ʈeː]
pronounced
ث Thay; colloquially ‘say’ Arabic Shift + T Dental
[s·eː]
pronounced
ج Jeem Arabic O Palatal
[dʒ·iːm]
pronounced
چ Chay Persian Shift + O Palatal
[tʃ·eː]
pronounced
ح Hay Arabic P Aspirated
[heː]
pronounced
خ Khay Arabic Shift + P Velar
[xeː]
pronounced
د Daal; with soft ‘d’ Arabic R Dental
[d̪aːl]
pronounced
ڈ Daal; with hard ‘D’ Sanskrit Shift + R Retroflex
[ɖaːl]
pronounced
ذ Dhaal; colloquially ‘zaal’ Arabic Shift + E Aspirated
[zaːl]
pronounced
ر Ray Arabic D Semi-vowel
[reː]
pronounced
ڑ Ray; with very guttural ‘r’ Sanskrit Shift + D Hard retroflex
[ɽeː]
pronounced
ز Zay Arabic Shift + S Aspirated
[zeː]
Zhay; much like ‘si’ in pronounced
ژ Persian Shift + A Aspirated
‘vision’ [ʒeː]
pronounced Dental
س Seen Arabic V
[siːn] aspirated
pronounced Dental
ش Sheen Arabic B
[ʃ·iːn] aspirated
pronounced Velar
ص Suaad Arabic W
[sʊ̈·aːd̪] aspirated
pronounced Velar
ض Dhuaad; colloquially ‘zuaad’ Arabic Shift + W
[zʊ̈·aːd̪] aspirated
pronounced
ط Toay'n Arabic Q Dental velar
[t̪oːẽː]
pronounced Velar
ظ Zoay'n Arabic Shift + Q
[zoːẽː] aspirated
pronounced
ع Ain; guttural ‘a’ Arabic M Velar vowel
[aːiːn]
Ghain; hoarse guttural ‘g’ pronounced Strong velar
غ Arabic N
followed by a hollow ‘h’ [ɣaːiːn] aspirated
pronounced
ف Fay Arabic X Aspirated
[feː]
Quaaf; ‘Qu’ is pronounced pronounced
ق Arabic Z Velar
only as ‘k’ [kaːf]
pronounced
ک Kaaf Arabic K Velar
[kaːf]
pronounced
گ Gaaf Persian Shift + K Velar
[gaːf]
pronounced
ل Laam Arabic G Dental
[laːm]
pronounced
م Meem Arabic A Labial
[miːm]
pronounced
ن Noon Arabic F Palatal
[nuːn]
Noon ghuna; nasal
equivalent of ‘noon’ used to pronounced
ں Arabic Shift + F Palatal nasal
specify that the previous [nuːn ɣʊ̈naː]
vowel is a nasal one
pronounced Vowel/semi-
و Vao; as you'd say “wow” Arabic S
[vaːoː] vowel
pronounced
ہ Hay Arabic H Aspirated
[heː]
pronounced
ء Hamza Arabic Shift + H Palatal nasal
[həmzaː]
Chhoti yeh; literally meaning pronounced
ی Arabic L Vowel
‘small yeh’ [yeː]
Bari yeh; literally meaning pronounced
ے Arabic C Vowel
‘big yeh’ [yeː]
1. The keys as they appear on the keyboard
layout for Windows operating systems
2. The voice describes the characteristics of
the sound produced by the letter of the
alphabet. It may be Velar, Palatal, Retroflex,
Dental, Labial or Aspirated consonants and
vowels. Discuss this
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?
title=Urdu/Alphabet&oldid=4311847"
This page was last edited on 27 July 2023, at
08:33. •
Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless
otherwise noted.
