Urdu Language

A brief introduction of Urdu Language

There are different opinions about the birthplace of the Urdu language. Allama Syed Sulaiman
Nadvi, while speculating about it, says:

“Since Muslims first arrived in Sindh, it is most likely that what we call Urdu today first took shape
in the valley of Sindh.”

On the other hand, Naseeruddin Hashmi considered the Deccan and Malabar regions as the origin of
Urdu, since Muslims first came to these parts of India. He believed that the Deccan was the real
birthplace of Urdu.

According to the famous linguist and researcher Hafiz Mahmood Sherani, Punjab was the land where
Urdu was born. Dr. Masood-ul-Hasan and Dr. Shaukat Subzwari thought that Delhi and its
surrounding areas, including Haryana and Meerut, were the center of Urdu’s beginning.

After studying the opinions of different scholars, it becomes clear that Urdu developed in undivided
India, stretching from the borders of Afghanistan to the southern region of Malabar. Although the
exact birthplace of Urdu is debated, researchers agree on the reason for its birth:

When traders and migrants from the Middle East started coming along with the Muslim armies, they
brought Afghans, Iranians, Arabs, and Turks with them. These soldiers, traders, and migrants mixed
with the local people and began to take part in administrative activities. Their interaction, combined
with local Indian languages, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Central Asian languages, laid the
foundation of a new language. Gradually, this language grew into what we now call Urdu. Sufi saints
also played a major role in its spread.

Urdu is originally an Indo-Aryan language, which is why its grammar closely resembles that of Khari
Boli and Punjabi. The inclusion of Arabic and Persian vocabulary made Urdu more refined and
beautiful. Famous Urdu prose writer Insha Allah Khan Insha believed that Urdu was based on Arabic,
Persian, Turkish, and Braj Bhasha.

During the British rule, Urdu was given the status of an official language, which greatly increased
its influence in undivided India.

Today, Urdu is the fifth most spoken language in the world and is counted among the major global
languages. It is the national language of Pakistan and the main medium of education in most religious
schools (madrasas) of the subcontinent. After Arabic and Persian, most Islamic and religious writings
in the Muslim world are in Urdu. Because of its sweetness, delicacy, and expressive power, Urdu
has become one of the most popular languages for poetry.

In modern times, Urdu is also considered a developed language. Although it does not have a very
wide base in technical and scientific fields, it is very rich in Islamic and literary heritage. After Arabic
and Persian, Urdu is the third language with the largest collection of Islamic books.

Urdu has many literary forms, but its ghazal holds a special place in the world because of its creativity
and emotional depth. Urdu literature also has a huge collection of prose and poetry, including hamd
(praise of God), naat (praise of the Prophet), rubai (quatrains), ghazals, marsiyas (elegies), masnavis
(long narrative poems), as well as novels, short stories, essays, and travelogues. These genres have
enriched Urdu with modern literary trends.

The Urdu alphabet is originally taken from Arabic, but since it includes many Persian and local
Indian words, its vocabulary is very broad. It can easily absorb words from other languages. Linguists
have counted up to 54 letters in its alphabet, which also includes some letters from Persian and Hindi.
Grammatically, Urdu is very close to Hindi—it almost seems as if both are the same language—but
their scripts are completely different.

To speak and write Urdu properly, it is important to learn its grammar, which has five main branches:
spelling (hijaa), syntax (nahw), morphology (sarf), rhetoric (balaghat), and prosody (arood). Correct
pronunciation is very important, as it enhances the sweetness and beauty of the language. Therefore,
for beginners, learning the basics of spelling (hijaa) is essential. These five branches will be
explained in detail in future lessons.

Definition of Ilm al-Hijaa

‫ملعِاجہ‬
(The Science of Orthography)
Ilm al-Hijaa is the branch of knowledge through which we learn the alphabet of any language, i.e., the
letters that combine to form the words of that language. To read and write any language, recognizing its
letters is essential.
In Urdu as well, complete recognition of the alphabet — including their initial, medial, and final forms —
is necessary for reading and writing. Without this knowledge, reading Urdu becomes difficult. Correct
pronunciation of letters requires proper knowledge of their points of articulation (‫)مخارج‬. Like other
languages, Urdu also has vowel marks and diacritical signs (‫)حرکات و سکنات‬, which help in producing
sound. These belong to the field of phonetics (‫)صوتیات‬.
To maintain the standard of the Urdu language and to ensure proper articulation of its letters, knowledge
of Ilm al-Hijaa is very important. The Urdu alphabet is based on the Arabic alphabet, due to the extensive
use of Arabic vocabulary. However, it is noteworthy that in Urdu, some Arabic letters have very similar
sounds, such as ‫ ص‬,‫ س‬,‫ث‬and ‫ ظ‬,‫ ض‬,‫ ز‬,‫ذ‬. Urdu speakers usually write these letters correctly in Arabic-
origin words, but in speech, they do not always differentiate between them.
Historically, the number of letters in the Urdu alphabet has been a subject of debate.
In old Urdu, there were 36 letters.
For Hindi aspirated sounds, combinations with the do-chashmi heh (‫ )ھ‬were used.
Later, linguists recognized alif maddah (‫)آ‬, alif maqsoorah (‫)ى‬, noon ghunnah (‫)ں‬, and aspirated letters
with do-chashmi (‫ )ھ‬as independent letters of the Urdu alphabet.
Maulvi Abdul Haq also included aspirated sounds in the list of letters. According to Professor Shan-ul-
Haq Haqqi, the Urdu alphabet consists of 53 letters. However, the National Language Promotion
Department (‫)ادارہ فروغِ قومی زبان‬, considering the technical needs of computers, officially recognized the
total number of Urdu letters as 54, treating noon ghunnah (‫ )ں‬as a separate letter. Some people do not
consider hamzah (‫ )ء‬to be an independent letter, as it comes from Arabic where alif is a vowel and hamzah
is a consonant. The do-chashmi heh (‫ )ھ‬is actually just a variation of the round heh (‫)ہ‬, used to represent
aspirated sounds. Since heh has its own distinct sound (e.g., in ‫ٹھہرنا‬/ṭhahrnā/, where both the aspirated
sound and the regular heh occur together), the use of do-chashmi heh helps differentiate between them.
Thus, writing the small heh (‫ )ہ‬in the form of do-chashmi heh (‫ )ھ‬is incorrect. Similarly, many people
mistakenly write words like ‫ ہی‬،‫ ہیں‬،‫ہے‬using do-chashmi heh, which is wrong.
Based on research, the Urdu alphabet can be classified into the following categories:
Arabic-origin letters – 28 letters
Persian-derived letters – 4 letters
Retroflexed letters (‫ – )معکوسی حروف‬3 letters
Hindi aspirated sounds (‫ – )ہکاری اصوات‬15 letters (formed with do-chashmi heh)
In addition to alif maddah (‫ )آ‬and noon ghunnah (‫)ں‬, the majhool ye (‫ )ے‬has also been included as a
separate letter.
With these five categories, the total number of Urdu letters becomes 54.
In the following pages, we will explain all these categories in detail for the students’ convenience.
There is
 ‫اردوےکرحوفیجہت‬
‫‪URDU ALPHABET‬‬

‫آ‬ ‫ا‬

‫ث‬ ‫ھٹ‬ ‫ٹ‬ ‫ھت‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ھپ‬ ‫پ‬ ‫ھب‬ ‫ب‬

‫خ‬ ‫ح‬ ‫ھچ‬ ‫چ‬ ‫ھج‬ ‫ج‬

‫ذ‬ ‫ڈھ‬ ‫ڈ‬ ‫دھ‬ ‫د‬

‫‪5‬‬

‫ژ‬ ‫ز‬ ‫ڑھ‬ ‫ڑ‬ ‫رھ‬ ‫ر‬

‫‪6‬‬

‫ظ‬ ‫ط‬ ‫ض‬ ‫ص‬ ‫ش‬ ‫س‬

‫ق‬ ‫ف‬ ‫غ‬ ‫ع‬

‫ھگ‬ ‫گ‬ ‫ھک‬ ‫ک‬

‫ں‬ ‫ھن‬ ‫ن‬ ‫مھ‬ ‫م‬ ‫لھ‬ ‫ل‬

‫ے‬ ‫ی‬ ‫ء‬ ‫ہ‬ ‫وھ‬ ‫و‬

 Deferent Form of Urdu letters
‫رحوفیجہتیکفلتخمااکشل‬

Nastalique Urdu script

Urdu is written in the Nastaliq style (Persian: ‫ نستعلیق‬Nastaʿlīq). The Nastaliq

calligraphic writing style began as a Persian mixture of the Naskh and Ta'liq scripts. After
the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent, Nastaʻliq became the preferred writing
style for Urdu. It is the dominant style in Pakistan and many Urdu writers elsewhere in the
world use it. Nastaʿlīq is more cursive and flowing than its Naskh counterpart.
In the Arabic alphabet, and many others derived from it, letters are regarded as
having two or three general forms each, based on their position in the word (though Arabic
calligraphy can add a great deal of complexity). But the Nastaliq style in which Urdu is
written uses more than three general forms for many letters, even in simple non-decorative
documents

This is the Nataluque Font:

‫یسکزامےنںیماکیوسدارگراتہےہاھتاسےناکیوطاطاپالاھت۔‬
 Qamari and Shamsi Letters
(‫)حروف قمری و شمسی‬
Since a large number of Arabic words are used in the Urdu language — nearly eighty percent of Arabic
nouns are present in Urdu — it becomes important to recognize how these nouns are read. For this reason,
the Arabic alphabet is divided into two categories:
1. Qamari Letters (‫)حروف قمری‬
2. Shamsi Letters (‫)حروف شمسی‬
According to Arabic grammar, when an indefinite noun (‫ )نکرہ‬is made definite (‫)معرفہ‬, the definite article
“al-” (‫ )ال‬is added to it. By this addition, the noun changes from indefinite to definite.
For example ‫القمر → قمر الشمس → شمس الکتاب → کتاب‬
When “al-” is added to ‫قمر‬, the ‫( الم‬l) after ‫( الف‬a) is pronounced. However, when “al-” is added to ‫شمس‬, the
‫ الم‬is not pronounced. This is why the discussion of Qamari and Shamsi letters is important in Urdu,
because many Arabic words and compounds written with “‫ ”ال‬are used in Urdu, but during pronunciation,
non-Arabic speakers often make mistakes.
For instance, the word ‫ تاج‬when made definite in Arabic becomes ‫التاج‬. But in English or other languages,
people write it as Al Taj, pronouncing it as al-tāj, which is incorrect in Arabic.
Since such Arabic compound nouns are widely used in Urdu, understanding the rule of Qamari and
Shamsi letters becomes essential. Examples of Arabic-origin compound names in Urdu:
،‫واثق الیقین‬ ،‫رئیس المتغزلین‬ ،‫شمس العلماء‬ ،‫ وحیدالدین‬،‫ عبد الملک‬،‫ عبدالستار‬،‫ ملک الشعراء‬،‫ عبد الرحمان‬،‫کلیم ہللا‬
‫عماد الدین‬
In the first four names, the ‫ الم‬sound is not pronounced, while in the latter names, the ‫ الم‬sound is clearly
pronounced.

Out of the twenty-eight Arabic letters, fourteen are Qamari letters and fourteen are Shamsi
letters. For convenience, they are listed separately below:
Qamari Letters (‫حروف قمری‬, where “‫ ”الم‬is pronounced):
‫ ي‬،‫ و‬،‫ ہ‬،‫ م‬،‫ ك‬،‫ ق‬،‫ ف‬،‫ غ‬،‫ ع‬،‫ خ‬،‫ ح‬،‫ ج‬،‫ ب‬،‫أ‬
hamsi Letters (‫حروف شمسی‬, where “‫ ”الم‬is not pronounced):
‫ ل‬،‫ ن‬،‫ ظ‬،‫ ط‬،‫ ض‬،‫ ص‬،‫ ش‬،‫ س‬،‫ ز‬،‫ ر‬،‫ ذ‬،‫ د‬،‫ ث‬،‫ت‬