Urdu Alphabet
From Textus Receptus
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.
Below is a table of all the Urdu alphabets 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.
| No. | ALA-LC | Hunterian | IPA | Isolated glyph | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | الف | alif | ā, ʾ, – | /ɑː, ʔ, ∅/ | ا | ||||
| 2 | بے | be | b | /b/ | ب | ||||
| 3 | پے | pe | p | /p/ | پ | ||||
| 4 | تے | te | t | /t̪/ | ت | ||||
| 5 | ٹے | ṭe | ṭ | t | /ʈ/ | ٹ | |||
| 6 | ثے | s̱e | s̱ | s | /s/ | ث | |||
| 7 | جیم | jīm | j | /d͡ʒ/ | ج | ||||
| 8 | چے | ce | c | ch | /t͡ʃ/ | چ | |||
| 9 | بڑی حے | baṛī ḥe | ḥ | h | /h, ɦ/ | ح | |||
| 10 | خے | khe | kh | kh | /x/ | خ | |||
| 11 | دال | dāl | d | /d̪/ | د | ||||
| 12 | ڈال | ḍāl | ḍ | d | /ɖ/ | ڈ | |||
| 13 | ذال | ẕāl | ẕ | z | /z/ | ذ | |||
| 14 | رے | re | r | /r/ | ر | ||||
| 15 | ڑے | ṛe | ṛ | r | /ɽ/ | ڑ | |||
| 16 | زے | ze | z | /z/ | ز | ||||
| 17 | ژے | zhe | zh | zh | /ʒ/ | ژ | |||
| 18 | سین | sīn | s | /s/ | س | ||||
| 19 | شین | shīn | sh | sh | /ʃ/ | ش | |||
| 20 | صواد | ṣwād | ṣ | s | /s/ | ص | |||
| 21 | ضواد | ẓwād | ẓ | z | /z/ | ض | |||
| 22 | طوئے | t̤oʾe | t̤ | t | /t̪/ | ط | |||
| 23 | ظوئے | z̤oʾe | z̤ | z | /z/ | ظ | |||
| 24 | عین | ʿain | ā, o, e, ʿ, – | /ɑː, oː, eː, ʔ, ʕ, ∅/ | ع | ||||
| 25 | غین | ghain | gh | gh | /ɣ/ | غ | |||
| 26 | فے | fe | f | /f/ | ف | ||||
| 27 | قاف | qāf | q | /q/ | ق | ||||
| 28 | کاف | kāf | k | /k/ | ك | ||||
| 29 | گاف | gāf | g | /ɡ/ | گ | ||||
| 30 | لام | lām | l | /l/ | ل | ||||
| 31 | میم | mīm | m | /m/ | م | ||||
| 32a | نون | nūn | n | /n, ɲ, ɳ, ŋ/ | ن | ||||
| 32b | نون غنہ | nūn ghunnah | ṉ | n | /◌̃/ | ں | |||
| 33 | واؤ | wāʾo | v, ū, o, au | w, ū, o, au | /ʋ, uː, oː, ɔː/ | و | |||
| 34 | چھوٹی ہے | choṭī he | h | /h, ɦ/ or /∅/ | ه | ||||
| 35 | دو چشمی ہے | do-cashmī he | h | /ʰ/ or /ʱ/ | ھ | ||||
| 36 | ہمزہ | hamzah | ʾ, – | /ʔ/, /∅/ | ء | ||||
| 37 | چھوٹی یے | choṭī ye | y, ī, á | /j, iː, ɑː/ | ی | ||||
| 38 | بڑی یے | baṛī ye | ai, e | /ɛː, eː/ | ے | ||||
The diagraphs of Aspirated consonant are as follow.
| Digraph<ref name="LoC"/> | Transcription<ref name="LoC"/> | IPA |
| بھ | bh | [bʱ] |
| پھ | ph | [pʰ] |
| تھ | th | [t̪ʰ] |
| ٹھ | ṭh | [ʈʰ] |
| جھ | jh | [d͡ʒʰ] |
| چھ | ch | [t͡ʃʰ] |
| دھ | dh | [d̪ʱ] |
| ڈھ | ḍh | [ɖʱ] |
| رھ | ṛh | [rʱ] |
| ڑھ | ṛh | [ɽʱ] |
| کھ | kh | [kʰ] |
| گھ | gh | [ɡʱ] |
| لھ | lh | [lʱ] |
| مھ | mh | [mʱ] |
| نھ | nh | [nʱ] |
| وھ | wh | [ʋʱ] |
| یھ | yh | [jʱ] |
