From: aam9n@honi1.acc.Virginia.EDU (Ali Ahmad Minai)
Subject: Re: Urdu Urdu
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 04:29:30 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.203159.22888@ecst.csuchico.edu> jawad@ecst.csuchico.edu (Jawad Ali) writes:
>
>Is there a standard convention for ascii transliteration of Urdu?
>I am very clumsy at communicating in Urdu (or Punjabi) in anything
>but the Arabic alphabet. I am aware of the conventions for Arabic
>transliteration that appear in print, but they invaribly rely upon
>diacritical marks that are not part of the ASCII set.

This is an important issue, especially if we are to have an Urdu
newsgroup. The convention I use is partly of my own making and
partly based on suggestions by Zia Zafir (I think). It has its
problems, but seems reasonably clear to me. Apart from the obvious
consonant sounds, here is what I use:


t for "tay" as in "tamannaa" and for "toay" as in "talaaq"
T for "Tay" as in "Topee"

d for "daal" as in "dard"
D for "Daal" as in "Dar"

ch for "chay" as in "chehraa"
kh for "khay" as in "khoobsoorat"
zh for "zhay" as in "arzhang"
sh for "sheen" as in "shaadee"
gh for "ghain" as in "ghaban"

R for "ray" as in "gaaRee"
q for "qaaf" as in "qissa"

In general I add "h" to get the aspirated sounds, e.g. jh, dh, Dh, chh, etc.
This has trouble with the initial sound used in "khhaana", which is not a
"kh" with aspiration. A similar problem exists with the sound in "ghhar".
It might, therefore, be wise to use X for "khay" and G for "ghain, leaving
us with "khaanaa" and "ghar". For "noon ghunna" (or is it "Gunna"?), I use
"N", as suggested by Zia. A significant "ain" is indicated by ', e.g.
"vaaqi'a". Which brings me to the "vaau". As has been discussed on the net,
the Urdu "vaau" is a "v" sound, not a "w" sound. We got this from Persian,
which systematically replaces all Arabic "w" sounds with "v" sounds. Thus,
the correct Urdu pronunciation in my opinion is "v", not "w".  

On the question of vowel sounds, the following examples should make
the convention clear:

Fear = Dar
Work = kaam
Heart = dil
Lake = jheel
Flower = gul
Flower = phool
People = loag
Berry = bayr
Enmity = bair
Who = kaun

Transliterating poetry requires symbols for short vowel sounds that
are not used in normal speech, e.g., the shortened medial and final
"ay"'s in "tayray" (which I'd transliterate as "tere", even though the
two vowel sounds are not identical), or the shortened medial "ay" and
final "ee" in "tairee" (which I'd write as "teri", even though the final
vowel sound is not like the "i" in "dil"). A similar problem arises with
the shortened "oo", which I transliterate as "u", though it is different
from the "u" sound in "gul". Ultimately, I think that the criterion
should be readibility rather than strict consistency. So here is a
sample:

miltaa naheeN mizaaj, khud apnee adaa meN hai,
tayree galee se aa ke sabaa bhee havaa meN hai.

ai ishq tayri doosri manzil bhi hai kaheeN?
marnaa hai ibtidaa meN to kyaa intihaa meN hai?

laatee hai jab sabaa to chamaktay haiN baam-o dar:
yeh raushnee si kyaa teri boo-e qabaa meN hai?

yeh tishnagee, ye paas-e vafaa, yeh hujoom-e gham:
kyaa kaaravaan-e shauq kisee karbalaa meN hai?

tauseef-e husn asl meN hai vasf-e husn-saaz:
bandoN se jis ko pyaar hai, yaad-e khudaa meN hai.

har rehguzar nishaaN hai teree simt kaa magar
iqraar-e naa-rasee bhi har ik naqsh-e paa meN hai.

sun kar ke "hosh" nay bhi kiyaa tark-e aarzoo
kuhraam ik machaa hua shehr-e vafaa meN hai.       (Hosh Tirmizi)

As you will notice, I have not always been consistent, but is it
easily readable? I think the details of any convention will need a
lot of thought, and will not please everyone.

>Oh, and one more thing:  I hate thew word "poems" in the proposed
>name.  How about "literature" or atleast "poetry"?
>
I concur totally.


Regards,

Ali Minai

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tayray bhi sanam-khaanay, mayray bhi sanam-khaanay
donoN ke sanam khaakee, donoN ke sanam faanee.     (Iqbal)
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