Urdu alphabet
"Alif" is the first letter of the Urdu alphabet, and it is used exclusively as a vowel. At the beginning of a word, "alif" can be used to represent any of the short vowels: "ab", "ism", "Urdū". For long "ā" at the beginning of words alif-mad is used: "āp", but a plain alif in the middle and at the end: "bhāgnā".