Uddin and Begum Urdu Hindustani Romanisation - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

The Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization scheme is an international standard for romanising Urdu/Hindustani (i.e., for transliterating Urdu/Hindustani into the Latin alphabet). Syed Fasih Uddin and Quader Unissa Begum presented the scheme in 1992, at the First International Urdu Conference in Chicago.

Uddin and Begum attempted to improve on, and modernize, Gilchrist's system in a number of ways. For example, in the Uddin and Begum scheme, Urdu and Hindi characters correspond one-to-one. Also, diacritics indicate vowel phonics, whereas in the Gilchrist system the reader must infer vowel pronunciation from context. To facilitate Urdu-Hindustani romanisation in a much wider range of computer software, Uddin and Begum limited their character set to the common ASCII standard.

Romanization scheme

Notes:

^ is the hard sound. (representing with the caret)

_h _H is the guttural sound.(representing with the Under Score)

’ is the long vowel sound. (representing with the Apostrophe)

(n) (N) is the nasal sound of Nu'n, when if follows a long vowel and when sometimes used at the end of a word. (representing by enclosing it in The Parenthesis)

~ Gemination, which is the inter-junction of two vowels, with the first vowel casting a shadow on the second vowel.

Short vowels

a A

Sounds like English u in but, shut.

In Urdu: ab, adab, agar, ahmaq, kam.

i I

Sounds like English i in bit, hit.

In Urdu: kari, giri, ajnabi, bha'i.

u U

Sounds like English u in pull, bull.

In Urdu: Urdu, uda's, umda, ungli.

Note: In traditional Urdu script these vowels sounds are not represented by any letters of alphabet. They are often omitted or sometimes represented by signs which are added to consonants and are termed "Eara'bs". "Eara'bs" representing short vowels are "zabar", "zaer" and "paesh".

Long vowels

a' A'

Sounds like English "a" in far, father.

In Urdu: a'ba'di, a'g, a'fat, a'm, ka'm.

i' I'

Sounds like English "ea" in heat, seat.

In Urdu: i'nt^.

u' U'

Sounds like English "oo" in tool, soon.

In Urdu: bu'nd, bhu'k, ju'ta, jhu't^.

Neutral vowels

Urdu has three neutral vowels, which are without long or short form.

e E

Sounds like English "ay" in hay, lay.

In Urdu: la'e, ga'e, c_ha'e, pic_he, pic_hhle.

o O

Sounds like English "o" in old, own.

In Urdu: os, ko, or^hna, roz, afsosna'k.

y Y

Sounds like English "y" in yard, young.

In Urdu: ya'r, ya'd, yaqin ha~ey.

Compound vowels

A~i A~I

In Urdu: a~isa, a~ina

A~u A~U

In Urdu: a~urat

A~y A~Y

In Urdu: a~ya, a~yanda

Double vowels

Inter-junction of two vowels, with the first vowel casting a shadow on the second vowel. The two vowels are separated by a ~ Tilde. The following examples illustrates the case of double vowels. In traditional notations this is referred as HUMZA.

Kaha~e A'~i’ La'~e La'~o Li’~ye Ga~e Ha~ey Ga~i’ A'~u(n) Kiji~ye

Nasal Nu'n

Is the nasal sound of Nu'n, when if follows a long vowel and when sometimes used at the end of a word. (representing by enclosing in The Parenthesis). The following examples illustrates the case of Nasal Nu'n. In traditional notations this is referred as Nu'n-e-g_huna.

Ma(n) Ha(n) De(n) Me(n) Ha,e(n) Tihe(n) Hu(n)

Sounds from Sanskrit-derived words

Sanskrit-based words in Urdu have the following typical vernacular compound sounds:

bh c_hh dh d^h gh jh kh ph r^h th t^h

Sounds from Persian-derived words

Persian-based words in Urdu have the following typical vernacular sounds:

C_Hi'm Ga'f Pe

Sounds from Arabic-derived words

Arabic-derived words in Urdu that have the following typical vernacular sounds:

Ain G/Hain Fe Qha'f Toe Zoe Swa'd Zwa'd Se Ha~e

References

Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanisation Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents