The Justification of Urdu Letters with Similar Sounds and Diacritics

  • Dr. Abdul Sattar Malik Lecturer, Department of Urdu, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54692/nooretahqeeq.2024.08012155
Keywords: Similar Sound Letters, Sounds of Arabic Letters, Objections to Similar Sound Letters, Urdu Diacritics, Urdu Script, Orthographic Committee NLA, Orthographic Committee UDB, India, Phonetics.

Abstract

Urdu script is derived from the Arabic script but Urdu differs from Arabic in its nature and unlike Arabic some sounds are pronounced like each other. Due to that some experts object to Urdu script and suggest the removal of letters with similar sounds. But the removal of these letters can create many complexities and difficulties which cannot be resolved. These eight specific sounds of Urdu are common to Pakistani languages ​​such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Kashmiri, and other local languages. How is it possible to exclude these words from all these languages? These sounds are the valuable capital of world languages ​​like Persian and Arabic. With this collaboration, Urdu emerges as a great global and scientific language. By removing these letters, Urdu will suffer a great loss in terms of knowledge. There will be an encounter, which cannot be compensated. In short, this change is not feasible in context with Urdu historical background and present linguistic geographical condition. The Urdu script is non- diacritical in its nature and diacritics in Urdu are not arranged in the same way as in Arabic. However, it is necessary to organize the essential diacritics in the basic textbooks. This article argues and analyses the justification of Urdu letters with similar sounds and diacritics in detail.

Published
2024-03-31
Issue
Vol. 8 No. 01 (2024): January to March 2024
Section
Articles

Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Abdul Sattar Malik

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Noor e Tahqeeq, LGU is fully open access and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

CC BY: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.

CC BY includes the following elements: BY  – Credit must be given to the creator

Noor eTahqeeq allows the authors to retain copyright under the CC-BY license. However, authors have to sign a form agreeing to the publication of their article under the CC-BY license.