Chapter 15

points to note are that the intial B or P has a short vertical rather than horizontal line when it has a vowel with it as in the word NO above and that the letter S often has an elongated shape as in the word Pakistan . Note also that the mark over the t in potato converts it into a hard T as in Turkey.
It seems that the first soldiers who got to the subcontinent did not speak the Queen's English . So that the word CALL ( to call ) somebody is ususally written and pronounced as CAAL rather than CAUL by Urdu speakers. Also there is a tendency to add an I at the beginning whenever an English word is written with Urdu script , so the word SPIRIT for eg. is written and pronounced as ISPIRIT , school is written as ischool etc. Here however we will try and stick close to the English pronounciation.

Lets look at another three vowels in the figure below from R to L which complete the vowels used in Urdu They are another form of A which we shall from now mark as little a to distinguish from Aliph.Long EE also used as Y as we shall see.Long Ae Then is the letter H and finally L.

a is pronounce as AEN ( as in mAn) . The next is the letter Y . Because it has two dots at the bottom it can easily be confused with the vowel mark ae .Third is the long Ae . Next on the left are the two useful consonants H and L