A REFERENCE GRAMMAR OF
URDU
Ali R Fatihi
Transcription Symbols Used in This Work
Symbol
Used
p
ph
b
bh
t
th
d
dh
Description
ṭ
ṭh
ḍ
ḍh
Urdu
Character
Voiceless, Bilabial, Stop
‫پ‬
Aspirated, Voiceless, Bilabial, Stop ‫پھ‬
Voiced, Bilabial, Stop
‫ب‬
Aspirated, Voiced, Bilabial, Stop
‫بھ‬
Voiceless, Alveolar, Stop
‫ت‬
Aspirated, Voiceless, Alveolar, Stop ‫تھ‬
Voiced, Alveolar, Stop
‫د‬
Aspirated, Voiced, Stop
‫دھ‬
Voiceless, Retroflex, Stop
‫ٹ‬
Aspirated, Voiceless, Retroflex, Stop ‫ٹھ‬
Voiced, Retroflex, Stop
‫ڈ‬
Aspirated, Voiced, Retroflex, Stop ‫ڈھ‬
c
ch
J
jh
k
kh
g
gh
q
m
n
ᵑ
l
r
ṛ
ṛh
f
s
Voiceless, Palatal, Stop
Aspirated, Voiceless, Palatal, Stop
Voiced, Palatal, Stop
Aspirated Voiced, Palatal, Stop
Voiceless, Velar, Stop
Voiceless, Aspirated, Velar, Stop
Voiced, Velar, Stop
Voiced, Aspirated Velar, Stop
Voiceless, Stop, Uvular
Bilabial, Nasal
Alveolar, Nasal
Velar, Nasal
Alveolar, Lateral
Alveolar, Trill
Retroflex, Flap
Aspirated, Retroflex, Flap
Voiceless, Labio-dental, Fricative
Voiceless, Alveolar, Fricative
‫چ‬
‫چھ‬
‫ج‬
‫جھ‬
‫ک‬
‫کھ‬
‫گ‬
‫گھ‬
‫ق‬
‫م‬
‫ن‬
‫نگ‬
‫ل‬
‫ر‬
‫ڑ‬
‫ڑھ‬
‫ف‬
‫س‬
Voiced, Alveolar Fricative
Voiceless, Palatal, Fricative
Voiced, Palatal, Fricative
Voiceless, Velar, Fricative
Voiced, Velar, Fricative
‫ز‬
‫ش‬
‫ژ‬
‫خ‬
‫غ‬
‫ہ‬
‫ی‬
‫و‬
ɔ
Voiced, Glottal, Fricative
Palatal, Semi-vowel
Labio-dental, Semi-vowel
VOWELS
Front, Low, High, Short
Front, High, Long
Front, Mid, Long
Central, Short
Back,Low
Back, Low, High, short
Back, High, Long
Back, Mid, Long
Diphthong
Diphthong
~
Nasalization
‫ں‬
z
Š
Ž
x
ɣ
h
y
v
I
i:
e
ə
a:
u
u:
o
ε
‫ا۔‬
‫ای‬
‫اے‬
‫ا‬
‫آ‬
‫ا‬
‫او‬
‫او‬
‫اے‬
‫او‬
The following abbreviations are used in the text:
ADJ
ADV
AG
AGG
AGP
ANIM
CAUS
CF
CMPL
CNTG
CONJ
CONT
CP
COREL
DM
DAT
DIM
DIR
DIST
DOBJ
DUR
EMPH
F
FAM
FREQ
FUT
GEN
HON
IMP
IMPS
IMPF
INAN
INDEF
INDC
adjective
adverb
agent marker
aggregative
agentive participle
animate
causative
counterfactual
completive
contingent
conjunction
continuative
conjunctive participle
correlative
discourse marker
dative
diminutive
direct case
distal
direct object marker
durative
emphatic
feminine
familiar
frequentative
future
genitive
honorific
imperative
impersonal
imperfect
inanimate
indefinite
indicative
INF
INTM
INTR
INTER
IOBJ
M
OBJ
OBL
OBLG
OPT
PASV
PAST
PASTPTPL
PERF
PERM
PL
POSS
PP
PRES
PRESPTPL
PROG
PROX
PRSM
PTCL
PTPL
QW
REL
SG
TAG
VOC
infinitive
intimate
intransitive
interrogative
indirect object marker
masculine
object
oblique case
Obligative
optative
passive
past
past participle
perfect
permissive
plural
possessive
postposition
present
present participle
progressive
proximal
presumptive
particle
participle
question word
relative
singular
tag question marker
vocative case
INTRODUCTION
0. Introductory Remarks:
0.1 Evolution of the Name Urdu:
0.2 Urdu Script:
0.3 Language Geography:
0.4 Language Demography of Urdu:
0.5 Current Status of Urdu
0.6. Urdu Diaspora:
0.7. Urdu Cosmopolitanism:
0.8. History of Urdu:
0.9. History of Urdu Linguistic Studies:
0.10. History of Urdu Grammatical Tradition:
0.11. History of Lexicographic Studies:
0.12 Language Contact and Convergence:
0.13. History of Urdu in Media:
0.14. History of Digital Language Technologies.
0.15. Dialect History:
0.16. Literary Tradition:
0.17. Historiography of Urdu Literature:
0.18. History of Translation in Urdu:
1. PHONOLOGY:
Urdu Phonological Units (Segmental):
1.1 Urdu Vowels:
1.2 Urdu Diphthongs:
1.3 Consonants:
1.4 Supra Segmental:
1.4.1. Nasalization:
1.4.2. Length:
1.4.3. Stress:
1.4.4. Intonation:
1.4.5. Juncture:
2.1 MORPHOLOGY:
2.1.1.
Inflectional Morphology
2.1.2. Derivational Morphology
2.1.3. Lexical categories
2.1.3.1. Nouns (N) and Verbs (V)
2.1.3.2 Adjectives (Adj) and Adverbs (Adv)
2.1.4 Grammatical categories
2.2. Nominal Morphology:
2.2.1. Nouns:
2.2.1.1 Number:
2.1.1.2 Gender:
2.1.1.3. Definiteness/Referentiality:
2.1.1.4. Case:
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2.1.2. Pronouns:
2.1.2.1(a). Number and Gender Marking in Pronouns:
2.1.2.2. Demonstratives:
2.1.2.3. Reflexives:
2.1.2.4. Interrogative Pronouns:
2.1.2.5. Indefinite Pronouns:
2.1.2.6. Relative Pronouns
2.1.3.. Derivation of Nouns:
2.1.3.1. Diminutives:
2.1.4. Compound Nouns:
2.1.4.1. Endocentric Compound:
2.1.4.2. Exocentric Compounds:
2.1.4.3. Copulative Compound:
2.1.5. Reduplication of Nouns:
2.1.5.1 Echo-Words:
2.1.5.2. Onomatopoeic Words:
2.1.6. Numerals:
2.1.6.1Cardinal numbers:
2.1.6.2. Ordinal Numerals:
2.1.7. Adjectives:
2.1.7.1. Kinds of Adjectives:
2.1.7.2. Reduplicated Adjectives:
2.1.7.3 Derivation of Adjectives:
2.1.7.4. . Adverbs, spatial, temporal, causal, degree adverbs,
2.2.Verbal morphology
2.2.1.Verb:
2.2.1.1. Verbs of Creation
2.2.1.2 Verbs of Accomplishment
2.2.1.3 Verbs of Motion.
2.2.1.4. Performative Verbs
2.2.1.5 Verbs of Physical and Mental Perception
2.2.2. Inflected Forms of Verbs:
2.2.2.1.. Causative:
2.2.3. Aspect:
2.2.3.1.Mood:
2.2.4 Imperative, Optative and Contingent:
2.2.4.1. Irregular Forms of Imperative:
2.2.4.2 Tense:
2.2.5.Auxiliaries:
2.2.5.1 Modal Auxiliaries:
2.2.5.2 . Semantic Categories:
2.2.6. Complex Verbs:
2.2.7. Compound Verbs:
2.2.7.1. Conjunct Verbs:
2.2.7.2. Voice:
2.2.7.3. Impersonal Intransitive Verbs:
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3.0 MORPHOPHONEMICS:
3.1. Vowel assimilation
3. 2. Dissimilation
3.3. Vowels:
3.3.1. Schwa ( ə ) Deletion
3.4. Consonantal Change:
3.4.1 Assimilation:
3.4.2. Metathesis.
3.4.3. H Dropping:
3.4.4. Simplification of Gemination:
4.0 SYNTAX:
4.1 Simple Sentence Structure
4.1.1 The noun phrase (NP)
4.2.. The verb phrase (VP)
4.3 SIMPLE SENTENCE
4.3.1 Agreement
4.3.1.1. Modifier-Head Agreement
4.3.1.2. Noun (Phrase)-Verb Agreement:
4.3.2. Structure of Simple Sentence:
4.3.2.1Subject
4.3.2.2 Predicate:
4.3.2.3. Intransitive:
4.3.2.4. Direct Object Marked with ‘ko’
4.3.2.5. Voice:
4.3.2.5.1. Active:
4.3.2.5.2. Passive:
4.3.2.5.3. Impersonal:
4.3.3. Mood:
4.3.3.1. Imperative:
4.3.3.2 Indicative:
4.3.4.Negative
4.3.4.1.Sentential Negation:
4.3.4.2. Constituent Negation:
4.3.4.3.Negative Imperative:
4.3.5. Interrogative
4.3.6. Presumptive
4.3.7. Contingent
4.3.7.1.Past Contingent
4.3.8. Types of Simple Sentences
4.3.8.1. Existential
4.3.8.2. Generic
4.3.8.3.Possessive
4.3.9. Intransitive
4.3.10.Transitive
4.3.10.1.Complex Transitive
4.3.10.2 Double Transitive
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4.3.11 Causative
4.3.12 Passive and Impersonal
4.4. COMPLEX SENTENCE
4.4.1. Complement Clause
4.4.2. Clausal Complement
4.4.3. Subject Complement
4.4.4. Object Complement
4.4.5. Correlative Constructions
4.4.6. Adverbial Clause
4.4.7. Participial Constructions
4.4.8. The Conjunctive Participle
4.5. COMPOUND SENTENCE
4.5.1 Coordinate
4.5.2. Adversative
4.5. 3. Disjunctive
4.5. 4. Negative disjunctive
4.5. 5. Concessive
4.5. 6. Antithetical
5.0 SAMPLE TEXT OF URDU ( With Translation)
6.0 Bibliography
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INTRODUCTION
0.
Introductory Remarks:
Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language. It derives primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi
and incorporates a large amount of vocabulary from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and some
words from Turkish. Modern Urdu has taken almost 1,000 years to develop to its present
form.
0.1 Evolution of the Name Urdu:
Regarding the evaluation of the term Urdu, many scholars (Masood Husain Khan 1954, &
1974, M KA Beg 2007, Mahmood Sherani 1978, Shamsur Rahman Farooqui 2001, King,
Christopher 1994, Schmidt, Ruth Laila1999) are of the opinion that the term Urdu derives
from a Turkish word “ordu” meaning camp or army. The etymology of the word suggests
that the word "Urdu" as used today for a language has a wider signification than that which
it originally bore. Professor Masood Husain Khan writes in his magnum opus “Muqadmae- Tarikh-e-Zaban-e-Urdu” that Urdu first developed in and around Delhi after the Muslim
conquests of India in the 13th century AD and remained the language of the royal courts
for a long time and therefore people started calling it Urdu. The soldiers of the Mughal
army belonged to various ethnic groups, however, they lived in close contact with each
other and communicated in the form of a language, which slowly and gradually evolved
into present day Urdu. It is for this reason that Urdu is also referred to as Lashkari Zaban
or language of the army. In his“Muqadma-e- Tarikh-e-Zaban-e-Urdu” Professor Masud
Husain Husain Khan further suggests that during its development, Urdu language also
assumed some of the names given below.

Urdu-e-Muallah: The term Urdu-e-Muallah meaning the exalted army was given
by Emperor Shah Jahan.

Rekhta: The term Rekhta meaning scattered (with Persian words) this was coined
by the scholars for Urdu poetry.

Urdu-e-Nusrat Sha'haar: Babar (1483-1530) in his proclamation of his victory (935
AH) used the word Urdu-e-Nusrat Sha'haar for his victorious army.

Zarab-e-Urdu, Urdu-e-Zafar-e-Qareen, and Sik'ka-e-Urdu-e-Ja'haan'geer:Akbar
(1542-1605) and Ja'haan'geer (1569-1627) used this word in combinations as
Ba'zaar-e-Urdu and Urdu-e-Mu'al'la for their garrison and also on their coins as
Zarab-e-Urdu, Urdu-e-Zafar-e-Qareen, and Sik'ka-e-Urdu-e-Ja'haan'geer.

Kalaam-e-Hindi: Amir Khusro (1255-1325) called the language of his poetry as
Kalaam-e-Hindi

Hindi: Saiyyid Mu'baa'rak (Miya Khurd) in his book "Kitaab-e-Seer-e-Au'li'ya"
refers to Baba Fareed Gunj's sayings as Farmood - bazabaan-e-Hindi.

Hindi, Hindvi,: Between 13th and 16th century wherever URDU language is
referred to, it was loosely named as Hindi, Hindvi, or with a provincial prefix e.g.
Gujri, Zabaan-e-Punjabi, Zabaan-e-Multani, and Zabaan-e-Gujarati etc.

But the language used in and around Delhi, was always and strictly referred to
Hindvi.
(For details see: /www.zenkim.co.uk/aaghee/Urdu/introduction.htm)
It suggests that in the late 1400 and early 1500 AD, Mughals referred to this growing
language simply as 'Hindvi', i.e. 'Indian'. Much later it acquired the name 'Urdu', and the
Urdu-e Mu'alaii 'the Exalted Royal Army Camp'. In English, the word 'Urdu' is used in the
sense of 'horde', referring to the armies of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. (The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
During the period of the Sultanate, which held power for over two centuries until the
coming of the Mughals in 1525 AD, the language of Delhi developed into a convenient
means of communication with those who were unable to understand Persian, the language
of the court. During the course of its development, Muslim Sufis who traveled far and wide
to preach the message of Islam, transmitted the language of Delhi, as far an area as Bengal,
Gujarat and the Deccan plateau in the south.
0.2 Urdu Script:
Urdu is written in an adapted form of the script which was first used to write Arabic in the
6th and 7th centuries AD. During the 8th century, the Persians began to use the Arabic
script for their own language, adding a few extra letters for sounds which did not occur in
Arabic. After the 12th-century Muslim rulers who had already adopted the Arabic script
for writing Persian and Turkish used it to write the language of Delhi; Urdu. The Urdu
script, like that of Arabic, is written from right to left, the opposite direction from Hindi
and English. The script is cursive, that is, most of the letters join each other, and they cannot
be written separately. There are no capital letters and, for the most part, only consonants
and the long vowels are written. Although there are special signs for indicating short
vowels these are rarely used.
The writing style normally used for Urdu hand-writing or printing is called Nastalīq, i.e.,
beautiful. Since the script is cursive in nature, most of the letters have three shapes, initial
when they occur in the beginning, medial when they occur in the middle and finally joined
when they occur at the end of a word. The final un-joined shape is the same as the basic
letter.
Evolution of Urdu script
The Urdu script has evolved from Perso -Arabic Script often simply called the Persian
script (also Arabic-Persian), this Arabic derivative has several modifications from Arabic,
such as the use of diacritics to create new letters for
p
‫پ‬
g
‫گ‬
č
‫چ‬
Ž
‫ژ‬
Urdu script has made some modification to accommodate Indic retroflex and aspirated
sounds like
Retroflex:
Ṛh ṛ
‫ڑ ڑھ‬
ḍh
ḍ
ṭh
ṭ
‫ڈھ‬
‫ڈ‬
‫ٹھ‬
‫ٹ‬
ṭh
ḍh
‫ٹھ‬
‫ڈھ‬
ṇ
‫نگ‬
Aspirated
ph bh
‫بھ پھ‬
th
‫تھ‬
dh
‫دھ‬
Sequence of Urdu Letters
‫ا‬
‫ب‬
‫پ‬
‫ت‬
‫ٹ‬
‫ث‬
‫ج‬
‫چ‬
‫ح‬
‫خ‬
‫د‬
‫ڈ‬
‫ذ‬
‫ر‬
‫ڑ‬
‫ز‬
‫ژ‬
‫س‬
‫ش‬
Alif
Be
Pe
Te
Te
Se
Jim
Che
He
Khe
Dal
Dal
Zal
Re
Re
Ze
Zhe
Sin
Shin
ch
‫چھ‬
jh
‫جھ‬
kh
‫کھ‬
gh
‫گھ‬
‫ص‬
‫ض‬
‫ط‬
‫ظ‬
‫ع‬
‫غ‬
‫ف‬
‫ق‬
‫ک‬
‫گ‬
‫ل‬
‫م‬
‫ن‬
‫و‬
‫ہ‬
‫ھ‬
‫ی‬
‫ے‬
Swad
Zwad
Toe
Zoe
Ain
Ghain
Fe
Qaf
Kaf
Gaf
Lam
Mim
Nun
Waw
He
Do chashmi he
Choti ye
Bari ye
Vowels
 The long vowels in Urdu are indicated by əlif ( ‫) ا‬, əlif-mad ( ‫) آ‬, vāo ( ‫ ) و‬, choṭīyē
( ‫ ) ې‬and bəṛīyē ( ‫) ے‬.
 The superscript mad (~ ) written over əlif, e.g.;‫آ‬, denotes long /a: / at the beginning
of a word. However, in medial and final position əlif(‫ )ا‬by itself stands for a long
/a:/.
 Yē ( ‫ ) ې‬and vā:o ( ‫ ) و‬when occurring initially, stand for semi-vowel /y/ and /v/
respectively, such as, /yəhā̃:/ ) ‫( یہاں‬, /vəhā̃:/ ) ‫( وہاں‬. vā:o ( ‫) و‬, choṭīyē ( ‫) ې‬, baṛīyē
( ‫ ) ے‬in other environments denote long vowels, the detail of which follows.
Vao and Ye
In Urdu, vāo ( ‫ ) و‬serves the purpose of four sounds as indicated below:
‫و‬
‫و‬
‫و‬
‫و‬
v
o
u
ɔ
‫وہاں‬
‫دو‬
‫دور‬
‫نو‬
vəhā̃ :
do
du:r
‘there’
‘two’
‘away’
nɔ
‘nine’
Initially, va:o like ye: always stands for semi-vowels as in /vəhā̃ :/. However, in the medial
and final positions vā:o stands for three different long vowel sounds, i.e., /ō/, /ū/ or /ɔ /.
The vā:o for /ū:/ sound is shown with ultā: pēsh ( ‫ ;) ۏ‬the vāo for /ɔ / sound is shown with
a proceeding zəbər (ٓ...‫و‬...); whereas the unmarked vā:o ( ‫ ) و‬stands for the sound /ō/, as it
is shown in the examples above.
Similarly, ‫ ې‬/ ‫( ے‬yē) in Urdu serves the purpose of four sounds as indicated below:
‫ې‬
‫ې‬
‫ے‬
‫ے‬
y
i:
e
ε
‫یاد‬
‫دادی‬
‫لے‬
‫ہے‬
ya:d
da:di:
le
hε
‘remembrance
‘grand mom’
‘take’
‘is’
Initially, yē like vā:o always stands for a semi-vowel, as in /yahā̃ :/. However, in the medial
and final positions yē stands for three different long vowel sounds, i.e., /ē/, /ī/, / ε /. The yē
for /i/ sound is shown with a khəṛazēr ( ‫میرا‬
ͅ ); the yē for / ε / sound is shown with a preceding
zəbər
( ‫ ;) ́ میرا‬whereas the unmarked yē ( ‫ ) میرا‬stands for the sound /ē/, as is shown in
the examples above.
Short Vowels
The short vowels in Urdu are indicated by superscript or subscript as indicated below:
'zəbər'
'zēr'
Above a consonant is called 'zabar'. It denotes / ə /
Below a consonant is called 'zēr'. It denotes /i/
/ ə /: ٓٓ...
/i/: ٓ
'pēsh'
Above a consonant is called 'pēsh'. It denotes /u/
/u/:ٓٓ
Alif ( ‫ ) ا‬at the beginning of a word or a syllable denotes that the word or syllable begins
with a vowel. The particular short vowels can be indicated by use of zēr, zəbər, of pēsh,
e.g., ̗ ‫ آن‬, ‫ آب‬, ‫اس‬. However, short vowel signs are used only when necessary, the general
practice being that Urdu readers read their language without short vowel marks.
Nun-ghunna, dō cashmī hē and hamza
The following three letters, though traditionally not listed in the Urdu alphabet, are very
important to learn:
 nun-ghunna: ( ‫) ں‬, i.e., nūn without dot stands for nasalization of a vowel; however,
medial nasalization is indicated with full nū:n ( ‫) ن‬, i.e., with the dot above such as
in /jā:ū̃/, ‫ جوں‬, /ū̃:ṭ/ ‫اونٹ‬
 dō cəshmī: hē ( ‫ ) ھ‬is a distinctive feature of Urdu and represents aspiration, such
as in /ghōṛā:/ ‫ گھوڑا‬, /thōṛā:/ ‫ تھوڑا‬.
 həmza: ( ‫ ) ء‬is a glottal stop in Arabic, but in Urdu, generally, it is an orthographic
mark used as a superscript denoting the occurrence of two vowels in a word. Except
for the vocalic with which it occurs, it has no phonetic value in Urdu.
Duplicators
The following groups of letters stand for the same sound in Urdu:
 tē ( ‫ ) ت‬and tōe ( ‫ ) ط‬both represent /t/
 sē ( ‫) ث‬, sīn ( ‫ ) س‬and swā:d ( ‫ ) ص‬all represent /s/.
 choṭī hē ( ‫ ) ہ‬and bəṛī hē ( ‫ ) ح‬both represent /h/.
 zā:l ( ‫) ذ‬, zē ( ‫) ز‬, zwa:d ( ‫ ) ض‬and zōe ( ‫ ) ظ‬all represent /z/
Ain ( ‫) ع‬
The Consonant ain ( ‫) ع‬, which in Arabic is a glottal fricative, in Urdu generally is
pronounced as a vowel combined with other vowels in the word. It normally merges with
the sound of a vowel character or vowel marker, such as:
‫عورت‬
‫معلوم‬
‫جمع‬
Initially:
Medially
Finally
‫عزت‬
‫بعد‬
‫موضوع‬
he ( ‫) ہ‬
The letter ‘he’ (‫ )ہ‬stands for /h/, but in many cases in the final position it is pronounced
softly and denotes a short vowel, e.g.,
‫نہ‬
‫پتہ‬
‫بلکہ‬
But where a final /h/ is to be pronounced, it is shown with a hook, e.g.,
‫کہہ‬
‫شہ‬
‫بہہ‬
Silent vā:o ( ‫) و‬
vā:o ( ‫ ) و‬following x ( ‫ ) خ‬occurs only in a few Persian and Arabic loan words where vāo
( ‫ ) و‬is not pronounced. It is marked with a subscript below the vā:o, thus:
‫خو ش‬
‫خود‬
‫خور شید‬
Particular Conventions
 Initially, choṭī: hē ( ‫ ) ہ‬is written with a double hook, e.g., hā:thī: ‫ہاتھی‬
 Kā:f ( ‫ ) ک‬or gā:f ( ‫ ) گ‬+ əlif ( ‫ ) ا‬are written with a small loop, e.g., kā:l‫ کال‬and
gā:l‫گال‬
 Kā:f ( ‫ ) ک‬or gā:f ( ‫ ) گ‬before lā:m are also written similarly, e.g., kūl ‫ کل‬and gū l‫گل‬
 In the environment /i/ + semi-vowel /y/ + vowel, həmza: ( ‫ ) ء‬is not written and
instead two dots of medial /y/ are indicated: cā:hi + yē ‫ چاہیے‬and dī:ji + yē ‫دیجیے‬
0.3 Language Geography:
Language geography of Urdu suggests that Urdu is widely spoken in the subcontinent and
also functions as a convenient means of communication among Indians and Pakistanis in
the Diasporas. In some part of the Europe and in the Middle East it functions as an
important link language. Even today Urdu has the visible communicative role in the whole
of the Middle East region. In India, at the spoken level, at least, Urdu is understood almost
everywhere and is the preferred language of the film industry. However, it is undisputable
fact that due to the persistent denial of a place in secular space, Urdu is losing ground
gradually to becoming a language of the periphery in India.
0.4 Language Demography of Urdu:
Urdu is spoken by more than 100 million people, predominantly in Pakistan and India. It
is the national language of Pakistan. In India, Urdu is officially recognized in the Indian
constitution and it is listed in the eighth schedule of Indian Constitution.
Urdu occupies the sixth place among twenty- two languages listed in the Eighth Schedule
of Indian Constitution. The 5.01% of the total population of India claims Urdu as their
mother tongue. Urdu with a population of 51,536,111 in India comes only next to Hindi,
Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and Tamil.
Sl.No
Scheduled Language
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Hindi
Bengali
Telugu
Marathi
Tamil
Urdu
No. of Persons who declared
the National of the language
as their mother tongue (in
millions)
422.1
83.4
74.0
71.9
60.89
51.5
%
Population
41.03
8.11
7.19
6.99
5.91
5.01
In many Indian states, Urdu has significant speech communities. The map below displays
the regions of India where Urdu is commonly spoken.
(Regions in India where Urdu is commonly spoken based on 2001 Census Report)
The map given above suggests that Urdu is a stateless language. The figures displayed in
the map help to show its relationship to group identity. It is true, of course, that every
linguistic and cultural context is unique, but the uniqueness is found in the particular
combinations and amalgamation of elements and factors that are, themselves, not at all
unique. The images we see in each local kaleidoscopic arrangement may be different, but
they are all made of the same underlying constituents. This observation can equally be
applicable to Urdu in India which is mainly spoken in tiny urban enclaves. The figures of
“Languages of India” published by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner
establish a close proximity of Urdu with the Muslim population in the country. A better
perception of the correlations with other languages would enable the Muslims to arrive at
a facile language curriculum for the students. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the
outcome of the exercise is the fact that only a little over half of Muslims (i.e., 51.5 %)
residing within Uttar Pradesh have recorded Urdu as their mother tongue. In the case of
Bihar, this proportion is about two-thirds (i.e., 66.8 %) of the Muslims in the state.
0.5 Current Status of Urdu:
Since independence, a slow but downward progress of Urdu in India from the national
mainstream has been noticed. This downfall is a cause of concern to the lovers of the
language. The downfall can be attributed to various reasons but the loss of script knowing
population is the major concern for the Urdu speech community. The second reason can be
attributed to the gradual dissolution of Urdu speaking population into the Hindi fold. The
paradox here lies in the close proximity of the language to Hindi, which, has led to the
dilution of its separate identity, but which, in the long run, may also support its revival.
As stated in the most important issue at present is the loss of Urdu literacy. However, with
the rise of technology, state of affairs has started changing. Today “Face book”, “websites”
and “blogs” are providing an alternate medium of expression, and why should Urdu be left
behind? This would also propagate the infusion of new themes and ideas in Urdu literature.
Only a language which continuously reinvents itself can claim itself to be living. This
would also increase the scope for concepts like 'bilingual' literature. For example, an Urdu
novel/short story with a contemporary theme may alternate between 'Urdu' and 'Devnagri'
text. This would add a dimension of realism and modernization to Urdu literature.
Domain of Use:
The South Asian region as a whole is characterized by considerable linguistic plurality as
demonstrated by the magnitude of functional heterogeneity in language use. The sociocultural and sociolinguistic boundaries are not as clearly marked in India as they are in
some parts of the West. In India where multilingualism is more of a norm than exception,
factors such as historic association among certain languages through contact, language
accreditation by the State, the identity aspirations of speech communities, prestige
associated with a variety seem to determine the nature of multilingualism, which in recent
years is increasingly being undermined by the spread of English language through
education. The communicative pattern of Urdu speakers reveals clearly that Urdu seems to
be the choice of language used extensively in the intimate domain. The use of Urdu,
however, reduces dramatically in the other domains like Education and Profession. The
Urdu speakers use Urdu along with English in the informal and formal domains more than
in the intimate domain. Their use of English increases as they move from intimate to
informal and formal domains.
Education:
The basic fact of life, today is that most Urdu-speaking students do not have the choice of
learning their mother tongue or receiving education through Urdu medium. There are
limited numbers of Urdu-medium middle schools or high schools in Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar, Delhi, and Maharashtra. At the university level, the Maulana Azad National Urdu
University is the only institution which claims to offer distance education through the
medium of Urdu. As for Urdu as the principal or optional subject of study for a university
degree, hundreds of colleges and scores of universities offer such courses. Most of those
universities also have post-graduate departments of Urdu which offer the M.A. course as
well as facilities for research. The present situation of Urdu in Education suggests that the
Urdu pyramid is upside down and its survival depends on a highly unstable equilibrium.
Administration:
Urdu is used in the administration as “Second Official Language” or other “Officially
Recognized Language” in some of the states listed below
Sl No
State
Official Language
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
West Bengal
Uttar Pradesh
Uttara khand
Bihar
AP
Karnataka
Delhi
Jharkhand
Bengali
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Telugu
Kannada
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu as the Second
Official Language
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
Urdu
0.6. Urdu Diaspora:
A majority of the Urdu speakers live in Pakistan and the northern states of India. However,
in recent years, many Urdu-speaking Muslims have emigrated to the Persian Gulf and
Saudi Arabia, searching for economic opportunities. Skilled laborers and highly educated
professionals have also emigrated to Western Europe, North America, and the
Commonwealth countries.
As we all know Urdu, now the official language of Pakistan, is an Indo-Iranian language
that developed from the Urdu language. It is heavily laden with Persian and Arabic words
and is written in the Persian script. Urdu-speaking Muslims can be found in every level of
society. They are the illiterate and the educated, the poor and the money lenders, the
landlords, and the religious leaders.
The Urdu speakers are the descendants of immigrants who were the "cream of society" in
their own countries. Some are the descendants of Arab merchants and soldiers. Others
descended from Turks, Persians, and Pukhtuns.
Presently, there is such diversity among the Urdu speakers that it is difficult to generalize
their lifestyles. Within any given region, their differences are related to class distinctions.
Before the partition of Pakistan and India in 1947, the Urdu consisted of a wide range of
economic and social classes. When Pakistan became independent in 1947, many Urduspeaking Muslims stayed in India. While the petty merchants and laborers only noticed
minor economic changes, the landholders experienced drastic changes. Middle-class
immigrants to the Persian Gulf and other nearby regions felt discriminated against in jobs
and educational opportunities. Such immigrants tend to retain their original citizenship.
The bulk of their earnings is sent back to their families in Pakistan and India. On the other
hand, those who immigrate to westernized countries usually take on the citizenship of their
new country. However, unless they live in neighborhoods containing numbers of other
Urdu speakers, the second generation often loses contact with their native language and
culture.
Urdu women are responsible for all of the household duties as well as caring for the
children. They also enjoy embroidering, sewing, and visiting with other neighborhood
women. Among the Urdu Muslims, there is still much social pressure to "maintain honor"
in all levels of their societies. Purdah (the seclusion, concealment, or unsociability of
women) still exists, but to varying degrees. A woman is generally secluded from public
view and is protected from "dangerous" contacts. This is done to protect either her
husband's honor or the honor of her father's family. In some areas, the entire covering of
the body with only an embroidered screen for vision is required. In other areas, the women
are much more outspoken. They may cover just their heads and wear dark glasses to
maintain a sense of privacy. In some of the wealthy, urban levels of society, purdah is
losing its value as it competes with western values. Women entering professions lean
toward such occupations as teaching or practicing medicine in which their students and
clients will be female.
Since entire communities tended to migrate together, different Islamic sects are found in
different countries. For example, in Turkey and South Africa, the Urdu speakers are 99.9%
Sunni Muslims; whereas in Canada and in Pakistan, they are 99.9% Hanafite Muslims.
0.7. Urdu Cosmopolitanism:
Urdu in the mid-nineteenth century had become something of a “cosmopolitan” language,
taking the place of Persian in many parts of the subcontinent as a language of official
business, public life, and literature. It was “cosmopolitan” in the sense that it was known
to diverse regional areas and social groups. It was known to the north from Bihar through
Awadh and the Northwestern Provinces into Punjab; it served as a lingua franca in parts of
western and southern India; and by century’s end it was as an official language in some
princely states of central India. In Punjab, later so divided along religious lines that mapped
onto language, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians in these decades wrote and
published in Urdu.
The timing of this linguistic transition on the part of Islamic scholars is not hard to date.
The most influential Islamic tracts of the 19th century were the TaqwiyatulIman of Shah
Ismail Shahid (d. 1831), along with the Siratul Mustaqim of Isma`il and Sayyid Ahmad
Barelvi (d. 1831). Originally written in Persian in the mid-1820s, both were shortly
thereafter translated into Urdu.
Barbara Metcalf of the University of Michigan rightly observes that with English emerging
as the new cosmopolitan language after the arrival of Britishers, and Urdu in some settings
marked as Muslim, its role as even a “shadow” cosmopolitan language was increasingly
ambiguous by the 19th century’s end.
Urdu scholars have recently shown in their writings, that the founders of Osmania
University, India’s first vernacular university, explicitly identified Urdu as their
vernacular, despite its location in the deepest Deccan, precisely because in 1918 they
thought it could serve, not Muslims, but the entire nation, as a language of modernity in
place of English. Urdu was, in their felicitous phrase, “a worldly vernacular”.
0.8. History of Urdu:
Urdu belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is ultimately related to IndoEuropean languages like English, Sanskrit, and Persian with which it has much in common.
Like English, it has the familiar patterns of nouns, verbs, gender, case, etc. It is a very
regular, but at the same time an extremely precise language, making clear distinctions in
its pronouns between people of lower and higher orders and in its verbs between what
happens now and what happens generally. The historical development of Urdu can be
divided into four stages.
0.8.1 Pre-Urdu Period (1000-1200 AD):
By 1000, A.D. the period of Middle Indo-Aryan languages came to an end and the process
of the development of New Indo-Aryan (NIA) languages started in the northern part of
India. The linguistic tradition of this period can be seen in the religious writings of Buddhist
Siddhas, Nathas, Jainas and Gorkha Panthi Jogis (M K A Beg 1988). These religious
writings give an idea of the language used in North India during the pre-Islamic period.
The language and the writings of Siddhas, Jogis and Nathas were under the deep influence
of regional dialects of Gujrat, Braj and Bihar regions. Due to the religious flavor of these
writings some of the scholars and linguistic prefer to call it Sadhukkari.
Another important example of the language of pre-Islamic period can be seen in the
language of Rasos, which are longish poems under the category of bardic poetry. Most of
these poems were written in the dialectal forms of Dingala and Pingala, which are varieties
of Rajasthani and western Hindi.
0.8.2 Old Urdu Period (1200-1700 A.D.) & Middle Urdu Period:
The date of the Muslim conquest of Delhi may be taken as the year of the emergence of
Urdu as a distinct language in Delhi. As a matter of fact, the process of the emergence of
Urdu as a distinct language started much earlier during Ghaznavid period, but the process
was accelerated by the Muslim conquest of Delhi. The early traces of Urdu in and around
Delhi can be traced in the sayings of Sufis like Baba Farid Ganj Shakar (1173-1266),
Sheikh Hamid-ud-din Nagori (1193-1274) and Sheikh Bahauddin Bajan (1388-1506). The
scanty sayings of these Sufis are scattered in different tazkiras. Some of the sayings of
Baba Farid Ganj Shakar have been included in the Adi Granth Sahib of Sikhs as Shabads.
Specimens of old Urdu can also be found in history books like Tarikh-e-Feroz shahi,
Tarikh-e-Jahangir I and Tarikh-e-Humayun.
Early period In the Deccan the pre- Urdu language was known as Deccani or Dakhni. This
old Urdu was taken to different parts of the country by soldiers, saints and Sufis and
common people. It was introduced to the Deccan by the armies and camp followers of Ala'ad-din Khilji (1296–1315). Sultan Alauddin khilji (1296–1316) was the first Muslim ruler
who sent a large military expedition to the Deccan at the beginning of the 14th century.
The Middle stage of Urdu development started from 1700 AD when the Wali Aurangabadi
(1668–1744) visited Delhi. His visits to Delhi with his Diwan gave a deep impact on the
literary atmosphere and marked the beginning of the literary revolution in Delhi.
0.8.3 Contribution of the Sufis:
The contribution of the Sufis to this language is great. Sufis traveled far and wide to preach
the message of Islam and in doing so transmitted the language of Delhi, as far a field as
Bengal, Gujarat and the Deccan plateau in the south. They were concerned with common
people and found “Hindavi” the most suitable medium to convey their message to the
people.
The first great leader of Chishtiya order, KhwajaMoinuddinHasanAjmeri (1143–1237)
reached the subcontinent around 1200. Nizamuddin Aulia of Delhi, the fourth saint of the
Chishtiya order helped in popularizing this language. It is generally believed that Shaikh
Burhanuddin Gharib, a disciple of Shaikh NizamuddinAuliya had the credit of introducing
the “Hindavi” language in the Deccan. Sufi saint Banda Nawaz KhwajaGesuDraz and
Others after him also contributed to the development of Hindavi.
After 1184 A. H. there appeared slackness in the literary activities of Deccan. The Nawabs,
Mansabdars and the other high ranking officers who were men of letters themselves and
great patrons and lovers of art and literature, gradually left for Delhi as it was given the
status of the capital city. This period is known for the literary contributions of MirTaqiMir,
Mir Dard Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Ibrahim Zauq, Hakim Momin Khan Momin, Mir
Anis, Mirza Dabir, and Bahadur Shah Zafar. The poets and other literary personalities who
left Aurangabad and other smaller cities because of want of patronage moved to Delhi and
Lucknow.
0.8.4 Modern Urdu Period:
In the 20th century celebrated and distinguished Urdu poets, writers, critics, orators, and
scholars produced great literary works in Urdu. Modern Urdu period is known for the
writings of Urdu fiction writers like; Deputy Nazir Ahmad, Prem Chand, Sadat Hasan
Manto, Rajendra Singh Bedi, QaratulAin Haider, Asmat Chughtai, Jogendra Pal, Intezar
Husain, and Nayyar Masood. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Shaharyar,
enriched Urdu poetry
0.9. History of Urdu Linguistic Studies:
The history of Urdu linguistic studies can broadly be divided into two different periods

Before Twentieth Century

After Twentieth Century
It is not surprising to find that before the twentieth century, the first concern of linguists
who wrote about Urdu was about norms of ‘correctness’. Most of these people were poets
of Urdu. However, if we want to understand the force of prescriptivism in the public mind
we must refer to their linguistic observation. Such linguistic observation became really
noticeable between the periods beginning in 1702 and continuing for the most part of the
early nineteenth century (Rai 1991: 247-52). Among the prescriptive linguists, who carried
out the purge of Sanskritic or other indigenous words and replaced them with Persian and
Arabic ones, were Sirajuddin Ali Khan (Khane-Arzu), ShahHatim, Mirza Mazhar, and
Nasikh.
The Urdu language studies were also made by the missionary William Carey who, with
Ward and Marshman, studied Urdu and other vernaculars.
Apart from British linguists, there were many German-speaking scholars who also helped
to describe Urdu in the philological term. The achievements of these scholars have been
given in detail by Anne Marie Schimmel (1981). Among the best-known names are: Aloys
Sprenger (1813-93); Ernest Trumpp (1828-85); William Greiger (1856-1943) and Max
Mueller (1823-1900) among others. Sprenger’s major contribution is to Urdu literature and
bibliography but he did produce both an English-Hindustani Grammar (1845) and a
Dictionary of the Technical Terms in the Science of the Musalmans (1854) Trumpp,
however, wrote detailed grammars of Sindhi (1872), Pashto (1873) and Punjabi (Schimmel
1981: 135-6; 155; 169).
After the twentieth century, many visible works and studies were carried out by Urdu
linguists. In 1923, Prof Naseeruddin Hashmi wrote ‘Deccan mein Urdu’, proving on the
basis of linguistic research that Deccan was Urdu’s birthplace. Then in 1929, Dr Mohiuddin
Qadri Zor wrote a dissertation on Urdu phonetics. Later, he began work on Gujarati
linguistics but could not finish it. A little earlier Hafiz Mahmood Sherani had begun his
research on Urdu’s historical linguistics. Though Waheeduddin Saleem and Pandit Kaifi
were contributing papers on Urdu linguistics almost at the same time, Dr Abdus Sattar
Siddiqi’s approach was more modern. Later, Abdul Qadir Sarvari and Dr Shaukat
Sabzwari wrote on Urdu’s historical and descriptive linguistics and Dr Masood Hussain
Khan carried out original research on Urdu’s phonetics and phonemics. Then Professor
Gian Chand Jain, Professor Gopi Chand Narang, Anwer Dil, and Dr Abul-Lais Siddiqi,
Professor Abdul Azim, Professor O N Koul, Professor M K A Beg, and Professor Ali R Fatihi
enriched Urdu with their research works on Urdu’s historical and descriptive linguistics as
well as phonetics and grammar. Some commendable work on Urdu morphology and
syntax was done by Russian linguists. Whatever little material we have in Urdu in the name
of linguistics these days is in fact on correct usage and etymology or, at the most, semantics
while phonetics and phonemics are more important in linguistics.
0.10. History of Urdu Grammatical Tradition:
One major theme of the Urdu linguists writing in this tradition is discovering the origin,
the language family, and the roots of a language. In the case of Urdu, this is an obsession.
Almost everyone of note has devoted considerable time to the origin and development of
Urdu. Opinions on this subject are many and diverse: that Urdu was born out of Brij Bhasha
(Azad 1880: 1); Haryanvi (Husain 1966: 183); the indigenous language (Prakrit) of
Maharashtra (Bukhari 1975; 156-7; 1991: 349); Khari Boli (Sabzwari 1966: 38) and so on.
Probably the best-known works of Urdu origin on this subject are Hafiz Mahmood
Shirani’s thesis that Urdu was born in the Punjab and traveled to northern India (Shirani
1928). Another interesting thesis, and one which seriously challenges Grierson’s
assumption that all the Indo-Aryan languages are the daughters of Sanskrit (Grierson vol.
1: 121-7), is that Urdu is the descendant of the languages of the Dravidian and Munda tribes
of this region and is, in essence, a pre-Sankritic language (Faridkoti 1972; 1992). In fact
Grierson himself acknowledged that the Indo-Aryan languages borrowed words from the
Dravidian languages and that ‘the borrowings have been much more considerable than has
been admitted by many scholars of late years’ but he also added ‘that they were nothing
like so universal as was once contended’ (Grierson Vol. 1: 130). Emeneau and others have
given lists of such borrowings as well as Dravidian influences on the phonology of the
languages in question (Burrow 1973: 378-88; Emeneau 1954, 1956). But the influence is
one thing, origin quite another. If Faridkoti’s work is substantiated---and it might well be
true--it will be a significant piece of new research.
The roots of bilingual lexicography in the subcontinent lie in the development of early
Hindustani language grammars. Joan Josua Ketelaar wrote his Hindustani grammar book
(in Dutch) in the late 17th Century when he was an envoy of the Dutch East India Company
in India. There is only one surviving manuscript copy of the first ever written grammar of
Hindustani language by Ketelaar. It is preserved in the state archives at The Hague Capt.
George Hadley was the first Briton to write a grammar for the officers of the East India
Company in 1772. His grammar had a glossary, which contained English and Moor
(Hindustani) words. This was the prototype of a bilingual dictionary. He was soon followed
by Capt. J. Fergusson who produced his first Dictionary of the Hindoostan language in two
parts in 1773. This work, in his own words, "contained a great variety of phrases, to point
out the idiom, to facilitate the acquisition of the language" (Hadley 1772, 1801). The
vocabulary in these early military grammars relates to the kind of language an officer
commanding an army for the East India Company might need to know. Therefore, it
contained words that they (officers) learned from their sepoys (men under their command)
(Friedlander 2006). These men came from various parts of the country to serve in the East
India army. They spoke different dialects; hence speech of a military bazaar/camp was
highly heterogeneous and rustic due the fact that these men were largely illiterate. The
language of these men would not represent what was called Hindustani. This was a corrupt
jargon and an amalgamation of various dialects and local accents. This is clearly revealed
in the dialogues contained in these books
0.11. History of Lexicographic Studies:
The historiography of “Glossaries Writing” in Urdu goes back to the fourteenth century
Amir Khusro who wrote Khaliq Bari. Khaliq Bari by Amir Khusro is supposed to be the
first glossary of Urdu. However, it was a modest beginning of unending journey.
However, the linguistic exploration in the subcontinent began with the arrival of the
Europeans, i.e. Portuguese, Dutch, French and finally the British. The British established
a transit trading post in the coastal city of Surat in 1608, where East India Company opened
its first factory in 1612 after royal patronage was granted by the then Mughal Emperor
Nuruddin Salim Jahangir. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had already established
itself in Cochin on the Malabar Coast in 1605. The Europeans were quick to identify that
success in trade lay in their ability to communicate effectively in the local languages. They
also identified that India was multilingual but one language practically served as lingua
franca, they called it variously as Moors, Moorish, Indostan, Jargon, or Hindustani. This
common vernacular was known as Hinduwee, Hindavi, Zaban-e-Hind (literally means
"tongue of India"), Zaban-e-Dehli (language of Delhi), Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla (means
"language of the royal camp"), ultimately clipped to just Urdu/Oordoo (a Turkish word
meaning a "camp or bazaar"). The roots of early bilingual lexicography lie in the
development of grammar books and glossaries which started with a Dutch emissary, Joan
Josua Ketelaar in 1698 (see Linguistic Survey of India, Sir George A Grierson) and
continued in the form of early military grammars by Captain George Hadley (1772) and
Captain James Fergusson (1773) of The British East India Company. This was followed
by proper lexicographic works by several eminent scholars including J B Gilchrist, Thomas
Roebuck, Dr Hunter, John Shakespeare, Duncan Forbes, and SW Fallon, and so on.
The roots of early bilingual lexicography lie in the development of grammar books that
contained bilingual glossaries. This started with a Dutch emissary, Joan Josua Ketelaar in
1698 (see Linguistic Survey of India, Sir George A Grierson) and continued in the form of
early military grammars by Captain George Hadley (1772) and Captain James Fergusson
(1773) of The British East India Company. This was followed by proper lexicographic
works by several eminent scholars including J B Gilchrist, Thomas Roebuck, Dr Hunter,
John Shakespeare, Duncan Forbes, and SW Fallon, and so on. Urdu Dictionaries currently
in use vary from mini pocket to multi-volume historical, monolingual to multilingual
dictionaries.
Encyclopedias:
Encyclopedias have been in vogue for over 2,000 years, the most famous of them being
the Encyclopedia Britannica. But, to be honest, we generally do not come across a review
on any of them. The reason is simple to review an encyclopedia one needs to possess an
encyclopedic knowledge — the whole range of human knowledge on each topic
considered. That is why encyclopedias in their proper sense are produced by experts.
However, the encyclopedia in Urdu seems to be an exception as it has been produced by a
single individual and hence Urdu encyclopedia has its own weaknesses. Out of the three
known basic kinds of encyclopedias; — those which are encyclopedic in intent but not
universally comprehensive; comprehensive; and special encyclopedias — this Urdu
encyclopedia
perhaps falls into the first category. The encyclopedia contains
approximately 10,000 entries pertaining to the domains of physics, chemistry, physiology
and various other sciences, besides information about cities, countries and places — even
very small ones. Sometimes an entry runs into over five to six pages while some other
entries consist of a single line or even two to three words. The publication also contains
names of literary, political, and religious personalities The National Council for Promotion
of Urdu Language (NCPUL) has also published Urdu encyclopedia.
0.12 Language Contact and Convergence:
Contact History of Urdu:
Urdu is one of the major and youngest members of modern Indo-Aryan languages family,
born and bred in India as a result of the cultural synthesis which began in the 10th century
A.D. due to trade relations, cultural exchanges, migrations and military expeditions. Urdu
in India is basically developed in close contact with Persian, which was the language of
administration and education during the period of Muslim rule. During this period, Persian
was the court language but there was no antipathy against local languages. In fact, it is
stated that the Muslim intellectuals like Amir Khusro and saints like Hazrat Nizamuddin
Aulia encouraged a language that could be understood by the common people. This is how
Urdu was developed and in the latter days of the Mughal period it became the most
commonly understood language, which was also used in the courts of the kings. Even after
Urdu began to replace Persian as the language of poetry in the 18th century, Persian
retained its official status for another century and remained a rich source of literary
vocabulary in Urdu language. Some elements of Persian grammar along with the
vocabulary have been borrowed. Apart from Persian, Urdu also borrowed numerous
vocabularies from Arabic language. In day-to-day Urdu speech and writings, we observe
many Arabic words.
During its evolution, Urdu came in contact with many local dialects and languages of the
area. Its contact with Gojri, Haryanvi, Punjabi and Daccani is quite prominent and visible.
Apart from the historical evidences, the socio-political history of India during the last 1000years has played a great role in language contact situation. After Mohammad Ghauri
conquered Delhi Sultanate in 1193, there occurred drastic changes in the social, cultural
and linguistic structures of the country. These changes served to develop a composite
culture and gave birth to Urdu which came in contact with many languages. Since Delhi
was ruled by the Muslim rulers, so this language was given patronage by the ruling class
and thereafter began to be used by a large number of people. It gradually became the lingua
franca of the region. In course time, it traveled from the northern part of India (the nucleus
of Muslim power) to the west, from where in due course it moved to the southern part
(Deccan). Indeed, the numerous Khānqas (monasteries of Muslim saints) could come in
close contact with the indigenous people through the same language. This may be a
historical fact because some historians and linguists are of the opinion that Urdu was been
in Khanqah (seminary) of Shaikh BabaFarid, the Punjabi Sufi poet who lived at Pak Pattan
now in Pakistan. The patronization of Urdu by the political magnates and Sufis contributed
immensely to the formation and configuration of the language.
Linguistic Traces of Contact:
The study of the effects of language contact has been a focal point of interest to linguists
ever since the earliest period of scientific study of language in the nineteenth century. In
fact, interest in the topic among students of language dates back much earlier than this.
During the heyday of historical linguistic scholarship in the nineteenth century, research
on language contact became an integral part of the field and played a vital role in the debate
over the nature of language change. In the heyday of structuralism during the 1940s to the
1960s, it became rather less central though not completely marginalized.
Linguistic contacts can have a wide variety of linguistic outcomes. In some cases, it may
result in only slight borrowing of vocabulary while other contact situations may lead to the
creation of entirely new languages. Between these two extremes lies a wide range of
possible outcomes involving varying degrees of influence from one language to the other.
More accurately, of course, it is the people speaking the respective languages who have
contact with each other and who resort to varying forms of mixture of elements from the
languages involved. The possible results of such contact differ according to two broad
categories of factors – internal (linguistic) and external (social and psychological). Among
the relevant linguistic factors is the nature of the relationship between the languages in
contact, specifically the degree of typological similarity between them. There is also a
variety of other linguistic constraints which operate in such situations, some of them
specific to particular areas of linguistic structure (e.g., the lexicon, phonology, morphology,
etc.), others of a more general, perhaps universal nature. In other cases, prolonged social
interaction between members of different speech communities may result in varying
degrees of mixture and structural change in one or the other of the languages involved. In
extreme cases, pervasive contact may result in new creations distinct from their original
source languages. In the case of Urdu, the following contact patterns have been noticed by
linguists.
 Urdu, Arabic and Persian
 Urdu and Indian Languages
 Urdu and English
Urdu and Persian Contact:
The Persian language influenced the formation of many modern languages of South Asian
regions, including Urdu. Under Persian influence, the Persian script and Nastaliq form of
cursive writing were adopted, with additional figures added to accommodate the IndoAryan phonetic system of Urdu.
Urdu is grammatically an Indo-Aryan language, written in the Perso-Arabic script, and
contains literary conventions and specialized vocabulary largely from Persian. Some
grammatical elements peculiar to Persian, such as the enclitic ezāfe, and the use of the
takhallus were readily absorbed into Urdu literature both religious and secular. However,
it should be kept in mind that despite the heavy influence of Persian on Urdu, linguistically,
Urdu is not an Indo-Iranian language but rather as an Indo-Aryan language (like Punjabi,
Seraiki, Marathi, Sindhi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali). Urdu soon gained distinction in
literary and cultural spheres because of the hybrid nature of the language. Many distinctly
Persian forms of literature, such as Ghazal, Qasida, Marsia and Nazms, carried over into
Urdu literature, producing a distinct melding of Iranian and South Asian heritages. A
famous cross-over writer was Amir Khusro, who’s Persian and Urdu couplets are to this
day read in South Asia. Asadullah Khan Ghalib and Allama Iqbal were also prominent
Perso-Urdu poets.
Urdu and Indian Languages:
Urdu is in contact with many Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages in the states like;
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. Urdu is in a very
congenial relationship with Telugu in Andhra Pradesh. The primary official language of
Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and the co-official language is Urdu. Other languages often
spoken in the state include Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya. As mentioned
earlier, under the influence of Dravidian, a regional variety of Urdu, called Deccani has
taken shape in the states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Dakhini also spelled Dakkhani and Deccani, arose as a Muslim court language of the
Deccan Plateau ca. 1300 AD in ways similar to Urdu. It is similar to Urdu in its mixture of
Persian with an Urdu base but differs in its strong influence from Arabic Urdu, Konkani
and Marathi and its Telugu surroundings in Andhra Pradesh. There is an extensive
literature in Deccani
The term Deccani is perhaps an umbrella for a group of dialect spoken by certain
communities of Muslims in the Deccan region. Deccani is the lingua franca of the Muslims
of Deccan, chiefly living in Hyderabad state, Mysore state and the Hyderabad–Karnataka
Region, covering most of Deccan plateau except for Moplah Muslims of Kerala and the
Labbewaar Muslims in Tamil Nadu in the south, to the Beary Bhashe language and
Konkani speaking Muslims along the western coast of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra.
Though, a minor Segment of Kerala Muslims do speak the Deccani dialect and identify
themselves as Deccani Muslims.Quli Qutub Shah, Wajhi, Nusrathi, Wali and Siraj are the
gems of Deccan literary figures.
Urdu English and Portuguese
The colonial state in South Asia changed the linguistic landscape of the region. It extended
a formal patronage to Urdu and therefore Urdu could not keep a distance from colonial
institutions and venues. Possibly this is one of the reasons why we do not find a greater
continuity with pre-colonial practices and structures of meaning in Urdu language and
literature. The contact situation between Urdu and English resulted in the considerable
amount of borrowing.
In some cases Urdu words have entered the English language by multiple routes occasionally ending up with different meanings, spellings, or pronunciations, just as with
words with European etymologies. Many entered English during the British Raj when
many treated Urdu and Urdu as varieties of Hindustani. These borrowings, dating back to
the colonial period, are often labeled as "Anglo-Indian".

Bungalow from bangla:( ‫) بنگلہ‬, literally, "(house) in the Bengal style".

Cheetah from ci:ta:, meaning "variegated".

Chit from chitthi, a letter or note.

Chutney from chətni, meaning "to crush"

Cot from kha:t, a portable bed.

Curry from k əri: ultimately from Tamil.

Dacoit from dəkait, meaning a member of a class of criminals who engage
in organized robbery and murder.

Guru from Urdu guru: "teacher, priest," from Sanskrit guru-s "one to be
honored, teacher," literally "heavy, weighty,"

Jungle from jəngəl, another word for wilderness or forest.

Pyjamas from Urdu, (paija:ma:), meaning "leg garment", coined from
Persian ‫" پاى‬foot, leg" and ‫" جامه‬garment"
Urdu and Portuguese:
The earliest contacts between Urdu and the West were through the Portuguese and the
French. A large number of words in everyday use are a legacy left by them. Words like
əlma:ri (wardrobe), mez (table), pistaul (pistol) and nila:m (auction) among a host of
others, commemorate Indian contact, with the Portuguese. Similarly, there are large
number of French words which form a part of the Urdu language, for example. ca:nd ma:ri:
(Champ de Mars), edikang (aid-de-camp), quami (Chemise), sa:bun (Savon),and botam
(boutan).
0.13. History of Urdu in Media:
It is a sad story that “coherent connected” record of progress and growth of the Urdu in
media is not available. Urdu press is the second oldest language press of the Sub-continent
after Bengali. Its observers and researchers have resorted to premises, hypotheses and even
oversight wherever they could not lay their hands on some definitive record. But the field
is not without omissions.
Jam-I-Jahan Numa, the first printed Urdu newspaper of the Subcontinent, is an outstanding
example of Urdu journalism. Those who had written about it had dismissed it as an
attendant of East India Company’s Administration merely because it carried the insignia
of the British Government in its masthead for the first six years of its long existence.
India’s Urdu Press is the successor of the oldest manuscript journalism which appeared in
Persian in the sub-continent under the Mughal Administration and earlier. With the advent
of the printing press and western journalism a little after the establishment of the British
government in Bengal, an entrepreneur of Calcutta, Hari Har Dutt by name, floated the
first Urdu newspaper under the title of “Jam-i-Jahan Numa” (a Persian term meaning
Mirror of the World) in March 1822, just six years after the first short-lived Bengali journal,
“Bengal Gazette” was published.
Jam-i-Jahan Numa, the first-ever attempt to inscribe Urdu prose for the new faculty of
print journalism, set the format, column arrangement, the front page make-up and the
editing pattern. This pattern was followed by almost all the Urdu papers which appeared in
the first half of the 19th century in other parts of the country. The language at that time was
called Hindostani and the publisher of “Jam-i-Jahan Numa” gave the same name to his
application for the license (declaration) for publication of the paper. He simultaneously got
it for Persian also which was at that time the language of the nobility, the intelligentsia and
the literate society, for the last nearly 300 years. Hari Har Dutt, however, chose to launch
his paper in Hindostani which was the medium of conversation of the common people,
whom he was keen to serve. The paper consequently suffered an initial setback because
there was no readership in Hindostani proper. So about two months after the launching of
his Urdu paper, the founder switched over to Persian but his love for Urdu did not wane.
A year later, he added an independent and regular 4-page supplement to his Persian edition
and continued it for about five years. The Persian version, however, survived for over 60
years, a record run during the period.
The paper’s professional appearance led the observers to assume that it was a semi-official
gazette, a protégé of the Company’s Administration or a toady paper. The result has been
that for over a century, the scholars and votaries of Urdu journalism have looked down
upon this pioneer as a satellite.
Urdu in Print Media:
Since early 1990 India, when began to revise its market economy to be more in line with
global neo liberal practices, it has been filled with stories of entrepreneurial success,
including in the media. In these tales, media success—measured by rising audiences, ad
revenues and profits—are a direct result of the changing economy of investment, credit
capital, deregulation and increasing technological efficiency. A large part of the
explanation lies in the intersection of language ideologies and new writing technologies.
On the one hand, new more flexible technologies allowed the retiring katibs to be replaced
by computer typesetting that strongly resembles north Indian calligraphic styles. On the
other hand, Urdu indexes crucial politically urgent populations, leading to a renewed
interest in it from many sectors.
Only in Delhi a thick pile of Urdu newspapers: Pratap, Milap, Jadeed In-Dinon, Sahaafat,
Jadeed Khabar, Hamara Samaj (“Our Community”), Inqilab-e-Hind, Halat-e-Watan,
Hindustan Express, Akhbar-e-Mashriq, Rashtriya Sahara, Daily Tej are brought out.
Currently, the top Urdu newspaper in India is Siyasat. Urdu Times, which was the second
most read Urdu daily in 2010 Q1, has lost over 54 percent average issue readers in one
year. As per IRS 2011 Q1 figures, the daily has reported an AIR (Average Issue
Readership) of 53,000 as compared to 1.16 lakh last year. Urdu Times' loss is Siyasat and
The Munsif's gain, both recording double digit growth. While, last year, both the dailies
were running neck to neck with an AIR of 1.1 lakh each, the former, this year, has taken a
leap ahead recording an AIR of 1.4 lakh (+27.6 per cent) as against 1.27 lakh (+15.45 per
cent) of The Munsif. However, even after a loss of 8.06 percent, Inquilab remains the leader
amongst Urdu dailies with an AIR of 1.71 lakh.
The good news for the language is that while dailies may have switched loyalties -tumbling
down figures for some publications, ' Urdu' dailies’ has recorded a marginal growth of 0.43
per cent, taking the AIR figure up to 4.68 lakh in 2011 Q1 over 2010.
Radio Urdu:
All India Radio entered the realm of external broadcasting shortly after the outbreak of II
world War on 1st October, 1939. Today, The External Services Division of All India Radio
ranks high amongst the External Radio networks of the world, both in reach and range,
daily in 55 transmissions with almost 72 hours covering over 100 countries in 27 languages,
out of which 16 are foreign and 11 are Indian. Among all these 27 languages, Urdu
occupies a major position with 12 hrs, daily program in Urdu.
Urdu in TV:
The renewed interest in Urdu can easily be seen in Urdu television programs. The
launching of DOORDARSHAN–Urdu, Zee Salam, ETV Urdu, Alami Sahara, Urdu TV,
Munsif TV, as Urdu entertainment TV Channel, signifies the emergence of Urdu. The
launching of Religious channels like PEACE TV, KITAB TV further suggests that Urdu
is gaining ground.
Urdu in Film:
The dominance of Urdu has a lot to do with the origins of the film industry in Bombay.
There were roughly two major influences in its early phases. The first influence was from
Bengal. Movies made by "The New Theatre" seemed more like Bengali movies with Urdu
dialogues. The second and the one with a long lasting influence were of the Parsi theatre.
The likes of Ardeshir Irani, Sohrab Modi and Prithviraj Kapoor brought the traditions of
theatre into cinema. It is noteworthy that the first Indian talkie, Alam Ara, was a Muslim
social with completely Urdu dialogues. Later, Sohrab Modi’s Pukar (1939) laid the
foundation of a Parsi-theatre based historical in Urdu cinema. The Muslim socials played
an instrumental role in the popularization of Urdu. The influence of Parsi theatre went
beyond the use of Urdu. The song-and-dance formula owes its popularity to the Parsi
theatre to a great extent. When the Bombay film industry grew, Urdu, by default, became
the language of cinema. Moreover, the sophisticated diction and intonation that came with
Urdu lent the dialogues a class which was difficult to be produced in other dialects.
Urdu also had an impact on the direction, songs and dialogues that came with any story.
This is what the scholars have called the ‘Muslim-social cinema’. Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa or
Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam were not Muslim socials, but they carried the air of a Muslim
social, which spread across movies in that era.
The movies made through the 50s, 60s and the 70s are indicative of the graph of Muslim
socials and the associated use of Urdu in cinema. The fifties and sixties saw the growth of
Muslim socials with the likes of Anarkali, Barsaat ki Raat and Chaudvin ka chand. The
genre peaked with K.Asif’s magnum opus Mughal-e-azam (1960), which set unattainable
standards for cinema. Close to its heels came Mere Mehboob. For the first time, a Muslim
social was celebrated for three hours in full-blown Technicolor. The color of the screen
matched the color of the language. It was now trendy to express the choicest emotions of
the heart in Urdu.
But the decadence had set in. The trends were changing. The writers, directors and the
above all, the dynamics of the society were changing. Unemployment and poverty were no
more seen through the lens of idealism, for which Urdu poetry seemed best. The angry
young man had set foot and the language of the street took over. This change is exemplified
by Kamal Amrohi’s masterpiece Pakeezah (1972), the last pitch of a connoisseur of Awadh
to hold on its glory of yore. The movie, probably set in pre-independent India, personified
the vanishing culture through the character of Meena Kumari. Mehboob ki Mehendi by
H.S.Rawail, who’s Mere Mehboob set cash registers ringing, turned out to be a damp squib.
M.S.Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1973) shattered all romantic notions of the contemporary
Muslim society, forcing filmmakers to come out of the dream world. Muzzafar Ali’s
Umrao Jaan came for a change in 1983. But the genre was dead, as was visible in the
disastrous performance of Razia Sultan. Muslim socials had finally sloughed away into
obscurity and by the nineties; Urdu was a matter of the past. It was not possible to continue
to portray something which was no longer there. Globalization made new amendments in
the use of language. Urdu morphed into Hinglish and survived the onslaught. Urdu
remained un- amenable and petered away. Moreover, the problems post 80s that came up
in the Muslim society changed the portrayal of its characters forever in cinema.
But it would be inappropriate to ascribe the use of Urdu entirely to Muslim socials. The
major reason why Urdu virtually became the lingua franca of the Bombay film industry
was the heavy presence of artists and writers of the Progressive Movement. These leftleaning writers, like K.A.Abbas, Zia Sarhadi, Rajender Singh Bedi, Abrar Alvi, Kaifi
Azmi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Jan Nisar Akhtar, wrote predominantly in
Urdu, making it the medium of expression even in dramas with Hindu characters. The foray
of artists from IPTA made Urdu the language of the performing artists. This was a perfect
example of the secular ethos of cinema. In the seventies, their hold and role began to wane
with the entry of a new breed of writers. The success of Urdu based movies in recent times
was Jodha Akbar. Shyam Benegal’s Sardari Begum and Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya
Chand.
0.14. History of Digital Language Technologies.
Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) Program initiated by the
Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communication &
Information Technology (MC&IT), Govt. of India has the objective of developing
Information Processing Tools and Techniques to facilitate human-machine interaction
without language barrier; creating and accessing multilingual knowledge resources; and
integrating them to develop innovative user products and services.
The Program also promotes Language Technology standardization through active
participation in International and national standardization bodies such as ISO, UNICODE,
World-wide-Web consortium (W3C) and BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) to ensure
adequate representation of Indian languages in existing and future language technology
standards. Urdu has also benefited from Technology Development for Indian Languages
(TDIL) Program.
0.15. Dialect History:
Regional Dialects
Urdu language being one of the most important languages of the world enjoys four basic
dialects. These include Deccani, Rekhta, Modern Vernacular and Karkhandari.
Karkhandari being the dialect of Delhi region is far different from the Deccani dialect,
which is spoken in the southern region of India. Deccani is popularly known as Dakani,
Desia or Mirgan. Deccani dialect is known for its mixture of Marathi and Telugu Language
in India. The base of Urdu lies in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The native speakers of Urdu
can easily be recognized from their accents, they enjoy a beautiful accent while their
identity is the pronunciation of “‫ ”ق‬and “‫ ”خ‬sounds.
Deccani is popularly spoken in many parts of India including Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Most of the states in India even publish daily newspapers
and other magazines in Urdu. Furthermore, Rekhta, the poetic version of Urdu, is mostly
classified as a separate dialect. This dialect was famously used by several British Indian
poets of high acclamation, in the immensity of their work. These included the great Mirza
Ghalib, the enormous Mir Taqi Mir and mammoth Muhammad Iqbal.
Karkhandari is a dialect of Urdu language, spoken in Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. It
is the variation of Urdu language that is used by the Karkhanedar. The earliest examples
of Karkhandari can be seen in some of Amir Khusro’s lines. More developed forms of
Karkhandari can be seen in some mediocre literature produced in early 18th century in
Delhi.
0.16. Literary Tradition:
Genres of Urdu Literature:
Urdu literature has a history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very
language, Urdu, in which it is written. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, the range
of expression achieved in the voluminous library of a few major verse forms, especially
the ghazal and nazm, has led to its continued development and expansion into other styles
of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana.
Overview of Classical Tradition:
Urdu literature was generally composed more of poetry than of prose. The prose
component of Urdu literature was mainly restricted to the ancient form of long epic stories
called Dastaan. These long epic stories would deal with magical and otherwise fantastic
creatures and events in a very complicated plot.
Dastan, as a genre, originated in Iran and was disseminated by folk storytellers. It was
assimilated by individual authors. Dastan's plots are based both on folklore and classical
literary subjects. Dastan was particularly popular in Urdu literature, typologically close to
other narrative genres in Eastern literatures, such as Persian masnawi, Punjabi qissa, Sindhi
waqayati bait, etc., and also reminiscent of the European novel. The oldest known Urdu
dastans are Dastan-i-Amir Hamza, recorded in the early seventeenth century, and the
extinct Bustan-iKhayal ('The Garden of Imagination' or 'The Garden of Khayal') by Mir
Taqi Khayal (d. 1760). Most of the narrative dastans were recorded in the early nineteenth
century, representing contaminations of 'wandering', motifs borrowed from the folklore of
the Middle East, central Asia and northern India. These include Bagh-oBahar ('The Garden
and Spring') by Mir Amman, Mazhab-i-Ishq (The Religion of Love) by Nihalchand Lahori,
Araish-i-Mahfil ('The Adornment of the Assembly') by Hyderbakhsh Hyderi, Gulzar-iChin ('The Flower Bed of Chin') by Khalil Ali Khan Ashq, and the smaller dastans.
In respect of themes the Urdu novel initially undertook social life, followed by widening
its scope with rural social life. It also covered the changing times under progressive writing
movement under inspiration by Sajjad Zaheer. However, the horror of partition had great
impact and the novel remained under serious grip of questions of identity and migration as
can be seen in the major works of Abdullah Hussain & Quratul Ain Haider. Towards the
end of the last century, the novel took a serious turn towards the contemporary life and
realities of the young generations of India. The most significant novels of the current
generation of Indian novelists in Urdu demonstrate a new confidence in contemporary life
are Makan by Paigham Afaqui, Do Gaz Zameen by Abdus Samad, Pani by Ghazanfer and
Lift by Nastaran Ahsan Fatihi. These Urdu novels, specially Gardish-e-range chaman, Fire
area, Pani, Makaan and Lift brought the Urdu novel out of the prevailing themes of
partition and identity issues and took it into the realm of modern day realities and issues of
life in India. In fact, the impact of Ag ka Darya had an impact on many writers, who turned
to novel writing. These Urdu novels impacted the writing of Urdu novels in such a way
that a large number of novels have been written ever since some of which like Numberdar
Ka Neela by S M Ashraf and Fire Area by Ilyas Ahmed Gaddi have come to significantly
contribute to Urdu fiction.
0.17. Historiography of Urdu Literature:
Urdu started off as a language of the masses but eventually replaced Persian as the language
of the classes. Although Urdu literature remained seeped in the saqi and maikhana
narratives for an inordinately long period of time, however, poets like Ghalib and Hali
broke away from the tradition to come up with some progressive ideas vis-`a-vis the social
status of Indian women, among other issues. Urdu literary historiography in the twentieth
century has often tended to refer to Ghalib as the last true representative of the “Mughal”
intellectual and literary traditions and the Delhi of his experience as a “Mughal” city,
briefly resplendent in its old glory before it was destroyed or permanently changed by the
British in the aftermath of the Indian Revolt of 1857. With reference to Ghalib’s Delhi, it
has also been a common habit of our literary historians to employ two particular metaphors
in developing their descriptive and analytical statements. According to them, Ghalib’s
Delhi was a Mughal garden undergoing its final “spring” before the “autumn” of the
Revolt’s aftermath destroyed it forever, or that it was a Mughal candle that sort of naturally
flared into its old brilliance before going out for good. Altaf Husain Hali the first chronicler
of Ghalib’s life, prefaced his book, Yadgar-e Ghalib by evoking a memory of his own first
visit to Delhi:
In the thirteenth century of the Muslim era when the decline of the Muslims had already
entered its nadir, when along with their wealth, renown and political power there had also
departed from them their greatness in arts and sciences, there gathered in Delhi, by some
great good fortune, a band of men so talented that their assemblies recalled the days of
Akbar and Shahjahan. … When I first arrived in Delhi autumn had already come to this
garden: some of these men had left Delhi while others had departed from this world. Still,
among those who had remained, there were many I shall always be proud of having seen—
men whose likes the soil of Delhi, nay of all India, will never produce again. For the mould
in which they were cast has changed, and the breezes among which they flourished and
flowered have veered away.
Nevertheless, the general notion of Urdu literature being a language of ornate metaphors
and decadent culture, however erroneous, endures to this day. Conversely, we need to point
out how progressive writers came together during the British Raj days and stirred up a
largely inert literary scene through such nonconformist/unconformable works as Angaarey.
A whole gamut of issues – from socio-economic equality to female sexuality were
investigated and expounded. Writers like Manto and Chugtai and several others broke
social-literary taboos to highlight hypocrisies marking the Indian society. Religious
dogmas and the then existing societal as well as familial imperatives were challenged and
debunked. Quite a significant section of Urdu writers focused on emancipation and
empowerment of women. Many Urdu scholars have taken great pains to research and
systematically present the contribution made by Urdu literature towards introducing
progressivism into the Indian society at a time when stagnation was holding up all forms
of progress not just in the Indian Muslim society but beyond, too.
0.17.1. History of Literary Movements
Most of the literary genres and movements in Urdu Literature have been greatly influenced
by the West and, therefore, we cannot neglect the effects of the western movements on
Urdu literature. We need to examine various aspects of different cultural and literary
movements, which influenced western literature and then played a significant role in the
development of Urdu Literature. There is a need to discuss the literary movements, which
played a vital role in the sub-continent and along with a greater influence of the west, are
considered standardized creative expression in the tradition of Urdu Literature. Some of
the prominent Literary Movements of Urdu are listed below:





Aligarh Movement
Romanticism
Progressive Movement
Existentialism
Symbolism
Aligarh Tahrik
Roomanvi Tahrik
Taraqqi Pasand Tahrik
Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq
Alamat Pasandi
Progressive Literature.
The Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind or Progressive Writers' Movement was
a progressive literary movement in the pre-partition British India, consisting of a few
different writers groups around the world. The groups were anti-imperialistic and leftoriented, and sought to inspire people through their writings advocating equality and
attacking social injustice and backwardness. According to a critic, "Progressive Writers
Movement in Urdu literature was the strongest movement after Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s
education movement. The progressives contributed to Urdu literature some of the finest
pieces of fiction and poetry. Undoubtedly, they were the trendsetters for the coming
generation of writers, and their role cannot be denigrated or denied."
Feminist Writings.
Feminist consciousness is emerging as a spirit of the age and has become a global trend.
No doubt, in the beginning it was an individual trend, but it has now become a movement
or school-of-thought popular among the writers of modern sensibility. By feminist
consciousness, we mean an awareness of the modern movement in this male-governed
society where all values are male-oriented. However, at present, women don’t allow the
continuation of the male-governed system of values. Women are as free and independent
as men, and this new cultural trend is becoming a philosophical standpoint of women.
Feminist thinkers have been divided into two parts; one is the western thinker who regards
women as creative and equal contributors of values. The other thinkers belong to the
Marxist tradition and are radical and revolutionary in their approach and style of thinking.
According to them, writing is an independent mental activity and male critics cannot
discover the reality of the women’s world.
Like other parts of the world, educated Urdu speaking women are also fully aware of their
rights and the problems faced by them. Urdu literature is becoming richer by women’s
writings and enjoys a certain amount of freedom of expression in this segregated society.
The history of women’s writing in Urdu literature is not a recent phenomenon. It started in
the poetic compositions of different women — right from Malaya Chanda Bai to recent
times. Prominent and talented women are responsible for establishing the women’s style
of writing and traditions of the female mode of expression, such as Bilquis Jamal, Rabia
Pinha, Kaneez Fatima, Safia Shamim Malihabadi and Z.K. Sheen. Recently, Ada Jafri, a
prominent poetess, has contributed a lot to women’s literature. Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, in his
introduction to Ada Jafri’s collection of verses, particularly mentioned her name in the field
of the feminist way of expression. She is a highly-talented and conscious artist, who has
popularized female sensibilities by expressing their sentiments and problems. Ada was
born in a traditional society where women were not allowed to think and express
independently, but she was bold enough to express herself without inhibitions. Her
individuality is not without social consciousness. She makes herself invisible from the art
of poetic construction. Her personality is absent from her poetry. Her early life was spent
in jealously-guarded boundaries. Naturally, tradition was ingrained in her personality, but
her individual talent could not surrender itself completely and she started taking interest in
the rebellious world of modern art. For me, she is a genuinely modern sensibility. This
unification of modern and traditional sensibility makes her significant for both the schools
of thought. Her emotional depth finds expression in her poetry of unified sensibility. The
expressive value of her poetic art makes her a prominent figure in contemporary Urdu
literature. But Ada Jafri could not resolve the conflict between tradition and modern
sensibilities, and both trends weave themselves into her poetic art. Fehmida Riaz is the
Farough Farrukh Zad of Urdu poetry. She enjoys more freedom of expression and strongly
believes in it. She is a feminist and an activist. Her relationship with society is deep and
inspired by the Marxian theory of gender conflict, class conflict and the Freudian view of
men and women struggling against the imposed morality of the bourgeois class. She
expresses her female sentiments without inhibitions and unnecessary reservations.Badan
Darida, her collection of verses, is considered a milestone in the development of feminist
thought in Urdu poetry. In her other collection of verses, she has gained maturity and a
more harmonious mode of expression. The female imagination in Urdu poetry culminates
in Fehmida Riyaz. At present, she is the best feminist writer and will be considered a
trendsetter in feminist literature. Kishwar Naheed is also a devoted feminist writer. The
Second Sex by Simon de Beauvoir is a difficult feminist discourse, but Kishwar Naheed
has translated it into Urdu and it has been a source of inspiration for feminist writers.
Recently, she has edited an anthology of women’s literature, with Khalida Hussain, Asif
Furrukhi and Nighat Saleem as co-editors. It was published by the Academy of Letters
headed by Iftikhar Arif. The selection made by them lacks some important names in the
history of feminism thought, such as Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray who are post-Modern
thinkers of the movement. Perveen Shakir is not a well-known prose poem writer. She was
basically a ghazal writer. Her work is extraordinary and should have been selected by the
committee to represent Perveen’s genuine art. On the contrary, the well-known prose poem
writers have been ignored by editors such as Azra Abbas, Fatima Hasan, Shaista Habib,
Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, Sara Shagufta, Seema Khan Orakzai and others. Fiction writing is
also an important field and feminist writing can be traced in modern Urdu fiction. Ismat
Chughtai is the first feminist fiction writer in Urdu. Other important fiction writers include
Quratulain Haider, Khalida Hussain, Fatima Hassan, Jillani Bano, Bano Qudsia, Zahida
Hina, Mumtaz Shireen, Jameela Hashmi, Azra Abbass, and Nastaran Ahsan. They have
enriched Urdu literature with their writings. The name of Quratulain Haider is not
comparable to other writers. She is one of the greatest novelists in Urdu and Aag Ka Daria
is a masterpiece of fiction writing. She has written her novel in the technique of stream of
consciousness, such as Virginia Woolfe and James Joyce. She has also written short stories
such as Sita Haran, Jila Watan and an autobiographical novel, Gardish-i-Rang-i-Chaman,
a cultural-historical document about changes in history and culture. Urdu literature is
covering all the aspects of feminist philosophy and it is expected that more writers will
emerge on this horizon.
0.18. History of Translation in Urdu:
The evolution and development of Urdu Translation are long, complicated, and thus
difficult to trace concretely and in linearity. However, the brief discussion given below will
provide the chronological and conceptual development of Urdu Translation through
different phases of history. The striking point is that a majority of translators, in their efforts
to produce ‘fluent’ and ‘consistent’ translations, ignored the main problem of Urdu prose:
long, complex and compound sentence. Had the Urdu translators realized, that creative
writers of advanced languages had successfully expressed complex feeling and emotions
in words, they could have done the same in Urdu, by following the same rules and patterns.
It is important to note that Urdu writers and translators in their literary efforts were
considerably influenced by the West. e.g., Nazir Ahmed’s writing showed the influence of
Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’. The forerunner of Urdu novels, Abdul Halim Sharar’s
historical novels are built upon the foundation laid down by Sir Walter Scott, and
Richardson. Mirza Hadi Ruswa translated and published five suspense novels of Marie
Korili in 1928
Persian Urdu Translation:
Before the nineteenth century, there was hardly any prose literature in Urdu. Earlier prose
writings were either religious tracts or books of old world stories. About the middle of
nineteenth-century books like Fisana-i-AjaibandBagh-o-Bahar, Dastan-i-Amir Hamza,
Taslim-i-Hosh Ruba and Bostan-i-Khiyalwere published. Mir Amman Dehlwi’s, Bagh-oBahar, is a translation of the Persian work Chahr Darwesh of Khusrau. Many other
translations from Persian and other languages were done by Hindu and Muslim scholars
employed at the Fort William College, under Gilchrist and his successors.
English to Urdu:
The translation tradition and translation into Urdu from English and other languages proves
a very valid fact that linguistic divergence is one of the common obstacles to Translation.
It needs to be identified, categorized and resolved to obtain correct translation for any pair
of language. The focus should be on lexical semantic divergence and different types of
divergence should be identified and generalizations should be made on the basis of
examples, for Urdu to English translation. Strategies should also be presented for the
identification of these types.
The translation tradition and translation into Urdu from English and other languages proves
a very valid fact: those translations have played a vital role in the development, vastness,
depth and profundity of Urdu language. Literary translations have provided the ground for
new ways of expression, the development of textual designs, the paragraph development
pattern; coherence and cohesion and textual configuration. Through these translations not
only new and different kinds of text and skills in writing were introduced in Urdu language,
they also elaborated the technical embellishment associated to each kind.
1. PHONOLOGY:
Urdu Phonological Units (Segmental):
Urdu speech sounds are produced by a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. Modern
Urdu has thirty-eight consonantal and ten vocalic phonemes (eight vowels and two
diphthongs).The pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism is involved in the production of
all phonetic segments of the language.
1.1 Urdu Vowels:
The inventory of the distinctive vowels of Urdu is as follows:
High
Lower high
Mid
Lower mid
Front
i:
i
e
ε
Central
ɔ
ə
Low
Back
u:
u
o
a:
The nasalization is phonemic in Urdu. It is represented by the nasal sign ˜ written above
the vowel signs as given below:
High
Lower high
Mid
Lower mid
Front
ĩ:
ĩ
ẽ
Central
ɛ̃
ɔ̃
ə˜
Low
Back
ũ:
ũ
õ
ã:
Description of Oral Vowels of Urdu:
There is a contrast in the position of the tongue, the height of the tongue, and the rounding
of the lips in the articulation of Urdu vowels. Accordingly they have been classified into
front, central and back vowel as described below.
Front vowel: In Urdu there are four front vowels. In the articulation of these vowels, the
front part of the tongue gets activated. They have been listed below.
/i:/ is a high front un-rounded vowel. It occurs in all positions. /i:/ is longer in duration
than [I]. It is transcribed as /i:/ in this volume.
Initial
i:d ‘Muslim festival’
i:sa: ‘Christ’
Medial
pi:li: “yellow”
Jhi:l ‘lake’
Final
Ha:thi: “elephant’
sa:thi: ‘companion’
/I / is a low-high front un-rounded short vowel and is more central than [i:]. It generally
does not occur in the word-final position in Urdu. It is transcribed as /I/ in this volume.
Initial
Ima:rət
In
Medial
gIrna:
billi:
‘building’
‘these’
Final
‘to fall’
‘cat’
/e/ is a mid -front unrounded long vowel. It occurs in all positions and it is transcribed as
/e / in this volume.
Initial
ek
eṛ
‘one’
‘kick’
Medial
ret
der
Final
ju:te
bəcce
‘sand’
‘late’
‘shoes’
‘children’
/ɛ/ is a lower mid front vowel. It occurs in all positions in Urdu. It is transcribed as / ɛ/ in
this volume.
Initial
Medial
Final
ɛnək
‘spectacles’
Kɛsa:
‘how’
hɛ
‘is’
ɛsa:
‘like this’
pɛsa:
‘money’
lɛ
‘tune’
Central Vowel: Urdu has only one central vowel. It is articulated with the help of the central
part of the tongue.
/ ə / is a low central un-rounded short vowel. It occurs in all positions, however, its
occurrence in final position is restricted.
Initial
əgər
əsər
‘ if’
‘impact’
Medial
pər
‘feather’
dər
‘door’
Final
nə
‘no’
Back Vowel: In Urdu there are five back vowels. These vowels are articulated with the
help of the back part of the tongue.
/u:/ is a high back rounded long vowel. It is used in all the positions. It is transcribed as
/u:/ in this volume.
Initial
U:n
U:pər
Medial
‘wool’ du:dh
‘milk’
‘above’ dhu:p ‘sunlight’
Final
a:lu:
‘potato’
bəhu: ‘daughter in law’
/U/ is a high back rounded short vowel. Its occupancy is limited to initial and medial
positions. It is transcribed as /U/ in this volume.
Initial
Uṭhna:
Ullu:
‘ to rise’
‘owl’
Medial
bunna:
dhun
Final
‘to knit’
‘tune’
/o/ is a mid- back rounded long vowel. It is pronounced in all positions. It is transcribed as
/ o / in this volume.
Initial
os
or
‘dew’
‘direction’
Medial
roṭi:
sona:
‘bread’
‘ to sleep’
Final
do
‘two’
lo
‘take’
/ɔ/ is a mid-low back rounded long vowel. It is articulated in all positions. It is transcribed
as /ɔ/ in this volume.
Initial
a:m
a:sma:n
‘mango’
‘sky’
Medial
a:ra:m
‘rest’
ša:m ‘evening’
Final
əccha:
gho ṛa:
‘good’
‘horse’
/a:/ is a low central un-rounded long vowel. It occurs in all positions. It is transcribed as
/a:/ in this volume.
Initial
a:m
a:sma:n
‘mango’
‘sky’
Medial
a:ra:m
‘rest’
ša:m
‘evening’
Final
əccha:
gho ṛa:
‘good’
‘horse’
Description of Nasal Vowels:
In the articulation of Urdu nasalized vowels the out coming air stream is pushed into the
nasal cavity. Urdu distinguishes between spontaneous nasal vowels and inherent nasal
vowels. Vowels in the environment of either an adjacent nasal consonant or a nasalized
vowel become nasalized as in [a:m] 'mango'. Not only is this, but the spread of nasalization
is not interrupted even by semivowels. Also, phonemically, the contrasts between oral and
nasal vowels do exist in the language. The following minimal pairs support this claim that
nasalization is phonemic in Urdu as it helps in changing the meaning.
Oral vowel
sa:s
kəha:
Nasalized vowel
sãs
‘breath’
kəhã
‘where’
‘mother in law’
‘said’
/ĩ:/ is a high front unrounded nasalized vowel. It occurs in all positions./ĩ:/ is longer in
duration than [I]. It is transcribed as /ĩ:in this volume.
Initial
Ĩ:ṭ
‘brick’
Medial
sĩ:cna: ‘to irrigate’
Final
nəhĩ
‘no’
/ĩ/is a low-high front un-rounded short nasalized vowel and is more central than [i:]. It
generally does not occur in the word-final position in Urdu. It is transcribed as / ĩ / in this
volume.
Initial
Ĩc
Medial
‘ inch’ pĩjra:
Final
‘cage’
/ ẽ/ is a mid front un-rounded long nasalized vowel. It is transcribed as / ẽ / in this volume.
Initial
Medial
phẽṭ ‘to mix up’
Final
mẽ
‘in’
/ ɛ̃/ is a lower mid front vowel. It occurs in all positions and it is transcribed as / ɛ̃/ in this
volume.
Initial
ɛ̃ṭhna:
Medial
‘to twist’
bhɛ̃s
Final
‘buffalo’
hɛ̃
‘are’
Central Vowel: Urdu has only one central vowel. It is articulated with the help of the central
part of the tongue.
/ə˜ / is a low central un-rounded short vowel. It occurs in all positions; however, its
occurrence in final position is restricted.
Initial
ə˜gu:ṭha:
Medial
‘thumb’
ṭh ə˜ḍ
Final
‘cold’
Back Vowel: In Urdu there are five back vowels. These vowels are articulated with the
help of the back part of the tongue.
/ ũ:/ is a high back rounded long vowel. It is used in all the positions.It is transcribed as /
ũ:/ in this volume.
Initial
Ũ:ṭ
Medial
‘camel’ sũ:ghna: ‘ to smell’
Final
Jũ:
‘louse’
/ ũ/ is a high back rounded short vowel. Its occupancy is limited to initial and medial
positions. It is transcribed as / ũ/ in this volume.
Initial
ũs ‘ounce’
Medial
mũh
Final
‘face’
/ õ/ is a mid back rounded long vowel. It is pronounced in all positions. It is transcribed as
/ õ/ in this volume.
Initial
õṭh
Medial
gõd
‘lip’
‘gum’
Final
sərsõ
‘mustard’
/ ã:/ is a low central unrounded long vowel. It occurs in all positions. It is transcribed as
/a:/ in this volume.
Initial
ã::gən
ã::dhi:
‘courtyard’
‘storm’
Medial
Final
mã:g
‘demand’ mã:
g ã:dhi: ‘Gandhi’ hã:
‘mother’
‘yes’
The oral and the nasal vowels contrast:
As discussed earlier, nasalization is distinctive in Urdu. The oral and the nasal vowels of
Urdu contrast in minimal pairs such as the following:
Oral and Nasal Vowel Contrast
Oral and Nasal
Vowel Contrast
ə / ə˜
a: / ã:
a: / ã:
u:/ ũ:
ε /ɛ̃
səva:r
ba:s
Ja:
pu:ch
hε
‘rider’
‘foul smell’
‘go’
‘ask’
‘is’
sə˜va:r
bã:s
jã:
pũ:ch
h ɛ̃
‘decorate’
‘bamboo’
‘ life’
‘tail’
‘are’
cɔk
ɔ /ɔ̃
‘city square’
c ɔ̃ k
‘startle’
1.2 Urdu Diphthongs:
Linguists agree that at least two diphthongs, [ey] and [ow], exist in modern Urdu, though
there is a dispute about their status phonemically. One claim is that the diphthongs [ey] and
[ow] are allophonic to / ɛ/ and / ɔ/, respectively, occurring at the end of a word or before a
consonant.
The analysis that [ey] and [ow] are word-final allophones of / ɛ / and /ɔ/ is challenged by
the fact that both [ɛ] and [ɔ] also exist word-finally:
ε
in final position ɔ in final position
hɛ
‘is’
sɔ
‘hundred’
lɛ
‘rhythm’
nɔ
‘nine’
In addition, [ey] and [ow] sometimes minimally contrast with [ɛ] and [ɔ] in non-final
position.
Other analyses consider these diphthongs; [ey] and [ow] as a sequence of contiguous
phonemes. Urdu diphthongs are basically regional variants of [ε] and [ɔ]
Distribution of Vowels:
With the exception of the short, vowels /I, ə, and U/, all vowels occur freely in word-final
position. In some exceptional cases these short vowels /I, ə, and U/, may also occur in the
word-final position.
Word-initial Vowels:
There is no restriction on the occurrence of the word-initial vowels.
Initial
i:d
‘ Muslim festival’
i:sa:
‘Christ’
Ima:rət
‘building’
In
‘these’
ɛnək
‘spectacles’
ɛsa:
əgər
əsər
u:n
u:pər
Uṭhna:
Ullu:
os
or
‘like this’
‘ if’
‘impact’
‘wool’
‘above’
‘ to rise’
‘owl’
‘dew’
‘direction’
ɔrət
‘woman’
ɔza:r
‘instrument’
‘mango’
‘sky’
a:m
a:sma:n
Vowel Sequences:
At the most sequences of two vowels can occur in the language. Vowel sequences are
possible in all the three positions viz. initial, medial and final. The examples of initial,
medial, and final sequences are given below:
Initial Sequences:
/ai-/
/ao-/
/au-/
/a:e-/
/a:i:-/
aiye
a:o
a:ũ
a:e
a:i:
‘Please come’ (II p.sg.)
‘Come’ (IIp.pl.imp.)
‘Come’ (Ip.sg.)
‘Came’ ( past pl)
Came (past sing fem)
Medial sequences:
/-iu-/
/-ei-/
/-eu-/
/piũga/
/meiyət/
/pèũga/
‘shall drink’ (Ip. sg. mas)
‘corpse’
‘Shall drink’ (Ip.sg.)
/-e i-/ /beima:ni:/
‘Dishonesty’
Final sequences:
/piẽ/
/pio/
/piũ/
/khaũ/
/-ie/
/-io/
/-iu/
/-au/
‘May drink’ (IIIp.pl.)
‘Drink’ (IIp.pl.imp.)
‘May I drink’ (Ip.sg.)
‘May I eat’ (Ip.sg.)
However, there are certain restrictions on the sequences of vowels:
1.3

/ε/ and /ɔ / do not participate at all in the vowel sequence.

/a/ does not occur as a second member with any vowel; however these can
occur as a first member with some vowels.

/i/ does not occur as the first member in the vowel sequence.

Two similar vowels with one difference in height such as /i:i/, /ie/, / aa:/,
/uu:/ and /uo/ do not form vowel sequence in any of the two orders except
the order of /-ei-/ sequence in a limited sense.
Consonants:
Thirty-nine consonants are distinctive in Urdu, of which six have been introduced into the
system by Perso-Arabic borrowings.
Consonants are classified into different groups on the basis of their manner and place of
articulation.
Stops
Affricates
BiLabial
p ph
b bh
LabioDental
Alveola Dental
r
t th
d dh
Retrofl
ex
ṭ ṭh
ḍ ḍh
Palata Vela
l
r
k kh
g gh
c ch
Uvula Glott
r
al
q
Fricatives
Nasals
Trill
Flap
Lateral
Semivowel
f
j jh
š ž
s z
m
ṇ
n
r
ṛ
x ɣ
ŋ
h
ṛh
l
v
y
The influence of Persian and Arabic languages on Urdu phonological system is wide and
clear. The following Perso-Arabic sounds are found in Urdu phonology without which the
Urdu sound system is incomplete:
Perso Arabic sound
The sound
/x /
Word
(‫ )خ‬xa:s
The sound
The sound
The sound
The sound
(‫)ف‬
The sound
/ɣ/
/z/
/ž/
/f/
(‫)غ‬
(‫)ن‬
(‫)ﺛ‬
ɣ εr
Gloss
‘special’
‘stranger’
zəba:n
mižga:
fa:sla:
‘language’
‘eye brow’
‘distance’
/q/
(‫)ق‬
qələm
‘pen’
These six sounds exclusively come from Perso-Arabic sources. They are not found in other
Indo-Aryan languages.
1.3.1. Urdu Consonants
The thirty-nine consonants of the Urdu phonological system are described following the
order in which they are written in the chart above. They all occur in initial, medial and final
positions and are in contrast with each other. There are restrictions on which consonants
can occur with which others and form consonant clusters. These are listed and exemplified
in a subsequent section. A few examples of clusters are also given here to indicate the range
of occurrence of the consonants. Additionally, although there are separate subsections on
borrowings, the following examples include items which have been assimilated in the
language.
/p/: a voiceless un-aspirated bilabial plosive:
pəl
pa:ni:
‘moment’
‘water’
a:pa:
cəppa:
‘elder sister’ sã:p
‘a hand-breadth’ kã:p
‘snake’
‘shiver’
/ph/ a voiceless aspirated bilabial plosive:
phəl
‘fruit’
uphən
‘boil over
phu:l
‘flower’
phuphi:
‘aunty’
sɔ̃ph ‘fennel’
/b/ a voiced un-aspirated bilabial plosive:
bəl
bal
‘strength’
‘hair’
ni: bu:
əbbu
‘lemon’
‘ father’
təb
səb
‘then’
‘ all’
‘ sometime’
‘ everyone’
la:bh
ji:bh
‘profit’
‘tongue’
‘address’
‘leaf’
sa:t
ma:t
‘seven’
‘defeat’
‘companion’ sa:th
‘elephant’
ha:th
‘company’
‘hand’
‘plain’ svad
‘intellect’ rəd
‘taste’
‘reject’
/bh/ a voiced aspirated bilabial plosive:
bha:t
bhərəm
‘cooked rice kəbhi:
‘confusion’ səbhi:
/t/ a voiceless un-aspirated dental plosive:
ta:l
ta:li:
‘lake’
‘clapping’
pəta:
pətta:
/th/ a voiceless aspirated dental plosive:
tha:l
thoṛa:
‘tray’
‘a little’
sa:thi:
ha:thi:
/d/ a voiced un-aspirated dental plosive:
dal
di:n
‘lentil’
‘religion’
sa:da:
buddhi
/dh/ a voiced aspirated dental plosive:
dha:n
dhyan
‘paddy’
‘attention’
sudha:r
udha:r
‘reform’
‘borrow’
sa:dh
budh
‘ambition’
‘Wednesday’
peṭ
sa: ṭ
‘stomach’
‘paste’
/ṭ / a voiceless un-aspirated retroflex post-alveolar plosive:
ṭa:l
ṭuṭ
‘avoid’
pəṭaxa
‘break’ əṭṭhaīs
‘fire cracker’
‘twenty-eight’
/ṭh/ a voiceless aspirated retroflex post-alveolar plosive:
ṭh ela:
ṭh a ṭh
/ḍ/
‘push-cart’
‘pomp’
ni ṭh əlla
ko ṭhi:
ṭha: ṭh
sa: ṭh
‘pomp’
‘sixty’
sũ:ḍ
jhũḍ
‘trunk’
‘horde’
‘sulk’
‘mosquito’
s əc
soc
‘truth’
‘thinking’
‘fisherman’
‘mosquito’
pũ:ch
cha:ch
‘tail’
‘butter milk’
‘indolent’
‘building’
a voiced un-aspirated retroflex postalveolar plosive:
ḍ a:l
ḍ a:li:
‘branch’ ə ḍ ḍa:
‘small branch’ həḍ ḍi:
‘stand’
‘bone’
/ ḍ h/ a voiced aspirated retroflex post-alveolar plosive,
ḍ ha:l
ḍ hol
ḍ hũ:ḍ
‘shield’
‘drum’
‘search’
/c/ a voiceless un-aspirated palatal affricate:
ca:l
‘gait’
məcəl
Cəppa: ‘a hand-breadth’ məcchər
/ch/ a voiceless aspirated palatal affricate:
cha:l
cha:ch
‘bark of a tree’ məchera
‘butter milk’ məcchər
/j/ a voiced un-aspirated palatal affricate:
Ja:l
jva:la:
‘net’
‘flame’
u:ja:la:
səja:vəṭ
‘brightness’ la:j
‘decoration’ səj
‘shame’
‘ decorate’
‘middle one’
‘sharing’
bã:jh
sã:jh
‘barren’
‘evening’
‘catch’
əṭ ək
‘get stuck’
/jh/ a voiced aspirated palatal affricate:
jhal
jha:ru:
‘soldering’ məjhla
‘broom’ sa:jha:
/k/ a voiceless unaspirated velar plosive:
kəl
‘tomorrow’
pəkəṛ
ka:la:
‘black’
cəkka:
‘wheel’
rok
‘stop’
‘pond’
‘dry’
mukh
sukh
‘mouth’
‘happiness’
Rəg
sa:g
‘vein’
‘ vegetable’
/kh/ a voiceless aspirated velar plosive:
kha:l
kha:na:
‘skin’
‘food’
pokhər
su:kha:
/g/ a voiced unaspirated velar plosive:
ga:l
ga: ṛi:
‘cheek’ məgərməch
‘cart’ Ja:go
‘crocodile
‘wakeup’
/gh/ a voiced aspirated velar plosive:
ghər
‘house’ sughəṛ
‘shapely’
ghəṛi:‘clock’
ləkəṛbəggha: ‘hyena’
ma:gh ‘eleventh month of the year’
sũ:gh
‘smell’
/q/ a voiceless unaspirated uvular plosive
qələm
qəbr
sa:qi:
ba:qi:
‘bar girl’
‘ remaining’
həq
ərəq
‘right’
‘juice’
sa:f
ma:f
‘ clean’
‘pardon’
/ f / a voiceless labio-dental fricative:
fikr
fursət
‘worry’
leisure
safa:i:
səfed
‘cleanliness’
‘white’
/s/ a voiceless, alveolar sibilant, and the only sibilant that represents the sound in NIA that
resulted from the merging of the three sibilants of the OIA.
sər
sa:t
‘head’ rəssi:
‘seven’ lisa:n
‘rope’
‘language’
rəs
bəs
‘delicious’
‘taste’
ləzi:z
məhfu:z
‘juice’
‘bus’
/z/ a voiceless, alveolar sibilant
zər
zəmi:n
‘gold’
‘land’
ləzi:z
ləzzət
/ š / a voiceless palatal sibilant.
‘delicious’
‘secured’
š er
š i:r
‘lion’
‘milk’
məšhu:r
məši:n
‘famous’
‘machine’
ka:š
la: š
‘ alas’
‘dead body’
mi žg ã:
‘eye lash’
ž a: ž
‘grass’
‘fever’
‘miser’
ša:x
šox
‘branch’
‘amusing’
/ ž / a voiced palatal sibilant
ž a: ž
‘grass’
/x/ a voiceless, velar sibilant.
xa:r
xa:m
‘thorn’
‘raw’
buxa:r
bəxi:l
/ ɣ / a voiced, velar sibilant.
ɣa:r
‘cave’
sa: ɣ ər
‘peg’
ba: ɣ
‘garden’
ɣəm
‘sorrow’
bə ɣe r
‘without’
da: ɣ
‘spot’
‘spray’
‘spring’
ra:h
ca:h
‘arm’
‘desire’
səmən
sumbul
‘ a type of flower’
‘a type of creeper’
a:m
na:m
‘name’ su:na :
‘soft’ dugna:
‘lonely’
‘double fold,
ša:n
ka:n
/h/ is a voiced glottal fricative:
ha:r
həm
‘garland’ phuha:r
‘ we’
bəha:r
/m/ a voiced bilabial nasal:
mən
mera:
‘mind’
‘my’
‘mango’
‘name’
/n/ a voiced dental nasal:
na:m
nərm
‘honor’
‘ear’
/ ŋ / a velar nasal that occurs primarily in medial homorganic consonant clusters. It does,
however, contrast with other nasals in this position:
jə ŋ
rəŋ
‘war’
‘color’
/ ṇ / a retroflex nasal that occurs in medial homorganic consonant clusters and contrasts
with alveolar nasal /n /
ə ṇ ḍ a:
ḍ ə ṇ ḍ a:
‘egg’
‘ rod’
/r / a voiced weak apicoalveolar trill:
ra:ja:
ra:sta:
‘king’
‘path’
a:ra:m
pərda:
‘rest’
‘curtain’
pya: r
ma:r
‘love’
‘beating’
‘cart’
‘sari’
mo ṛ
jo ṛ
‘turn’
‘add’
‘ mounted’
‘read’
cəṛh
pəṛh
‘climb’
‘read’
‘black’
‘hem’
niha:l
sa:l
‘gratified’
‘year’
‘poetry’
ta:v
‘question’ nəhv
‘rage’
‘syntax’
/ r ̣ / a voiced unaspirated palatal flap:
ga: ṛi:
sa: ṛi:
/ ṛ h / a voiced aspirated palatal flap:
cəṛha:
pəṛho
/l/ a voiced apico-alveolar lateral:
la:l
ləb
‘red’
‘lips’
ka:la:
pəlla:
/v/ a voiced labio-dental continuant:
va:pəs
va:lid
‘return’
‘father’
kəvita:
səva:l
y a voiced palatal continuant:
ya:d
ya:r
‘ rememberance’ xya:l
‘ friend’
pya:r
Distribution of Phonemes and Allophones:
‘thought’
‘love’
The retroflex voiced aspirated stop / ṛh/ does not occur in the final position of words. The
velar nasal /η/, and the retroflex flaps /r ̣/and /r ̣h/ do not occur in the word-initial positions.
The nasal phoneme /n/ has dental, retroflex, palatal, and velar allophones: [n], [n ̣], and [η].
Palatal and velar nasals are not assigned any phonemic status in Urdu. Phonetically they
are pronounced in the speech only when they are followed by palatal and velar voiced
consonant phonemes. They occur before homorganic voiced consonants.
Consonant Clusters in Urdu:
Word-initial consonant clusters are not as frequent as the word-medial consonant clusters
in Urdu. Word-initial consonant clusters are far less frequent than those permitted word
medially or finally. Word-medial consonant clusters result from the application of the
schwa syncope rule, leading to syllable-final and syllable-initial clusters. Because of this
cross-over nature of word-medial clusters new combinations are, indeed, found in the
language. A case in point is the access of word-medial clusters to tripartite, and clusters
with unvoiced aspirated consonants as their first member. The following consonant clusters
occur word-initially:
py, kt, gr, ky, xy, ly, prem 'love', Krishna 'Krishan', Tra:m 'tram', sra:p 'curse',
by, kv, gv,
sla:h 'advice', kya:ri: 'flower-bed', xya:l 'view', tya:g
'sacrifice', pya:r love', bya:n 'testimony', kva:ra: "bachelor",
gva:la: 'milk-man'.
However, it should be emphasized that in uneducated and rural speech, clusters are
simplified by the insertion of the schwa.
Initial Clusters:
Examples of the initial consonant clusters are given below:
ky
kr
gy
jv
ṭr
ḍy
ḍr
dhy
py
py
kya:
kram
gya:rah
Jva:r
ṭren
ḍ yo ḍ ha:
ḍra:ma:
dhya:n
pya:r
pya:s
‘What’
‘Order’
‘Eleven’
‘barley’
‘Train’
‘two and a half times’
‘Drama’
‘Attention’
‘Love’
‘Thirst’
py
py
xy
pr
by
sy
zy
gy
pya:m
pya:z
xya:l
prithvi:
bya:h
sya:r
zya:da:
gya:n
‘Message’
‘Onion’
‘Thoughts’
‘Earth’
‘Marriage’
‘Jackal’
‘More’
‘Knowledge’
Initial Three-Consonant Clusters:
str
skr
smr
stri:
skri:n
smriti:
‘woman’
‘screen’
‘remembrance’
Word-Medial Consonant Clusters:
Consonant clusters occur frequently in the medial position. Most ofthese clusters are
formed across syllable or morpheme boundaries.
pt
ps
kəpta:n
va:psi:
‘Captain’
‘Return’
fs
əfsos
‘Sorry’
fl
fr
γəflət
nəfrət
‘Mistake’
‘Hate’
fv
əfva:h
‘Rumor’
bn
bz
tm
dt
dm
kb
kt
šəbnəm
səbzi:
a:tma:
bədtər
bədma:š
məqbu:l
məktəb
‘Dew’
‘Vegetable’
‘Soul’
‘very bad’
‘Rogue’
‘Popular’
‘School’
kṭ
qd
əkṭ
ər
həqda:r
qr
iqra:r
‘Actor’
‘Rightful
owner/
entitled’
‘Acceptance’
Possible Word-Final Consonant Clusters: Word-final consonant clusters are as follows in
Urdu:
xt
xt
xt
xt
xs
rd
rd
rd
rd
rd
rd
rm
rm
rm
rf
rf
rf
sm
sm
sm
sm
lm
lm
lm
bt
bt
tf
st
st
səxt
bəxt
ləxt
təxt
šəxs
dərd
sərd
zərd
gərd
mərd
fərd
jurm
nərm
gərm
bərf
urf
hərf
jism
ism
qism
rəsm
ilm
zulm
film
rəbt
səbt
lutf
sust
məst
‘Hard’
‘Luck’
‘Piece’
‘Throne’
‘Person’
‘Pain’
‘Cold’
‘Yellow’
‘Dust’
‘Man’
‘Person/ people’
‘Crime’
‘soft’
‘Hot’
‘ice/snow’
‘Nick name’
‘Letter’
‘Body’
‘name’
‘Type’
‘tradition’
‘knowledge’
‘Torture’
‘Film’
‘Contact’
‘ To paste’
‘enjoyment’
‘Slow’
‘Happy’
pušt
-št
‘back’
There are some restrictions on the formation of consonant clusters as follows:

two aspirated consonants do not combine to form a consonant cluster,

/ch/ is not combined to form a consonant cluster,

/ ḍ and ḍh / do not occur as the second member of a consonant cluster.
Geminates in Urdu:
Geminates are extra long and more fortis consonants. All the Urdu consonants except
/q,f,z,š,h,x,r, w,γ/ occur geminated after the vowels /iu/ in the intervocalic position. When
aspirated are geminated they are aspirated at the final release and they are the clusters of
unaspirated and aspirated ones. Structurally geminates are treated like other clusters of two
consonants and are denoted by the doubling of the consonants. Examples of Urdu
gemination are given below:
Urdu Gemination:
/-pp-/
/-pp -/
/-pph-/
/-bb-/
/-bb-/
/-tt -/
/-ddh -/
/- ḍ ḍ -/
/- ḍ ḍ -/
/-zz -/
/- ṭ ṭ -/
/- ṭ ṭ -/
/-kk -/
/-tth-/
/-kkh -/
əppi
Cəppa:
jhəpphi
khubbo
əbbu
pətta:
buddhi
ə ḍ ḍ a:
həḍ ḍ i:
ləzzət
həṭ ṭ a:
səṭ ṭ a:
cəkka:
pətthar
məkkhən
Fortis Consonants:
‘elder sister’
‘a hand-breadth’
‘embrace’
left handed’
‘father’
‘leaf’
‘intellect’
‘Stand’
‘bone’
‘taste’
‘well built’
‘Gambling’
‘Wheel’
‘stone’
‘butter’
Fortis consonants are pronounced with stronger articulation and they are bit tensed
consonants. All those consonants which occur geminated also occur as fortis. In the
language, such consonants occur only after /i e εa o u/ vowels in the intervocalic position
of open disyllabic words. These consonants do not contrast with geminates as well as lenis
but because of their closeness to lenis consonants these have been treated as allophones of
lenis consonants. Examples:
/phupha: /
/poti/
/thotha:/
/dada:/
/gəla:/
/buṭ a:/
/koṭ
hi/
[phuph.a:]
[pot.i]
[thoth.o]
[da:d.a:]
[gəla:]
[buṭ a:]
[koṭ h.i]
‘fathers’ sister’s husband’
‘Grand daughter’
‘empty’
‘grand father’
‘neck’
‘tree’
‘ palace’
Lenis Consonants:
Short/Lenis consonants are produced with weaker lax articulation. These consonants occur
in all the positions and contrast with geminated consonants.
1.4 Supra Segmental:
Nasalization, length, stress, intonation, and juncture are supra-segmental features in Urdu
1.4.1. Nasalization:
Nasalization is an important suprasegmental feature in Urdu. As discussed earlier, all the
vowels can be nasalized. Nasalization is distinctive so it has phonemic status.
Nasalized
sãs
kəhã
Jã
Gloss
‘Breath’
‘Where’
‘Life’
Oral
sa:s
kəha:
ja:
Gloss
‘mother in law’
‘ said’
‘ go’
1.4.2. Length:
Length is phonemic in Urdu. There are three pairs of short and long vowels: /i/ and /i:/;
/a/ and /a:/; /u/ and /u:/. The following minimal pairs illustrate the contrast in the length of
these vowels.
Long
Gloss
Short
Gloss
a:b
di:n
u:n
mi:l
‘Water’
‘religion’
‘Wool’
‘Mile’
əb
dIn
un
mil
‘now’
‘day’
‘they’
‘To meet’
1.4.3. Stress:
Stress is not a distinctive feature of Urdu; it is not in phonemic contrast. Urdu is a syllabletimed language, sometimes individual words are stressed for emphasis only.

Usually, the syllable preceding the consonant cluster gets stress.

The initial cluster of the word also gets stress.

In di-syllabic words where both syllables have long or short vowels, the first
syllable is stressed.

In di-syllable words wherein the first syllable contains low front or back vowels,
the first syllable is stressed.

The second syllable is stressed when the first syllable has a short vowel and the
second has a long vowel.

In tri-syllable words, the first syllable is stressed if the first syllable has a long
vowel, the second has a short vowel, and the third has a long vowel.

The last syllable is stressed if the first syllable has a short vowel and the last two
have long vowels.

In words of more than three syllables, the stress is always on the penultimate
syllable.
1.4.4. Intonation:
There are four major types of intonational patterns:
(1) high-fall,
(2) high-rise,
(3) rise-and-fall,
(4) mid-level.
Intonations have syntactic rather than emotional content. Statements have a high fall
intonation pattern. Intonation peaks are generally positioned on the penultimate word or on
the negative particle if there is one.

Yes-no questions and tag questions have a high-rise intonation.

Information questions have a rise-and-fall intonation. The rise in intonation is
registered on the question word and the fall is attained gradually.

Commands generally follow the mid-level intonational pattern.

The contrastive and emphatic intonations are the same as they employ more than
the average stress on the constituents of a sentence.

The element to be contrasted carries a slightly higher stress than the emphasized
segment.
1.4.5. Juncture:
Juncture is functional in Urdu. Internal juncture may be considered as phonemic juncture.
Mostly, the medial clusters have juncture because those sequences of sounds do not occur
in the same syllable. The following minimal pairs indicate the phonemic status of internal
juncture:
Words without juncture
pi:li:
‘yellow’
kəla:i:
‘wrist’
Words with juncture
pi: # li:
‘drank’
kəl # a:i:
‘came yesterday’
There are two types of juncture: (i) internal juncture and (ii) external juncture.

The internal juncture (+) reduces words to phrases or compound words in the
sentences.

External juncture (#) occurs between each word and the words joined by this
juncture retain their separate identity.
CHAPTER II
MORPHOLOGY:
2.1 MORPHOLOGY
Morphology is the study of the way words are built up from smaller meaning-bearing units,
morphemes. A morpheme is generally defined as the minimal meaning-bearing unit in a
language. For example the word ‫ کرسی‬kursi: ‘chair' consists of a single morpheme (the
morpheme ‫( کرسی‬kursi:) while the word kursiyã: chairs consists of two morphemes: the
morpheme kursi ‘chair’ and the morpheme yã: -s. There are two classes of morphemes:
stems and affixes. Stem is the main morpheme of the word which gives the main meaning
of the word, whereas the affixes provide additional meanings. The affixes are divided into
prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes precede the stem and suffixes follow the stem. For example;
Prefix + Free Morpheme
be + i:ma:n
be + hisa:b
be+ n əzi:r
New expression
be i:ma:n
‘con’
be hisa:b
‘abundant’
benəzi:r
‘not comparable’
Free Morpheme + suffix
kursi +yã:
ləṛki: + yã:
New expression
kursiyã:
ləṛki: yã:
‘chairs’
‘girls’
mur ɣ i + yã:
mur ɣ i:yã:
‘hens’
Morphemes combine in several ways to create words. Some of the important ones are:
inflection, derivation, and compounding.
 Inflection is the combination of a word stem with a grammatical morpheme,
resulting in a word of the same class as the original stem. For example, Urdu has
the inflectional morpheme yã: for marking the plural of nouns as in lər ̣ki: yã: ‘girls’
 Derivation is the combination of a word stem with a grammatical morpheme,
usually resulting in a word of a different class, often with different meaning. For
example the adjective zərd ‘yellow’ can take the derivational suffix i: to produce
the noun zərdi: ‘egg yolk’
 Compounding is the combination of multiple words stems together. For example
the compound word xubsurət consists of two free morphemes xub ‘good’ and surət
‘face’.
2.1.1.
Inflectional Morphology
As defined above, Inflectional morphology is the study of those processes of the word
formation where new words with different forms but same meaning are formed from an
existing stem. For example, in Urdu, inflectional forms of noun ləṛka: (boy) are;
ləṛka:
ləṛke
ləṛke
ləṛkõ
masculine-singular-direct
masculine-oblique-singular
masculine-direct-plural
masculine-oblique-plural
English has a relatively simple inflectional system, but Urdu -Hindi is morphologically rich
languages. Moreover, Urdu verbal inflection is more complicated than nominal inflection.
2.1.2. Derivational Morphology
Derivational morphology is the study of those processes of the word formation where new
words are formed from the existing stems through the addition of morphemes. The meaning
of the resultant new word is different from the original word and it often belongs to a
different syntactic category. The derivational morphology of Urdu is quite complex. A very
common kind of derivation in Urdu is the formation of new nouns, often from verbs or
adjectives or the nouns. This process is called nominalization. For example;
Free form
zərd ‘yellow’
kita:b ‘book’
dil
‘heart’
məzdu:r ‘labor’
Derivational
Suffix
+ i:
+ i:
+ i:
+ i:
Derived form
zərdi:
‘egg yolk’
kita:bi: ‘book like’
dili:
‘heart like’
məzdu:ri: ‘wages’
The words are of two types-inflected and uninflected. Inflected words will always be polymorphemic and the words which are further indivisible into morphemes are monomorphemic. In Urdu connectives, emphatic particles, sentence negatives and most of the
postpositions are indeclinable. Inflected words will have stems and inflectional endings.
Further a stem can be a root stem, a root followed by a stem formative and a compound
stem having two or more roots. In this section, on the basis of form and function of words,
different word classes or lexical categories like nominal, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and
particles etc., are set up and described.
2.1.3. Lexical categories
The five lexical categories are Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition. They carry
meaning, and often words with a similar (synonym) or opposite meaning (antonym) can be
found. Frequently, the noun is said to be a person, place, or thing and the verb is said to be
an event or act. These are semantic definitions. In this chapter, it is shown that semantic
definitions are not completely adequate and that we need to define categories syntactically
(according to what they combine with) and morphologically (according to how the words
are formed). For example, syntactically speaking, kursi: ‘chair’ is a noun because it
combines with the determiner ye ‘this’ as in ye kursi: ‘this chair’; morphologically
speaking, kursi: is a noun because it takes a plural ending yã: as in kursi+yã:= kursiy ã:.
2.1.3.1. Nouns (N) and Verbs (V)
A noun generally indicates a person, place or thing (i.e. this is its meaning). For instance,
kursi ‘chair’, mez ‘table’, and kita:b ‘book’ are nouns since they refer to things. However,
if the distinction between a noun as person, place, or thing and a verb as an event or action
were the only distinction, certain nouns such as action and destruction would be verbs,
since they imply action.
S- 2.1
hə˜sna: sihət ke liye əccha: həe
Laughing health for good is
Laughing is good for health
In the sentence S2.1 above hə˜sna: is nevertheless a noun because its function in the
sentence is typical for nouns rather than verbs. In (S2.1), hə˜sna: is part of the subject.
Some of the major differences between nouns and verbs are summarized in Table 2.1
below.
Table 2.1. Some differences between N(oun) and V(erb)
Morphology a
b
Syntax
c
d
e
Semantics
f
Noun
May have plural markers
May follow possessives
Verb
May have tense markers
Gender Person Number
agreement
May follow determiner
May preceed auxiliary
May be modified by May be modified by adverbs
adjectives
May be followed by post May be followed by nouns
positions
Person, place, thing
Act, event, state, emotion
In Urdu, verbs can be used as nouns. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the context in
which a word occurs, as in (1), for example, hə˜sna: has been used as a noun.
Morphological differences involve the shape of an element while syntactic ones involve
how the element fits in a sentence. The semantic differences involve meaning.
2.1.3.2 Adjectives (Adj) and Adverbs (Adv)
Adverbs and Adjectives are semantically very similar in that both modify another element,
i.e. they describe a quality of another word: jəldi:, tez, fɔrən ‘quickly’, etc. As just
mentioned, the main syntactic distinction is as expressed below:
 The Adjective-Adverb Rule
 An adjective modifies a noun;
 An adverb modifies a verb and
 A degree adverb modifies an adjective or adverb.
Since an adjective modifies a noun, the quality it describes will be one appropriate to a
noun, For example:
nationality/ethnicity əmriki:,
hindusta:ni,
pa:kista:ni:
i:ra:ni:
‘American’
‘Indian
‘Pakistani
‘Iranian’
Size
bəṛa: ‘big’
choṭ a: ‘small’
ləmba: long
Age
kəm umr
zəif
choṭ a:
‘young’
‘old’
‘young’
Color
la:l
pi:la:
ni:la:
‘red’
‘yellow’
blue
Color
la:l
pi:la:
ni:la:
‘red’
‘yellow’
blue
Personal description Insa:ni:
and Character trait
xušqismət
pya:ra:
xuš
‘human’
‘fortunate’
‘lovely’
‘happy’
Adverbs often modify actions and will then provide information typical of action. For
example:
Manner
jəldi:
‘rapidly’
fɔ rən
tez
dhire
‘quickly’
‘fast’
‘slowly’
‘frequently’
‘often’
‘sometime’
‘daily’
Duration
umumən
ba:rha:
kəbhikəbhi
roza:na:
Place
wəhã:
yəhã:
ba:hər
əndər
‘there’
‘here’
‘outside’
‘inside’
Time
təb
əbhi:
kəl
a:j
‘then’
‘now’
‘yesterday’
‘today’
Negation
nəhĩ:
nə
mət (imperative)
‘not’
no
‘don’t’
When adverbs modify adjectives or other adverbs, they are called degree adverbs (bəhut,
‘very’). These degree adverbs have very little meaning (except some that can add flavor to
the degree, such as exceedingly and amazingly) and it is hard to find synonyms or
antonyms. It, therefore, makes more sense to consider this subgroup of adverbs
grammatical categories. To summarize this section, a table listing differences between
adjectives and adverbs will be given below;
Table 2.2. Differences between adjectives and adverb
Morphology a
Syntax
b
Semantics
c
Adjectives
Adverbs
/a:/ ending adj have GNP Ends in ən in some cases eg
agreement
fɔrən
Modify noun
Modify verb, adjective, or
adverb
Describe qualities of N Describe qualities of V,
Adj, Adv
2.1.4 Grammatical categories
The main grammatical categories are Determiner, Auxiliary, Coordinator, and
Complementizer. As also mentioned above, it is hard to define grammatical categories in
terms of meaning because they have very little. Their function is to make the lexical
categories fit together.
2.1.4.1. Determiner (D)
The determiner category in Urdu includes the demonstratives, as well as possessive
pronouns, some quantifiers, some interrogatives, and some numerals. So, determiner (or
D) is an umbrella term for all of these. Determiners occur with a noun to specify which
noun is meant or whose it is.
There are two types of demonstratives in Urdu: (i) proximate and (ii) remote;
Types
Proximate
Remate
Singular
Ye
Wo
Plural
ye səb
wo səb
The lexical categories discussed in this section are defined in semantic, morphological, and
syntactic terms, i.e. according to meaning, word form, and position in the sentence. The
main factor determining the category (in Urdu) is the position in relation to other words.
Grammatical categories can mainly be defined (as their name implies) in terms of their
grammatical function and it is often hard to find a synonym.
2.2. Nominal Morphology:
In the backdrop of the discussion above nominal can be defined morphologically as word
forms which take case markers. Syntactically these forms constitute nominal phrases which
occur as subject and object in the sentence. Nominals further can be sub-classified on the
basis of their common syntactic occurrence into Nouns and Pronouns. Postpositions occur
with the oblique forms of nominals so they are also dealt herewith.
2.2.1. Nouns:
As discussed and deliberated in section 2.1.1, morphologically, a noun represents a class
of lexical items that is inflected for gender, number, and case. Syntactically, the category
noun co-occurs with determiners, adjectives, and postpositions, and functions as subject of
a sentence, object of a verb and a postposition, complement of a verb, modifier of a noun
in a compound noun, and a constituent of the conjunct verb (or, nominal compound verb).
Nouns are inherently masculine or feminine, and count or non-count. Neither animacy nor
natural gender is relevant to grammatical gender of nouns: kita:b‘ book’ is feminine,
ka:ɣəz‘ paper’ is masculine, pa:ni: ‘water’ and du:dh ‘milk’ are masculine, but ca:e ‘tea’
is feminine. The only exception is that natural gender and grammatical gender coincide for
human nouns; other animate nouns belong to one gender category or another, e.g., billi:
‘cat’ is feminine, kutta: ‘dog’ is masculine. The grammatical gender category can be
changed by derivational processes. All nouns in Urdu are assigned a grammatical gender
which may or may not coincide with natural gender. Most abstract nouns are mass nouns
in that they do not show the number distinction, whereas most concrete nouns are count
nouns and are inflected for number.
It suggests that nouns are those forms which show the distinction of gender, number, and
case and indicates a person, place or thing. For instance, /kursi:/‘chair’,/mez/ ‘table’, and
/kita:b/ ‘book’ are nouns since they refer to things.Nouns can be identified as nouns on the
basis of the following norms.
Semantics
Syntax
Indicates a person, place, or thing.
May be modified by adjectives, and adverbs.
May be followed by a postposition and a noun.
Morphology Plural markers may be added.
However, gender, number, and case are not always overtly marked in nouns; many nouns
have zero markers for these grammatical categories. However, nouns have to be described
in terms of gender, number and case markings, as they have consequences for agreement
patterns in sentences. In order to describe the number and gender system, it is necessary
to make a distinction between common and proper nouns. Strictly speaking, only common
nouns inflect for gender, number, and case and co-occur with determiners. Proper nouns
are assigned to specific gender categories and remain the same in all numbers and cases.
2.2.1.1 Number:
Modern Urdu has two numbers for nouns: singular, which is unmarked; and plural, which
is marked depending on the specificity of the four types of Urdu nouns. The number
marking system of Urdu nouns depends on three features of the noun: it's ending, it's
gender, and it's case.
Type A: /a:/ ending Urdu masculine nouns.
To make plurals
/a:/ > /e/
Singular
Plural
ghoṛa: ‘horse’
ghoṛe ‘horses’
ləṛka: ‘boy’
ləṛke ‘boys’
Type B: Consonant ending Urdu masculine nouns.
No change is made to make plurals.
Singular
Plural
ha:th
‘hand’ ha:th
‘hands’
pεr
‘leg’
pεr
‘legs’
Type C: Consonant ending feminine nouns.
To make plurals Urdu uses the suffix /– ẽ/
Singular
Plural
kita:b ‘book’
kita:bẽ ‘books’
ã:kh
‘eye’
ã:khẽ ‘eyes’
mez
‘table’
mezẽ
‘tables’
Type D: /i:/ ending feminine Urdu nouns.
To make plurals the suffix /– iyã: / is added
Singular
Plural
ləṛki: ‘girl’
ləṛkiyã:
‘girls’
kursi: ‘chairs’ kursiyã:
‘chairs’
In addition, Urdu has taken a number of Persian and Arabic plural markers to make Urdu
nouns plural. In modern spoken Urdu suffixes like / a:t/,/a:n/, and/–ha/ has become more
generalized and is used for both animate and inanimate nouns. The suffix /-an/ is still used
sometimes, but only for animate nouns, as shown in examples below;
/–ha/
Noun
gul ‘flower’
ba:r ‘time’
Plural
suffix
ha:
ha:
Plural form
gulha: ‘flowers’
ba:rha: ‘many times’
/a:n/
Noun
mərd ‘man’
mur ɣ
bird’
Plural suffix
a:n
a:n
Plural form
mərdan
‘men’
mur ɣ a:n
‘birds’
It should be noted that the –a:n plural takes the form –ga:n when the stem ends in he
mukhtafi ‘silent h’. The he mukhtafi ‘silent h’ is indicated in Urdu orthography. The rule is
apparently nonproductive does apply to a few relatively frequent nouns. Since the -ha form
is preferred even in these nouns, the -gan plurals are probably lexicalized.
/ ga:n/
Noun
mižə ‘eyelash’
pərinda: ‘bird’
bənda: ‘man’
Plural
suffix
ga:n
ga:n
ga:n
Plural form
mižəga:n ‘eyelashes’
pərind ga:n ‘birds’
bənd ga:n
‘men’
Although nouns of Arabic origin often take Arabic plural form /-at/, many Arabic loans
can also take the Persian plurals -ha and -an. Another Arabic plural, /-jat/, seems lexicalized
in a few words such as səbzi-jat ‘greens’ and meve-jat ‘fruits’.
/a:t/
Noun
Ittefa:q ‘incident’
səwa:l ‘question’
jəwa:b ‘answer’
Plural
suffix
a:t
a:t
a:t
Plural form
Ittefa:qa:t
səwa:la:t
jəwa:ba:t
‘incidents’
‘questions’
‘answers’
In addition, Urdu has taken a number of Arabic nouns whose plurals are irregular. Arabic
nouns often form discontinuous plurals based on a consonantal root, into which are inserted
vowels and consonants. Urdu borrowed both the singular and plural of many of these
words.
Singular
fe’l
šəxs
dəlil
‘verb’
‘ person’
‘reason’
Plural
əf’al
əšxas
dəlayel
‘Verbs’
‘people’
‘reasons’
Sometimes the phonetic forms of the singular and plural are less transparently related,
although Urdu has maintained a consistent singular/plural semantic relationship between
them.
Singular
ru:h
sa:hil
ha:dis
nɔ
‘soul’
‘shore’
‘incident’
‘kind’
Plural
ərva:h
səvahel
həvades
ənva:
‘souls’
‘shores’
‘incidents’
‘kinds’
Occasionally, both the singular and plural Arabic word forms have been maintained
inUrdu, but the semantic singular/plural distinction between them has been lost.
Singular
ha:l
‘health’
That is, one can say either;
S2.2
kya: ha:l
hε
Plural
əhva:l
‘health’
What health is
How is your health? / How are you?
S2.3
kya: əhva:l h ɛ̃
What health is
How is your health? / How are you?
Finally, there are cases where not only is the relationship between the singular and plural
forms phonetically opaque but where the meaning of the plural has diverged from the
meaning of the singular.
Singular
səbəb ‘cause/reason’
Plural
əsba:b ‘ cause/goods’
2.1.1.2 Gender:
As has been mentioned before, all nouns in Urdu are assigned to either masculine or
feminine gender. As a very rough and the general rule, words that end with the vowel /a:/
are usually masculine and words that end with /i:/ are usually feminine. But there're two
problems with relying on this; one this doesn’t always hold and two it tells you nothing
about words that end with any other letter. Animate nouns can be distinguished on the basis
of the natural sex distinctions as all male nouns belong to the masculine gender and all
female nouns belong to the feminine gender. Other nouns pose problem so the listing of
the gender of the nouns help. But still some observations are helpful to determine the
gender of the nouns. A few generalizations are made here to determine the gender of the
Urdu nouns.
(a) All the nouns ending in {-a} are masculine. Examples are:
ləṛka:
ghoṛa:
kutta:
‘boy’
‘horse’
‘dog’
(b) Nouns mostly ending in {-i} are feminine in gender.
kIsti:
‘boat’
la:ri:
ləṛki:
ghoṛi:
‘bus’
‘girl’
mare’
For gender determination, one has to depend upon the listing of the native speaker and the
context. So gender is a difficult problem to generalize. Morphologically gender is marked
by certain suffixes like masculine is marked by /-a:/ and feminine is marked by the counter
suffix /-i:/. Besides there are also feminine nouns derived from masculine nouns (which do
not have overt gender marker) by adding certain suffixes like {-ni: -ya:i, -wa: i, -a: i:, εi:}. These suffixes are mostly lexically conditioned except { i:ni:} which are
phonologically conditioned. Some morphophonemic changes take place in certain stems
after the suffixes are added.
/ni:/
Masculine
šer
‘lion’
ūṭ
‘camel’
cor
‘thief’
Feminine
šerni:
ūṭni:
corni:
Masculine
Jeṭh ‘husband’s elder
brother’
devər
‘husband’s
younger brother’
Feminine
Jeṭha:ni: ‘wife of husband’s
elder brother’
devəra:ni: ‘wife of husband’s
elder brother’
Masculine
ma:li:
‘gardener’
dhobi: ‘washer man’
ma:lik
‘owner’
Feminine
malən
‘ ladygardener’
dhobən
‘washerwoman’
malkən
‘ lady owner’
‘lioness’
‘she camel’
‘thief lady’
/a:ni:/
/ən/
In addition Urdu has taken a number of Persian and Arabic feminine markers to make Urdu
nouns feminine. In modern spoken Urdu suffixes like ‘he mukhtafi’ pronounced as / a:/, is
used for both animate and inanimate nouns to make feminine.
Masculine
za:hid
‘ religious man’
Feminine
za:hid + a: = zahida:
musənnif
ša:er
‘writer’
‘poet’
musənnif +a:= musənnifa
ša:er + a:= ša:era:
2.1.1.3. Definiteness/Referentiality:
The semantic category corresponding the most closely to the central function of
grammatical 'definiteness' is identifiability - that is, the expression of whether or not a
referent is familiar or already established in the discourse. C. Lyons (1999:278) observes
that "in languages where the identifiability is represented grammatically, this
representation is definiteness, and definiteness is likely to express identifiability
prototypically". As with other grammatical categories, it is also to be expected that there
are other uses of definiteness which do not relate to identifiability - one of such uses is
inclusiveness (a term due to Hawkins 1978), which is particularly appropriate for nonreferential uses of definiteness with plural and mass noun phrases. Inclusiveness expresses
the fact that the reference is made to the totality of the objects or mass in the context which
satisfy the description (C. Lyons 1999:11).
Urdu has no article comparable to English article ‘a’ or ‘an’. The cardinal numeral /ek/
‘one’ generally followed by / ədəd/ is used to denote indefinite but specific objects. Such
indefinite object nouns are not marked for the accusative dative case
S2.4
/mɛ̃ ne ek ədəd qələm xərida:/
I dative one number pen buy(past)
I bought a pen
Urdu has no article comparable to English “the” either. Consequently, a number of
linguistic devices are used to uniquely identify the referent of the direct object NP.
 All personal pronouns are definite pronouns. All object definite pronouns are
obligatorily marked with the morphological accusative- dative case marker.
S2.5
/mɛ̃ ne un ko dekha:/
I dative to him see (past)
‘I saw him’
S2.6
/tum ne mujhe dekha:/
You dative to me see (past)
‘you saw me’
 All human proper names are definite. These are obligatorily marked with the
morphological accusative- dative case marker.
S2.7
/mɛ̃ ne ha:mid ko hə˜sa:ya:/
I dative to him make laugh(past)
‘I made Hamid laugh’
 Possessive noun phrases are deemed to be definite in Urdu. These sentences are not
obligatorily marked with the morphological accusative- dative case marker.
S2.8
/ us ne mera jism chu liya:/
He oblique my bodu touch ( past)
‘he touched my body’
 The demonstrative pronouns also have the function of marking definiteness through
their deictic or article like functions.
S2.9
/ye kita:b əcchi: h ε /
This book good is
This book is good
2.1.1.4. Case:
Urdu has a genuine case system represented by the direct, oblique and vocative inflected
forms of nouns. So-called case markers such as ne ‘Ergative’ or ko ‘Accusative/Dative’
are better thought of as postpositions which are non-projecting words, selecting the oblique
case form of their noun complements. In Urdu there are three cases:
 The Direct case: The direct case is used when a nominal phrase is not
followed by a postposition.
 The Oblique case: The oblique case is used when a nominal phrase is
followed by a postposition.
 The Vocative case: The vocative case is used for direct address. It has the
same form as the oblique case, except the plural forms are not nasalized.
Like the many prepositions in English (e.g. in, at, on, under, below, of etc.) in Urdu there
exist the so-called postpositions, playing the same role as the English prepositions, having
the same meaning, but with the only difference that they stay after the noun not before it.
For example in English we say "In London", but in Urdu that would be "London in"
(London men). Here are some postpositions:
Urdu postpositions
mẽ
‘in’
se
‘from’
se
‘by’
ka: ke ki:
‘of’
ko
‘to’
pər
‘on’
Examples
kəmre mẽ ‘ in the room’
Kita:b se
‘from the book’
kar se
‘by the car’
Us ki: kita:b ‘his book’
Us ko
‘to him’
mez pər
‘on the table’
The Oblique and Direct Case:
When a word is used with a postposition it is in the Oblique case, in all other cases it is in
the Direct case. The Direct case is rather like the Nominative case in many European
languages.
The Vocative case:
The vocative case is used to indicate direct address (i.e., to show when you are talking
about somebody or something directly. The vocative case applies to nouns and noun
phrases. It is used most frequently with proper nouns (the specific names of things, e.g.,
Simon, Rover), but it is also used with common nouns (names for things, e.g., man, dog).
All the nouns in Urdu are inflected for two numbers (singular and plural) and three case
forms (direct, oblique and vocative). On the basis of the noun inflection all the nouns can
be classified into four sub-types:
 two sub-types of masculine nouns
( Pattern I and II)
 Two sub-types of feminine nouns.
( Pattern III and IV)
 All the masculine nouns ending in {-a:} belong to “ pattern I” type are inflected
like /ləṛka:/ ‘boy’
 All the other masculine nouns fall into “pattern II” type inflect like /sa:nd?/
‘bullock’ or /a:dmi:/ man
 And all the feminine nouns ending in {-i} fall into “pattern III”and are inflected
like
/ ləṛki:/ ‘girl’
 All the other feminine nouns fall into “pattern IV” are inflected like /ga:e/ and
/bəhən/ sister.
The syntactic and semantic functions of noun phrases can be expressed by case suffixes,
postpositions and derivational processes Word order plays a role only in the non-ergative
construction where inanimate objects do not distinguish themselves from subjects in terms
of case-marking. Let us observe the paradigms of unmarked masculine and feminine;
/ləṛka:/ 'boy' and /ləṛki:/'girl' /a:dmi:/ ‘man’ and /bəhən/ ‘sister’ to examine the role of
suffixes and postpositions to convey different cases.
The paradigm is given below:
Pattern I
Unmarked Masculine:
CASES
Direct
Oblique
/lə ṛ ka:/ 'boy' (ms)
NOUN
/ləṛka:/
/ləṛke/
/ləṛke/
/ləṛk õ /
Vocative /ləṛke/
/ləṛko/
POSTPOSITION
(singular)
0
(plural)
0
(singular) ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki: (genitive)
(Plural)
ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki:/ (genitive)
(singular)
(plural)
Pattern II:
Marked Masculine: /a:dmi:/ 'man' (ms)
CASES
NOUN
POSTPOSITION
Direct
a:dmi:
a:dmi:
a:dmi:
(singular)
(plural)
(singular)
0
0
Oblique
ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki: (genitive)
a:dmiyõ (Plural) ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki:/ (genitive)
Vocative a:dmi:
(singular)
a:dmiyo (plural)
Pattern III:
Marked Feminine: /ləṛki:/ 'girl' (fem)
CASES
Direct
Oblique
NOUN
ləṛki:
ləṛkiyã:
ləṛki::
POSTPOSITION
(singular)
(plural)
(singular)
ləṛkiyõ
(Plural)
Vocative ləṛki:
(singular)
ləṛkiyo (plural)
Pattern IV:
Marked Feminine:
/bəhən/ 'sister' (fm)
0
0
ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki: (genitive)
ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki:/ (genitive)
CASES
Direct
Oblique
NOUN
bəhən
bəhənẽ
bəhən
bəhənõ
Vocative bəhən
bəhəno
POSTPOSITION
(singular) 0
(plural)
0
(singular) ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki: (genitive)
(Plural)
ne (ergative)
ko (accusative/dative)
se (instrumental)
ke (locative)
ka:/ke/ki:/ (genitive)
(singular)
(plural)
The tables given suggest that above case suffixes bring forth some morphophonemic
changes in the stem of a noun. However, morphophonemic change alone cannot denote
case relationship. The semantic content of postpositions is essentially similar to that of
traditional case markers. They are not affixed to nouns. In transitive perfective sentences,
the postposition /ne/ occurs with the subject. With the exception of the genitive
postposition /ka:/ which is inflected for number, gender, and case, the postpositions are
invariant.
Inanimate nouns usually do not take the accusative postposition whereas animate objects
require it. The function of niiu with inanimate nouns is that of a definitizer, as exemplified
by the following sentences.
S2.10
mɛ̃ ne kitab
uṭ ha:i:
I dative book pick ( past)
I picked the book up
S2.11
mɛ̃ ne kitab ko uṭ ha:ya:
I dative book to pick ( past)
I picked the book up
In addition to performing the function of indicating case relationships, postpositions
perform a wide variety of other syntactic and semantic functions, ranging from those of
adverbs and adverbial conjunctions to those of pseudo-nouns, as shown in the following
sentences.
In this sentence / ke pa:s/ ' proximity of’ is used as a compound postposition with a pseudo
head pa:s of a noun phrase with /ke/ as a modifying postpositional phrase. The pseudo
head /pa:s/is followed by either the locative postposition vice 'in' or the instrumental
postposition to 'from'.
As pointed out above, the nouns in addition to gender show the distinction of number and
case and there is no overt case suffix rather it is fused with number and in some nouns with
gender and number.
2.1.2. Pronouns:
Pronouns are inflected for number and case. Broadly, there are seven classes of pronouns
inUrdu: personal, demonstrative, relative, possessive, reflexive, interrogative, and
indefinite. Pronouns in the direct and oblique cases are presented below.
2.1.2.1. Personal Pronouns:
Urdu distinguishes between 1st, 2nd and 3rd [+human] personal pronouns in both singular
and plural:
Direct case
Person
Ist
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
Singular
mɛ̃
‘ I’
tu:
‘ you’
a:p ‘you’ (hon)
ye
‘this’
vo
‘he’
Plural
həm
‘ we’
tum
‘ you’
a:p log ‘ you people’
ye səb ‘these’
vo log ‘those people’
In Urdu, the personal pronoun /a:p/ is used as an honorific form of address for both singular
and plural subjects. In the polite speech, it is occasionally used for a person spoken about
in place of /tum/. /tu:/ and /tum/ is restricted to family and close friends. The plural form
/a:p/is used when addressing someone less familiar. /a:p/ is also used to convey the
speaker’s respect for the hearer based on the age or status relationship between them. For
example, grandchildren nearly always use /a:p/ when addressing their parents and
grandparents; they, in turn, use /tum/ toward their children. Between contiguous
generations there is some variation on the use of /tum/ and /a:p/. In some families, children
may refer to parents as /tum/ while in others /a:p/ is preferred. Pronoun use between persons
of different social status also varies. Typically, persons of different social status, such as a
professor and student, will each use /a:p/ when addressing the other.The term /log/ may be
attached to a plural pronoun for defining or emphasizing plurality.
Dative case
/ko/
Person
Ist
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
Ergative
case
/ne /
Person
Singular
Plural
Ist
mɛ̃
tu:
a:p
Is
Us
həm
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
Locative case
/pər /
Singular
mujhe / mujh ko
tu:jhe/ tere ko
a:p ko
Ise
Use
ne
ne
ne
ne
ne
Person
Ist
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
Singular
mujh
pər
tujh
pər
a:p
pər
Is
pər
Us
pər
Plural
həmẽ/ ham ko
tumhẽ
a:p ko
inhẽ
unhẽ
ne
tum
ne
a:p logõ ne
Us
ne
Unhõ ne
Plural
həm
pər
tum
pər
a:p logõ pər
In
pər
Un
pər
Ablative
case
/se /
Person
Singular
Plural
Ist
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
mujh se
tujh se
a:p
se
Is
se
Us
se
həm
se
tum
se
a:p logõ se
In
se
Un
se
Genetive
Case
/ka: ke ki /
Person
Singular
Plural
Ist
mera:
həma:ra:
IInd
IInd Honorific
IIIrd Proximate
Remote
tera:
a:p
Is
Us
ka:
ka:
ka:
tumha:ra:
a:p logõ ka:
In
ka:
Un
ka:
In Urdu, all pronouns are free. They occur in all positions subject, direct and indirect object,
object of a postposition, argument of a comparative construction, etc. They are generally
dropped if they are traceable either from the verb or from the context. In non-perfective
tenses, the verb agrees with the subject in number, gender, and the person; therefore, in
such instances pronouns are often dropped.
a: rəhe ho
‘are you coming’
for
tum a: rəhe ho
‘are you coming’
2.1.2.1(a). Number and Gender Marking in Pronouns:
The tables given above suggest that like nouns, Urdu pronouns convey the singular vs.
plural distinction. In conjunction with a plurality, these pronouns also demonstrate the
gender difference in some situations. No masculine/feminine distinction is made in the
pronouns. The third person singular /vo /can mean ‘he’ or ‘she’ for human referents. No
gender distinction is made in the pronouns with regard to the speaker. No formal
distinctions are made in the pronoun system with regard to social class. However, polite
forms of the second and third person singular pronouns are used in certain contexts. Urdu
distinguishes between feminine and masculine pronouns only in the context of the genitive
case:
Genitive
Person
case
/ka: ke ki / Ist
IInd
IInd
Honorofic
IIIrd
Proximate
Masculine
Sing
Plural
mera:
həma:ra:
tera:
tumha:ra:
a:p ka:
a: p logõ ka:
Feminine
Sing
Plural
meri:
həma:ri:
teri:
tumha:ri:
a:p ki:
a:p logõ ki:
Is ka:
Is ki:
in ka:
in ki:
Remote
Us ka:
Un ka:
Us ki:
Un ki:
2.1.2.2. Demonstratives:
Demonstrative pronouns are formally indistinguishable from the third person pronouns.
Demonstrative pronouns can occur adjectivally as well as nominally. Psychological
distancing has precedence over spatial distancing in the selection of demonstrative
pronouns/adjectives. A proximate object or person may be referred to with a remote
pronoun/adjective or vice versa.
2.1.2.3. Reflexives:
Reflexive pronouns are of two types:


agentive reflexive/non-possessive: /xud/ or /a:p/ 'self and
Possessive reflexive: /əpna:/ 'my/our/your/his/her/their own.'
The agentive reflexive can normally never occur in the subject position. The oblique form
of agentive əpna: is əpne which can be followed by a postposition. With locative
postpositions, a:p becomes /əpne/, as exemplified below:
S2.12
əpne mẽ nuqs nə dekho.
refl. in fault neg. see-imp.
'Do not find fault with yourself.'
S2.13
Mujhe xud ko dekhna: hε
Isg[obl] [REFL[pro] REFL[pro]-DAT]
see-PST-1sg
'I saw myself.'
2.1.2.4. Interrogative Pronouns:
All question words begin with the sound /k/ in Urdu.The two main interrogative pronouns
are: /kɔn/ 'who', and /kya:/ 'what'. The former is used for human referents and the latter for
non-human referents, respectively. Their paradigm is given below.
/kaun/- ‘who’
Cases
Singular
Plural
Ergative
Accusative/Dative
Instrumental/Ablative
Genitive
kɔn
kis ne
kise/ kis ko
kis se
kis ka:
kɔn
kin ne
kinhẽ/ kin ko
kin se
kin ka:
CASES
Nominative
Ergative
Accusative/Dative
Instrumental/Ablative
Genitive
Singular
kya:
kis ne
kise/kis ko
kis se
kis ka:
Plural
kya:
kin ne
kinhẽ/kin ko
kin se
kin ka:
Nominative
/kya:/- ‘what’
2.1.2.5. Indefinite Pronouns:
Indefinite pronouns in Urdu are:/ koi:/ 'some (one/thing)', /kəi:/ 'several'. Following is a list
of the indefinite pronouns:
Direct
oblique
Singular
koi:
kis
Plural
kəi:
kin
Urdu has several nonspecific indefinite pronouns like /ba:z/ ‘some people’ as in;
S2.14
ba:z log ira:de nəhĩ: rəkhte
some people none will NEG-have
‘Some people have no will.’
Other nonspecific indefinite pronouns is/hər kəs/‘anyone’, and /fəla:n/
‘anything/something’. /fəla:n/ is often followed by /shəxs/‘person’ or /ci:z/ ‘thing’. In other
cases, a nonspecific indefinite referent is indicated through obligatory ellipsis of the third
person plural pronoun.
S2.15
hər kəso na:kəs ira:da: nəhĩ: rəkhta:
some people none will NEG-have
‘Some people have no will.’
2.1.2.6. Relative Pronouns
Urdu has one relative pronoun:/ jo/ ‘who, which, that, what’ in both the singular and plural.
It is accompanied with /voh/ in the main sentence called correlative of /jo/. The term log
may be added to /jo/ to indicate or emphasize the plurality: /jo log/. The oblique forms of
the Urdu relative pronoun used along with the case signs are is given below to elaborate
the set of oblique relative pronouns.
Cases
Singular
Plural
Ergative
jis ne
Jinhon ne
Accusative/Dative
jise/jis ko
jinhẽ /jin ko
Instrumental/Ablative
jis se
jin se
Genitive
jis ka:
jin ka:
Nominative
2.1.3.. Derivation of Nouns:
Nouns are derived from stems of various word classes such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
All the nouns are derived only by suffixation as these suffixes also help in determining the
gender of the nouns.




Rules from Prakrit / Sanskrit (shared with Hindi)
Rules from Persian
Rules from Arabic
Rules from Prakrit / Sanskrit – shared with Hindi.
2.1.3.1. Diminutives:
Urdu has various methods of forming diminutives which can be either shared with Hindi
or are simply unique. For example kita:b (=book) gives kita:bca: (=booklet) in Urdu which
is the Persian rule of making diminutives. In Urdu diminutives are formed from nonhuman nouns as certain nouns show the contrast of small and big size and young ones.
Below are more examples of how Urdu forms diminutives. The idea is to give the rules of
diminutive formation with examples here.. Urdu has diminutives formed in the following
way:
A. Replacing –a: with –i:.
Masculine
ju:ta:
‘shoe’
Diminutive ( feminine)
ju:ti:
‘small shoe / slipper’
ṭ okra:
‘basket’
ṭ okri:
‘small basket’
rəssa:
‘big rope’
rəssi:
‘small rope’
ghən ṭ a:
‘bell’
ghənṭ i:
‘small bell’
B. Adding the following to the end of the noun, sometimes accompanied by internal
vowel changes:
/ iya:/
The suffix iya: expresses the diminutive. It also often carries an overtone of affection.
Though the morpheme is not formally similar to the feminine derivational suffix i:,
however, the diminutive does imply the feminine gender. Another important point to be
noticed is that the long vowel of the original word changes into short vowel.
Masculine
kha:ṭ
‘cot’
ba:g
‘orchard’
cuha:
‘rat’
ḍ ibba:
‘box’
/ -wa: /
Masculine
Diminutive ( feminine)
khəṭ + iya: = khəṭiya: ‘small cot’
ba:g+ iya: = bəg iya: ‘small orchard’
cuh + iya = cuhiya
‘ mouse’
ḍ ib +iya: = ḍ ibiya: ‘small box’
diminutive
(used as a term of endearment)
beṭwa:
‘son’
bəcwa:
‘little boy’
beṭ a:
bəcca:
‘ son’
‘ boy’
Masculine
ṭhik ‘ ’
diminutive
ṭhik+ ra: = ṭhikra: ‘little fragment of earthen vessel’
/-ra: /
/ri: ~ ṛi/
Word
ṭa: ŋ
pələ ŋ
‘ leg’
‘bed’
diminutive ( feminine)
ṭə ŋ +ri: = ṭə ŋ ri:
‘small leg’
pələ ŋ + ṛi: = pələ ŋ ṛi: ‘small bedstead’
/ ṛa:/
Masculine
mukh
‘face’
diminutive
mukhṛa:
‘face’
ṭuk
‘ piece’
ṭuk ṛa:
‘ small piece’
/ək/
Masculine
ḍ hol‘drum’
Diminutive
ḍ holək ‘small drum’
/ola:/
Word
kha:ṭ
ghəṛa:
‘bedstead’
‘ pitcher’
Diminutive
khəṭola:
ghəṛola:
‘small bedstead’
‘ small pitcher’
 Rules from Persian
/ci:/
The suffix ci: also expresses the diminutive in Urdu. Though the morpheme is not formally
similar to the feminine derivational suffix i:, however, the diminutive does imply the
feminine gender.
Masculine
Dimunitive ( feminine)
de ɣ ‘cooking vessel’
de ɣ +ci: = de ɣ ci: ‘ smallcooking vessel’
sənduq
sənduq+ci:= sənduqci ‘small wooden box’
‘wooden box’
/ca:/
The suffix ica: also expresses the diminutive in Urdu. The diminutive does imply the
masculine gender.
Masculine
Diminutive ( feminine)
ba: ɣ
‘ garden’
əfsa:na: ‘ short story’
kita:b
‘book’
rozna:ma:
‘diary’
ba: ɣ +ica: = ba: ɣ ica: ‘ small garden’
əfsa:n+ca: = əfsa:nca ‘ very short story’
kita:b+ ca: = kita:bca: ‘small book’
rozna:m+ca: = rozna:m+ca: ‘small diary’
 Rules from Arabic
Diminutive are formed by the insertion of the diphthong ai / ay to the base letters
accompanied by a vowel change
Word
diminutive
bəhr
‘ sea’
buhayrah
‘ large lake’
The Arabic diminutive form (‫ ) فُ َعیل‬fuayl are most often found in proper names used by
Urdu speakers, rather than in common nouns used in Urdu:
Word
tifl
həsən
jund
‘child’
‘good’
‘soldier’
diminutive
tufail
‘baby’
husain
‘little good’
junaid
‘little soldier’
2.1.4. Compound Nouns:
In Urdu, three types of compounds: endocentric, exocentric and copulative compounds are
generally found. According to Anderson (1995a [1985]:40), compounding is "word
formation based on the combination of two or more members of (potentially) open lexical
classes." Furthermore, in contrast to coordinated phrases, compounds are lexical items,
formed by rules of word formation; they are words while phrases are not.
2.1.4.1 Endocentric Compound:
In endocentric compounds, the modifying member assigns some property to the head
member of the compound. In Urdu, the modifying member is first in the sequence while
the head member is second. For example;
Free form + Free form
b εl + ga: ṛi
rel + ga: ṛi
rešmi:+ sa:ri:
Jigri: + dost
Compound
b εl ga ṛi :
'bullock cart'
rel ga: ṛi:
‘Train’
rešmi:sa:ri:
‘silk sari’
jigri: dost
‘close friend’
2.1.4.2 Exocentric Compounds:
Exocentric compounds (traditionally referred to as bahuvrīhi) are made up of two
components, where the first component modifies the second, and the second component
modifies some other entity. The examples are;
Free form + Free
form
pətthər + dil
gul
+ bədən
simi: + tən
sə ŋ + dil
Compound
pətthərdil
gulbədən
simi: tən
səŋ dil
‘stone hearted’= cruel
‘flowerbody’ = beautiful
‘silverbody’ = beautiful
‘stone hearted’= cruel
2.1.4.3. Copulative Compound:
A copulative compound in Urdu consists of the juxtaposition of two words which form a
new, closely related entity. Abbi (2001:173) defines this category as follows: "There is a
third type known as 'appositional' or 'associative' compound (or dwandwa in the Indian
grammatical tradition) formed simply by conjunction of two elements without any
dependency relation existing between them, e.g.
Free form + Free Compound
form
ra:t + din
'night' + 'day' = 'around the clock'
‘pulses' + 'bread' = 'existence’
da:l + roṭi:
The two constituents in copulative compounds could either be of polar quality of the same
semantic range or incorporate the salient characteristics of the same semantic field. The
referential range of such a compound form, therefore, includes the whole semantic field to
which the two constituents belong. If the compound consists of two [+HUMAN] nouns
these will refer to both of the original entities.
Free form + Free form
ma: + ba:p
bha:i + bəhən
bivi + bəcce
be ṭ a: + beṭ i:
Compound
ma: ba:p
‘mother father’
bha:ibəhən ‘ brothersister’
bivi bəcce
‘wife kids’
beṭ a: beṭ i: ‘sons and daughters’
If the noun is [-HUMAN] as shown in the examples below reference to the original entities
is not required. Therefore in the examples below the speaker is referring to cattle in the
general sense; the cattle, in this case, may consist of either buffaloes or cows or both
buffaloes and cows.
Free form + Free form
Compound
ga:e + bh ɛ̃ s
ga:e bhɛ̃ s
‘cattle’
In addition to the parallel copulative compounds in, Urdu also has (a) synonym and (b)
antonym copulative compounds.
(a) synonym
Free form + Free form
dukh + dərd
pya:r + muhəbbət
Compound
dukhdərd
‘sorrow’
pya:rmuhəbbət ‘love’
( b ) antonym
Free form + Free form
subəh + ša:m
ra:t
+ din
Compound
subəh ša:m ‘around the clock’
ra:t din ‘around the clock’
It puts forward that compound nouns in Urdu are formed variously such as by reduplication
and partial reduplication of the noun stems termed as echo-words where two constituents
having similar meanings are joined together by linking affixes. All these mechanism of
forming compound nouns are described below:
2.1.5. Reduplication of Nouns:
Reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it)
or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. This section will discuss
the use of reduplication and its effect on the semantics of the Urdu phrase. In Urdu,
reduplication construction has both emphatic (EMPH) and distributive connotation. The
EMPH construction indicates exclusiveness (that is, it denotes a "nothing but x"-quality)
while the distributive constructions attempt to cover the whole range of area as reflected in
the example ‘gaon gaon’ “ village to village”
Emphatic:
S2.16
həḍ ḍ i: həḍ ḍ i: ṭ u:ṭ
gəi
Nothing but bones were broken (EMPH bones)
Distributive:
S2.17
pətta pətta bu:ṭa: buṭ a: ha:l həma:ra: ja:ne hε
leaves to leaves buds to buds know my condition
2.1.5.1 Echo-Words:
In echo formation, a word is followed by a repetition of the same word in a slightly
modified form. Such words are formed in Urdu by altering the first consonant to /v/ in the
second reduplicated element and there is no change in the first element which is
meaningful. The second element is only the echo-form does not occur by itself, extends the
meaning of the stem-like ‘such things etc.’ A few examples are: ca:e va:e , ‘tea and the
like’kha:na: va:na: ‘meals and the like.’ It suggests that the extremely productive echo
reduplication construction in Urdu uses a Fixed Segment (fixed segment), normally /v /, as
shown in the following examples:
S2.18
kita:b ‘book’
voh kita:b nəhin pərhta.
voh kita:b vita:b nəhin pərhta
‘He doesn’t read books.’
He doesn’t read books or anything.’
In this type both the elements have similar meanings or both are synonyms but these
elements occur in the same order. The second element simply extends the meaning of the
first element. The vast majority of Urdu speakers prefer /v/ as their default fixed segment
in echo reduplication; however, there are some individuals who prefer other consonants as
a possible fixed segment. In the west Urdu dialect (PunjabiUrdu), the most prevalent
consonantal fixed segments after /v / is the fricative /š/.
kita:b šita:b
ca:e ša:e
roṭ i: šoṭ i:
pa:ni: ša:ni:
‘books or anything’
‘tea or anything’
‘bread or anything’
water or anything
In some situations, Urdu speakers prefer to preserve the initial consonant, and instead
replace the vowel of the first syllable to /u / or /a /, serving as a vocalic fixed segment
səza:
səza:suza:
Punishment
punishment or anything
kha:na:
kha:na: khu:na:
Food
Food or anything
topi:
ṭ opi ṭ a:pi
Cap
cap or anything
Urdu noun echo words can broadly be divided into the following three categories;
1. Nominal :
kita:b
kita:bvita:b
2. Proper name:
za:hid
za:hid va:hid
3.
Derogatory :
bu ṛha:
buṛha: vuṛha:
Book
Book or anything
Proper name
Zahid and his associates
Old man
Old man and his associates
2.1.5.2. Onomatopoeic Words:
There is another class of compound nouns which may be termed as onomatopoetic words.
In onomatopoeic structures, the word representing the imitation of the sound is repeated.
Onomatopoeic words denote the vocal imitation of the sound associated with it. Most of
these forms occur in reduplication. A few examples are:
chi:chi:
khəṭ khəṭ
miya:õ miya:õ
dhək dhək
ku: ku:
pi:pi:
phəṭ phə ṭ
2.1.6. Numerals:
2.1.6.1Cardinal numbers:
‘squash’
‘knock’
‘mew’
‘Heart beat’
‘Cuckoo’
‘Chirping’
‘Sound’
The cardinal numbers 1–100 are as follows. Compound numerals can be created by using
the morphophonemic changes between two numerals, with the smaller number preceding
the larger number.
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
Ikya:vən
ba:vən
tirepən
cauvən
pəcpən
chəppən
sənta:vən
ən ṭ ha:vən
Unsəṭ h
10
11
12
13
14 cɔ dəh
15 pəndrəh
16 soləh
17 sətrəh
18 əṭṭha:rəh
19 Unnis
20 bi:s
21 Ikki:s
22 ba:is
23 teis
24 cɔ bi:s
60
61
62
63
64
sa: ṭ h
Iksəṭ h
ba:səṭ h
tiresəṭ h
pəcci:s
chəbbi:s
sətta:is
əṭṭha:is
Unti:s
ti:s
Ikti:s
bəttis
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
cɔ həttər
pəchəttər
chihəttər
sathəttər
əṭhəttər
Una:si:
əssi:
Ikya:si:
bira:si:
tira:si:
84
chura:si:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
ek
do
ti:n
ca:r
pã:c
che
sa:t
a: ṭh
nɔ
Dəs
gya:rəh
ba:rəh
terəh
t ɛ̃ tis
34 c tis
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
c ɔ̃ səṭ h
painsəṭ h
chya:səṭ h
sərsəṭh
ərsəṭh
unhəttər
səttər
Ikhəttər
bəhəttər
tihəttər
85
pəccha:si:
86
87
chya:si:
səta:si:
88
89
90
91
92
93
əṭha:si:
nəwa:si:
nəbbe
Ikya:nbe
ba:nbe
tira:nbe
44 cɔ wa:lis
45 p ɛ̃ nta:lis
94
95
c ɔ ra :nbe
pənca:nbe
46 cheya:lis
47 s ɛ̃ ta:lis
48 ərta:lis
49 Unca:s
50 pəca:s
96
97
chya:nbe
sənta:nbe
98
99
100
ənthanbe
nina:nbe
35 p ɛ̃ tis
36 chəttis
37 s ɛ̃ tis
38
39
40
41
42
43
ə ṛ ti:s
Uncha:lis
ca:lis
Ikta:lis
bya:lis
t ɛ̃ ta:lis
Sɔ
2.1.6.2. Ordinal Numerals:
Ordinal numbers in Urdu have been borrowed mainly from Persian which are formed by
adding the suffix / əm/ to the Persian cardinal numbers. This derivational process is regular
with the exception of the first three ordinals. The Arabic ordinal əvvəl ‘first’ is used to
mean ‘first’, though the regular form yekəm ‘first’ is used for all compounds. The ordinals
‘first’ through ‘tenth’ are given below.
əvvəl
doyəm
soyəm
cəharəm
pənjəm
‘first’
‘second’
‘third’
‘fourth’
‘fifth’
šišəm
həftəm
həštəm
nohəm
dəhəm
‘sixth’
‘seventh’
‘eighth’
‘ninth’
‘tenth’
2.1.7. Adjectives:
Adjectives are defined syntactically as class of words which occur as a modifier of nouns
in noun phrases and also as a complement of the noun in the copula sentence. There are
various kinds of adjectives which occur as modifiers of nouns in a construction and in a
construction five to six adjectives can occur together. When two or more adjectives occur
together their order is very important.
2.1.7.1. Kinds of Adjectives:
There are various kinds of adjectives which occur as modifiers of nouns in a construction
and in a construction five to six adjectives can occur together. When two or more adjectives
occur together their order is very important. For example:
S2.19
ye
mere pəhle do
bəhut
əcche ghər hɛ̃
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
N
V
these my
first two
very good houses are
"These are my first two very good houses"
Besides all the adjectives can occur as modifiers of the nouns before the noun in a noun
phrase but when two or more modifiers occur together then these occur in a particular order
i.e., qualitative adjective occupies the immediate preceding position to a noun head and
quantitative precedes the qualitative. Among the quantitative numerals precede the other
quantitative. Among the numerals-cardinals and ordinals any of these can precede the other
as shown in the above example. Genitival (possessive) precedes the quantitative.
Demonstratives occupy the leftmost position in the phrase, as no modifier can precede it.
On the basis of the above there are six kinds of adjectives.
 A1 class:
All the demonstratives fall in this class as treated in the pronouns.
 A2 Class:
All the genitival pronouns and nouns fall into this class. {- -~-r-~} inflected for gender,
number and case occur after the oblique nominal forms agree with the head noun.
 A3 Class:
All the cardinal numerals fall in this class.
 A4 Class:
All the ordinal numbers fall in this class. A few examples are in masculine singular
form:
 A5 Class:
All the quantitative and degree adjectives which also modify the qualitative adjectives
fall in this class.
 A6 Class:
All the qualitative adjectives fall in this class. A few adjectives falling in this class are
given below in the direct masculine singular form:
2.1.7.2. Reduplicated Adjectives:
Reduplicated and echo-compounds represent the most productive way of forming
adjectival compounds. Some examples of adjectival compounds are as follows:
A. Reduplicated:
ṭ hi:k + ṭ hi:k
ṭ hi:k ṭ hi:k
əcche + əcche
mi: ṭ he + mi: ṭ he
pya:re+ pya:re
əccheəcche
mi:ṭhe mi:ṭ he
pya:re pya:re
‘accurately’
‘nice/ good’
‘very sweet’
Cute
One of the members of a reduplicated adjective functions like an intensifier in these
reduplicated adjectival compounds.
B.
Semantic Reduplication:
xu š +xurrəm
ujla: +səfed
la:l +surx
səbz+həra:
xu š xurrəm
ujla: səfed
la:l surx
səbzhəra:
‘ happy’
‘ pure white’
‘deep red’
‘ deep green’
In semantic reduplication synonym adjectives also perform the function of intensifier, as
in: la:l surx red-red 'deep red' səbz həra: green-green 'deep green'.
C.
Echo adjectives:
ɣ ələt+sələt
səfed+vəfed
həra: +vəra:
səbz+ vəbz
ɣ ələt sələt
səfed vəfed
həra: vəra:
səbz vəbz
‘wrong and etc’
‘white and etc’
‘green and etc’
‘green and etc’
Echo adjectives such asɣ ələt+sələt, like echo nouns, mark indefinitization.
D. Antonyms adjectives:
bhəla:+ bura:
əccha: + bura:
bhəla: bura:
əccha: bura:
‘good and bad’
‘good and bad’
khəṭṭa: + mi: ṭ ha:
sust+ chust
khəṭṭa: mi:ṭ ha:
sust chust
‘sweet and sour’
‘ lazy and active’
Antonyms participate in adjective-adjective compounds, and like noun-noun antonyms,
they yield either conjunctive or disjunctive meaning.
Noun-inflected past participial adjectives are quite frequently used in Urdu. Only a few
representative examples are given below.
sərphira:
dil jəla:
šikəst xurda:
ka:n kəṭ a:
head-spin-(pst.ppl.ms) crazy
Heart- burn (pst.ppl.ms) person defeated in love
Defeat- eat (pst.ppl.ms) defeated
ear-cut- (pst.ppl.ms) '(person) with a deformed ear"
Sometimes a mere verbal stem may replace an inflected past participial adjective, as in the
following example: muh-phəṭ (mouth-be torn) 'frank' Inflected past participial adjectiveinflected past participial adjectives involving a first member with masculine singular and
the second member with feminine singular ending, are quite widespread, as in:
kəha: suni:
dekha: dekhi:
listen-pst.ppl.ms-hear-pst.ppl.fs"heated (discussion)'
see-pst.ppl.ms-see-pst.ppl.fs “ imitated”
The class of numeral-derived nominal adjectives, involving partial reproduction of
numeral, is also not rare in Urdu:
səh+ma:hi:
šəš+ma:hi:
səh mahi:
šəš +mahi:
‘quaterly’
‘six monthly’
The ordinal numerals ‘səh’ three' and ‘šəš’ 'six' represent an original form of Urdu.
2.1.7.3 Derivation of Adjectives:
Many languages have morphological devices to turn a noun into an adjective. Often this
morphology is genuinely derivational in that it adds a semantic predicate. These
morphological devices can easily be found in Urdu. There are some prefixes and suffixes
which are added to various stem classes to form Urdu adjectives. For example:
Noun + /i:/ = ‘Pertaining to’ ki:ta:b + i:= kita:bi:
‘Pertaining to book’
reshəm + i:= reshəmi
dil + i:
= dili
jigər+i:
= jigri:
šəhər+i: = šəhri:
deha:t +i: = deha:ti:
mulk + i: = mulki:
kitabi baten
reshmi rumal
dili taklif
jigri dost
šəhri: a:dmi:
deha:ti: ənda:z
mulki:məsa:il
‘Pertaining to silk’
‘Pertaining to heart’
‘Pertaining to heart’
‘Pertaining to city’
‘Pertaining to village’
‘Pertaining to country’
‘Bookish talk’
‘Silky handkerchief’
‘Heartfelt sorrow’
‘valued friend’
‘ cunning person’
‘simplistic style’
Problems of the country’
The derivational affixation process depends on Urdu prefixes and suffixes.These prefixes
and suffixes have been elaborated further in the examples given below:
Prefix:
/həm/ acts as a prefix primarily with words of Persian origin to render adjectives. It denotes
meanings such as 'equal', 'same', 'mutual'.
həm+zəba:n
həm+dərd
həm+ šəkl
həm+xyal
həm+dəm
həm+umr
həmzəba:n
həmdərd
həm šəkl
həmxya:l
həmdəm
həmumr
‘speaker of same language’
'sympathizer'
‘of same face’
of same view point’
‘friend’
‘of same age’
/be/
be+ ja:n
be+ hosh
be+ cain
be+ səbr
be+ qəsu:r
be+ bunya:d
be ja:n
be hosh
be cain
be səbr
be+ qəsu:r
be+ bunya:d
‘lifeless’
‘senseless’
‘restless’
‘without patience’
‘innocent’
‘baseless’
be+ xəbər
be+ xəbər
‘ without information’
/la:/
la:+va:ris
la:+ila:j
la:+jəwa:b
la:+ilm
la:+məhdud
la:+fa:ni:
la:+ š əur
la:+va:ris
la:ila:j
la:jəwa:b
la: ilm
la: məhdud
la: fa:ni:
la: š əur
‘without successor’
‘incurable’
‘speechless’
‘without knowledge’
‘without limit’
‘time less’
‘subconscious’
/bəd/
bəd+ qismət
bəd+mizaj
bəd+guman
bəd+surat
bəd+təmiz
bəd+dima:gh
bəd+ zəba:n
bəd qismat
bəd mizaj
bəd guman
bəd surat
bəd təmiz
bəd dima:gh
bəd zəba:n
‘unlucky’
‘short tempered’
‘ ill feeling’
‘ugly’
‘uncivilized’
‘arrogant’
‘arrogant’
/kəm/'insufficient/less' The adjective kam 'less' when used as a prefix particularly with
words of Perso-Arabic origin renders the meaning of insufficiency.
kəm + zor
kəm + bəxt
kəm +əql
kəm +fəhəm
kəm + sin
kəm zor
kəm bəxt
kəm əql
kəm fəhəm
kəm sin
'weak'
'unfortunate'
'foolish'
'foolish'
‘young’
/xush/- 'happy' The Persian adjective -xush when used as a prefix yields adjectives from
nouns.
xush+ qismət
xush+dil
xush+nəsi:b
xush+liba:s
xush qismət
xush dil
xush nəsi:b
xush liba:s
‘lucky’
‘pleasing’
‘lucky’
‘welldressed’
/ɣεr/ 'foreign, without' This prefix is used with derived adjectives, as in Noun/ Sarkar/,>
Adjective / sarka:ri:/ 'Governmental'
ɣ εr+sərka:ri:
ɣ ε r sərka:ri:
‘unofficial’
ɣ ε r+qa:nuni:
ɣ ε r qa:nuni:
‘unlawful’
ɣ ε r+muna:sib
ɣ ε r muna:sib
‘indecent’
ɣ εr+mutwəqqa:
ɣ ε r mutwəqqa:
‘unexpected’
/ə / the prefix /a-/ is from Sanskrit. The following prefixes are borrowed from Sanskrit and
are restricted to words of Sanskrit origin.
ə+na:th
ə+mul
ə+khand
ə+nyay
əna:th
əmul
əkhand
ənyay
‘orphan’
‘ priceless’
‘indivisible’
‘injustice’
s+ pəriva:r
s+phəl
s pəriva:r
sphəl
‘with family’
‘successful’
ni+dər
ni+sənta:n
nidər
nisənta:n
‘fearless’
‘ childless’
ku+ru:p
ku+ poshən
kuru:p
ku poshən
‘ugly’
‘ weak’
ta:qat+ vər
dida +vər
ja:n+vər
ta:qat vər
didavər
ja:nvər
‘ powerful’
‘visionary’
‘rustic’
chəmək+da:r
chəməkda:r
‘shinning’
/sə/ ‘with’
/ni/ : ‘without’
/ku/ ‘bad’
Suffixes:
/vər/
/da:r/
š a:n +da:r
dəm+da:r
š a:n da:r
dəmda:r
‘splendid’
‘powerful’
/ba:z/: This suffix is borrowed from Persian and suggests habitual agency or
engagement in an act.
pətəng+ ba:z
pətəng ba:z one who flies kite
kəbutər+ ba:z
kəbutər ba:z one who flies pigeon
də ɣ a:+ ba:z
j ã: +ba:z
də ɣ a: ba:z one who betrays
j ã:ba:z
one who plays with life
/ga:r/ : This suffix is borrowed from Persian and is productive with Urdu words.
guna:h+ga:r
gunəhga:r
‘guily’
mədəd+ga:r
mədəd ga:r
‘helper’
xidmət+ga:r
xidmət ga:r
‘servant’
/na:k/ : Like other Persian suffixes, it is sensitive to Perso-Arabic nouns.
xauf+na:k
xaufna:k
‘dreadful’
xətər+na:k
xətərna:k
‘dangerous’
dərd +na:k
dərd na:k
‘painful’
shərm+na:k
Shərmna:k
‘shameful’
/a:na:/: This suffix is often used with nouns of Perso-Arabic origin. It renders masculine
singular adjectives.
dost+a:na:
dosta:na:
‘friendship’
ya:r +a:na:
ya:r a:na:
‘friendship’
mərd+a:na:
mərda:na:
‘manly’
sa:l+a:na:
sa:la:na:
‘yearly’
/i:/ : pertaining to
des+i:
gula:bi+i:
qimət+i:
a:sma:n+i:
desi:
gula:bi:
qiməti:
a:sma:ni:
‘indigenous’
‘rosy
‘expensive’
‘blue’
/a:/ :The meaning of relation and possession is marked by this suffix.
pya:sa:
bhu:ka:
səccha:
maila:
pya:s+a:
bhu:k+a:
səch+a:
mail+a:
‘thirsty’
‘Hungary’
‘truthful’
‘dirty’
/ra:/ The meaning of relation is marked. This suffix is productive with the kinship terms.
Some morphophonemic changes can easily be noticed. As the result of the attachment of
this suffix, the monosyllabic stems undergo vowel alternation.
chəche+ra:
xa:la:+ra:
phupha+ra:
mausi+ra:
chəchera: ‘cousin related to fathers brother’
xəlera: ‘cousin related to mothers sister’
phuphera: ‘ cousin related to fathers sister’
mause+ra: ‘cousin related to fathers brother’
/va:n/: The suffix conveys the sense of possession.
bəl+va:n
dhən+va:n
gun+va:n
bəlva:n
dhənva:n
gunva:n
‘powerful’
‘rich’
‘talented’
Adjectives from verbs:
Adjectives from verbs are found in the form of participles. There are two participles which
can function as adjectives: present and past participles. Like any other adjectives ending in
/a:/, the participles agree with the number and gender of the following noun.
/ hənsta:/ laughing
hənsta: bəcca:
hənsti: bəcci
hənste bəcce
masc sing
fem sing
masc plural
In the oblique case only the masculine singular forms are affected (a: becomes e)
hənste: bəcce ko
hənsti: bəcci ko
hənste bəccõ ko
Adjectives from Adjectives:
masc sing
fem sing
masc plural
ɣ εr +sərka:ri:
ɣ εrsərka:ri:
‘unofficial’
ɣ εr +qa:nuni:
ɣ εr qa:nuni:
‘unlawful’
ɣ εr +muna:sib
ɣ εr munasib
‘indecent’
ɣ εr +mutwəqqa:
ɣ εrmutwəqqa:
‘unexpected’
/va:la:/ Adjectives from adjectives are derived by the addition of vaalaa 'the one...'
la:l+va:la:
həra:+va:la:
subəh+va:la:
š a:m + va:la:
la:l va:la:
həra: va:la:
subəh va:la:
ša:m va:la:
‘redone’
‘green one’
‘of morning’
‘of evening’
In addition to nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, the two other categories which
facilitate the derivation of adjectives are postpositions and pronouns.
2.1.7.4. . Adverbs,
(spatial, temporal, causal, degree adverbs,)
In Urdu adverbs typically precede the verbs and adjectives they modify.
(A)
Noun> Adverb
Any noun can function as an adverb either by positioning it in the preverbal position as in
(S2.20) or by attaching instrumental and locative postpositions to it (as in (S2.21) and
(S2.22)).
S2.20
/ vo ghə r gəya:/
house go-pst.
'He went home’.
S2.21
seb ca:qu: se ka: ṭ o
Apple with the knife cutImperative
‘Cut the apple with the knife’.
S2.22
a:j kəl vo dilli men rəhta: h ε
Nowadays he Delhi in lives masc
‘Nowadays he lives in Delhi'
(A) Nouns > Adverbs with postposition:
ha:th >
ha:th>
ha:th>
ha:th se
ha:th pər
ha:th me
‘by hand’
‘on the hand’
‘in hand’
(C ) Noun + an ( Arabic Adverbial Suffix):
a:dət +ən =
jəbr +ən =
qa:nun +ən =
zərurət+ən =
faur +ən =
məjbur+ən =
a:dətən
jəbrən
qa:nunən
zərurətən
faurən
majburan
‘habitually’
‘by force’
‘by law’
‘by need’
‘quickly’
‘helplessly’
(D)Urdu Adverbs with Persian Suffixes:
/a:na:/
sa:la:na:
ma:ha:na:
roza:na:
‘yearly’
‘monthly’
‘daily’
ta:ri:xva:r
nambarva:r
tarti:bva:r
diva:nava:r
‘by date’
‘by number’
‘in order’
‘crazy like’
/va:r/
(E) Urdu Adverbs with Persian Prefixes:
/hər/
hərsa:l
hərma:h
hərroz
‘yearly’
‘monthly’
‘daily’
bexaufi:
besəda:
bexubi
bezudi
berəŋg
/be/
‘fearless’
‘quietly’
‘well’
‘soon’
‘colorlessly’
(F) Adverbs from Adjectives:
As mentioned earlier, adverbs and adjectives generally have the same form. With the
exception of a few derivational affixes, there is no morphological means to derive adverbs
from adjectives and vice versa.
( G ) Adverbs from Verbs:
It is very common to derive adverbs from verbs by means of a participialization strategy.
Both present and past participles function as adverbs. Here are some examples of the
participial forms used as adverbs.
S2.23(a)
voh muskurate hue bola
He smile-prst.ppl speak-pstms
He spoke (while) smiling.'
S2.23(b)
vo khã:ste hue bola
He cough-prst.ppl speak-pstms
He spoke (while) coughing .'
( H ) Adverbs from Pronouns:
Adverbs are derived from pronouns by the addition of locative, and manner pronouns. The
first two suffixes yield locative adverbs whereas the last renders manner adverb.
Locative
kəha:n
kidhər
Jidhər
Manner
‘where’
‘where to’
‘towards’
aise
waise
kaise
‘like this’
‘ like that’
‘how’
(I) Adverb of Manner:
(i) Method:
dhire
Jəldi
tez
‘slow’
‘quick’
‘fast’
(ii) Decisiveness:
zərur
la:zmi
yəqinən
‘definitely’
‘compulsory’
‘definitely’
(iii)Indecisiveness:
əksər
kəbhi:
‘ most of the time’
‘some time’
(iv) Purpose:
Is liye
kis liye
‘for this reason’
‘for what reason’
nəhĩ:
mət
‘negation’
‘negation’ Imperative
(v) Negation:
(vi) Concept:
tək
‘up to’
a:j
kəl
subəh
sha:m
‘today’
‘tomorrow’
‘ morning’
‘evening’
( J ) Adverb of Time:
(i) Point:
(ii) Duration:
a:j kəl
In dinon
(iii) Frequency:
hər din
hər roz
hər sa:
hər ləmha:
(K) Adverb of Place:
(i) Position:
a:s pa:s
ca:ro or
(ii) Direction:
u:pər
nice
Idhər
Udhər
Is tərəf
Us tərəf
(L) Adverbs of Quality:
(i) Excess
bəhut
zəya:da:
(ii) Minimal
thora:
kəm
‘these days’
‘now a days’
‘every day’
‘every day’
‘every year’
‘every moment’
‘nearby’
‘all around’
‘ upward’
‘downward’
‘this side’
‘that side’
‘this side’
‘that side’
‘too many’
‘too many’
‘a little’
‘a little’
(M) Reduplicated Adverb:
Reduplicated and echo-compounds represent the most productive way of forming adverbial
compounds. Some examples of adverbial compounds are as follows:
A. Reduplicated
cəlte+cəlte
dekhte +dekhte
sunte +sunte
hənste+hənste
cəltecəlte
dekhte dekhte
sunte sunte
hənstehənste
‘Continuous walking’
‘Continuous seeing’
‘Continuous listening’
‘Continuous laughing’
One of the members of a reduplicated adverb functions like an intensifier in these
reduplicated adverbial compounds.
B. Semantic Reduplication:
kha:te +pi:te
hənste +bolte
sote + bεṭhte
kha:te pi:te
hənste bolte
sote bεṭhte
Eating drinking
Laughing talking
Sleeping siting
In semantic reduplication synonym adjectives also perform the function of intensifier, as
in: la:l surx red-red 'deep red' səbz həra: green-green 'deep green'.
C. Echo Adjectives:
ɣəlt+sələt
səfed+vəfed
həra: +vara:
səbz+ vəbz
ɣəlt səlat
səfed vəfed
həra: vəra:
səbz vəbz
‘wrong and etc’
‘white and etc’
‘green and etc’
‘green and etc’
Echo adjectives such as ghəlt+sələt, like echo nouns, mark indefinitization.
D. Antonyms Adjectives:
bhəla:+ bura:
əccha: + bura:
khəṭ ṭ a:+ mi:ṭ ha:
sust+ chust
bhəla: bura:
əccha: bura:
khəṭ ṭ a: mi: ṭ ha:
sust chust
‘good and bad’
‘good and bad’
‘sweet and sour’
‘ lazy and active’
Antonyms participate in adjective-adjective compounds, and like noun-noun antonyms,
they yield either conjunctive or disjunctive meaning.
Noun-inflected past participial adjectives are quite frequently used in Urdu. Only a few
representative examples are given below.
sərphira:
dil jəla:
šikəst xurda:
ka:n kəṭ a:
head-spin-(pst.ppl.ms) crazy
Heart- burn (pst.ppl.ms) person defeated in love
Defeat- eat (pst.ppl.ms) defeated
ear-cut- (pst.ppl.ms) '(person) with a deformed ear"
Sometimes a mere verbal stem may replace an inflected past participial adjective, as in the
following example: muh-phəṭ (mouth-be torn) 'frank' Inflected past participial adjectiveinflected past participial adjectives involving a first member with masculine singular and
the second member with feminine singular ending, are quite widespread, as in:
kəha: suni:
dekha: dekhi
listen-pst.ppl.ms-hear-pst.ppl.fs"heated (discussion)'
see-pst.ppl.ms-see-pst.ppl.fs “ imitated”
2.2.Verbal morphology (with a list of verbal grammatical categories):
In this section, the verbs that can appear together in a Verb Phrase (VP) are discussed in
more detail. A VP is built around a verb and the latter can be in the present future or past
tense. Some VPs include other obligatory material, i.e. words or phrases that cannot easily
be left out, such as the NP, the PP, and the AdjP. These obligatory parts are called
complements. The VP can also include optional material that explains when, where, why,
and how the action or state that the verb describes took place. These optional elements
function as adverbials.
In Urdu, a VP can (in principle) have auxiliary verbs and a lexical verb. Auxiliaries depend
on another verb and add grammatical information. Auxiliaries are also sometimes called
helping verbs since they help out other verbs. For instance, in / vo a:ta: tha: / /tha:/merely
indicates that the action of the lexical verb /a:na:/ was in the past
2.2.1.Verb:
Verb
Lexical verbs of Urdu can further be divided into several subcategories on the basis of the
nature of the role they might have. Some important categories are discussed below:
2.2.1.1. Verbs of Creation
This class of verbs in Urdu involves the creation of a new entity as the result of an action
indicated by the verb. Such a verb needs two essential arguments- agent and theme. For
instance, we may look at the verb /ka:ṛhna:/ ‘to embroider’ in S2.24.
S2.24
ka: ṛhna: ‘to embroider’: <Agent, Theme>
S2.24(a)
ləṛki: ne kashi:da: ka:ṛha:
girl design embroidered
‘The girl embroidered the design’.
S2.24(b)
kəshi:da: ka: ṛha: gaya:
design embroidered was
‘The design was embroidered.’
Some other verbs that can be used in the same way are as follows:
bəna:na:
bunna:
khodna:
likhna:
jotna:
ija:d karna:
khaṛa: karna:
ka:ṛhna:
‘to make’
‘to knit’
‘to dig’
‘to write’
‘to cultivate’
‘to invent’
‘to erect’
‘to embroider’
2.2.1.2 Verbs of Accomplishment
The verbs of accomplishment also take agent and theme as their essential arguments. For
example:
S2.24 kəma:na: ‘to earn’ : <Agent, Theme>
S2.24(a)
əsəd ne pεse
kəma:ye
Asad
money earned
‘Asad earned money.’
In S2.24(a), the NP Asad has the role of the agent to earn and the NP pεse ‘money’ has the
role of theme. This verb has no intransitive counterpart. Some other verbs that can be used,
in the same way, are as follows:
jo ṛna:
sĩ:čna:
‘to connect’
‘to irrigate’
ji:tna:
pəkəṛna:
jəma:kərna:
chi:nna:
‘to win’
‘to capture’
‘to collect’
‘to snatch’
S2.25 joṛdiya: ‘to connect’
S2.25(a)
əsəd ne ta:r joṛdiya:
Asad
wire connected
‘Asad connected the wire.’
S2.26 sĩ:čna: ‘to irrigate’
S2.26 ( a)
kisa:n khet sĩ:č raha: hai
farmer field irrigating is
‘The farmer is irrigating the field.’
2.2.1.3 Verbs of Motion.
Transitive verbs of motion take agent and theme as essential arguments. We may look at
the verb ghəsi:ṭna: ‘to drag’ in S2.27.
S2.27 ghəsi:ṭna: ‘to drag’ <Agent, Theme>
S2.27(a)
ləṛke ne la:š ko ghəsi: ṭ a:
boy
dead body
dragged
‘The boy dragged the dead body’
In, S2.27(a) the NP ləṛka: ‘boy’ is the agent and the NP la: š‘ dead body’ is the theme.
Some other verbs that belong to this set are as follows:
məro ṛ na:
‘to twist’
ṭhelna:
‘to push’
ḍhəkelna:
‘to push’
rokna:
‘to stop’
khĩ:čna:
‘to pull’
khena:
‘to row’
S2.28 məroṛna:
S 2.28 (a)
‘to twist’
ləṛke ne ta:r ko : məro ṛa:
boy wire twisted
‘The boy’ twisted the wire.
S2.29 ṭ helna:
‘to push’
S2.29(a)
ləṛke ne ga:ṛi: ko ṭ hela:
boy
car
pushed
‘The boy pushed the car.’
S2.30 rokna: ‘to stop’
S2.30 (a)
ləṛke ne ga:ṛi: ko roka:
boy
car
stopped
‘The boy stopped the car.’
S2.31 khĩ:čna:
‘to pull’
S2.31 (a)
ləṛke ne rəssi: ko khĩ:ča:
boy
rope
pulled
‘The boy pulled the rope.’
S2.31 khĩ:čna:
‘to pull’
S2.31 ( a)
ləṛke na:v khe raha: hai
boy boat rowing is
‘The boy is rowing the boat.’
2.2.1.4. Performative Verbs
Performatives are a class of verbs which are not used to describe a state of affairs, but to
perform the act when used in the simple present tense. For example “to declare” in the
sentence “I declare war”. The sentence above amounts to the declaration of war.
Performative verbs take agent and theme as their essential arguments. They are used
performatively with the first person, singular or plural subject in the simple present tense.
The verb bərxa:st kərna: ‘to discharge, to dismiss’ belongs to this set.
S2.32 bərxa:st karna: ‘to discharge, <Agent, Theme>
S2.32 ( a)
sədr ne mi: ṭ i ŋ bərxa:st kər di:
President meeting winded up
‘The president declared the meeting closed’
In S2.31(a), the NP sədr ‘ President’ is the agent and the NP mi:ṭi ŋ ‘meeting’ is the theme.
Other verbs which can also be used in this way are:
rədd kərna:
nəka:rna:
təla:q dena:
‘to reject’
‘to deny’
‘to divorce’
S2.31 rədd kərna: ‘to reject’
S2.32 ( a)
sədr ne a:p ki dərxast rədd kər di:
President your application rejected
‘The president rejected your application’
S2.32 nəka:rna:
‘to deny’
S2.32( a)
sədr a:p ki dərxast ko nəka:r nəh ĩ: səkte
President your application not deny
‘The president can not deny your application’
There are performative verbs which need three rather than two arguments, which will be
discussed later. Some performative verbs have conventional effect in Urdu, as in S2.33 (
a):
S2.33: təla:q dena: ‘to divorce’
S2.33 (a):
mɛ̃
tumhẽ təla:q deta: hũ:.
I
you
divorce
‘I divorce you.’
2.2.1.5 Verbs of Physical and Mental Perception
In 2.1.2, we have discussed verbs that indicate perceptual or cognitive state that take only
one essential argument i.e. the experiencer. In this section we are going to discuss verbs of
physical and mental perception that take two essential arguments. Since they indicate
volition, one of the arguments is agent; the other argument is, of course, the theme. For
instance:
S2.34: dekhna: ‘to see’ <Agent, Theme.>
S2.33( a):
mɛ̃ ne kita:b dekhi:
I book
saw
‘I saw the books.’
S2.33 (a) has mɛ̃ ne ‘I’ as the agent and kita:b ‘book’ as the theme. The verb dekhna:
‘to see’ indicates a voluntary action done by the agent, namely, he saw the book and
nothing else. The verb dekhna: ‘to see’ can, however, be used in another context to indicate
the involuntary act of seeing, i.e., it can be used in the abilitative sense.
S2.33( b)
mɛ̃ dekh sakta: hũ:
I see can
‘I can see’
In this sense, it needs only an experiencer. We may note that the verb dekhna: ‘to see’ in
is different from the verb ta:kna: ‘to look at / to stare’. The latter indicates only volitional
action.
S2.34 ta:kna: ‘to look at
S2.34(a )
ləṛka: bəhot der se kha:ne ko ta:k rəha: hε
Boy for long food
looking at has been
‘The boy has been looking at the food for long.’
In S2.34(a ), the NP ləṛka: is the agent and the NP kha:na: ‘food’ is the theme. Some
similar verbs of perception in Urdu are listed below.
bhu:lna:
čəkhna:
Sunna:
məhsu:s kərna:
sũ:ghna:
ta: ṛ na:
‘to forget
‘to taste’
‘to hear’
‘to feel’
‘to smell’
‘to perceive’
In Urdu a sentence without a theme is not formed. To elaborate the point further we may
consider the following sentences.
S2.35 ta: ṛ na:
S2.34(a )
‘to perceive’
mɛ̃ xətre ko ta: ṛ səkta: hũ:
I danger perceive can
‘I can perceive danger.’
S2.34(a ) *
*mɛ̃
ta: ṛ səkta: hũ:
I perceive can
‘I can perceive.’
Without a theme, S2.34 (a) * is not a well-formed sentence in Urdu. The verb ta:ṛna: ‘to
perceive’ needs two overt arguments in its abilitative sense.
2.2.2. Inflected Forms of Verbs:
Morphologically, the Urdu verbs have the following forms:
Root
Infinitive
dekh ‘see, look’
dekhna:
Imperfect participle
Perfect participle
Causative [first causal]
Causative [second causal]
dekht a: i:e
dekh a:i:e
dikha:
dikhva:
Verbs are inflected for aspect, mood, tense, and agreement features of gender, number and
person.
Gender
Masc
Fem
a:ya:
a:i:
a:ta:
a:ti:
Number
Singular
a:ya:
a:ta:
Person
Ist
Sing Copula
hũ:
nd
II
IIIrd
Plural
a:ye
a:te
hε
hε
Pl Copula
hɛ̃
ho
hɛ̃
It shows that the the vowel represented as /a:/ in verbal root is realized as different vowels,
/a, e, e, ī, or ī,/ depending upon features of agreement.
Urdu verbs also take one derivational class of affixes: the causal affixes for first and double
causals.
(A ) Causative:
Causative
Suffix
/la:na:/
Causative
Suffix
/a:na:/
Vowel ending
root
pi+ la:na:
so+ la:na:
kha+la:na:
Consonant
ending root
p əṛh+ a:na:
dekh+ a:na:
likh+a:na:
Causative Verbs
pila:na:
sula:na:
khila:na:
Causative Verbs
pəṛha:na:
dIkh a:na:
likha:na:
(B) Double Causative:
Double
Causative
Suffix
/lwa:na:/
Causative
suffix
/wa:na:/
Vowel ending
Root
Causative Verbs
pi+ lwa:na:
so+ lwa:na:
kha+lwa:na:
pilwa:na:
sulwa:na:
khilwa:na:
Consonant endingroot
Causative verbs
pəṛh+w a:na:
dekh+ wa:na:
likh+wa:na:
pəṛhwa:na:
dikhwa:na;
likhwa:na:
Syntactically, verbs determine the number and function of noun phrase arguments in a
sentence. Semantically, they express states, processes, and actions. Since the basic verbs
as well as causatives behave identically with respect to aspect, mood, tense and agreement
features, the derivational processes that result in causative forms are discussed first.
2.2.2.1. Causative:
As shown above, Urdu verbs have two causative forms, which result in the following array:
Verb
Causative
Double Causative
gir
gira:
girva:
‘fall’
‘cause X to fall’
‘cause Y to cause X to fall’
sun
suna:
sunva:
‘hear/listen’ ‘cause X to listen’
Cause Y to cause X to listen’
cəl
cəla
cəlva
‘move’
‘cause X to move
‘cause Y to cause X to move’
pəṛh
pəṛha:
pəṛhva:
‘read’
‘cause X to read’
‘cause Y to cause X to read
The Following Points are Worth Noting about the Causative Verbs:
 Verbs in Urdu may be characterized as affective vs. effective. Affective verbs
denote the physical and/or psychological state of the subject/agent. If transitive, the
verbal action benefits or acts upon the agent rather than the patient. Affective
intransitive and transitive verbs, such as /rona:/ ‘cry’, /bīmar hona:/ ‘be sick’,
/kha:na:/ ‘to eat’, /sīkhna:/ ‘to learn’, etc., have both first and second causal forms.
In the first causal, the subject of intransitive and agent of transitive are then assigned
the roles of patient and recipient, respectively, as in examples given below.
Effective transitive verbs and double transitive verbs have only one causal form,
derived by suffixing -(v)a, e.g.,
 /kər/ ‘do’ / kəra:/kərva: ‘cause to do’
 /rəkh/ ‘put, place’ rəkha/rəkhva ‘cause to put, place’
 de ‘give’ dila:/dilva : ‘cause to give’
 likh ‘write’ likha:/ likhva: ‘cause to write’
 Note that the causative derivation increases the valency of the verb, i.e., it adds one
more argument to the argument structure of the verb. For instance, intransitive gir
‘fall’ has one argument, /pe ṛ /‘tree’ in the example below; the causative counterpart
in the next sentence has two arguments, /ləkə ṛ ha:ra:/ ‘Woodcutter’ and /pe ṛ
/‘tree’.
 The first causals of intransitive verbs function as transitive verbs, as in the sentence
below, and the first causals of affective transitive verbs function as double
transitives, i.e., they take two objects, as in the sentence below:
S2.35
pe ṛ
gira.
tree.M.SG
fall.PERF.M.SG
‘The tree fell.’
S2.36
ləkəṛhare
ne
pe ṛ
gira:ya:.
woodcutter.M.SG.OBL
AG
tree.M.Sc
fall.CAUS.PERF.M.SG
‘The woodcutter felled the tree.’
 The subject of an intransitive functions as the direct object of the corresponding
first causative, e.g., /peṛ/‘tree’ in the sentence given above; the subject of an
affective transitive verb functions as an indirect object of the corresponding first
causative.
 The second causative adds one more argument to the argument structure of the verb,
e.g.,
S2.37
ṭ hekeda:r ne
ləkəṛhare se pe ṛ girvaya.
contractor.M.SG AG woodcutter.M.SG.OBL by
tree.M.SG fall.CAUS.PERF.M.SG
‘The contractor had the woodcutter fell the tree.’
S2.38
əkbər ne bi:rbəl se səb ko kəhanī
sunva:yi:
Akbar
Birbal by everyone IOBJ story.F.SG
listen.CAUS PERFECT.F HON.PRES
‘Akbar made Birbal tell everyone a story.’
 Semantically, the causative verb may not exactly correspond to the sense of the
non-causal. Although all the causative verbs listed below mean ‘cause to V’, i.e.,
cause the corresponding verbal process or action, their translation equivalents in
English suggest that they mean more than ‘cause V’:
dekh ‘see’
sun ‘hear’
kha: ‘eat’
pi: ‘drink’
pəṛh ‘read’
si:kh ‘learn’
gir ‘fall’
səməjh ‘understand’
dikhla: ‘show’
suna: ‘tell,
khila: ‘feed (baby)
pila: offer drink’
pəṛha: ‘teach
sikha: ‘teach (skills)
gira: ‘fell
səmjha: ‘explain’
 Some causative verbs are used in an extended sense of ‘cause to V’ that seems to
have no semantic relation to the corresponding non-causal verbs; they however,
indirectly still have the implicational meaning of cause-to-V:
S2.39
əbbu ne mujhe ba:za:r se ek nəi: ki:ta:b
dila:i:.
father AG I.OBL.DAT market.OBL from a new.F
book .F.SG give.CAUS.PERF.F.SG
‘Father bought me a new book from the market.’
Although /dila:/ is derivationally related to de ‘give’, in the above sentence, it is
not translatable as ‘cause to give’, rather, it is to be translated as, ‘buy for X’. The
causative verbs in the sentence above, however, are not lexical causatives; their
morphological relationship to the basic non-causal form is transparent in Urdu and
is clearly semantically related, e.g., /khila:na:/ ‘to feed X, to offer food to X’
implies ‘cause X to eat’ and /dilana:/ ‘buy for X’ still means ‘give X by buying Y
for X’.
 Causative forms of some corresponding transitive verbs also function as their
intransitive counterparts, e.g., kəhl-a ‘cause to say’ or ‘be called, or, be named’,
e.g.,
S2.40
y əh ləṛka a:ge cəl
kər tendulkər kəhla:ega:
this boy.M.SG forward move CP Tendulkar .M.SG
be called.CAUS.FUT.M.SG
‘This boy will be called Tendulkar in the future.’
 Although most verbs form their causative counterparts by suffixing /-a:/ or / -va:/
to the root in a regular manner, there are some verbs which behave unpredictably.
These irregular processes are listed below. In monosyllabic verbs ending in a long
vowel, the final vowel is shortened and in some, additionally, the sound /-l-/ is
inserted between the root and the derivational affix. The reduction of vowel leads
to the following alternations between vowels: ī, e >i; ū, o > u, a > .
phek
rəkh
pi:
dekh
‘throw’
‘put
‘drink’
‘see’
phikva:
rəkhva:
pila:, pilva:
dikhla:, dikhlva:
 There are lexical causative verbs in Urdu such as;
məjbu:r kərna:
tya:r kərna:
ra:zi: kərna:
‘to force’
‘to get some one ready’
‘to have someone agree with one’
2.2.3. Aspect:
Morphologically, the verb is marked for two aspects: imperfect and perfect. Other aspects
are marked periphrastically.
Imperfect: The imperfect is formed by suffixing/–ta, te,ti:/ to the verbal root, as shown
below;
Ist Person Masc.
S2.41 (a)
Singular mɛ̃ a:ta: hun
Plural
həm a:te hɛ̃
Ist Person Feminine:
S2.41(b)
Singular mɛ̃
Plural
‘we come’
a:ti: hun
‘I come’
həm a:te hɛ̃
‘we come’
II. Person Masculine:
S2.41(c )
Singular tu: a:ta: hɛ
Plural
tum a:te ho
Honorific a:p a:te hɛ̃
II. Person Feminine:
S2.41(d )
Singular
‘I come’
tu: a:ti: hɛ
tum a:ti: ho
Plural
Honorific a:p a:ti: h ɛ̃
III. Person Masculine:
S2.41(e )
Singular vo a:ta: hɛ
Plural
vo log a:te h ɛ̃
III. Person Feminine:
S2.41(f )
Singular vo a:ti: hɛ
Plural
vo log a:ti: hɛ̃
‘you come’
‘you come’
‘ you come’
‘you come’
‘you come’
‘you come’
‘he comes’
‘they come’
‘she comes’
‘they come’
Perfect: The perfect, is formed by suffixing the vowel /-a:/ or /ya:/ to the verbal root.
Ist Person Masc.
S2.41(g )
Singular mɛ̃ a:ya:
Plural
həm a:ye
Ist Person Feminine:
S2.41(h)
Singular mɛ̃
Plural
həm
a:i:
aye
II. Person Masculine:
S2.41(i )
Singular tu: a:ya:
Plural
tum a:e
Honorific a:p a:e
‘I came’
‘we came’
‘I came’
‘we came’
‘you came’
‘ you came’
‘you came’
II. Person Feminine:
S2.41(j )
Singular tu: a:i:
Plural
tum a:i:
Honorific a:p a:ĩ:
‘you came’
‘you came’
‘you came’
III. Person Masculine:
S2.41(k )
Singular vo a:ya:
Plural
vo log aye
‘he came’
‘they came’
III. Person Feminine:
S2.41(l)
Singular vo a:i:
Plural
vo log a:ĩ:
‘she came’
‘they came’
The examples given above suggest that the vowel changes according to the gender and
number of the noun phrase with which the verb agrees. The honorific forms are the same
as the plural forms above.
2.2.3.1.Mood:
The only moods that are marked morphologically, i.e., on the lexical verb itself, are
imperative, optative and contingent. Others, including the indicative, are formed by the
concatenation of infinitival or participial forms of verbs and aspect-tense auxiliaries. The
morphology of aspect-tense-mood, to the extent that these categories can be distinguished
grammatically in Urdu, is complex, since the exponents of the categories are not discrete.
They not only mark the categories mentioned above, but also person and number in the
case of optative, and gender and number in the case of simple past forms. The following
contrast between the optative and simple past tense forms, since they are marked
inflectionally, may be helpful in the more detailed discussion of aspect-tense-mood:
Optative:
Optative
Singular
Plural
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIIrdPerson
ũ:
e
e
ẽ
o
ẽ
Simple Past
Singular
M
F
a:
i:
a:
i:
a:
i:
Plural
M
F
e
ĩ:
e
ĩ:
e
ĩ:
Simple Past:
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIIrdPerson
The syncretism of the forms /–e, -e, -a, - o / and ĩ: makes it difficult to identify them unless
the full syntactic context is available.
2.2.4 Imperative, Optative and Contingent:
The root form of the verb is used as the second singular imperative; the optative form is
used as the second plural or familiar imperative. The infinitive form of the verb is used as
the second person plural or familiar imperative to indicate a polite suggestion or request
instead of a command. The honorific or polite imperative is formed by suffixing -iye or iyega to the root form. The optative is formed by the suffixes u: first person singular’, -o
‘second person plural’, -e ‘second and third person singular’, -e ‘first and third person
plural and honorific’, as is obvious from the table above. The paradigm of imperative and
optative forms is displayed in the following tables:
Optative:
Optative
Singular
Plural
a: ũ:
a:e
a:e
a: ẽ
a:o
a: ẽ
Imperative Singular
Plural
Honorific
IstPerson
IIndperson a:
IIIrdPerson
a:o
a:iye / a:iyega:
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIIrdPerson
Imperative:
The optative is formed from the verbal root in the following manner:
 The optative marker is suffixed to the verbal roots ending in a consonant, e.g.,
dekhũ: ‘may I see’, dekhe ‘may you (SG)/(s) he see’, dekho ‘may you (FAM) see’,
dekhẽ ‘may we/they/you (HON) see’.
 When the optative marker is suffixed to a root ending in i: or u:, the root vowel is
shortened to -i or -u, and a transitional -y- or -v- may occur between the final -i or
-u and the optative marker, respectively, e.g.,
ji: ‘live
(be alive)’
chu: ‘touch’
jiu:
ji(y)o
ji(y)e
ji(y)e
chu:
chu(v)o
chu(v)e chu(v)e
 Both the optative and the imperfect participle are used as the contingent. The
imperfect participle is inflected for gender and number agreement, e.g.
S2.42
vo a:ta:
tum vəhã: ja:ti:
‘Were he to come…’
‘Were you(F) to go there…’
2.2.4.1. Irregular Forms of Imperative:
The following verbs have an irregular form of the honorific imperative in that a -j- occurs
between the root and the inflectional imperative ending -iye(ga):
dena:
pi:na
lena
kərna
: dījiye
: pi:jiye
: li:jiye
: ki:jiye
‘give’
‘drink’
‘take’
‘do’
2.2.4.2 Tense:
The only tenses that are marked on the lexical verb itself are the simple past and the future.
Others are marked by auxiliaries. The simple present is expressed by an auxiliary, h(h in
the plural) occurring with the imperfect participle.
Past:
The perfect participle is used to express the meaning of the simple past tense, e.g.:
S2.43
š a:hrux əfsər bəna:
Shahrukh M officer become.PERF.M.SG
Shahrukh became an officer.’
The past tense is formed from the verbal root in the following manner:
 The past tense marker, homophonous with the perfect marker, is –a: which is
suffixed to the verbal root ending in a consonant; it incorporates gender and number
also, as has been said before, e.g.
dekh-a:
‘saw.M.SG’
dekh-i:
‘saw.F.SG’
dekh-e
‘saw.M.PL’
dekh-ĩ:
‘saw.F.PL’
 When verbal roots ending in a vowel are inflected for the past tense, a transitional
-y- is inserted between the two vowels, e.g.,
so-y-a:
so-y-e
‘slept.M.SG’,
‘slept.M.PL
 The -y- is invariably pronounced as well as represented in writing when the past
tense marker is -a, e.g., soya ‘slept’ (M.SG). It is not pronounced, and is optional
in writing, when the root ends in -o and the past tense marker is a front vowel, e.g.
so-i:
so- ĩ:
‘slept.F.SG’,
‘slept.F.PL
 When -a is suffixed to a root ending in -ī or -ū, the root vowel is shortened to -i or
-u, e.g.:
si:
‘sew’
siya,
siye
‘drink’
‘touch’
pi:
chu:
piya,
chua,
pie,
chue
Irregular Forms:
Note also the following irregular forms:
Ja: ‘go’
le ‘take’
de ‘give’
gəya:, gəi:, gəye,
gəĩ:
liya, li:, liye,
l ĩ:
diya, di:, diye,
d ĩ:
Future:
The future tense is formed by suffixing the optative form of the verb with/ -ga:/
S2.44(a)
mɛ̃ ja:ũ: ga
I.M
go.OPT.FUT.M.SG
‘I will go.’
The full range of forms is as follows:
/Ja:/ vowel ending
Masc sing
st
I Person
- ũ:ga:
nd
II person
-ega:
nd
II person (Hon)
- ẽ ge
rd
III Person
-ega:
Masc pl
- ẽge
-oge
- ẽ ge
- ẽ ge
Fem sing
- ũ:gi:
-egi:
- ẽ gi:
-egi:
Fem Pl
- ẽ ge
-ogi:
- ẽ gi:
- ẽ gi:
The honorific (polite) forms are identical to the first- and third- person masculine and
feminine plural forms. Verbal roots that end in a consonant have forms such as the
following:
/dekh/ Cons ending Masc sing Masc pl
Fem sing Fem Pl
st
I Person
- ũ ga
- ẽ ge
- ũ gi:
-egi:
nd
II person
-ega
-oge
-egi:
-ogi:
nd
II person (Hon)
- ẽ ge
- ẽ ge
- ẽ gi:
- ẽ gi:
rd
III Person
-ega
- ẽ ge
-egi:
- ẽ gi:
Verbal roots that end in -ī or -ū have a corresponding short vowel before the optative; thus
pī ‘drink’ and chū ‘touch’ have the following forms in the future:
/pi:/
> /pI/
Masc sing
Masc pl
Fem sing
Fem Pl
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIndperson (Hon)
IIIrdPerson
- ũ ga
-ega
- ẽ ge
-ega
- ẽ ge
-oge
- ẽ ge
- ẽ ge
- ũ gi:
-egi:
- ẽ gi:
-egi:
-egi:
-ogi:
- ẽ gi:
- ẽ gi:
/chu:/ > /chU/
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIndperson (Hon)
IIIrdPerson
Masc sing
- ũ ga
-ega
- ẽ ge
-ega
Masc pl
- ẽ ge
-oge
- ẽ ge
- ẽ ge
Fem sing
- ũ gi:
-egi:
- ẽ gi:
-egi:
Fem Pl
-egi:
-ogi:
- ẽ gi:
- ẽ gi:
 Verbal roots that end in -e or -o may have a transitional -y- or -v- between the final
vowel of the root and the optative suffix, e.g.,
kheyega or khevega
soyegī or sovegī
‘will row’ (3rdP.M.SG)
‘will sleep’ (3rdP.F.SG)
 The verb hona ‘be, become’, however, behaves exceptionally in that in the first
person singular, the final vowel of the root changes to –u: before the future marker
is suffixed, and in others, it is retained and the future marker –ga: is directly
suffixed to the root. The following are the future forms of the verb hona: ‘be,
become’:
2.2.5.Auxiliaries:
In this section, we’ll discuss the auxiliaries as they appear in Urdu sentences. Auxiliaries
are used to express aspect-tense and modality in Urdu. The tense and modal auxiliaries are
discussed below.
Tense Auxiliaries:
There are two tense auxiliaries: /hai/ ‘be’ (present) and /tha:/(past). They have the
following forms:
/hai/
Masc sing Masc pl
Fem sing Fem Pl
st
I Person
hũ:
hũ:
hɛ̃
hɛ̃
IIndperson
hɛ
ho
hɛ
ho
IIndperson (Hon)
hɛ̃
hɛ̃
hɛ̃
hɛ̃
III Person
hɛ
hɛ̃
hɛ
hɛ̃
/tha:/
Masc sing
Masc pl
Fem sing
Fem Pl
rd
IstPerson
IIndperson
IIndperson (Hon)
IIIrdPerson
tha:
tha:
the
tha:
the
the
the
the
thi:
thi:
thĩ:
thi:
the
thĩ:
thĩ:
thĩ:
The forms show that the gender distinction is expressed by change in vowel quality in the
past, whereas the number distinction is expressed by nasalization in both the tense
auxiliaries. Also, the gender distinction is neutralized in the present tense auxiliary forms.
The future tense auxiliary that follows the imperfect and perfect forms to yield future
imperfect and future perfect is / ho + ga:/. The vowel /a:/ changes to reflect agreement in
gender and number; the/ ho/ is invariable, except it inflects for first person agreement
resulting in the form /h ũ:ga:/.
2,2.5.1 Modal Auxiliaries:
The modal auxiliaries are;
səkna:
pa:na:
hona:
dena:
cukna:
ca:hiye
‘can, be able’
‘to manage to
‘have to’
‘permissive’
‘completive’
‘ought to’
 The modal auxiliaries are not a clear-cut category inUrdu.
 They are listed here under a category of modal auxiliaries as their grammatical
behavior is similar to auxiliaries and differs from that of lexical verbs.
 Unlike lexical verbs, they do not occur by themselves; they do not take the full
range of aspect-tense-mood, or gender-number-person affixes; they do not occur in
passive and impersonal voices; they do not have adjectival, adverbial or conjunctive
participial forms; they do not take clausal or infinitival complements; and
semantically, they denote ability, necessity, obligation, permission, etc.
 The modal cukna ‘completive’ occurs with the root form of the main verb (kha:
cuka: ‘(already) ate’) and is more common with perfect aspect and past tenses;
although its use in the imperfect is not ungrammatical, it is infrequent. It is not used
in the progressive aspect.
 The items pa:na: ‘to manage to’, hona: ‘to have to’, ə pna ‘to have to, must’ and
dena ‘let, be allowed to’, are also regular in terms of aspect-tense and gendernumber-person marking; they, however, differ syntactically in that, whereas pa:na:
‘to manage to’ (e.g., ja: pa:na: ‘to manage to go’) follows a lexical verb in its root
form, hona ‘to have to’ and pa:na: ‘to have to, must’ require the main verb to be in
the infinitive (ja:na: hoga:/pəṛega ‘will have to/must go’) and the subject to be
marked dative, and dena follows a main verb in its inflected infinitive form (ghər
jane diya ‘allowed to go home’) and takes a nominative subject.
2.2.5.2 . Semantic Categories:
The Verbs are divided into the following semantic categories:
 STATIVE INCHOATIVE ACTIVE
Unlike in English, there is no clear-cut distinction in lexical verbs in Urdu in terms of
stativity. The distinction stative-inchoative-active is made in syntactic constructions rather
than in lexical verbs. Only the linking verb, hona ‘to be’ functions as a clear stative verb
when it is used with nominal or adverbial complement in simple tenses. Most intransitive
and all dative-subject verbs are either stative or inchoative, and most transitive verbs are
active. There are sets of stative-inchoative-active verbs of the following type:
Stative
khula: hona ‘to be
open’
pəka: hona: ‘to be
cooked’
ya:d hona: ‘to
remember’
Inchoative
Active
khulna: ‘to become kholna: ‘to open’
open’
pəkna: ‘to cook’ pəka:na: ‘to cook
(INTR)
ya:d a:na: ‘to ya:d kərna: ‘to recall’
remember’
The stative verbs are usually composed of an adjective or past participle and the verb ‘be’,
the inchoative verbs are either lexical verbs or complex verbs composed of a nominal and
a verb meaning ‘become’ or ‘come’, and the active is either a causal verb morphologically
derived from the intransitive verb or a conjunct verb composed of a nominal and the verb
‘do’.
 There are, however, exceptions to this generalization.
 Intransitive verbs of motion, such as a:na: ‘to come’, ja:na: ‘to go’ and verbs of
expression, such as rona: ‘to cry’, cilla:na: ‘to shout’ are active.
 Transitive verbs of cognition, such as ja:nna: ‘to know, to apprehend’, pəhca:nna:
‘to recognize’ are stative.
Inchoative verbs express the change of state of an entity. Inchoatives may be intransitive
or transitive. If they indicate merely the change of state of the entity, they are intransitive.
For example:
S2.45 (a) khulna: ‘to open’ <Theme>
d ərwa:za: khul g əya:
door
opened
The door opened.’
If they also indicate who or what brought about the change of state, they are transitive, as
in
S2.45 (b) kholna: ‘to open’ <Agent, Theme>
əs ə d ne d ərwa:za: khola:
Asad
door
opened
‘Asad opened the door.’
Some transitive verbs that take agent and theme as their essential arguments are inchoative.
For instance, we may consider the verb pighla:na: ‘to melt’ as in (58).
S2.45 (c ) pighla:na: ‘to melt’
loha:r ne loha: pighla:ya:
blacksmith iron melted
‘The blacksmith melted the iron.’
S2.45 (d)
*loha:r ne pighla:ya:
blacksmith melted
*.The blacksmith melted
In (S2.45 ), the NP loha:r ‘blacksmith’ is the agent and loha: ‘iron’ is the theme. As the
theme is an essential argument; its absence makes the sentence ungrammatical, as in (S2.45
d)). In the absence of a theme, both the sentence of Urdu and its English counterpart are
ungrammatical.
Affective: Effective:
As has been mentioned in the context of causative verbs affective verbs signal the physical
and/or psychological state of the subject/agent. If transitive, the verbal action benefits or
acts upon the agent rather than the patient. Effective verbs, on the other hand, denote
actions/processes that affect some entity other than the subject/agent of the
intransitive/transitive verbs.
Volitional: Non-Volitional:
The distinction in terms of volitionality cross-classifies all verbs in Urdu and is not
derivable from either intransitive-transitive or stative-inchoative-active categories. In
addition to inherently volitional verbs such as khana ‘to eat’, likhna ‘to write’, etc.,
volitional verbs are also generated from the processes of causativization and complex verb
formation (Kachru 1981).
2.2.6. Complex Verbs:
Cutting across the classification of verbs in terms of transitivity is the categorization of
verbs in terms of internal complexity. In addition to the simple, one-word verbs discussed
so far, there are verbs which are complex, in that they are made up of more than one word.
In traditional accounts, these complex verbs have been described under two categories:
compound and conjunct verbs. Compound verbs consist of two verbs and conjunct verbs
are made up of a nominal followed by a verb. The compound verbs share the properties of
serial verbs discussed in the grammars of many languages. The complex verbs are
described in the following two subsections.
2.2.7. Compound Verbs:
In a compound verb, a main verb is followed by another lexical verb which carries the
tense, aspect and agreement markers, i.e., it takes all the markings of a finite verb. In the
following sentences the compound verbs are in bold face:
S2.46(a)
ha:mid
ro pəṛa:.
Hamid.M cry fall.PERF.M.SG
‘Hamid burst out crying.’
S2.46(b)
vo
ro pəṛi:.
She .M cry fall.PERF.F.SG
‘She burst out crying.’
The second verbs are cited in their root forms in the following discussion, as the infinitive
is not relevant; it is the root that is affixed to show aspect-tense mood and gender-numberperson distinction as a finite verb. The second verb in a compound verb construction has
been variously referred to as auxiliary, operator, explicator, etc. In more recent
descriptions, the term ‘light verb’ or ‘explicator’has gained currency. The term explicator
will be used consistently in the following discussion. The explicator verbs are the
following:
a:
ja:
le
de
u ṭh
bɛ ṭh
pə ṛa:
‘come’
‘go’
‘take’
‘give’
‘rise’
‘sit’
‘fall’
For example a ‘come’ cooccurs with intransitive verbs of motion and indicates that the
action of the main verb is oriented toward a focal point which may be a person or which
may be set in time or space. The focal point may or may not coincide with the subject or
any other argument of the main verb:
S2.47
əhməd
ke puka:rte hi: za:hid ghər se nikəl
a:ya:
Ahmad M
of
call.IMPF.OBL
EMPH
Zahid.M.SG
house.M.SG.OBL from . emerge come.PERF.M.SG
‘Zahid came out of the house as soon as Ahmad called.’
2.2.7.1. Conjunct Verbs:
Conjunct verbs are made up of a nominal followed by a verb. The verbs that participate in
the conjunct verb construction comprise a small set. The members of this set of conjunct
verbs are presented below;
ho
kər
de
a:
ləg
‘be, become’
‘do’
‘give’
‘come’
‘apply’
The process is very productive; any noun or adjective can be used in this construction to
yield a corresponding verb. The following sentences exemplify the use of conjunct verbs
in Urdu.
S2.48
kəmre
sa:f
hue?
room.M.PL clean become.PERF.M.PL
‘Did the rooms get cleaned?’
The occurrence of particular verbal items with particular nominals is not predictable,
although some semantic factors seem to be involved in the choices, which need to be
worked out. It is, however, noteworthy that the formation of conjunct verbs is a very
productive process in Urdu and is the preferred way of augmenting the creative potential
of the language. For example, a noun such as / ijazat/, once borrowed into the language,
can give rise to the following:
Ija:zət lena:
dena:
hona:
milna:
ma:ngna:
Ija:zət lena:
Ija:zət dena:
Ija:zət hona:
Ija:zət milna:
Ija:zət mangna:
‘to take permission’
‘to permit’
‘to have permission’
‘to have permission’
‘ to ask for permission’
2.2.7.2. Voice:
According to traditional grammars, there are three voices in Urdu: active, passive and
impersonal. These are discussed below.
 Active: The finite verbs in example sentences in this chapter so far are all in active
voice.
 Passive: The passive voice is marked by the passive auxiliary/ ja,/ which follows
the past participial form of the main verb. The element / ja/ carries the person,
number and gender agreement markers as in the following:
S2.49
məqa:le paṛhe gəye
Researchpaper.M.PLread.PERF.M PASV.M.PL
‘The research papers were read.’
Since /məqa:le/‘research papers’ is masculine plural, the passive auxiliary is in its third
person masculine plural form. In case of feminine noune the passive auxiliary will be in
feminine form. For example
S2.50
kəha:niyã paṛhi: gəyĩ:
Stories.F.PLread.PERF.M PASV.M.PL
‘The stories were read.’
2.2.7.3. Impersonal Intransitive Verbs:
Impersonal Intransitive verbs occur in the impersonal construction, where the finite verb
has the same form as the passive described above.
S2.51
mujh se
bəhut du:r
cəla:
nəhĩ: ja:ta:.
I.DAT.OBL by much distance walk.PERF.M.SG not
PASV.IMPF.M.SG
‘I am unable to walk very far.’
Since the only nominal in the sentence, the pronoun ‘I’, is in the oblique case followed by
the instrumental postposition, the verb is in the neutral agreement pattern, i.e., it is in the
third person masculine singular form .
Subcategories of Verbs:
There are two subcategories of verbs according to the type of complement they take, those
that take a tensed-clause complement and those that take an infinitival complement, e.g.,
S2.52
ha:mid
kəhta:
hε ki kəl
delhi: ja:ega:.
Hamid.M say.IMPF.M.SG PRES.SG that tomorrow Delhi.OBL
go.FUT.M.SG
‘Hamid says that he will go to Delhi tomorrow.’
These verbs are cross-classified by the requirement of subject-identity of the two clauses,
i.e., whether the subjects of the main and the complement clause should be identical.
3.0 MORPHOPHONEMICS:
When two or more morphemes, occur together to form a word, in that case sometimes there
is some change in the phonemic shape of the morphemes. Such kinds of changes are dealt
with in this section. The most general morphophonemic changes will be dealt here in this
section.
The domain of a phonetic process or a set of processes in a language is sometimes greater
than the word. The loss, introduction, or alteration of a sound in the context of a transition
from one word to another is termed sandhi. Such processes often have far -reaching
historical effects, especially when conditioning elements are lost . A more thorough
discussion of the linguistic effects of sandhi is given in this chapter
3.1. Vowel assimilation
The vowel assimilation in Urdu is of two types: (1) vowel lengthening; and (2) vowel
nasalization.
(1) vowel lengthening
Urdu allows only the long vowels to occur word finally. When words with short vowels
occur in their position, they are subjected to vowel lengthening, e.g., ki 'that' [ki:]; The
degree of lengthening is less than the length of inherently long vowels.
S3.1
ki
‘that’
Us ne kəha: ki vo ayega:
nə
‘don’t’ nə ja:o
pə
‘on’
mez pə
(2) Vowel becomes nasalized before a nasal consonant. However this nasalization is only
allophonic. It is not treated as phonemic. e.g.,
k+a:+n ka:n
a:+m
a:m
j+a:+n ja:n
‘ear’
‘mango’
‘life’
The nasalization spreads over any sequence of vowels unless it is interrupted by a
consonant The vowel following a nasal consonant becomes nasalized in some situations.
3. 2. Dissimilation
There are no productive dissimilation processes at work at the synchronic level. The
following vowel and consonantal alternations are registered when a sequence of consonants
occurs.
3.3. Vowels:
Intervocalic or final vowel of at least a disyllabic stem in XCV(C) position is dropped when
followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel in the word formation. This may cause some
new consonant cluster formation. Example:
3.3.1. Schwa ( ə ) Deletion
Schwa is defined as the mid-central vowel that occurs in unstressed syllables. Normally, it
is pronounced as /ə/ in Urdu and Hindi. Schwa deletion is a phonological phenomenon
where schwa is absent in the pronunciation of a particular word, although ideally it should
have been pronounced (Ohala, 1983). Unlike Sanskrit, Urdu allows deletion of schwa in
certain contexts. Table I illustrates this phenomenon. In order to determine the proper
pronunciation of the words, it is necessary to predict which schwas are deleted and which
are not. Thus, schwa deletion is an important issue in morphophonemics.
According to Ohala (1983) the deletion of schwas is more frequent in casual and fast speech
compared to formal and slower ones. It can be inferred from these facts that the motivation
behind schwa deletion is faster communication through minimization of syllables (Tranel
1999). It suggests that several features of languages emerge due to some basic cognitive
and articulatory factors. These models assume
1) Ease of articulation,
2) Ease of learning, and
3) Acoustic distinctiveness
as the primary driving forces behind language evolution. The three forces operate
simultaneously over the language in order to maximize the rate of successful
communication in terms of time and effort spent by the language users to generate,
understand and learn the language.
s ə mund ə r
bə h ə r
šəhər
hələq
+i:
+i:
+i:
+i:
=
=
=
=
s ə mundri:
bə h ri:
š ə hri:
h ə l qi:
‘relating to sea’
‘relating to sea’
‘relating to city’
‘relating tothroat’
Two identical or similar vowels cannot occur together in a single word with the result when
the stem final vowel V is followed by an identical vowel with or without over tones in the
formation of a word then the preceding V is dropped. For example Lower high /I/ is
dropped in the environment of high vowel/i/. Examples are:
pi:
ki:
li:
di:
+ jiye
+ jiye
+ jiye
+ jiye
pi:jye ‘(please) drink’ (IIp.sg. imp.)
ki:jye ‘(please) do’ (IIp.sg. imp.)
di:jye ‘(please)drink’(IIp.sg. imp.)
di:jye ‘(please) drink’ (IIp.sg. imp.)
=
=
=
=
Final vowels /i/, /u/ of disyllabic stems when followed by inflection suffixes become /i/
and /u/ respectively. A few examples are:
l ə ṛki:
l ə ṛki:
l ə ṛki:
b əhu:
/i:>i/
pi:
+ yã
+ o
+ õ
+ ẽ
+yega:
=
=
=
=
l ə ṛkiyã
l ə ṛkio
l ə ṛkiõ
b ə huẽ
piyega:
‘will drink’
‘girls’(.pl.)
‘(o’) girl’(voc.sg.)
‘girls’(.pl.), obl
‘daughters-in-law’
ji:
+yega:
jiyega:
‘will live’
3.4. Consonantal Change:
In Urdu /i/ does not follow /y/, so whenever a stem ending in /y/ follows /i/ suffix, then /y/
is dropped. Examples are:
gəy
soy
+i:
+i:
=
=
g ə i:
so i:
‘went’(fem.sg.)
‘slept’(fem.sg.)
3.4.1 Assimilation:
Assimilation describes any situation in which two sounds having a syntagmatic, or linear,
relationship becomes more like one another. Any feature or complex of features may be
affected by assimilation. It may have effects on morphological concatenations in Urdu.
Consonants may assimilate to other consonants or to vowels. In the prehistory of Urdu,
intervocalic stops become glides; consider the form /gata/ - 'gone ' in the ancient Indic
language Sanskrit and /gayaa/ , its descendent in modern Urdu. A few more examples are
listed below;
[sa:th] 'in the company
of someone'
[pa:c] 'five'
[sa:t] 'seven'
[b ə d] ‘bad’
+ [dekha:] 'seeing’
sa:d-dekha:
+ [guna] 'times'
pa:j-guna
+ [bha:i] 'brother'
sa:d-bha:i
+[təmi:z]‘manners’ b ə tt ə miz
3.4.2. Metathesis.
One of the long standing issues in linguistic theory is metathesis. Metathesis can be defined
as the process where by in certain languages, under certain conditions sounds appear to
switch positions with one another. Thus in a string of sounds where we would expect the
linear ordering of two sounds to be …xy…, we find instead…yx…
In other words, metathesis is the phonological process where by under certain conditions,
sounds appear to exchange position with one another. This re-ordering of segments within
the phonological string is discussed here to give a formal account for metathesis. A
synchronic analysis is carried out to provide evidence that describe the sequential change
involving metathesis in Urdu.
In Urdu , metathesis is found in child language, speech error, and colloquial speech of
illiterate people recorded by the author. As the following examples from Modern Urdu
show, liquid and sibilant sounds metathesis with stops (k,t,b,m,q) and fricative (j,f).
Actual
word
qufl
qomri
soqra
ṭ ε ksi
s ə bzi
omlet
Urdu Metathesis form
Gloss
“lock”
“pigeon”
“ proper name”
“taxi’
qulf
qormi
sorqa
ṭ ε ski
s ə zbi
olmet
ɣ ə z ə nf ə r
ɣəzənəfər
lə khn ɔ w
ə ks
n ə khl ɔ w
ə sk
“vegetable”
“omelette”
“ proper name”
“ proper name”
“photo”
3.4.3. H Dropping:
H-dropping is the omission of an /h/ sound in words like / terah / /pandrah/. H-dropping
is found in the speech of the most of the speakers of Urdu. H-dropping in Urdu is found
in all regional dialects of the language. The example are;
Actual
words
ter əh
c ɔ d əh
p əndr əh
sol əh
s ətr əh
ə ṭ ṭ ha:rəh
Urdu
H Dropped words Gloss
tera:
c ɔ da:
p əndr a:
sol a:
s ətr a:
ə ṭ ṭ ha:ra:
'thirteen'
'fourteen'
'fifteen'
'sixteen'
'seventeen'
‘eighteen’
3.4.4. Simplification of Gemination:
Gemination or consonant elongation happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for
an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. In Urdu ‘Gemination’ is quite
visible as it is capable of changing the meaning of a word, and appears independently.
Words
Gloss
with gemination
Words
Gloss
pətta:
sətta:
Leaf
seven
without
gemination
pəta:
səta:
Address
Torture
However, intervocalic geminated consonants of a stem also get simplified when the vowel
following the geminated consonant is dropped.
4.0 SYNTAX:
4.1 Simple Sentence Structure
Urdu is essentially a Subject –Object- Verb (SOV) language with grammatical gender,
number, case, aspect, tense and mood distinctions. Urdu Sentences can be divided into
groups of words that belong together. For instance, in the sentence
S4.1
həm ca:r jigri: dostõ ne ləzi:z kha:na: kha:ya:
We four closed friends had delicious food
the, həm ca:r jigri: dostõ form one such group and a, ne ləzi:z kha:na: kha:ya:form another.
The group of words is called a phrase. If the most important part of the phrase, i.e. the head,
is an adjective, the phrase is an Adjective Phrase; if the most important part of the phrase
is a noun, the phrase is a Noun Phrase, and so on. Indicating the phrases renders the
structure of the sentence clearer and less ambiguous. The grammatical categories
Determiner and Coordinator do not form phrases of their own but function inside a Noun
Phrase (NP), Verb Phrase (VP), Adjective Phrase (AdjP), Adverb Phrase (AdvP), or
Prepositional Phrase (PP). The grammatical category Auxiliary functions inside a Verb
Group and the Complementizer connects one sentence to the other and is head of a CP.
4.1.1 The noun phrase (NP)
An NP such as /həm ca:r jigri: dostõ /is built around a noun, namely “dost”,. This noun
(or N) is called the head of the NP. In addition to the head, NPs can contain determiners
(e.g. ca:r) and adjectives (jigri:) as well as other elements. A tree structure for a simple NP
is given below. The lines, called ‘branches’, indicate how the phrase is divided up, and
branches come together in ‘nodes’:
NP
D
həm ca:r
N
Adj
jigri:
Noun
dost
Secondly, the node in between the NP and N is called N′ (pronounced N-bar). jigri: is
itself the head of an Adjective Phrase and therefore a graphical representation can be made
as given below:
NP
D
həm ca:r
N
Adj P
Noun
dost
Adj
jigri:
4.1.2. The verb phrase (VP)
An important function of the head is to determine the agreement with the verb.A VP is
built around a verb and the latter can be in the present or past tense (they are past in the
example given above). Some VPs include other obligatory material, i.e. words or phrases
that cannot easily be left out, such as the NP, the PP, and the AdvP. These obligatory parts
are called complements.
VP
NP
ləzi:z kha:na:
Adj
ləzi:z
V
kha:ya:
Noun
kha:na:
In word order, Urdu also displays some features of a verb-medial language. In the
following sections, the structure of simple sentences is described in some detail, to make
the sentence structure as explicit as possible. The description begins with basic information
about word order and agreement principles to facilitate the understanding of glosses and
English translation equivalents of Urdu sentences and phrases.
4.2.Word Order
The order of constituents in an Urdu sentence are different from that in English. For
instance, unlike in English, the spatial and temporal circumstances of an event are
mentioned before the arguments involved in the event, e.g.
S4.2
kəl
ghər pər koī
nəhī
yesterday house at anyone not
‘No one was at home yesterday.’
tha:.
be.PAST.M.SG
S4.3
Jume ko laibrerī me ta:riq se mula:qat
hogī.
Friday
ACC library in Tariq with meeting.F
happen
will meet with Tariq in the library on Friday.’
Word order is relatively free, since in most cases postpositions mark quite explicitly the
relationships of noun phrases with other constituents of the sentence. As a result, for the
purposes of thematization and contrastive focus, constituents can be moved around freely
within the clause.
S4.4
za:hid ne ha:mid ko
əpnī kitabẽ de d ĩ:.
Zahid.M
AG Hamid .M
DAT
self.POSS.F
book.F.PL give.PERF.F.PL
‘Zahid gave his books to Hamid.’
In spite of such freedom of occurrence, it is not the case that every word in a sentence is
free to occur in any position. The following restrictions apply:
 The tense auxiliary does not precede the aspectual form of the finite verb;
 The determiner and adjective do not follow the head noun, except in cases where
the quantifier sb ‘all’ or sara ‘the whole’ is moved to follow the head noun for
emphasis
 The postposition does not precede its object.
In other words, within a constituent of a sentence, whether a noun phrase, verb phrase, or
postpositional phrase, word order is rigid; the constituents themselves are free to occur in
any order with respect to each other. There are some exceptions to the rules given above.
Some of these exceptions are
 It is possible for auxiliaries to precede aspectual forms of finite verbs, and
 It is possible for nouns to precede determiners and adjectives in order to satisfy
metrical requirements in poetry.
4.3 SYNTAX: SIMPLE SENTENCE
4.3.1 Agreement
Urdu phrases and sentences show two types of agreement patterns;
 Modifier-head agreement and
 noun-verb agreement.
Modifiers, including determiners, agree with their head noun in gender, number and case,
and finite verbs agree with some noun in the sentence in gender, number and person. These
two types are discussed in some detail in the sub-sections of the chapter. One feature that
demonstrates the interface of grammar and sociolinguistic considerations is worth
mentioning here. Although the number system is grammatical, i.e., nouns inflect for
number and control number agreement of adjectives and verbs according to the rules of
grammar, some nouns control plural agreement because they are considered inherently
honorific, or their intended referents are deemed to deserve respect. Such nouns are kinship
terms for elders, referring expressions for elders like;
Usta:d
profesər
m ɔ la:na:
‘teacher’
‘professor’
‘Religious head’
‘Teacher of Arabic’
m ɔ lvi
əbba:, əmma: da:da:, ‘Kinship terms’
ta:ya:etc
4.3.1.1. Modifier-Head Agreement
Modifiers, including the determiners and demonstratives, agree with the head noun in
gender, number and case:
S4.5
kisi: ek ləṛke ne ga:na: šuru: kiya:.
some.OBL one boy.M.SG.OBL AG singing.M begin do.PERF.M.SG
‘Some boy started singing.’
S4.6
pəhle muqərrir ne jo kəha, dūsre
ne us se ixtəla:f
kiya:.
first.M.SG.OBL speaker.M.SG.OBL
AG
what say.PERF.M.SG
other.M.SG.OBL AG it.OBL.GEN.M.SG opposition.M.SG do.PERF.M.SG
‘Whatever the first speaker said, the second one opposed it.’
In example above, the indefinite determiner, koī, occurs in its oblique case form, kisī,
because the head noun, / ləṛke /, is in the oblique case form, which in turn is oblique because
of the following postposition /ne/.
As mentioned earlier, number and case are not always marked fully either in the noun or
in the adjective; several classes of nouns and adjectives have a zero marker for both these
categories. Not only adjectival modifiers that precede the head noun show agreement with
the head; in some cases, complements and participial adverbials similarly show agreement
with the subject of the finite verb. These cases are discussed below:
 Predicate adjectives and nouns show agreement with the subject noun in a sentence
with a linking verb:
S4.7
ye
kele
əbhī
kəcce
h ɛ̃
this.PL banana.M.PL still unripe.M.PL be.PRES.PL
‘These bananas are still unripe.’
 The adjectival complements and the nominal complements agree with the subject
nouns in gender and number.
 Participial adverbials may optionally agree with the subject of the sentence in
gender, if it is in the direct case:
The participial adverbials agree with the subjects of their sentences, since the subject nouns
are in the direct case; they do not show any agreement, since the subjects in these sentences
are in the oblique case and are followed by the agentive postposition /ne/.
4.3.1.2. Noun (Phrase)-Verb Agreement:
There are two general principles of verb agreement in Urdu:
 the finite verb agrees with the noun (phrase) in the direct case in the sentence; and
 if there are no nouns (or, noun phrases) in the direct case, the finite verb is in the
neutral, i.e., third person masculine singular, form.
 There is also a general condition of application of these rules, i.e., the verb does not
agree with a case-marked noun. Other things being equal, the subject has
precedence over other arguments in controlling agreement.
The detailed application of the principles is illustrated below.
S4.8
A. In a sentence with a non-perfect finite verb, the verb agrees with the subject:
ra:t
ek a:dmi: a:pse
milne a:ya:
tha:
night.F
a
man.M
you.HON
with
meet
INF.OBLcome.PERF.M.SG PAST.M.SG
‘(Last) night a man came to see you.’
There are two nouns in the example above, rat ‘night’, which is feminine singular and
appears to be in the direct case and admī ‘man’, which is masculine singular and in the
direct case and is the subject of the sentence; the finite verb phrase/aya tha/ ‘had come’
shows masculine singular agreement as the subject, ek admī ‘a man’, is masculine singular.
The feminine noun, rat ‘night’, has a temporal adverbial function, therefore, it does not
control verb agreement.
B. In a sentence with a perfect finite verb, the verb agrees with the direct object if it is
in the direct case:
S4.9
subəh ləṛk õ
ne ju ɣ ra:fia: pə ṛha:.
morning.F
boy.PL.OBL AG
geography.M.DOBJ
study.PERF.M.SG
‘(This) morning the boys studied geography.’
There are three nouns in the sentence above subəh ‘morning’, which is feminine singular
and appears to be in the direct case, ləṛke ‘boys’ which is masculine plural and in the
oblique case with an agentive postposition following it, and ju ɣra:fia: ‘geography’, which
is masculine singular direct case and the direct object of the verb ‘study’; the verb shows
the masculine singular agreement with the object noun, ju ɣra:fia: ‘geography’.
(a) If there are no direct case nouns in the sentence, the verb is in the third person
masculine singular form (regarded as neutral in grammar):
S4.10
əmmi ne sa:re səntrõ ko
phek diya:
mother HON AG rotten.M.OBL orange.M.PL.OBL DOBJ throw
give.PERF.M.SG
‘Mother threw away the rotten oranges.’
Since both the subject (HON.F.SG) and object (M.PL) in the sentence are in the oblique
case followed by appropriate postpositions, the verb is in the masculine singular form, i.e.,
it does not agree with either the subject or the object.
C. If there is no subject or direct object noun that can control verb agreement in a
sentence, the finite verb agrees with any noun in the direct case:
S4.11
ləṛke ko
naī
kamīz
milī.
boy.M.SG.OBL DAT new.F shirt.F.SG accrue.PERF.F.SG
‘The boy got a new shirt.’
In the sentence above, the recipient noun, ləṛke ‘boy’, is in the oblique case and is followed
by the dative postposition. The only other noun is kamīz ‘shirt’, which is feminine singular
and is in the direct case; the verb shows feminine singular agreement.
 Urdu does not have ‘empty’ subjects comparable to “it” and “there” of English,
4.3.2. Structure of Simple Sentence:
The simple sentence consists of a subject, a predicate, and aspect-tenseagreement markers
(and, depending upon the verb form, gender, number and person agreement features, too):
S4.12
mɛ̃
jəga
h ũ:
I awake.PERF.M.SG 1stP.PRES.SG
‘I am awake.’
In the sentence above, mɛ̃ ‘I’ is the subject, jəga: h ũ: ‘am awake’ is the predicate. The
predicate consists of a finite verb, which in turn consists of a main verb jəg ‘be awake’, an
aspect (perfect), gender (masculine), number (singular) marker/ -a:/, and an auxiliary/ h ũ:
/ which shows singular number and first-person agreement.
In the following sections, the properties of the subject and the predicate in Urdu are
discussed.
4.3.2.1 Subject:
A surface subject is not an obligatory constituent of a sentence. The following sentence is
perfectly grammatical and interpretable:
S4.13
do bəje se
b ε ṭ hi:
h ũ:, dakṭər ka: koi: pəta nəhĩ
two o’clock.OBL since sit.PERF.F.SG 1stP.PRES.SG doctor of.M.SG
any sign not ‘
(I) have been sitting here since two o’clock, there is no sign of the doctor.’
In sentence above, the subject of /b ε ṭ hi: h ũ:/, is the feminine first person singular, as
signaled by the agreement on the finite verb. Since the agreement markers do not
correspond one-to-one to all the possible gender, number and person distinctions, the
subject is not always unambiguously recoverable without a context; it is, however,
unambiguously recoverable within the linguistic and/or physical context of an utterance.
An unmarked subject, i.e., a noun (phrase) or a pronoun in the direct case, has primacy
over other noun phrases in controlling verb agreement, as mentioned above. Subjects occur
in a variety of forms: they may be unmarked, or marked for oblique case and followed by
the agentive postposition ne, dative postposition ko, instrumental postposition se, genitive
postposition ka, or locative postpositions me or ke pas. Some characteristics of unmarked
and marked subjects are discussed below.
 All subjects may function as antecedents of reflexive pronouns, as is clear from the
following examples:
S4.14
səmən
əpne ghər
gəī
Saman .F self.POSS.M.OBL house go.PERF.F.SG
‘Saman went home.’
It is obvious that the reflexive pronoun refers to the subject noun phrase in the sentence
above since there is no other possible antecedent noun phrase in them. If the possessives
were intended to refer to the indirect and direct object, respectively, it would have to be the
possessive form of the personal, not the reflexive, pronoun.
S4.15
a:jkəl
sumbul
ke pa:s əpne bha:i:
ki: ka:r hε.
these days Sumbul .F near self.POSS.OBL brother.OBL
of.F car.F be.PRES.SG
‘Sumbul has her brother’s car these days.’
In the sentence the subject is marked with ke pa:s, respectively. Regardless, the reflexive
pronoun refers to these marked subjects in the above sentences. It is clear that the unmarked
and marked subjects share a number of syntactic properties. One major exception is verb
agreement: marked subjects do not control verb agreement. Unlike the subject, the
predicate is an obligatory constituent of a sentence. The properties of the predicate are
discussed below.
4.3.2.2 Predicate:
The only obligatory constituent of a predicate is a verb. The predicate may be a simple
finite verb, followed by aspect-tense and agreement markers (and depending upon the verb
form, gender, number and person markers, too).The aspect, tense, mood and agreement
markers are discussed in other sections.The remaining constituents of the predicate are
discussed in the following sub-sections.
4.3.2.3. Intransitive:
Predicates with intransitive verbs have a simple argument structure. Intransitive verbs such
as ana ‘come’, jana ‘go’, həsna ‘laugh’, girna ‘fall’, khilna ‘blossom’, bəhna ‘flow’, pəkna
‘ripen’, etc., have a single argument, a subject; they do not take an object or a complement:
S4.16
a:m
pəke
hɛ̃
mango.M.PL ripen.PERF.M.PL be.PRES.PL
‘Mangoes are ripe.’
An intransitive verb may take optional adverbials, as in the sentence below:
S4.17
lərka:
ku ẽ
me gir gəya:
boy.M.SG
well.SG.OBL
go.PERF.M.SG
‘The boy fell into a/the well.’
in
fall
Transitive Predicates with transitive verbs have a more complex argument structure. Verbs
such as khana ‘eat’, pərhna ‘read’, sīkhna ‘learn’, gana ‘sing’, etc., take two arguments, a
subject and a direct object, e.g.,
S4.18 (a)
š əma:
ne seb
kha:ye.
Shama.F AG apple.M.PL eat.PERF.M.PL
‘Shama ate apples.’
S4.18 (b)
vəh
ɣəzəl
ga:tī
h ε.
she ghazal sing.IMPF.F.SG PRES.SG
‘She sings ghazals.’
S4.18 (c)
ha:mid
ne rotiy ã:
kha: ĩ:
Hamid.M AG bread.F.PL eat.PERF.F.PL
‘Hamid ate bread.’
In these examples,‘ š əma:’vəh ‘she’ and ha:mid are the subjects and seb ‘apples’ rotiyã:
‘bread’and ghəzəl ‘ghazal’ are the direct objects in sentences (a) (b) and ( c ), respectively.
Verbs such as manna: ‘consider,’ səməjhna: ‘consider’, bənana: ‘make’, etc., take two
arguments, subject and direct object with a complement
S4.19
Ha:mid
ne sa:jid ko
əpna
bhaī mana
Hamid .M AG Sa:jid.M DOBJ self.POSS.M.SG
brother.M . consider.PERF.M.SG
‘Hamid considered Sajid his brother.’
In sentence above, Hamid is the subject, Sajid is the direct object and əpna bhaī is the
complement.
4.3.2.4. Direct Object Marked with ‘ko’
Although the postposition ko may signal either an accusative or a dative relationship, it is
clear from the grammatical context which one is being indicated. Whereas the dative
relationship is always marked, the accusative relationship is marked only in some contexts.
In other words, the recipient argument or the grammatical indirect object is always
followed by the postposition ko; but the direct object occurs with the postposition ko only
under the following conditions:
 the noun (phrase) is unique (e.g., proper nouns, pronouns); or
 the noun (phrase) is animate, especially human; or
 if inanimate, the noun (phrase) is definite and specific; or
 the noun (phrase) has a complement, as in the double transitive construction above.
All these properties are illustrated in the following example sentences:
S4.20
ha:mid
ne sa:jid ko
dekha:.
Hamid .M AG Sajid.M DOBJ see.PERF.M.SG
‘Hamid saw Sajid.’
S4.21
v oh əpne kutte ko
bəhut pya:r kərta: hε
self.POSS.M.OBL dog.M.SG.OBL DOBJ much
love do.IMPF.M.SG h. PRES.SG
‘He loves his dog very much.’
4.3.2.5. Voice:
Voice distinctions are expressed at the level of the verb phrase by the choice of verb forms
and auxiliaries. These are discussed below. The passive and impersonal sentences are
discussed in detail in the sections below.
4.3.2.5.1. Active:
The verb phrase in the active sentence is inflected for tense, aspect, mood, and gendernumber-person agreement. Examples are given belw:
S4.22
za:hid
so
rəha:
hε.
Zahid M sleep PROG.M.SG 3rdP.PRES.SG
‘Zahid is sleeping.’
In the example above the progressive auxiliary rəha is marked for masculine singular
agreement and the present marker hae is marked for third person singular agreement. The
verb phrase thus expresses agreement with the masculine singular subject ‘Zahid.’
4.3.2.5.2. Passive:
In the passive, the perfect participle of the main verb is followed by the verb ja ‘go’ which
is inflected for tense, aspect, mood and agreement. It agrees with the direct object, if any,
and the subject is usually left out. If the subject occurs, it is followed by the instrumental
postposition se or (ke) zariye. The passive verb phrase is exemplified in the sentences given
below.
S4.23
šəma: se xət
likha:
jaega:
Shama F
by
letter.M
write.PERF.M.SG
go.3rdP.FUT.M.SG
‘Will the letter be written byShama?
Will Shama be able to write the letter?’
It is worth noting that example above is non-assertive, i.e., it is a question. The choice of
the example is dictated by the fact that a passive with a definite specific agent in the
indicative is rarely used in Urdu, except in formal situations such as the one exemplified
above. In such cases, the marker for the agent is zəriye rather than se ‘by’. Such examples
occur in official documents, and in legal and journalistic texts. Agentless passive sentences,
with present tense in the imperfect, are used to state general customs, or a habitual state of
affairs; they have no modal meaning. Passive with definite specific agents followed by the
instrumental postposition se ‘by’ signal a meaning that is related to the capability of the
agent. There are, of course, the modals səkna and pana that denote capability. The
difference is that səkna ‘can’ denotes capability in general with no constraint, whereas pana
‘to manage to’ signals capability with effort. In agentless sentences and sentences with
agents followed by (ke) zariye‘by, through’, the passive does not indicate the implied
agent’s capability whereas sentences with the modals retain their modal meaning regardless
of the presence or absence of an overt agent. Furthermore, the passive sentence with agent
+ se denotes the capability of the agent that is determined by agent-internal conditions
rather than external factors. The following sentences exemplify the difference:
S4.24
ba:riš
ho
rəhi: thi: isliye mɛ̃ pɛdəl nəhĩ: a:
səka:
rain.F
happen PROG.F PAST.SG / I.POSS.OBL foot.PL.OBL
therefore I on foot not come can.PERF.M.SG
‘It was raining therefore, I could not come on foot.’
4.3.2.5.3. Impersonal:
The impersonal verb phrase is similar to the passive in that the perfect form of the main
verb is followed by the auxiliary ja: ‘go’, which carries the aspect, tense, mood and
agreement markers. It differs from the passive in that, since there is no direct object in the
impersonal sentence, the verb is always in the masculine third person singular form. The
impersonal is exemplified in the sentence below:
S4.25
tumse utni:
dūr
cəla:
jaega: ?
(you by) that much.F distance.F walk.PERF.M.SG
PASV.3rdP.FUT.M.SG
‘Will (you) be able to walk that far?’
The question is appropriate if the speaker suspects that the addressee is in a condition that
may not allow him/her to walk beyond a certain distance.
4.3.3. Mood:
The following mood distinctions are made in the verb phrase: imperative, indicative,
negative, interrogative, presumptive, contingent, and past contingent. These are described
below.
4.3.3.1.Imperative:
There are five direct imperative forms, depending upon the nature of the understood second
person subject and the degree of politeness:
S4.26
yəh xət pə ṛh!
this letter read.2ndP.SG
‘Read this letter!’
yəh xət pə ṛho!
this letter read.2ndP.mas
‘Read this letter!’
yəh xət pəṛhna!
this letter read.INF
‘Read this letter (when
you have time)!’
yəh xət pə ṛhiye! this letter read.2ndP.HON
‘(Please) read this letter!’
yəh xət pəṛhiyega! This
letter ‘(Please) read this letter
read.2ndP.FUT.HON
(when you have time)!’
The bare root of the verb pərhna ‘to read’ is used for the direct imperative and implies a
second person singular pronoun tū (comparable to the archaic ‘thou’ as a second person
singular pronoun in English) as its subject. It is worth noting that, unlike in English, the
form tū ‘you (SG)’ in Urdu is not archaic; it is intimate or rude, depending upon the context.
The imperative form in the second sentence implies the second person plural pronoun tum
‘you’ as its subject. The pronoun tum, though plural, is used for a single familiar addressee
in the intimate domain, The citation form of the verb, or the infinitive, as in the third
sentence also implies tum ‘you’ as its subject, but is less direct in that it suggests that the
addressee is not being ordered to perform the action right away. The forms in the last two
sentences imply the second person honorific pronoun ap ‘you (HON)’ as their subjects and,
hence, are more polite. The future inflection in the last sentence is comparable to the
infinitive in third sentence it suggests that the addressee has a choice to perform the action
right away or later.
4.3.3.2 Indicative:
The indicative mood is expressed by the verbal root followed by the aspect and tense
markers:
S4.27
m ɛ̃
xət likh rəhi:
h ũ:.
I letter.F write PROG.F 1stP.PRES.SG
‘I am writing a letter (now).’
4.3.4.Negative:
Negation is indicated by negative particles, of which there are three: nəhī, nə and mət. The
first is a marker of negation, the second is additionally used as a tag, as well as in other
special constructions. The third, mət, is restricted to the familiar imperative only.
4.3.4.1.Sentential Negation:
In order to express sentential negation, the negative particle is used in the preverbal
position. The negative particle incorporates the verb ‘to be’, hence the present tense
auxiliary can normally be dropped in a negative sentence, e.g.,
S4.28
mɛ̃ ghər nəhĩ: ja: rəhi:
(h ũ:).
I home not go PROG.F.SG (1stP.PRES.SG)
‘I(F) am not going home.’
S4.29
šəma:
bhi: sku:l
nəhĩ:
p ə˜ huci:.
Shama.F yet school not arrive.PERF.F.SG
‘Shama has not arrived at school yet.’
The past tense auxiliary cannot be dropped, as that would entail loss of tense information.
4.3.4.2. Constituent Negation:
A negative particle following a stressed element in the sentence generally indicates the
negation of that particular element, as in the following:
S4.30 (a)
šəma: seb
nəhī kha: rəhi:
Shama F apple.M
not
eat
(3rdP.PRES.SG)
‘Shama is not eating an apple.’
PROG.F.SG
The sentence can be continued as in:
S4.30 (b)
šəma: seb nəhī, a:rū kha: rəhi:
Shama apple not
peach eat
PROG.F.SG
PRES.F.SG
‘Shama is not eating an apple, (he is eating) a peach.’
 Any item in a sentence can be negated, that is, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, (aspect-)
tense markers, and emphatic particles can all be negated.
 In the case of aspect-tense markers, the negative particle usually precedes the tense
marker, even when the tense is in the scope of negation along with the aspect.
 If, however, only the tense is in the scope of negation, the negative particle follows
it.
The following illustrate such negation:
S4.31
yəh kita:b chote bəccõ ke liye nəhĩ: hε.
this book small.PL.OBL not big.PL.OBL child.M.PL.OBL
(adj.) for
be.PRES.SG
‘This book is not for small children, (it) is for the older ones.’
S4.32
us
ko
a:j
nəhĩ:, pərsõ buxa:r
chə ṛha: tha:
he.OBL
DAT today
not,
the day before
fever.M
rise.PERF.M.SG. (temporal adv.) PAST.M.SG
‘(S)he had a fever the day before yesterday, not today.’
4.3.4.3.Negative Imperative:
The particle /nə/ is used in the imperative (except in the familiar imperative), in rhetorical
questions, and in the correlative construction equivalent to English ‘neither...nor’.
S4.33
udhər nə ja:na:.
there not go.INF
‘Don’t go there!’
S4.34
a:p is vəqt kafī
n ə piye
you.HON this time coffee not drink.OPT.PL
‘Please don’t drink coffee at this hour!’
S4.35
udhər mət ja:o.
there not go.INF
‘Don’t go there!’
4.3.4.4. Tag Questions:
The negative particle nə is used for forming tag questions, as in the following:
S4.36
a:p wəqt pər a:enge nə
You HON time on come.FUT.M.PL TAG
You will come home on time, won’t you?’
The tag may contain a copy of the entire verb phrase minus the nominal elements, if any,
followed by the negative particle as in the sentences above, or just the tense marker, as in
the sentences below. Such questions are leading questions, with a strong expectation of
agreement:
S4.37
a:p wəqt pər a:enge ? a:enge nə ?
You HON time on come.FUT.M.PL TAG
You will come home on time, won’t you?’
The disjunctive tag, as in the examples below, also imply a strong expectation of
agreement:
S4.38
raj
ne bəhut zid kī,
ki: ya nəh ĩ: ?
Raj.M AG much insistence.F do.PERF.F.SG,
do.PERF.F.SG or not
‘Raj was very insistent, wasn’t he?’
Negative Polarity Items Items such as zəra bhī ‘even a little’, rəttī bhər ‘as much as a
pinch’, (ek) phūtī kaurī ‘(one) broken cowry shell’, bal baka hona/krna ‘to bend a single
strand of hair’ are said to occur only in negative sentences (the free translations of the
idioms are given below):
S4.39
həmne bəhut shor məca:ya: pər əbbu
zəra
bhi: na:ra:z nəhĩ: hue.
we AG much noise.M make.PERF.M.SG but
father HON
a little even
angry
not
be.PERF.M.PL
‘We made a great deal of noise, but Father did not get
angry at all.’
There are also items such as koī bhī ‘whoever’, kəbhī (bhī) ‘whenever’, kəhī bhī ‘wherever’,
kuch bhī ‘whatever’, and ek bhī ‘not even one’,əbhī tək ‘till now’ which occur in the nonassertive, including wider contexts of possibility and assumption. The following sentences
exemplify such occurrences with respect to two items:
S4.40( a ) :
əbhī tək ‘till now’:
itnī minnəto ke bad bhī kya vəh əbhī tk bhaī
se
milne
gəya?
this many.F entreaty.F.PL.OBL after
EMPH QW
he
till now
brother.OBL with
meet.INF.OBL
go.PERF.M.SG
‘Did he go to see his brother in spite of so many pleas?’
S4.40(b ) : bhəla...QW
The item bhəla with an interrogative item (QW) in the sentence signals a negative meaning:
a:p to səb ja:nte həe, məe bhəla: a:p ko nya: kya:
bəta: səkta: h ũ:?
you HON PTCL all
know.IMPF.M.PL PRES.PL I
you.HON.DAT new.M.SG what tell
can.IMPF.M.SG
1stP.PRES.SG
‘You know all, what new (thing) can I tell you?
4.3.5. Interrogative
Interrogatives are formed with the particle kya:, usually in the initial position in a sentence,
as in the sentences below:
S4.41
kya
tum
bīmar ho?
INTER you.PL ill
‘Are you ill?’
be.2ndP.PRES.PL
It is, however, not necessary to have the particle in the sentence; just question intonation
can be used to form a ‘yes-no’ question:
S4.42
tum
bīmar ho?
you.PL ill
be.2ndP.PRES.PL
‘Are you ill?’
The interrogative particle /kya:/ may occur in other positions in the sentence depending
upon what is in focus.
As kya: is also used in information question formation for the complement of the verb, it
does not occur in the pre-verbal position in a ‘yes-no’ question The following interrogative
pronouns are used in information question formation; note that they do not affect the
normal word order of the sentence in which they occur.
S4.43
kɔ n kəra:ci: ja: rəha:
hε?
(subject/agent) who Karachi go PROG.M.SG PRES.SG
‘Who is going to Karachi?’
S4.44
əbhī tumse milne kɔ n a:
rəha h ε?
now.EMPH you.PL with meet.INF.OBL
PROG.M.SG PRES.SG
‘Who is coming to meet you just now?’
who come
S4.45
sərita ne us dukan
se kya: xərida?
(patient/direct object) Sarita AG that.OBL shop.OBL
from what buy.PERF.M.SG
‘What did Sarita buy from that shop?’
The interrogative construction may be used to signal the same meanings as those of the
indicative positive or negative, but such use signals a strong negative implication.
4.3.6. Presumptive
The presumptive is expressed by the verbal root followed by the aspect marker and the
gender-number-person variants of the auxiliary hog +V. The auxiliary hog+V consists of
ho ‘be’ and the future tense marking suffix -gV. Consider the following examples:
S4.45
a:p
a:ye
honge
You HON come PERFECTIVE PRESUMPTIVE
‘You must have come’
S4.46
vo
a:ya
hoga
He iii person come PERFECTIVE PRESUMPTIVE
‘ He must have come’
4.3.7.Contingent
The contingent is expressed by the verbal root followed by the aspect marker and the
auxiliary ho, which is invariant:
S4.47
š a:id
šəma:
za:hid
se milti:
perhaps Shama F
everyday
Zahid .M
meet.IMPF.F.SG CNTG
‘Shama perhaps meets Zahid everyday.’
ho.
with
The contingent forms are used to express a possibility, whether habitual, present, past, or
future, and whether assumed to be completed or not.
4.3.7.1.Past Contingent
The past contingent is expressed by the verbal root followed by the aspect marker and the
auxiliary hotV and its variants according to gender and number:
S4.48
ka:š mɛ̃ bhī əmri:ka: gəya:
hota:.
PTCL I too America go.PERF.M.SG CF
‘How I wish I too had gone to America.’
As shown above, the past contingent is used to express the counterfactual meaning, i.e., it
signals that the action or process denoted by the verb was not realized.
4.3.8. Types of Simple Sentences
The following sentence types are posited on the basis of grammatical structure and
semantic import.
4.3.8.1. Existential
Existence is signaled in Urdu by the use of the verb hona: ‘be.’ The entity whose existence
is predicated can be either singular or plural and the verb agrees with the noun in gender,
number and person:
S4.49
xuda: hε
God be.PRES.SG
‘God exists.’
Past existence is indicated by the past tense /tha:/of the verb hona ‘be’. There are two
constructions for predicating future existence. If a state of affairs is seen as existing in the
future with no reference to any other time, the future form of the verb hona ‘be’ is used:
S4.50
is sədi: ke
a:xir tək hindusta:n ki: a:ba:dī
ek ərəb se zya:da:
hogī.
this decade of.OBL end till India of.F population.F one billion than more
be.FUT.F.SG
‘By the end of this decade, India’s population will be more than one billion.’
If, however, the future existence is seen as a continuation of a state of affairs, the future
form of the verb rhna ‘remain’ is used.
4.3.8.2. Generic
The generic is expressed by a singular or plural noun with no determiner and the verb hona
‘be’ in the imperfect present. The verb agrees with the noun in gender, number and person:
S4.51
bha:rət
mẽ dha:n
hota:
hε.
India.OBL in
paddy .M
be.IMPF.M.SG
PRES.SG.
‘pdddy grows in India.’
The present imperfect of any verb can be used in the generic meaning with the usual verb
agreement:
S4.52
mur ɣ a: əza:n deta:
hε.
cock.M.SG crow give.IMPF.M.SG PRES.SG
‘A/the cock crows.’
Past tense forms are also used in generic statements provided the use of the past tense does
not contradict the background knowledge of the language users as to what the current state
of affairs is.
4.3.8.3.Possessive
Possession is indicated by a construction in which the possessor noun is followed by a
postposition, the possessed noun is in the direct case, and the verb hona ‘be’ is used as the
finite verb, which agrees with the possessed noun in gender, number and person. The
postpositions used for marking the possessor noun are the invariable postposition ke, the
dative postposition ko, and the locative postpositions me ‘in’ and ke pas ‘near’. The choice
of postposition depends upon the properties of the possessed noun, and the nature of the
possession. Inalienable possession (i.e., kinship and body parts) is expressed by the
invariable postposition ke:
S4.53
za:hid ke
do
bəcce
h ɛ̃.
Zahid POSS two kids.M.PL be.PRES.PL
Zahid has twokids.’
For alienable, concrete, animate possessions, including human employees of low status,
the postposition ke pas ‘near’ is used:
4.3.9. Intransitive
Intransitive sentences have the following as their finite verbs ;
The linking verbs,
Hona:
‘be’,
rəhna: ‘remain, be’
The change-of-state bənna: ‘become’
verbs
hona: ‘become’
girna: ‘fall’
khilna: ‘bloom’
The action verbs such ja:na: ‘go’
as
h ə˜sna: ‘laugh’
sona: ‘sleep’
bəhna: ‘sit’
The linking verb takes either an adjectival, adverbial, or nominal complement: The verb
agrees in gender, number and person with the subject as shown in the following examples:
S4.54
lə ṛki: əqəlmənd
thi:
girl intelligent be.PAST T.F.SG
‘The girl was intelligent.’
In the sentence above, the finite verb shows explicitly gender and number agreement. The
process and action verb sentences may have two constituents: the subject and the finite
verb. The verb agrees with the subject.
4.3.10.Transitive
In addition to a subject and a finite verb, a transitive sentence also has a direct object:
S4.55
vo log kita:b
pəṛh rəhe
hɛ̃.
they book read PROG.M.PL PRES.PL
‘They are reading the book.’
Some transitive verbs require, in addition to a direct object, an object complement or an
indirect object. The former set of verbs is known as complex transitive, and the latter as
double transitive or ditransitive verbs.
4.3.10.1.Complex Transitive
The following sentences exemplify the complex transitive construction:
S4.56
mɛ̃ tum ko
əpna:
bha:i:
ma:nta: hũ:
I
you.FAM.DOBJ
self.POSS.M.SG
brother
consider.IMPF.M.SG .
‘I consider you my brother.’
In this construction, the direct object must be followed by its marker, the postposition ko,
even if it is inanimate:
S4.57
mɛ̃ lisa:nya:t ko muškil səmjhta: hũ:
I
linguistics
DOBJ
difficult
consider.IMPF.M.SG PRES.SG
‘I consider linguisticsa difficult subject.’
subject
4.3.10.2 Double Transitive
In a sentence that requires two objects, the indirect object marked by ko ‘to’ comes before
the direct object:
S4.58
vo šəma: ko
kuch kita:bẽ degi:.
She F Shama IOBJ some books .F.PL
give.FUT.F.SG
‘She will give Shama some books.’
4.3.11 Causative
As has been said earlier, many of the transitive and causative verbs are derived from more
basic intransitive and transitive verbs, respectively. This derivation is by morphological
processes, but it has important consequences for syntactic constructions. For instance, the
derivation from intransitive to transitive and transitive to double transitive or causative
affects the valency of the verb. That is, each step in derivation increases the potential
number of arguments that a verb can take by one, as has been mentioned before. Also, the
relationship of the arguments is such that the subject of the intransitive functions as direct
object of the transitive verb, and the subject of the transitive functions as either the indirect
object of the double transitive verb, or the mediating agent of the causative verb. The
following examples make these processes clear:
S4.59
dərva:za:
khul rəha:
hε
door.M.SG open PROG.M.SG PRES.SG
‘The door is opening.’
In the sentence above , /dərva:za:/ ‘doors’ is the subject; however in the sentence below
dərvaze is the direct object.
S4.60
ša:hid
dərva:za:
khol rəha:
hε
Shahid.M
door.M.PL open PROG.M.SG
PRES.SG
Shahid is opening the doors.’
As the name suggests, causative verbs involve the type of construction that has the
interpretation that the agent causes someone (or some entity) to do something. It means to
allow, to persuade, to help someone to do something. In Urdu, causative verbs are formed
by adding –a: or –wa: to the intransitive or transitive form of the verb. For instance, we can
look at these semantically and derivationally related verbs:
pi ṭ na: ‘to get (oneself) beaten’: intransitive
pi: ṭ na: ‘to beat’ : transitive
pi ṭ wa:na: ‘to get someone beaten’ : causative
In traditional grammar, piṭna: ‘to get (oneself) beaten’is intransitive,) is transitive and pi:
ṭ na: ‘to beat’ is causative . Our treatment is closer to traditional grammar in the sense
that we treat pi: ṭ na: ‘to beat’ type verb as transitive and pi ṭ wa:na: as causative. It is a
little tricky to decide the grid of causative verbs because the construction of Urdu
causatives is biclausal semantically but monoclausal syntactically; it is “synthetic”. We
will look at following sentences to make the point clear.
S4.61
Us ne bəčče ko əsəd se pəṛhwa:ya:
he child
Asad by made teach
‘He caused the child to be taught by Asad.’
The sentence above contains only one verb i.e., paṛhwa:ya: ‘to make someone teach
someone else’, which happens to be morphologically complex. Semantically it is biclausal
i.e. it has an embedded clause in it though it appears as a simple sentence. One way is to
treat the primary agent as an agent and the secondary agent as an instrument used by the
primary agent. The primary agent performs the action by causing the secondary agent to
do the act. As the primary agent sets the ball in motion, he is the agent and the secondary
agent is an instrument in the sense that the task is completed with his help. This notion
seems to work well for Urdu where the primary agent is marked by –ne and in a causative
sentence, the secondary agent, actually takes –se, which is usually the instrument marker.
Causative sentences in the negative, however, do not imply that the action or process
expressed by the basic verb did not take place. Sentences such as the following, therefore,
are perfectly well-formed:
S4.62
mɛ̃ ne khiṛki: nəh ĩ: kholi:, vo a:p hi: khul
gəi:.
I AG window.F not open.PERF.F.SG it self EMPH open
go. PERF.F.SG
‘I did not open the window, it opened by itself.’
S4.63
tum ne mez nəhĩ: ləga:i: to kya: hua:, mez ləg cuki:
h ε.
you.FAM AG table.F not set.CAUS.PERF.F.SG then what
happen.PERF.M.SG table.F set complete.PERF.F.SG PRES.SG
‘You did not set the table, so what? It has been set.’
On the basis of their behavior in the causative sentences, transitive verbs are classified into
two groups. Affective verbs are verbs such as kha:na: ‘eat’, pi:na: ‘drink’, si:khna: ‘learn’,
səməjhna: ‘understand’, pəhnna: ‘wear (clothes)’, and o ṛhna ‘cover oneself’. The subjects
of these verbs appear as indirect objects marked with the postposition ko ‘to’ in causative
sentences.
This occurrence of subjects of non-causals as indirect objects of causal verbs is not
unexpected, since the subject of the affective verbs is the beneficiary of the action of the
non-causal verb. That is why affective verbs do not occur with benefactive adverbials.
Semantically, although the causative has an implicational meaning, it does not have a
coercive meaning. To indicate coercion, an adverb such as zəbərdəstī ‘by force’ has to be
used:
S4.64
bəhən ne mujhe
zəbərdəsti: mi ṭ ha:i:
khila:i:.
sister AG I.OBL.DAT by force sweets. F
eat.CAUS.PERF.F.SG
‘(My) sister forced me to eat the sweets.’
Alternatively, a periphrastic construction with verbs such as mjbūr krna ‘to force, compel’
may be used:
S4.65
səmən
ne sumbul
ko
ga:ne pər məjbu:r
Saman.F AG Sumbul.F
DOBJ singing
on
do.PERF.M.SG
‘Saman forced Sumbul to sing.’
kiya:.
force
The causative verbs do not mean ‘to help to V’, although this meaning may be derived by
pragmatic principles in appropriate contexts.
4.3.12 Passive and Impersonal
As has been said before, the passive and impersonal are formed by the perfect participle
form of the verb. The participle is immediately followed by the passive auxiliary ja:, which
in turn takes the aspect, tense, mood and agreement markers. The agent, if it occurs, is
followed by the instrumental postposition se or zariye:
S4.66
pa:kista:n me i:d məna:i:
ja:ti:
hε.
Pakistan in Eid F celebrate.PERF.F PASV.IMPF.F PRES.SG
‘Eid is celebrated in Pakistan.’
Note the following facts about the passive sentence in Urdu:
 a passive sentence usually does not include an overt agent, when it does, the passive
has a capabilitative meaning, i.e., it expresses the ability of the agent and passives
and impersonals with agents usually occur in the nonassertive. In the formal
register (administrative, legalese, etc.), assertive passives and impersonals do occur
with agents, and the agent is usually marked with the compound postposition
(ke)zariye‘through’:
 The agentless passive is used to express the following meanings: a. an event which
was clearly initiated by an agent, but either the agent is unknown or not relevant to
the purpose of interaction; b. general custom or occurrence.
 Passive with agent is used to express the following meanings: a. the agent’s
capability or lack thereof for the action expressed by the verb; b. in select registers,
to thematize the direct object and downgrade the agent.
 For the subject properties of passive and impersonal agents, marked with
instrumental postposition se, see section
Permissive
The permissive is formed by the inflected infinitive of the verb followed by the verb de
‘give’, which is inflected for aspect-tense and agreement. The agent is in the nominative
for the non-perfect tenses; in the perfect, however, it is followed by the agentive
postposition ne:
S4.67
vo əpne bəccõ ko der tək ba:hər khelne deti:
she self. POSS.OBL child.PL.OBL IOBJ late till
play.INF.OBL PERM.IMPF.F.SG be.PRES
‘She allows her children to play outdoors till late.’
hε
out
Dative Subject
The following sentence types require the subject to be marked with the dative postposition:
experiencer subject, desiderative, and obligative. These are discussed in the following
subsections.
EXPERIENCER SUBJECT There is a type of predicate in Urdu which is composed of a
noun denoting a physical sensation or a psychological state followed by a verb selected out
of a small class of stative or inchoative verbs which require their subjects to be marked
with the dative postposition. This sentence type is illustrated below:
S4.68
səmən
ko sumbulse bhut həmdərdi:
hε.
Saman F DAT
Sumbul .F with much sympathy.F
be.PRES.SG
‘Saman has a great deal of sympathy for Sumbul.’
The predicate in the sentence above is həmdərdi: hona which has the noun həmdərdi:
‘sympathy’ and hona ‘to be’. The experiencer, or dative, subject sentence is used to express
the following meanings:
 physical and psychological states or processes over which one does not have any
control, e.g., to get a headache, to feel hungry, to be angry, to be cold, etc.
 to feel emotions, to receive sense perceptions or to come to know things without
conscious effort or volition, e.g., to feel affection, to happen to see or hear
something, to come to know or become aware of something, etc.
DESIDERATIVE : The desiderative sentence is formed by using the irregular verb cahiye,
which does not take agreement markers:
S4.69
sumbul ko ek kita:b ca:hiye
Sumbul DAT one book want
‘Sumbul wants a book.’
The verb ca:hiye is also used with the past auxiliary to express a past need. The past
auxiliary occurs in all its variants that indicate gender and number agreement. The past
desiderative does not necessarily mean that the need was fulfilled. It is neutral with regard
to the satisfaction of the need, as is clear from the following examples:
S4.70
sumbul ko ek qələm cahiye thi:,
Sumbul DAT a
pen.F
want
PAST.F.SG REL
‘Sumbul wanted a pen,
The verb ca:hna: ‘want’ also expresses a desiderative meaning, but it is not used in the
sense of wanting concrete objects as in the example sentences above. It is used with a
clausal or infinitival complement.
Other Oblique Subjects
In addition to the agentive ne and dative ko, other postpositions such as the instrumental
se, genitive ka (variants ke (M.PL), kī (F)), and locatives me ‘in’ and ke pas ‘near’ also
occur with the subject in select sentence types. These are exemplified below.
S4.71
zahid se yəh
ka:m
nəhĩ:
hoga:.
Zahid M
by
this
job.M
happen.FUT.M.SG
‘Zahid will not be able to do this job.’
not
Constructions in Active
Most transitive and some intransitive verbs require their subjects to be marked with the
agentive postposition ne in the perfect. With some transitive verbs such as səmjhna
‘understand’, the subject may be optionally marked with ne. The presence or absence of
ne-marking of the subject of the transitive verb in the perfect results in three different
constructions in the active voice: subjectival, objectival, and neutral.
Subjectival Construction
In the subjectival construction, the subject is unmarked, i.e., it is in the direct case, the verb
is in non-perfect aspect, and there is subject-verb agreement, as in the sentence below:
S4.72
bəcce
khel rəhe
hɛ̃.
child.M.PL play PROG.M.PL PRES.PL
‘The children are playing.’
The Objectival (Ergative) Construction
In the objectival construction, the subject is marked, i.e., it is in the oblique case and is
followed by the agentive postposition ne, the direct object is unmarked, i.e., it is in the
direct case and the verb is in the perfect and agrees with the direct object:
S4.73
ləṛkõ
ne film
boy.PL.OBL
AG
see.PERF.M.SG
‘The boys saw the film.’
dekhi:.
film.M.SG
The Neutral Construction
In the neutral construction, the subject is in the oblique case and is marked with the agentive
postposition ne, the direct object is also in the oblique case and is marked with the
postposition ko, and the verb, in the perfect, displays the neutral, i.e., third person
masculine singular, endings:
S4.74
bəccõ
ne botlõ ko
toṛ ḍ a:la:.
child.M.PL AG bottles.F.PL.OBL DOBJ
break pour.PERF.M.SG
‘The children broke the bottles.’
4..4. SYNTAX COMPLEX SENTENCE
Complex sentences have a main clause with one or more clauses in a subordinate
relationship to the main clause. These subordinate clauses are of many types, and are
discussed in the following sub-sections.
4..4.1. Complement Clause
Complement clauses are of two types, finite and non-finite. The finite clauses are called
clausal complements and the non-finite, noun clauses. These are discussed in some detail
below.
4..4.2. Clausal Complement
Several subclasses of predicates (adjectives and verbs) have clausal complements as
subjects and direct objects. Several postpositional objects also occur with clausal
complements. These are discussed following the discussion of subject and object
complements.
4..4.3. Subject Complement
Clausal complements with no head nouns generally do not occur as sentence subjects. The
head, however, is not always a lexical noun; it is usually a pronominal yh or sa. The
following sentences exemplify complex sentences with clausal complement subjects:
S4.75
yəh ba:t
ki
za:hid
ne corī kī ɣələt hε
this claim.M that Ranjan.M
AG theft.F
do.PERF.F.SG wrong be.PRES.SG
‘The claim that Ranjan committed theft is wrong.’
4.4.4. Object Complement
Object complements with a nominal or pronominal head, or without any head, occur with
several sub-classes of predicates. These are verbs of saying, reporting, and questioning
such as kəhna: ‘to say’, bolna: ‘to speak’, bəta:na: ‘to tell’, ci:xna: ‘scream’, cilla:na: ‘to
shout’, pūchna: ‘to ask’, likhna: ‘to write’, səwa:l kərna: ‘to question’, ta:r bhejna ‘to
wire’, dəva: kərna: ‘to claim’, among others; verbs of intending, hoping, doubting,
believing, deciding, etc., e.g., ira:da: kərna: ‘to intend’, ɣɔr kərna: ‘to think’, ummi:d
kərna ‘to hope’, šək kərna ‘to doubt’, among others; verbs of agreeing and accepting, such
as ma:nna: ‘to agree’, mənzu:r kərna: ‘to accept’; and verbs of cognition and awareness
such as ja:nna: ‘to know’, səmjhna: ‘to understand’, malu:m kərna: ‘to find out’, etc. Some
examples follow:
S4.76
us
ne kəha: ki vo dilli: mẽ nɔkri: kərta:
hε
he.OBL AG say.PERF.M.SG that he Pune in job
do.IMPF.M.SG PRES.SG
‘He said that he has a job in Pune.’
Non-finite Complement
Certain predicates require their subject and object complements to be infinitival rather than
clausal. The occurrence of these non-finite clausal complements or noun clauses is
discussed below.
Noun Clause as Subject Predicates
Noun Clause as Subject Predicates that require their subjects to be infinitival are adjectives
such as zərūrī ‘necessary’, thīk ‘all right’,əccha ‘good’:
S4.77
khan sahəb ka kəl
dəftər a:na:
bəhut zəru:ri:
hε.
Khan Sahab of.M.SG tomorrow office come.INF very
necessary be.PRES.SG
‘It is essential for Khan Sahab to come to the office tomorrow.’
When the infinitive occurs with its own subject, the subject is followed by a genitive
postposition ka:, as in the sentence below, or, if the subject is a pronoun, it occurs in its
genitive form, as in the sentence above. In the above example , khan sahəb ‘Khan Sahab’
is the subject of the infinitive a:na: ‘to come’, hence it occurs with the genitive postposition
ka: ‘of’.
Noun Clause as Object Verbs
Noun Clause as Object Verbs such as si:khna: ‘to learn’,šurū kərna ‘to begin’, xətmkərna
‘to complete, end’, cho ṛna: ‘to leave, give up’, pəsənd hona/kərna ‘to like’ require their
complements to be in the infinitival form. Since the complement subject is identical to and
coreferential with the subject of the main verb for this class of predicates, the subject of
the infinitive undergoes obligatory deletion. Therefore, the object complements occur
without subjects as in the following examples:
S4.78
sumbul
ṭenis khelna:
si:kh
rəhi: h ε..
Sumbul F tennis play.INF learn PROG.F
PRES.SG
‘Sumbul is learning (how) to play tennis.’
4.4.5. Correlative Constructions
There are several correlative constructions in the language, relative, appositive and
adverbial clauses among them. These are discussed below.
( A ) Restrictive Relative Clause
The function of the restrictive relative clause is to help the hearer/reader identify the
referent of the common noun. Unlike in English, the restrictive: non-restrictive distinction
is not signaled exhaustively by intonation in Urdu. The formal clues that signal the
distinction are discussed in some detail in the next subsection. Relative clauses have the
structural features. The relativized noun is preceded by the relative marker jo, the entire
subordinate clause occurs in the sentence initial position, the correlative marker vh occurs
in the main clause, and the head noun has zero realization. The following example
illustrates these features:
S4.79
jo ã:dhi: kəl a:i: thi:, vəh bəhut nuksa:n kər gəi:.
REL storm.F yesterday come.PERF.F.SG PAST.F.SG
that much damage.M do go.PERF.F.SG
‘The storm that raged yesterday did a great deal of damage.’
In the example above the relative clause jo ã:dhi: kəl a:i: thi: ‘the storm that raged
yesterday’ occurs sentence initially, the relative marker jo precedes the relativized noun
ã:dhi: the correlative marker voh occurs in the main clause voh bəhut nuksa:n kər gəi:.
‘it did a great deal of damage’, and the head noun is zero in the main clause, i.e., ã:dhi:
storm’ does not occur in the main clause. The English-like post-head relative clause occurs
if the head noun is indefinite:
S4.80
ek a:dmi: jo a:pse milna:
ca:hte hɛ̃ ba:hər bɛṭhe hɛ̃.
a gentleman REL you.HON with meet.INF want.IMPF.M.PL
PRES.PL outside seated.M.PL PRES.PL ‘
A gentleman who wants to see you is sitting outside.’
In this case, the head noun occurs with the indefinite determiner ek ‘one’, and the
relativized noun following the relative marker jo has a zero realization. The word order of
the relative clause vis-à-vis the main clause is not fixed. In spoken language the relative
clause either precedes or follows the main clause; it does not occur in the post-head position
as that would interrupt the main clause. If the relative clause follows the main clause, the
relativized noun is usually fronted in the relative clause.
( B ) Appositive Clause
The appositive, or non-restrictive relative clause, which provides additional information
about the head noun, follows the antecedent:
S4.81
voh choṭ a: ləṛka:, jo zor zor se bol rəha: tha:, zəra: ũ:ca: sunta: hε.
the short person REL loudly speak PROG.M.SG PAST.M.SG a little
high.M.SG hear.IMPF. M.SG PRES.SG
‘The short person, who was talking loudly, is a little hard of
4.4.6. Adverbial Clauses
Subordinate clauses denoting time, place, manner, direction, etc., function as adverbial
clauses:
TIME:
S4.81( a)
jəb
si:ma:
ghər pəhũ:ci: təb uske sər me bəhut dərd tha:
when Sima.F home arrive.PERF.F.SG then she.POSS.OBL head.M.OBL
in much pain.M be.PAST.M.SG
Sima had a bad headache when she arrived home.’
PLACE:
S4.81( b )
jəhã: həm rəhte hɛ̃
vəh ã: gərmi: nəhi: pəṛti:.
where we.M live.IMPF.M.PL PRES.PL there
heat.F
fall.IMPF.F.SG
‘It does not get very hot where we live.’
not
MANNER:
S4.81( c)
mã: ne jεsa: kəha: , mɛ̃ ne vεsa: pəka: diya:.
mother AG as. M.SG say. PERF.M.SG I AG that. M.SG
PERF.M.SG give. PERF.M.SG
‘I cooked the way Mother asked me to.’
DIRECTION:
cook.
S4.81( d)
a:p jidhər ja: rəhe ho, udhər ra:sta: bənd hε
you HON REL.direction go PROG.M.PL PRES.PL that direction road.F
closed be.PRES
‘The road is closed the way you are heading. ‘
DEGREE:
S4.81( e)
tum jitni: der me vəh ã: pəh ũ:coge utni: derme həm bhi: pəh ũ c jaege
you.FAM as much.F time.F in there arrive.FAM.FUT that much.F time.F
. in we too arrive go.FUT.M.PL
‘We will be there by the time you arrive there.’
Clauses of Quality and Quantity
Subordinate clauses that indicate quality and quantity participate in correlative
constructions with the markers jεsa:...vεsa: ‘the kind of’ and jitna:...utna:, ‘as many as’
respectively:
S4.82
a:pko jε sī
kita:b
ca:hiye, vεsī yəhã: nəhĩ: milegi
you.HON.DAT the kind.F book.F need
(that kind.F)
available.FUT.F.SG
‘The kind of book you need will not be available here.’
here
not
4.4.7. Participial Constructions
Three participles are derived from verbs: present, past and conjunctive. The conjunctive
participial form is simple, in that the root form of the verb followed by kər, which is the
root form of the verb ‘to do’, is used as the conjunctive participle. The present and past
participles are more complex; they are derived by suffixing the ending-ta: and –a:,
respectively, which are followed by the perfect form of the verb ho ‘be’, hua:. These
participial forms, verb-ta:/a: and hua:, are inflected for gender, number and case.
The Present Participle
All verbs in Urdu yield present participle forms that have two functions: adjectival and
adverbial. The present participle has the form verb/-ta: hu:/, which is inflected for gender,
number and case. It is used in its adjectival function as follows:
S4.83
dɔ ṛta: hua: ləṛka:
run. IMPF.PTPL.M.SG
PAST.M.SG
əca:nək ruk gəya:
boy. M.SG suddenly stop
go.
‘The boy who was running suddenly came to a stop
(lit. The running boy stopped suddenly).’
The following sentences exemplify the function of the present participle as a manner
adverbial; note that the adverbial may have the invariable (oblique) form /-te hue/ or it may
agree with the understood subject of the participial verb:
S4.84
bəcca:
dɔ ṛte
hue
ghər a:ya:.
child. M.SG
run. IMPF.PTPL.OBL
home
PERF.M.SG
‘The child came home running
come.
The reduplicated form of the inflected participle signals a progressive meaning, as in the
following examples:
S4.85
ləṛki: h ã:pte-h ã:pte u:pər ke kəmre mẽ pəh Ũ ci:.
girl. F.SG pant. IMPF.OBL
upstairs of. OBL room.
M.SG.OBL in arrive. PERF.F.SG
‘The girl arrived at the upstairs room panting.’
The Past Participle
Not all verbs yield past participle forms that function as modifiers. A restricted set of verbs,
the verbs that indicate achievement (telic verbs), have a past participle form that signals a
state resulting from the action of the verb. Such past participles have adjectival and
adverbial functions. The past participle has the form/ verb-a: hua;/, which is inflected for
gender and number. There is a restricted set of effective verbs that yields past participles
with the agent of the verb marked with the genitive /ka:/ and its variant forms, as shown
below. Note that whereas the participle modifies the main clause noun identical with the
subject of the participial phrase in examples given below, the participle modifies the main
clause noun identical with the object of the participial phrase in example (72). That is, the
participle in (69) is derived from log kursiyo pr bhe the ‘people were seated on chairs’. The
participle is used in its adjectival function as follows:
S4.86
kursiyõ
pər bεṭ he hue log a:ra:m se film dekh rəhe the.
chair. F.PL.OBL on sit. PERF.PTPL.OBL people ease with movie
see PROG.M.PL PAST.M.PL
‘The people seated on the chairs were watching the movie in a relaxed
manner.’
4.4.8 The Conjunctive Participle
The conjunctive participle is a common device to conjoin two clauses. It has multiple
functions, as a temporal, manner, causal, concessive, or antithetical adverb. The
conjunctive participle is a complex item in that the verb root is followed by the conjunctive
participle marker kər to form the participle. The marker has the form ke when it follows
the verb kər ‘do’. Thus as the name implies, "conjunctive participles" may be used to
conjoin two verb phrases, in a manner similar to conjunctions such as /ɔ r/"and". If the
same subject performs two simultaneous actions, the first action may be expressed with a
conjunctive participle. Conjunctive participles are very common in Urdu, and many
speakers prefer to use them in day to day conversations. The resultant composition is one
sentence with two clauses where one is a dependent clause (khana khayunga) where as the
other is a main clause (padhunga). The process behind the formation of this areal feature
can be summarized in a few steps:
A) The infinitive marker from the subordinate clause is dropped to get the verbal base.
The infinitive marker in Urdu being ‘na:’ is dropped to get the verbal base or the
verb stem.
B) This verbal base is followed with a conjunctive participle (CP)’ /kər/ or /ke/‘ ‘may
be used interchangeably.
Conjugation takes place only with the main verb meaning any change (Gender marker,
Tense marker, etc) that occurs is with the main verb and not with the conjugative participle.
The semantic value of CP is the clear cut approach in the meaning that it conveys, which
is one action after another.
S4.87 ( A )
vo v əha: ja: kər soega:
He there having gone will sleep
Having gone there he will sleep
The above statement means denotes two action one of ‘sleeping’ and another of ‘going’.
The conjunctive participle clearly denotes that one action would be performed after
another. ‘/vo/ ‘he’ in the statement above would first go and then he would sleep. The
participle signals sequential action as a temporal adverbial, as in the following examples:
S4.87( B)
Us ne ci ṭ ṭ hi: likh kər ḍ ak me ḍ a:l di:.
(s)he.OBL AG letter.F write CP mail in put
give.PERF.F.SG
‘(S)he wrote the letter and mailed it.’
The semantic meaning in the conjunctive participles can thus be easily deduced without
any ambiguity and vagueness.
Conjunctive Participle (CP) if applied in idiomatic expressions tends to break that
expression resulting in the change in meaning. It does not perform the same way it performs
in general sentences like the earlier ones shown before.
S4.87 ( C )
ḍ u:b məro
‘Die sinking’
‘Feel ashamed’
The use of conjunctive participle in the above idiomatic expression would give an entirely
different meaning than what exactly it refers to
ḍ u:b kər məro
The meaning that is conveyed by the idiomatic expression ‘ḍ u:b məro’ is that of ‘feel
ashamed’ rather than what the application of CP in this case denotes. The application of
conjunctive participle in ‘ḍ u:b kər məro’ conveys the meaning of dying by drowning in
the water. Thus it makes clear that the use of CP is not that effective in the case of idiomatic
expressions than what it application in general sentences gives.
Conditional Clause
The conditional participates in a correlative construction with the markers əgər...to ‘if
...then’:
S4.88
əgər us ne kəha: hε to vo zəru:r ca:r bəje tək a:
if
he. OBL AG say. PERF.M.SG PRES.SG then he
four o’clock by come go. FUT.M.SG
‘If he has said so, he will definitely arrive by four o’clock.’
ja:ega:.
certainly
4..5. SYNTAX COMPOUND SENTENCE
Compound sentences comprise two or more clauses that are in a coordinate relationship
with each other. They are of several types and are discussed in detail the following
subsections.
4.5.1 Coordinate
Two or more independent clauses are conjoined with the linkers ɔr ‘and’, goya: ‘as if’
liha:za: ‘therefore’ etc. The linker ɔr is by far the prototypical linker for coordination. Other
linkers are used for stylistic reasons in written texts (e.g., to avoid repetition of ɔr, or to
give the text a particular ‘flavor’). The two clauses joined by ɔr indicate two concurrent
events or parallel states of affairs:
S4.89
za:hid əccha: ga:ta: hε ɔr ha:mid giṭa:r bəja:ne me ma:hir hε
Zahid M well sing.IMPF.M PRES.SG and Hamid M guitar
play.INF.OBL in skilled be.PRES.SG
‘Zahid sings well and Hamid is proficient in playing the guitar.’
4.5.2. Adversative
Two independent clauses may be joined with the linkers pər ‘but’, məgər, and lekin, ‘but’.
The clauses thus linked express a contrast or contradiction.
S4.90
vo bəhut tez hε məgər, mihnət nəhin kərta: hε
He M very Adj sharp Adj is but labor doesn’t is
He is sharp but does not work hard
4.5. 3. Disjunctive
Two or more independent clauses are joined with the linkers ya ‘or’, vrna:’ otherwise’, and
ki. The disjunctive indicates a choice among several items, i.e., it introduces alternatives.
S4.91
tum mere kəmre me a:ra:m kəro ya: yəhã: bεṭ ho
you.M
I.POSS.M.OBL room .M.SG.OBL in rest
do
ya or here sit IMP
You can rest in my room or sit here
4.5. 4. Negative disjunctive
Negative disjunctive n...n ‘neither...nor’ is used to indicate that neither of the alternatives
is possible or was realized:
S4.92
nə
ba:ri š huī, nə dhu:p nikli:
neither rain.F
happen.PERF.F.SG nor sunlight.F
emerg.PERF.F.SG
‘There was no rain, nor did the sun emerge,
4.5. 5.Concessive
The markers used in the concessive construction are /hala ki./ ..to /phir bhi:/ and /go ki/
‘although...even so’.
S4.95
go ki əbbu
ne kuch nəhĩ: kəha,
phir bhi: mujhe əfsos hua:
although father HON AG something not say. PERF.M.SG I M felt
bad
‘Although father did not say anything, I felt bad about it’
4.5. 6. Antithetical
The antithetical conjunctions are /bəlki/ ‘on the contrary, rather’.
S4.96
mi:r nəsr niga: r nəhi bəlki sha:ir the
Mir M SING HON prose writer not rather poet was
“Mir was not a prose writer rather he was a poet”
SAMPLE TEXT
( Short Story)
Lakir by Tariq Chatari
Aj suraj ghurub hone se pahle badlon bhare asman main ajab tarah ka rang cha gaya tha.
Ye rang surkh bhi tha aur zard bhi . in donon rangon ne asman ko darmyan se taqsim kar
diya tha.jis muqam par donon rang mil rahe the wahan ek gahri lakir dikhai deti thi. Dhyan
par dekhne se malum hota ki lakir ki as pas kuch safed sae ubhar rahe hain . safed sayon
main jab harkat hoti to ye rang aur bhi gahra hone lagtaaur puri fiza par khauf o hiras
tari ho jata. Aj se pahle is qasbe ke asman par kabhi safed sae surkh aur zard rang bikherne
main kamyab nahin ho pae the. Magar aj.
Is khaufnak sham ki subah aisi nahin thi han itna zurur tha ki sawere se hi badal che
hue the magar abhi tak abr ki chote chote tukron main kisi sae neniwas nahin kiya tha. Sae
jo bazahir safed the magar batin main main siyahi chipae pachhim ki janib se ubhar kar
dhire dhire akash ki purbi hisse par paon jamane lage the safed sae ki akash par chane se
pahle badlon ki tukre apas main khilwar karte karte ek dusre main madgham ho jane ki
koshish bilkul is tarah kar rahe the jaise basti ki hindu muslman Pandit braj kishor ke
intihai jatn ke bad bhed bhao ki lakiron ko phalang kar ek dusre main samate ja rahe hon.
Bhadon lage sat din guzar gaye hain kal krisna ashtmi hai lihaza sham hi se mandar
ko sajaya ja raha tha mandar ki bich wale kamre main camkile rangin kapron main lipte
jhule [ar pare chote se khatole main rakhi krishn bhagwan ki ki murti ko bari aqidat
sesajaya gaya tha rat barah baje krishn bhagwan ka janam hoga is ki khabr ilaqe ki hindu
musalman sabhi ko thi.is bar Hamid bari be chaini se janm ashtmi ka intezar kar rahatha.
Hamid Faqir Mohammad ka larka tha aur masjid ki maktab se bhag kar apne parosi Pandit
Braj kishor ki pathshala main parhne baith gaya tha. Pandit Baraj kishor bhi use sabhi
bachon se zayada pyar karte the aur kanhyya kah kar pukarte the. Janm ashmtmi ki intezar
main us ki andar bahut se khab krishn ban kar janm le rahe the aur who un ko khyalon
main bitha kar jhula jhula raha tha.
Nahin Hamis itne lambe peng nahin. Us roz kusum ne kaha tha aur phir hamid ne
jhonte dene band kar diye the. Kusum Panfdit Baraj kishor ki ladli beti thi woph nim ki dal
par pare jhule se utri to hamid ne kurte ki chak ki jeb se naboliyan nikal kar use de din
paki naboliyan khane ka use itna hi shauq tha jitna hamid ko bansri bajane ka bansri ki
awaz sun kar Pandir Brajkishor ne ghum kar dekha kusum pital ki gargri main pani bhar
rahi thi aur hamid ankhen band kiye hue kunwen ki man par baitha bansri baja raha tha
Pandit ji muskurate hue uthe aur kunwen ki pat par pahunch kar hamid ki sar par hath
rakh diya
Tu sach much kanhyya hai bilkul kanhayya ab ki janm ashtmi par tujhe hi krish bana
kar dole par bithaunga
Hamid ko laga who krishn ban kar dole par baitha murli baja rha hai dole ki charon
taraf paniharnen makhan waliyan aur jognen ghera dal kar khari hain us ki nazren bhir
ko chirti hui kusum ko dhund rahi ahin.woh ghaur se dekhta hai bahut si aurten do patte
orhe aur reshmi gharare pahne jazim par baithi milad parh rahi thin. Kusum amman jan
ki pas hi baithi thi kai aurten jab ek sath milad parti hain to sath sath kusum ki hont
bhi hilte nazar ate hain kusum ki hont hil rahe hain hamid ki honton par murli dhari hai
murli baj rahi hai ya kusum milad parh rahi hai malum nahin han ek shor hai us ki andar
us ki bahar bacchhon ka shor shaid chutti ho gai hai bache shor machate apne apne ghar
ja rahe hai wo chonka or pandit braj kishor k piche piche chal diya pandit ji mandir k us
kamre me gaye jaha krishan bhagwan ki murti har waqt hothon par murli dhare rehti hai
hamid pe ja kar ruk gaya or murti ko ghurne laga pandit ji ne jal chadhaya aarti utari or
phir wo aankhein band kr k puja krne lage hamid bhi prathna kar raha tha
“allah miya jaldi se janmashtmi aaye or mai mukut pehan kar kanhaiya banu or
basuri”. uska dahina paon bayein pair ko par kr k niche k bal tik gaya ji caha ki murti
wali basri le kar apne honton par rakh le us ka dil bechain tha kahin se gargarhat ki awaz
arahi thi phir us ne ek din upar dekha to asaman par badal garaj rahe the barishg ki asar
hqain.Akhir kanhayya ji ki latte dhulne hain kal janam ashtmi hai hamid ki be chaini dur
hui akhir who din a hio gaya jis ka use sal bhar se intezar tha.
Ab rat ho chuki thi us ki ankhon ki nind krishn bhagwan ki murli ki sur ban kar bajne
lagi murli bajti rahi aur who kusum ki sath rat bhar mandar ki ahte mainjamna ki lahronb
ki tarah uchalta raha mandar ki imarat aur path shala ki i8lawa ahate main ek dalan bhi
tha jis ki chat bahut unchi thi char pahiyon ka rath numa ek dola jo lakri ka bana tha
magar pital ki naqshen patren juri hone kiwajah sepital ka malum hota tha usi dalan ki ek
kone main rakha tha hamid khelte khelte dole ki bichon bich bani kursi par ja baitha use
laga ki yug bitte ja rahe hain who barhta ja raha tha us ki ungli par ek chakr hai jo tezi
se khum raha hai us ka wujud kainat ki zarre zarre maim samata ja rha hai ankhen khuli
hain who sansar ki har ciz dekh sakta haiu suraj ki shuaon ko tarik aur syah raton ko phir
dhire dhire rat us ki ankhon main uatrne lagi aur jab bail gale main bandhe ghungre bajate
phir dhiray dhiray raat us ki aankho may uternay lagi or jab bail gale may bandhay
ghungroo bjatay kheeto ki janib chal diya or mandir ke ghnti aur masjid ke moazzin na
subh ka ellan kar diya to Hameed pandit birj kishor ki ghar ja kar so gaya.
Hameed ka raat bhar ghar se ghaib rhana, do do teen teen din tak ghaib rhana, fakir
Mohammad ke liya koi nayee bat nahi thee.Ras ho,ya kirshan khatha ho ya raas lilaa,
Hameed ghar say ghaib. janmastmi par bhi log raat bhar mandir may jamah rahtey,
mandir ko sajaya sawara jata..Or adhi raat ko Krishn Bhagwan ke janam ki rasam adaa
hoti.Hameed bhi phichlay kai saal say kusum ke sath khelte khelte Mandir may hi rah jaya
karta.
raat ke dusray pahar ki rukhsat or teesray pahar ki aamad ka allan pandit Brij kishor
ne sankh baja ker kiya.thal may saja persad Bhagwan ki murti ke samney rakha tha.Pandit
ji ne dekha ke chand aasman per paw jama choka hai.kabhi kabhi badlo ke tukray ghunghat
ban ker chand ke chehray ko chupa latey hai.chand nikalnay ki koshis kerta hai phir chup
jata hai goya kishan gopiyo say aankh micholi khel rahe ho.Mandir me jama log kirtan
khatam ker ke birth kholnay ke liya jal say bharay pital ke lote me long,batashe,or phool
daltay hai or phir chand ki taraf rukh kar ke dharti per jal girate hai.jal dharti per girraha
hota hail akin in ki shardha sukhey or banjar chand ko seench rahi hoti hai.Hamid sab say
pahle persad lene ki koshis me bhirh ko chir kar age barhjata hai.Pandit jee us kay cehre
per chand ki see chamak dekhte hai or us ke hath per persad rakh dete hai.kusum us ke
baraber khari hai.wo kusum ko apney hissays ka persad de deta hai.or wo mutthi band ker
ke aankhen mond leti hai.
‘Amma jaan ne baray payar se kusum ko milaad ka tabaruk diya hai.kusum dono hatho
me tabaruk liya aankhen mondhay khari hai.Hameed bhi us ke baraber khara hai.’
“khao kusum persad khao.kanihya jee ke janam ka persad hai.”
wo aankhen khol ker Hameed ki taraf dekhti hai.Hameed phir khata hai.
“khao, janti ho kal keya hoga.”
“Haa – wo khati hai. “kanihya jee ke doley ka gasht ho ga.”
“kusum pata hai isbar dolay perkirshan ban ker kaun baithe ga?”
Wo Hameed ki aankho me jhankti hai or jane kaya soch ker hans parti hai.kusam ki
hansi feza may terne lagti hai or phir us ke nanhe munne jugnu say chamaktay qahqahai
aasman per taray ban ker Tank jatey hai.
Badlon se jhankte tare apna wajood khonay lagte hai.subh ho jate hai or phir Hameed
dekhta hai ke mandir ke aahatey may qubjey ke bakshi jee, seth Donger mal, wedjee or
doosray zimmedar loog jamah hai.pandit jee in ke dermiyan ghiray bethey hai.Bakshi jee
poochtey hai.
“han pandit ji kis bache ko chuna hai?”
Pandit birj kishor ki aankho may Hameed ka savlan cherah or us ki masoom shararte
raqs ker nay lagti hai.wo kehtey hai:
“khaniya he kirshan baney ga.”
Log tajjub say ek doosreki shakal dekhne lagte hai or wedjee ke muh se nikalta hai:
“keya? Kanhaiya?”
Pandit jee chonk pertey hai:”Mera matlab hai Hameed _”
“Hameed!_” ba yak waqt kai logon ke muh say nikhalta hai.ek lamhey ke liya khamoshi
cha jati hai.yeh lamha sadyon per phail jata hai.Phir ek aawaz utthi hai or khamoshi tooth
jati hai.
“lakin larka Hindu hi hona chahiye _”
Pandit birj kishor kuch kahna hi chahtey the ke Bakshi jee bol pare.
“Pandit ji aisa kabhi nahi hua ke janmastmi per kirshan kisi muslim bache ko bnaya
gaya ho_”
Seth Donger mal ne bhi khankhartey hue kaha.
“Ye to thik hai Pandit ji ke hame bhed bhav mita dena cahiye magar…….”
“magar keya seth ji?” Pandit birj kishore bole.”pichle baras ka natak utsov bhul
gaye.Kirshan ka path ker ne par Diptty sahab ne use inaam diya tha_”
“Natak ki bat or hai Pandit jee_Seth Donger mal ki kerkhat aawaz ne Pandit jee ke
zehan ko janjhor diya, magar unhonay apni bat is tarah jari rakhi jaise kuch suna hi na
ho.Boley:
“ or phir Dushare per jo Ram lila Mandli aai thi us ki arti nahee uttari thee.Kya Raj
tilak wale din sub ne us ke charan nahin chuae the.kya us samay tum ne use Ram nahin
maana tha.
Aray seth jiHamara Dharam to kehta hai ke cahe patther ho, cahey mitti: Ab wo jis
roop me hai wahi us ka asli roop hai. Hameed to Abhi Balik hai or balik povitrr ho ta hai.
Phir kyu use Kirshan Nahin bana sakte. Wo to Kanhaiya hai…………Bilkul Kanhaiya_”
wo pal bher ko rukey,Mastak per Prem or bhakti ki lahren ubhernay lagi.
phir muh se lad bhare shabd nikal pare:
“wo to Kanhaiya hai humra Kanhaiya_”Kai aawaz ek sath ubhri_” ye thik nahi pandit
ji agar aap nahin mane to dola nahi nikal paye ga.hum dekh lenge.”
or essi waqt pandit birj kishore ne aasman ki taraf dekha.kai safed sae ai aakash se
utar kar bhir me shamil hote nazar aarahe the.
“Pandit jee sab aap ka samman kertay hain lekin…………….”
“lekin Hameed Kirshan nahi bane ga.yahi na………….?
Is dafa pandit ji ka lahja sakht tha.lekin wo foran hi naram ho gaye or bohot der tak
logo ko samjhane ki koshis kerte rahe bala aakhir kafi takrar ke bad intikhab to Hameed
ka hi hua mager kuch log mandir ke ahatey se nikal ker chale gaye.
Pandit jee ne do pahar se he Hameed ko nehla dhula ker kirshan ke roop may sajana
shuru ker deya tha.pehle pure badan per halka halka nil pota. Merdar sang ko bhigo ker
sil per gheesa,phir Hameed ke chehray per es ka lep kar diya.cehra khusk hone laga to
gulabi or neela rang mila ker rukhsaron par laga deya.kamer me kachni, galay me bejanti
mal,ser per karchoobi mukut,hath me bansi or gerdan ki baaye janib se kamer ke dahinay
hissay tak eak chamkili chundri bandh ker pandit ji ne apne kanhaiya ko sach much ka
kirshan Bhagwan bana deeya.Kirshan Bhagwan ne honto per chandi ki wo murli rakh li
jis me che rag chattis ragniya bajti thin.Pandit ji hath jor ker un ke aage jhuk gaye.
“Aao Payare Mohana palak dhainp tohe leun.”……… “Aao …………”
Aur phir pital ki thali mein ghee ka diya, phool batashe, chawal aur pisi hui geeli haldi
rakh ker Kirshan bhagwan ki aarti uteri gai.mathe per haldi ka tilak laga kar chawal ke
daane chipka diye aur Kirshan bhagwan ko dole ke bichon beech bani kursi par bitha diya
gaya.yug bitne lage, sharer barhne laga,ungli per ek chakra tha jo tezi se ghoom raha
tha.Ab Kirshan bhagwan ka wajood kayamat ke zarre zarre main samata jar aha
tha.Aankhen khuli thin. Wo sansaar ki har cheez ko dekh sakte the.Suraj ki shuaaon ko
tareek aur seyah raton ko.
Rath ke pahiya ghoome, aage baaja pichche keertan mandali aur charnon mein aarti
ki thali liye pandit brij kishor_
Gasht shuru hua ,shardhalu aarti utarte, charawa chadhate aur bhagwan ke paie
chchu kar dole se utar jate. Dola jab galiyon aur chaopalon se gasht karte huye masjid ke
qareeb pahuncha to asman par suraj bhi apna gasht pura kar chukka tha aur moazzin
maghrib ki azan dene ke liye seqawe par khada dole ke guzar jane ka intezar kar raha tha_
Yatra masjid ke barabar aakar thahar gai_ kirtan mandli buland awaz mein kirtan ga
rahi thi.Bhagwan kea age dozano baith kar kisi ne aarti gaai.
“Jai Shri Krishna hare, Prabhu ai shi Krishana hare Bhagtan ke dukh sare pal main
dukh kare Jai hari Krishna hare Prabhu Jai Sri Krishna hare”.
Aur phir usne puri taqat se shank bajaya. Shankh ki awaz sunkar baje walon neb hi
baje ki awaz tez kar di. In awazon ki kokh se ek bahut bhayanak awaz us waqt uthi jab
masjid ki taraf se aaye int ke ek bare tukre ne Krishna bhagwan ke mathe par khoon ki
lakeer khinch di. Bhagwan ke mathe se jab khoon ki bund giri o arti ke thaal main jalta
diya bujh gaya. Int Krishna bhagwan ke mari gayi thi, chot hamid ke lagi thi aur aarti ka
diya bujh gaya tha. Mohane Kanahayyia ke khoon ki bund se_ charo simth be hungama
shore birpa hua. Cheekh pukar tor phor aur jazbat se bhare awazoo ne musalmano ke
derwazo ko gheer liya .Masjid ke derwaze per bhee loog jamah hone lage. Pandit birj
kishore bheer ko chirte hue derwaze tak ponchey to dekha ek nojawan Masjid ke derwaze
ko kulhari se gode chala jar aha hai. Pandit jee ne us ke Hath se kulhari cheenli. Phir ek
simth se” Naray Takbeer Allaha Hu akber” ki awazen aai.Pandit jee doorte hua wahan
ponchey to dekha ke seth Donger mal aur Ramanandi logo ko sumjahaney ke koshie ker
rahey hai.
“bhaiya ye kya? Ye kya Bhaiya. Hum sub……….. Hum sub Bhai hai.Essi dharti per
peeda hua hai aur essi …………” peechey se awaze aai.” Han aur essi dharti per marenge
bhee.” Aur essi waqt seth Donger mal aur Ramanandi halak kar deye gai.Dono ke qatl ke
bad shore aur teeze honelaga.To pandit jee kulhare pheenk ker banda khan ke derwaze ki
taraf bhage jahan se” jai Bajrang bali” ka nara buland hua tha. Wo jab whan phonchey
to dwrwwaza sholey ugal raha tha .aur under aurteen aur bachoo ki awazen bilak rahi
thee.Pandit jee ne dekha ke her shaksh ki aankho may khofe aur heart ke saya laraz rahai
hai. Her shaksh ke cherah per ek sawalia nishan tha. “ Ye kessey hogaya ? essa nahee
hona chahia tha.”
mager phir bhee sub kuch horaha tha. Na chahtey hua bhee sub kuch horaha tha. Akhir
kese? Wo kon se taqat hai jo nazar na atey hue bhee sub kuch ………. Aur essi waqat pandit
jee ne dekha ke kuch loog aasman ki taraf dekh rahey hai.Aasman jo sub ke siro per tha
.Es aasman per ajab tarah ka rang cha gaya tha. Ye rang surkh bhee tha aur jardie bhee.
Jis muqam per dono rang mil rahey tha wahen ek gharee lakeer dekhai deti thee. Dhyan
se dekhne per mahsoos hota ke lakeer ke aas pas batin may siyahi chupai sapeed sayai
ubher rarey hai.aur pure fiza per khoof wa haras taree hogaya hai . es se pheehlay qabze
ke aasman per sayai kabhi surkh aur zard rang bikhair ne me kamiyab nahee ho paye thi
magar aaj……….. magar aaj in sayoo ko dekh ker kuch log keh rahay thee. Ke ye barey
barey gurz liya hamari madad ko tiyar hai. To kuch in ke hatho may nangi shamsheer dekh
ker apne under be panah quwat mahsoos ker rahe thee. ke achanak ye sayai aasman se
utter ker bheer may shamil hogai. Pandit birj kishore ki nazar Doley per pare to laraz
gayai aur be-tahasha dolay ki taraf bhagne lage. Pandit jee ne dekha k eek shaksh ne dole
per rakh pharasa utha liya hai dur kirshna bhagwan us kea age hath jore dares khare hain.
Tez dhaar wala ye pharsa har sal dole par rakha jata hai aur pure hone par Krishna
bhagwan asi pharse se kanse ka wadh karte hain.
Pandit brij kishore ke muh se kanpti hui awaz nikli. “ ye kya …………. Ye to kirshana
bhawan hain………… kanhaya………. Hamare kanhaiyya .” Her parsad jis ne abhee
abhee aarti gaai thi. Bharrai hui awaz me masmasa utha.” Nanhin………. Ye Hameed
hai. Faqueer Mohammad ka larka ,” ek sath kai awazen uphrin
“Haan ye Hameed hai, ek musalman ka larka hamarey Krishna bhagwan ka apman
kiya hai unhone . Dole per ient phenki ………….. bhagwan ke mathe se khoon baha aur
ab derwaze bande ker ke gharon mein chchup gaye hain.” Dole per khara shaksh pharsa
hawa mein uthate huye dhaara- “ hum iska badla lenge. Hum aaj ise……………
“Nahin” Pandit brij kishore chikhe aur is ke hath se pharsa chchinne ki koshish karne
lage. Mager us shakhs ne pandit jee ko zor se dhakka de ker dole se niche dhakel diya aur
phir Hameed ke sir per pharse ka ek bharpur war ker diya.
Mukut, kachchni aur bejayenti mala pahne Krishna bhawan dole se neech lurhk pare
aur dharti per khoon ki ek lakeer bahut dur tak khinchti chali gai _ kuch log lakeer ke
idhar the aur kuch udhar donon taraf shore the ,ye kahna mushkil tha ke lakeer ke idhar
zeyada shor hai ya udhar _!!
Short Story Translation
Tariq Chatari
The Line
Just before setting, the sun had hung peculiar banners in the clouded sky. These banners
were red and also yellow. The sky seemed to be divided into twin-colored bands. A dark
line could be seen where the two colors met. If you looked closely, you could also see some
white shadows lurking close by. With even the slightest quiver in the white shadows, the
red and yellow colors seemed to darken and a strange primeval fear seemed to percolate in
the atmosphere. Never before had such strange white shadows appeared in the sky above
this hamlet, nor had they ever managed to so neatly divide the sky into red and yellow
bands. But today…
This fearsome evening had not had an ominous morning. Though the sky had been
overcast from the start, the clouds were not dark. As the day wore on, a large white cloud,
which was white on the surface but hid an inky blackness in its bosom, had drifted up from
the west and spread itself gradually over the entire sky. Till then, small tufts of clouds had
been frolicking among themselves, just like the Hindus and Muslims who hopped and
skipped across the line of communal differences lived and played together in the hamlet. It
was the seventh day in the month of Bhadon and the temple was being decorated for
tomorrow—for Krishna Ashtami, the birth of the Lord. In the small room below the temple,
the idol was being dressed in all its finery and put in the gaily colored and brightly
festooned little crib. The Lord would be born at the stroke of midnight—everyone knew
that, Hindus and Muslims alike.
“No, no, Hameed … not so high,” squealed Kusum, and Hameed immediately slowed
the swing. Kusum was Pandit Brij Kishore’s darling daughter. As she got off the ropeswing dangling from a branch of the neem tree, Hameed took out a handful of ripe neem
berries from the pocket of his kurta and gave them to her. She loved to eat those luscious
berries, almost as much as Hameed loved to play the flute. Pandit Brij Kishore turned
around as the first notes of Hameed’s flute reached his ears. Kusum was filling a brass
pitcher with water and Hameed was sitting at the edge of the well playing the flute with his
eyes closed. Pandit-ji smiled, got up and walked to the well. Placing his hand on Hameed’s
head, he said, “Truly, you are Kanhaiya … my Kanhaiya. This time, I will dress you as
Kanhaiya and make you sit in the Janam Ashtami procession.”
And Hameed felt as though he was sitting, not beside the well, but in the golden chariot
playing his flute, and all around him were the fair maidens of Brindavan. He searched the
crowd for Kusum. He looked again and saw a group of women wearing silken ghararas
and dupattas reciting a milaad. Kusum was sitting beside his Amma-jaan. When several
women started singing together, he could see Kusum’s lips also moving. She seemed to be
singing along with the other women. The flute still rested on his lips. Was he playing the
flute or was it the sound of Kusum singing the milaad? He didn’t know. Then there was a
clamor—inside of him and outside. It was the sound of children’s voices. Perhaps school
had just gotten over and the children were scrambling home. Hameed suddenly came to his
senses and began to walk behind Pandit Brij Kishore.
Hameed was the son of Faqir Muhammad. He had run away from his school at the
mosque to sit in his neighbor Pandit Brij Kishore’s pathshala. Pandit Brij Kishore loved
him dearly, more than all his other pupils, and affectionately called him Kanhaiya. Hameed
dreamt of Krishna and the Ashtami festival and rocked his thoughts like the idol of infant
Krishna being rocked in its gilded crib. Pandit-ji was standing in the sanctum in front of
the image of Krishan Bhagwan. Hameed paused at the doorway and looked closely at the
Lord with the flute at His lips. Pandit-ji offered water to the deity, lit the lamp and closed
his eyes in prayer. Hameed said his own prayer: “Please, Allah Miyan, let the Ashtami
come quickly, let me wear the tiara and become Kanhaiya and play the flute …” He crossed
his right foot over his left and stood on tiptoe. He felt like taking the flute from the idol
inside the temple and resting it against his own pursed lips. But his heart was aflutter. He
could hear the sound of distant thunder. He looked up and saw banks of dark clouds
rumbling and growling in the sky. Soon it would rain. It was only appropriate that it should,
for hadn’t Kanhaiya been born on just such a dark, rainy night.Soon the women of the
hamlet would go for a ritual washing of His soiled diapers. At last, night had come. How
eagerly he had been waiting for it! Tomorrow was Janam Ashtami. His uneasiness left him
and he felt light and joyful.
Night fell. The sleep from Hameed’s eyes changed magically into the lilting notes of
Krishna’s flute. The flute played on and on all night long and Hameed hopped and skipped
in the temple courtyard like the playful waves of the Jamuna River. The premises housed
the temple itself, a courtyard and a high-roofed veranda. In a corner stood a gleaming
palanquin mounted on a brass-plated chariot, an elaborate four-legged affair burnished with
ornate, beautifully embossed brass plates. Hameed danced over and stood close by the
palanquin. He sat down and felt the aeons passing by. He felt as though he was growing
taller and bigger and mightier. On his finger was a chakra that whirled with amazing speed.
Hameed could feel his own being itself dissolve and merge with every atom, every particle
of the universe. His eyes were open. He could see everything in the world—the bright rays
of the sun and the dense blackness of the night. Slowly, the night seeped into his eyes. As
the cattle made their way to the fields with bells tinkling around their necks, and the
muezzin in the mosque and the bells in the temple began to herald a new day, Hameed ran
to seek shelter and sleep in Pandit Brij Kishore’s lap.
In the morning several well-meaning people from the hamlet assembled in the temple
courtyard. Bakhshi-ji, a pillar of the local community, asked Pandit-ji, “So, who have you
chosen to be the Child this time?”
Hameed’s innocent pranks and guileless face danced before Pandit Brij Kishore’s eyes.
He said, “Kanhaiya will be Krishna.”
People looked at each other. Vaid-ji stuttered, “Who? Kanhaiya?”
Pandit-ji shook himself and said, “I mean Hameed.”
“Hameed?!” Several people objected simultaneously. Then there was silence. Someone
broke the silence. “But the child must be a Hindu!”
Before Pandit Brij Kishore could answer, Bakshi-ji pounced, “But this is unheard of …
how can you have a Muslim child as Krishan-ji on Ashtami?”
Seth Dungar Mal cleared his throat and said, “It is all very well, Pandit- ji, that we must
abolish these differences of caste and creed, but …”
After a great deal of debate, the matter was settled. Hameed was chosen. But some
people left the temple courtyard to show their displeasure. The preparations began at noon.
Pandit-ji bathed Hameed then began the elaborate ritual of dressing him. First a light dye
made of indigo was patted all over his body. A lead oxide that gave off a faint effulgent
shade of pink was soaked, then ground to a paste and rubbed on Hameed’s face. As the
paste began to dry, a pale blue and pink powder was dusted over it. A glittering belt
encircled his waist, a necklace gleamed around his throat, and a brocade tiara glowed on
his head. There was also a flute in his hand and a multicolored chunri was looped from his
left shoulder to his waist. Pandit Brij Kishore had transformed his Kanhaiyainto the real
Krishan Bhagwan. Hands folded, he bowed before his Lord.
And then the wheels of the chariot began to move. At the head of the procession walked
six groups of singers and beside the palanquin Pandit-ji himself, holding a tray of offerings.
The devout came in hordes, with offerings and flowers, clamoring to touch the Lord’s feet
and receive His blessings. By the time the procession wound its way through the narrow
paths and alleys and reached the mosque, the sun too had nearly finished its trek across the
skies. The muezzin was waiting for the procession to pass before he called the faithful to
the evening prayer. The procession stopped beside the mosque. The kirtan singers sang
with gusto. Pandit-ji blew the conch shell with all his might.
At the sound of the conch, the drummers stepped up the tempo.
From the heart of this cacophony, a horrendous cry rang out as a stone, pelted from the
direction of the mosque, hit Krishan Bhagwan squarely on the head and drew a blood-red
line across his forehead. The blood from Krishan Bhagwan’s forehead spurted, snuffing
out the lamp in the ceremonial tray. The stone was aimed at Krishan Bhagwan. It wounded
Hameed. And innocent Kanhaiya’s blood snuffed out the lamp for the puja. Chaos
broke out. Loud, hysterical voices crying for blood besieged the homes of Muslims. People
swarmed towards the mosque. Pandit Brij Kishore plunged through the crowds to find a
young man hacking away at the door of the mosque with an axe. He snatched the axe away.
The air was rent by the cry: “Nara-e-Takbir … Allah-o-Akbar!” He ran towards the sound
and saw Seth Dungar Mal and Ramanand trying to pacify the crowd. “Brother, what is this?
We are brothers, aren’t we? We were born on this soil and we shall …” “And we shall die
on this soil!” came the scream. Brutish rage and terror took over. Seth Dungar Mal and
Ramanand were killed. Now there was no stopping the mobs. No one knew what would
happen next. Pandit-ji ran towards the house of Banda Khan from where he could hear
jubilant cries of “Jai Bajrang Bali.” He found Banda Khan’s doorway spewing flames and
heard the piteous cries of women and children trapped behind that wall of fire.
Pandit-ji looked at the mob. Fear and horror were in their eyes. Theyseemed to be
asking: “What’s happening? This shouldn’t be happening.” But still, it was happening. It
was as though something was going on right in front of their eyes without their wanting it
to. But how? And why? What was this force that was invisible yet caused all this … In the
midst of it all, Pandit-ji noticed that several people were looking up at the sky. The sky that
sheltered them was today adorned in the most peculiar colors. It was streaked with red and
also yellow. A dark line could be seen where the two colors met. If you looked closely, you
could see some white shadows lurking close by. The red and yellow colors seemed to
darken with the slightest quiver in the white shadows and astrange primeval fear seemed
to percolate in the atmosphere. Never before had such strange white shadows appeared in
the sky above this hamlet, nor had they ever managed to so neatly divide the sky into red
and yellow bands. But today … Pandit Brij Kishore ran towards the palanquin. A man had
picked up the axe from beside Krishan Bhagwan—the ceremonial axe with which the Lord
slew Evil—and he stood waving it before a terrified Kanhaiya.
Every year, the sharp-edged axe was kept in the palanquin and, at the end of the
Ashtami procession, Krishan Bhagwan slew the evil Kansa, thus symbolizing the victory
of good over evil. A muffled cry escaped Pandit-ji’s lips, “What is this … this is Krishan
Bhagwan … our Kanhaiya.” Har Prasad had just sung the aarti. Now he spoke in a dull,
flat voice, “No … this is Hameed. Faqir Muhammad’s son.” Several people spoke up, “Yes,
yes, this is Hameed, the son of a Musalman. They have insulted our Krishan Bhagwan.
They threw a stone at the palanquin. It hit Bhagwan-ji. Look at the blood dripping from his
forehead. And now these cowards are hiding in their homes.”
The man with the axe swung it in the air and roared, “We will avenge this outrage.
Today we will …”
“NO …” Pandit-ji shouted and lunged at the axe. The man threw Pandit-ji down from
the palanquin and struck Hameed a mighty blow. Resplendent, glowing, Krishan Bhagwan
fell … scattering the shining tiara, the spangled necklace and the glittering waistband. A
thin red line formed on the ground. Some people stood on one side of the line, some on the
other. There was clamor on both sides. It was difficult to tell whether the noise was greater
on this side or on the other. ❐
(Translated by Rakhshanda Jalil)
KASHMAKASH
Nastaran Ahsan Fatihi
a;j mujhe shiddat se ihsas ho raha tha ki apne hi nazron me gir jana kitna taklif dah hota
hai. panch sau rupe ki note ki piche chipe qavi haikal sawal apni shaklen badal badal kar
mujhe preshan kar rahe the aur main bus ki bahar bhagte hue manazir se zaydah apne
andar chipe in preshan kun sawalon ke girdab men phansta jar aha tha.
Aj hi ki to bat thi subah sadiq ka ujala abhi nahin phaila tha dur dur tak sannate aur tariki
ka raj tha, fiza men habs bahut tha main tez tez qadam uthata caurahe tak pahuncha aur
mujhe ye dekh kar yak gun a sukun hua ki sarak ki kinare ek saikil riksha maujud tha.
Rikshe ki qarib ja kar main ne tarch ki roshni men dekha rikshe wala ek kasif sa kapra
munh par dale rikshe ki sit par gahri nind so raha tha. Ek iztrari kaifiyat men main ne
ghari dekhi ……. Sarhe tin baj chuke the. Meri bas char baje kit hi aur bas istand tak jane
men yahan se adha ghanta to lag jata. Is liye ab mere pas rikshe wale ko nind se jagane
ke ilawa koi cara na tha.
Are bhai utho bas stand calna hai. Meri awaz khamoshi men sar dhunti rah gai. Main ne
is bar rkshe wale ke kandhe ko halke se chua……… utho bas stand jana hai”……
Mujhe nahin jana hai sahib……. Dusra riksha dekh len……. Use ne jhunjhlaye hue andaz
men jawab diya. Magar mujhe bura nahin laga………. Akhir main us ki nind mukhl hua
tha..
Magar mera iztarar barh raha tha.. main kisi bhi tarah ye bas chorna nahin cahta tha.
Calo bhai …….yahan koi dusra riksha nahin hai……..
Is bar zara zor se jhinjhirte hue main ne kaha
Meri awaz men bechargi ud kar ai: thi: magar vo razi nahin hua.
Tabiyat thik nahin hai sahib mujhe nahin jana hai ……………is ba:r us ne cehre se kapra
hata kar kandhe par rakha aur uth kar baithta hua bola .
Main ne moqa ghanimat jana aur paidan par us ki pair ki pas zabardasti ki andaz men
apna brief case rakhte hue kaha………………..
Chalo bhai ……………Bus chut jaegi mere pas waqt bilkul nahin hai ki dusre rickshe ka
intzar karun……………
Kaha na sahib tabiyat thik nahin hai………. Vo bhi ek hi ziddi tha…. Mujhe ghussa ana
laga tha…… magar zabt se kam lete hue kaha…….
Are tum kuch zayadah paise le lena………… mera jana bahut zaruri hai……….. bhai tum
ye bas pakrwa do bari meharbani hogi…………
Mere lajajat bhare andaz ka asar tha ya paise ki bat ka vo rikshe se utar aya aur main ek
lamha zae kiye baghair uchak kar rickshe par baith gaya
Us ne bari qabahat se rickshaw age barhaya aur main ne phir ghari dekhi das minute
yahin par zae ho chuke the …………….. meri tashwish barh gai………
Zara jaldi pahuncha do bahut der ho gai hai……………
Kaun si bus leni hai sahib……… us ne pedal par apne jism ka zor barhate hue pucha……
Dilli wali pahli bus……………… char baje nikalti
hai.
Oho accha kahte hue us men kuch tezi ai aur vo pedal par tez tez pair marne laga
Ab subah ki surkhi namudar ho rahi thi aur tariki cadar simatti ja rahi thi, sarak bilkul
sunsan thi aur rickshaw munasib rafter se bhag raha tha ……………… main ne socha
qasba numa is shahar men zindagi ab tak soi pari hai……… aur dilli ki sarkon par zindagi
kab ki jag chuki hogi………………….
Bus mil to jaegi na ???......... main ne fikr mandi se pucha
Kya tem hua hai sahib ?
Char bajne men bis minute rah gaye hain………..
Das minute to tum ko rzi karne men zaye ho gaye
Accha der to ho gai hai…… par main puri koshish karunga ki ap ko bus mil jae…………
us ne puri mihnat se rickshaw chalate hue kaha……..
Us ki yaqin dahani aur us ki mihnat se mera dil us ki liye pasijne laga tha…. Main ne dekha
ki vo adher umr ka nahif sa shakhs tha …………………… main ne dil men socha aj use
acche se paise de kar khush kar dunga ……….. meri karobari soch ne foran nafa nuqsan
ka hisab lagaya …. Agar us ne bus pakarwa diya to main ek bare nuqsan se bach
jaunga………………..main ne us ka hausla barhane ki liye kaha. ” tum aj mujh se zayadah
paise le lena aur Doctor ko bhi dikha lena”…….
Ap bahut bhale manus hain sahib!!!
Do din se tabiyat dhili thi to rickshaw nahin khincha……………. To do din se khana bhi
nahin mila hai………………. Is liye ap ko mana kar raha tha………………
Vo to ap ki majburi dekh kar chala aya…………….
Vo ab jitna tez rickshaw chala raha tha utni hi tezi se baten kar raha tha…………
Ham gharib logon ka yahi to hai sahib ………………..kisi din kam ki himmat na ho to phir
bhuke hi maro”…………….
Us ne apni phulti sanson men kaha…….. yahan sarak carhai halki carhai ki taraf thi is
liye use kafi zor lagana par raha tha ………………. Vo rickshaw chalate hue pedal ko
upar se niche ki taraf zor lagate waqt pure jism se khara ho jata…………….is tarah vo
apne bimar jism se puri mushhaqat kar raha tha lekin main us se ye nahin kah sakta tha
ki aram aram se chale
Us ki purani qamiz us ki jism se bilkul capak gait hi………… darmyan men kisi waqt vo
ungliyon ki poron se apni peshani par aye pasine ko samet kar ek taraf jhatak deta magar
rickshaw ki rafter kam na karta……………..ab use dhun sawar ho gai thi ki muqarrah
waqt se pahle vo bus stand pahuncha de…………………..
Mil jaegi bus sahib …………….. char abhi nahin baje hain na…………….
Ab zayadah dur nahin hai…………….. vo apni phulti sanson men bhi musalsal baten kiye
jar aha tha…………. Jaise mjh se zayadah khud ko tasalli de raha ho………………..
Meri na umidi bhi umid men badal rahi thi………aur main soch raha tha ki aj use pachas
rupye ki jagah kam az kam do sau zarur de dunga…………..dil us ajnabi gharib aur bimar
shakhs ki liye ihsas tashakkur se bhar gaya………….
Vo raha bus stand sahib………………. Vo khushi se chillaya. Mere cihre par bhi raunaq
daur gai..
Qarib pahunchne par dilli jane wali pahli bus bilkul samne hi khari nazar a gai…………..
nikalne ko bilkul tyyar……………
Vo bus stand se nikal kar gate ki pas khari thi driver apni seat par maujud aur engine start
………main rickshaw puri tarah rukne se se pahle hi kud kar utra aur jeb se purse nikal
paise nikalne laga………………. Ricjshaw wala bhi ek taraf ricjshaw rok kar kinare khara
fatahmandi se meri taraf dekhte hue apne pasina khushk kar raha tha…………………
Main ye dekh kar preshan ho gaya ki purse main ek bhi chota note maujud na tha sab
panch sau ya hazar ki…………………..
Main ne bus ki darwaze se latke hue conductor ki taraf dekha jo mujhe rickshaw se utarte
hue dekh kar mera hi muntazir tha……………….
Jaldi kijiye……….. vo chillaya. Ticket le lun…………….? Main ne us se kaha………..
kyunki mujhe ticket se zayadah rupiye khulwani ki fikr thi……………
Aiye bus men hi ban jaega………………… vo phit chillaya………………… bus apni jagah
se khisak rahi thi…………. Us ne darwaze par mere carhne ki liye jagah banai…………
main ne rickshe wale ko apne piche ane ka ishara kiya aur brief case le kar bus ki taraf
lapka……..mere piche rickshawala bhi tha…………….
Carhne se pahle main ne conductor se kaha change de do panch sau ka……………
Nahin hain aiye jaldi kijiye………………… vo apni karakht awaz men cikha…………….
Sau do sau jo hain wahi de do…………………………………
Main ne ek aur koshish ki………..
Pahle andar aiye……………. Vo apni bat par ara raha…………………
Bus bhut ahstagi se ab bhi reng rahi thi…… aur rickshaw wala bus ke darwaze ka rod
pakar kar chal raha tha. Conductor ab meri taraf mukhatib nahin tha balki adhe dhar se
bahar latka hua awazen laga raha tha
Main ne ghabra kar rickshaw wale ki taraf dekha kyunki bus ki rafter barh rahi thi aur
kuch musafiron se mukhatib hua ap ki pas change hai ……………..
Ricjshaw wala sath sath ab taqriban daur raha tha…………….. usi tarah bus ki rod pakre
hue……
Musafir naïf men sar hila rahe the…………
Aur meri nazren sab ki cehron se phisalti hui idhar se udhar ja rahi thin
Bus ab gate ki bahar a chuki thi main ne dekha ricjshaw wala ab piche chut gaya
hai………….. main shaid chilla kar Driver ko rokna cahta tha magar dekh raha tha ki ab
wo nahin rukega ………………………
Ab mere pas ek hi tariqa tha ki main panch sau ka ye note sath daurte hue rickshe wale
ki taraf phek kar use de dun magar isi kashmakash men main ne dekha ki bus apni rftar
pakar chuki hai
Phir bus ki pichle shishe se main ne dekha ki vo bus ki piche ab bhi daur raha tha…. Us
ka donon hath upar utha hua aur vo kuch kah bhi raha tha…………
Dhire dhire vo nazron se ojhal ho gaya……………….magar panch sau ka voh note meri
mutthi men bhincha tha.