TeenDabbyWala

You know how Arabic speakers (from Gulf) pronounce the Ain sound. Is it supposed to be the same in Urdu? Urdu speakers don't say the Ain sound like Arabic speakers do, there is no emphasis on the letter ( 3 ). The way it's said, it might as well just be an alif.

Hashmat Usmani

Nosherwan

Urdu (as well as Pashto and Punjabi) has too many unneccesary alphabet letters, we should keep only one letter for every sound and discard the rest, e.g. Alif for the whole A group, Te for the T group...

A

ا (Alif) - ع(Ain) - ء (Hamzah)

T

ت (Te) - ط (To'e)

H

ح (Barri He) - ہ, ﮩ, ﮨ (Choti He) ھ (Do Chashmi He)

Z

ذ (Zaal) - ز (Ze) - ض (Zu'ad) - ظ (Zo'e)

S

س (Seen) - ص (Su'ad)

K

ق (Kaaf) - ک (Kaaf)

Nosherwan

When we recite the Quran, perform the Prayers or speak Arabic we should try and pronounce the Arabic letters properly but Urdu is not Arabic, we have a similar alphabet but it is sometimes pronounced completely differently.

e.g. In Arabic Ramadan is pronounced Ramdhwan whilst in Urdu it is pronounced Ramzaan even though it's spelt the same in both languages.

Urdu sounds horrible when Arab wannabes try and speak it with an Arabic accent.

Urdu looses its Nafaasat when spoken with an Arabic accent.

Arabic is a guttural language, Urdu is not.

diwana

I agree, trying to speak Urdu in heavy Arabic accent is not correct.

But a slight hint is needed when one says

Bohat Hi Aala! (Aala=great) (You must say it with very light 'Ain' here, otherwise it would sound like Alah (instrument) where a very light 'hay' at the end may differentiate these two words also.

But, there is a reason why Urdu is Urdu and Arabic is Arabic.

While there might be a thinking that some Huroof in Urdu are 'useless', they are not. Many words came from other languages including Arabic and they were kept original, hence the duplications.

Alum can be written with Ain (flag) and Alif (pain). Different meaning.

Similarly,
Many words start with similar sounding but different letters in many languages.

Fat (something bad) versus Phat (something good)


We need to understand that language is not strict science and languages do not follow any strict rules.
That is why it is easy to spot any person who is not well versed in the language, since a new person would try to follow rules due to misconceptions.

I have written before, English language also have many words which do not folllow any rule.

But, Cut and Put words do not pronounce same way for example.

In Urdu, Bilkul is written Balkul or one can write as Bilkul.

You can write tablaa ( musical instrument) with Te or Tuey.

Iconoclast

Agree with dewana, in urdu "ain", "Hey", "Qaaf" shouldn't come from deep down the throat liek in arabic, yet, should be pronounced in way to differentitae "ain" from "alif" and "qaaf" from "kaaf"