Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization

The Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization scheme was proposed by the late Syed Fasih Uddin and the late Quader Unissa Begum for the Romanization of Urdu-Hindustani. It was adopted by The First International Urdu Conference, 1992 Chicago, as "The Modern International Standard Letters of Alphabet for URDU - (HINDUSTANI) - The INDIAN Language, script for the purposes of hand written communication, dictionary references, published material and Computerized Linguistic Communications (CLC)".cite conference | author=Syed Fasih Uddin and Quader Unissa Begum | title=The Modern International Standard Letters of Alphabet for URDU - (HINDUSTANI) - The INDIAN Language, script for the purposes of hand written communication, dictionary references, published material and Computerized Linguistic Communications (CLC) | year=1992 | place=Chicago | booktitle= ]

Because of Anglicization and international use of the Roman script, Urdu - Hindustani, the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent needs to have an international standard. Such a standard should be both easy enough for universal implementability, yet comprehensive enough to meet the dynamic needs of the language in its present state and in its future growth. The Modern International Standard Letters of Alphabet for URDU - HINDUSTANI, accomplishes both of these objectives.

Urdu, Hindustani or The Indian Language is a language that has evolved in the Indian subcontinent over the centuries as its lingua franca among a rich and fertile grounds of diverse Indian languages (belonging to four language families:Indo-European, Dravidian, Mon-Khmer, and Sino-Tibetan) and English. Some Indian languages have a long literary history--Sanskrit literature is more than 5,000 years old and Tamil 3,000. India also has some languages that do not have written forms. Regardless of the source of origin of linguistic traditions, Hindustani language cherishes, treasures and preserves our common Hindustani cultural heritage.

Romanization scheme

"Notes:"
* ^ is the hard sound. (representing with the caret)
*_h _H is the guttural sound.(representing with the Under Score)
*’ is the long vowel sound. (representing with the Apostrophe)
*(n) (N) is the nasal sound of Nu'n, when if follows a long vowel and when sometimes used at the end of a word. (representing by enclosing it in The Parenthesis)
*~ Gemination, which is the inter-junction of two vowels, with the first vowel casting a shadow on the second vowel.

Vowels

hort vowels

a A
*Sounds like English u in but, shut.
**In Urdu: ab, adab, agar, ahmaq, kam. i I
*Sounds like English i in bit, hit.
**In Urdu: kari, giri, ajnabi, bha'i. u U
*Sounds like English u in pull, bull.
**In Urdu: Urdu, uda's, umda, ungli.

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

Long vowels

a' A'
*Sounds like English "a" in far, father.
**In Urdu: a'ba'di, a'g, a'fat, a'm, ka'm. i' I'
*Sounds like English "ea" in heat, seat.
**In Urdu: i'nt^. u' U'
*Sounds like English "oo" in tool, soon.
**In Urdu: bu'nd, bhu'k, ju'ta, jhu't^.

Neutral vowels

Urdu has three neutral vowels, which are without long or short form. e E
*Sounds like English "ay" in hay, lay.
**In Urdu: la'e, ga'e, c_ha'e, pic_he, pic_hhle. o O
*Sounds like English "o" in old, own.
**In Urdu: os, ko, or^hna, roz, afsosna'k. y Y
*Sounds like English "y" in yard, young.
**In Urdu: ya'r, ya'd, yaqin ha~ey.

Compound vowels

A~i A~I
*In Urdu: a~isa, a~ina A~u A~U
*In Urdu: a~urat A~y A~Y
*In Urdu: a~ya, a~yanda

Double vowels

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

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

Nasal Nu'n

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

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

Consonants

ounds from Sanskrit-derived words

Sanskrit-based words in Urdu have the following typical vernacular compound sounds: bh c_hh dh d^h gh jh kh ph r^h th t^h

ounds from Persian-derived words

Persian-based words in Urdu have the following typical vernacular sounds: C_Hi'm Ga'f Pe

ounds from Arabic-derived words

Arabic-derived words in Urdu that have the following typical vernacular sounds: Ain G/Hain Fe Qha'f Toe Zoe Swa'd Zwa'd Se Ha~e

Advantages

There are significant advantages to the "Uddin and Begum Urdu-Hindustani Romanization " scheme of writing system which are noted as follows:

*1) This scheme does provide a standard which is based on the original works undertaken at the Fort William College, Calcutta, India (established 1800), under John Borthwick Gilchrist (1789-1841), which has become the de facto standard for the Hindustani during the late 1800.
*2) There is a one-to-one representation for each of the original traditional Urdu and classical Hindi characters.
*3) Vowel sounds, rather than being assumed, are represented in written scheme, thereby uniquely tying the written form of the language to spoken form of the language.
*4) Unlike Gilchrist’s scheme which used many special non-ASCII characters, the proposed scheme only utilizes the ASCII characters.
*5) Since it is ASCII based, all of the resources and tools could be used for Urdu–Hindustani language.
*6) Liberate Urdu–Hindustani language to be written and communicated utilizing all of the available standards and free us from Unicode conversion drudgery.
*7) Urdu–Hindustani with the proposed character set would allow its users to utilize paper and electronic print media.

References

ee also

* Urdu
* Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)
* Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) word etymology
* Hindustani grammar
* Hindustani orthography
* Devanāgarī script
* Nasta'liq script
* Roman Urdu
* Urdu alphabet