Learning Urdu: Why all the S’s and Z’s?

            Urdu has helped me see the intricacies of language. At first I was quite perturbed when it came to learning the Urdu Alphabet. There are 3-T, 4-Z, 3-S, 3-K, 3-h, 2-r, 2-d, 2-y, and 2-g sounding characters. The confusion comes when you have to spell a word, or pronounce it, as a lot of the time each one of those characters is just slightly different in how it is pronounced. When my language tutor was teaching me he came to Tay and Tey and pronounced each one. He asked if I could notice the difference. I didn’t. Now I can, but it is definitely hard to pronounce them correctly. The same is with the Rs. One of them is a rolled R that is quite difficult to pronounce right. In quite a few words it sounds like it is a d and in fact I pronounced it with a d and my tutor was satisfied with it. Now I know that was actually wrong it is an R vey similar to the English sound in “butter”. There is a different sounding Z as well, it is similar to the English sounding S in “Television” and is quite hard to decipher. Toi, a T sounding character is very similar to a D as it is an un-exasperated T. Once you understand all the nuances and rules, it starts to get easier, but still it is difficult to pronounce certain letters. One of the ks is a very raspy k sound like the Scottish word loch. Another k is more like q, but unlike in English where the u follows the q most of the time and sounds like kw the q in urdu is very much like a kh sound.

            I did a bit of research on why there are a great many same sounding letters and strange nuances within the language and found out a few facts. According to the Urdu Dictionary and Phrasebook the language developed out of the main language that was spoken in the Deli region: Khari Boli. This is the base language for both Hindu (main trade language of India) and Urdu (main trade language of Pakistan). The Mongol invaders who took over the Indian sub-continent brought over Persian and Arabic influences and the prestigious and educated population soon adopted these into the language. It was also adopted and adapted for the military and has been called a military language. Thus, the reason why it has so many same sounding letters is, because it has taken so many words form Persia and Arabia and the surrounding area, and they are spelled with these different letters.

            As I was learning these characters and now I am starting to read the words, I started to think how silly it really was to have so many same sounding letters and words. And as I was looking down on Urdu as a “dumb” language I started to realize that English is no better. English has many same sounding words that mean different things, like there, their, and they’re. English has same sounding letters, for example why does English need a “c”? An S or a K works just as well. Or a Q, when a kw would work for words like “kwik”. An x is a pointless letter; English speakers could do just as well with a Z or a ks for zilophone (why put a y in there when it should be an I?) or aks (yeah that's a way easier way to spell axe). So I have come to the realization that there really is no perfect language. I think maybe one could be made, but like culture, language is something born out of much percolation within people groups. An artificial language is very hard to make people adopt. Thus I will learn to appreciate one of the languages of Pakistan, just as I am learning to appreciate the culture.