Preliminary notes

• The opposition "long" and "short" vowels is very much disputed as far as modern Indo-Aryan languages are concerned because between both varities there is a difference in quality and in quantity. I have therefore put the terms between quotes to indicate that they are somewhat spurious.

"Short" vowel a

• Notes

  • "Short" a sounds like the "a" in the English word "majority".
  • It is indicated by the diacritic superscript mark zabar. The shape of zabar looks a bit like the French "accent aigue". It is normally written above the consonant bearing the sound, however when appearing word initially, zabar should be carried by an alif.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    

"Short" vowel i

• Notes

  • "Short" i sounds like the "i" in the English word "it".
  • It is indicated by the diacritic subscript mark zer. The shape of zer is a bit like the French "accent aigue". It is normally written under the consonant bearing the sound, however when appearing word initially, zer should be written below alif. The same mark is also used to indicate izafat, have a look at the special signs page for more concerning this.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    

"Short" vowel u

• Notes

  • "Short" u sounds like the "oo" in the English word "book".
  • It is indicated by the diacritic superscript mark pesh. It is normally written above the consonant bearing the sound, however when appearing word initially, pesh should be written above an alif.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    

"Long" vowel a

• Notes

  • "Long" a sounds like the "a" in the German word "bahn".
  • When used word initially it is represented by alif madda, which is an alif with a tilde like sign above it. When not used word initially an alif without extra signs is used to represent this sound.
  • If you use ArabTeX, you'll see that it will put an extra zabar on the letter preceding the alif when encoding a long medial or final a, this however is unnecessary, you shouldn't follow this practice.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

"Long" vowel i

• Notes

  • "Long" i sounds like the "ee" in the English word "see".
  • When used word initially it is represented by zer under alif followed by small yai. When medial it is represented by the medial shape of small yai and a zer under the preceding consonant. When final it is represented by the final shape of small yai.
  • If you use ArabTeX, you'll see that it will put an extra zer under the consonant preceding a final long i, this however is unnecessary, you shouldn't follow this practice.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

"Long" vowel u

• Notes

  • "Long" u sounds like the "oo" in the English word "soon".
  • When used word initially it is represented by pesh above alif followed by waw, another representation is alif followed by a waw which carries an inverted pesh called "ulTaa pesh". When used medial or final it is represented by waw and a pesh above the preceding consonant, another representation for this case also exists: a waw carrying an inverted pesh.
  • ArabTeX does not have support for ulTaa pesh at this moment.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

"Long" vowel e

• Notes

  • "Long" e sounds like the "ay" in the English word "way", pronounced however without any diphtongal off glide.
  • When used word initially it is represented by alif without any vowel sign followed by a big yai. When medial it is represented by the medial shape of yai without any vowel sign. When final it is represented by the final shape of big yai.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

"Long" vowel o

• Notes

  • "Long" o sounds like the "o" in the English word "home", however pronounced as a pure vowel not as a diphtong.
  • When used word initially it is represented by alif followed by waw, both without any vowel sign. When medial or final it is represented by the shape of waw also without any vowel sign.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

Vowel ae

• Notes

  • Vowel ae sounds like the "e" in the English word "hen".
  • When used word initially it is represented by alif with a zabar, followed by big yai. When medial or final it is represented by the corresponding shape of yai and a zabar on the preceding consonant.
  • People with a Hindi background would rather transliterate this vowel as "ai" as is done in the Itrans for Hindi system. ArabTeX (for Urdu) uses of course "ae".
  • "ae" is not articulated as a diphtong in Urdu.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final:
    
    

Vowel ao

• Notes

  • Vowel ao sounds like a very open "o" similar to thhe vowel in the English word "caught".
  • When used word initially it is represented by alif with a zabar, followed by waw. When medial or final it is represented by the corresponding shape of waw and a zabar on the preceding consonant.
  • People with a Hindi background would rather transliterate this vowel as "au" as is done in the Itrans for Hindi system, however ArabTeX for Urdu uses also "ao".
  • "ao" is not articulated as a diphtong in Urdu.

• Examples

  • Initial:
    
  • Medial:
    
    
  • Final: