Page:A Grammar of the Urdū Or Hindūstānī Language in Its Romanized Character.djvu/29

Rh 11. Thus we see that the Urdū native Alphabet (the Persian) contains three semi-vowel letters that may be either consonants, vowels, or diphthongs; and that there are three vowel-signs to mark either a short or a long vowel or a diphthong, as (ra),  (rā),  (rai);  (ri),  (rī), ' (re) ;  (ru),  (rū),  (rau). The literæ tenues (soft letters) Alif, Wāw , and Ye are consonants if initial, as (at),  (it),  (ut);  (wat),  ('wut);  (yat) ,  (yit),  (yut).

12. Besides these expedients for distinguishing the vowels, diphthongs and semi-vowels, the Arabs invented certain diacritical signs for notifying the proper pronunciation of letters, viz. three applicable to consonants and three to vowels. The consonantal are (1) the Tashdīd to show that the letter is to be doubled; (2) the Jazm or Sukūn  to show that the letter ends a syllable without a vowel after it, (as  karm—not karam); and (3) the Waṣl  placed over the initial  (al) to show that the  (l) is to be joined (in sound) to the previous word, e.g.  (fi-l-ḥāl) 'instantly.' The vowel signs are Hamza  to show the vowel is initial in a syllable, as (jurat) 'valour'; Maddha  that it is long, as  (qurān); and Tanwīn (, or ) that to a final vowel ṉshould be added in pronunciation, e.g. =itttfāqaṉ by chance,'  (fauraṉ) 'at once.'