Hindi-Urdu - Writing System

Writing System

Contemporarily, Hindi-Urdu is primarily written in the Devanagari script or the Perso-Arabic script. However, the Kaithi script was the historical popular script for the language. Hindi, one standardized register of Hindi-Urdu, utilizes the Devanagari script while Urdu, the other standardized register of Hindi-Urdu utilizes the Perso-Arabic script, with Nasta`liq being the preferred calligraphic style for Urdu.

Devanagari script used to write Hindi:

अ	आ	इ	ई	उ	ऊ	ए	ऐ	ओ	औ
ə	aː	ɪ	iː	ʊ	uː	eː	ɛː	oː	ɔː
क	क़	ख	ख़	ग	ग़	घ	ङ
k	q	kʰ	x	ɡ	ɣ	ɡʱ	ŋ
च	छ	ज	ज़	झ	झ़	ञ
t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʰ	d͡ʒ	z	d͡ʒʱ	ʒ	ɲ
ट	ठ	ड	ड़	ढ	ढ़	ण
ʈ	ʈʰ	ɖ	ɽ	ɖʱ	ɽʱ	ɳ
त	थ	द	ध	न
t̪	t̪ʰ	d̪	d̪ʱ	n
प	फ	फ़	ब	भ	म
p	pʰ	f	b	bʱ	m
य	र	ल	व
j	ɾ	l	ʋ
श	ष	स	ह
ʃ	ʂ	s	ɦ

Perso-Arabic script used to write Urdu:

Letter	Name of letter	Transcription	IPA
ا	alif	-	-
ب	be	b	/b/
پ	pe	p	/p/
ت	te	t	/t̪/
ٹ	ṭe	ṭ	/ʈ/
ث	se	s	/s/
ج	jīm	j	/d͡ʒ/
چ	che	ch	/t͡ʃ/
ح	baṛī he	h	/h ~ ɦ/
خ	khe	kh	/x/
د	dāl	d	/d̪/
ڈ	ḍāl	ḍ	/ɖ/
ذ	zāl	dh	/z/
ر	re	r	/r ~ ɾ/
ڑ	ṛe	ṛ	/ɽ/
ز	ze	z	/z/
ژ	zhe	zh	/ʒ/
س	sīn	s	/s/
ش	shīn	sh	/ʃ/
ص	su'ād	ṣ	/s/
ض	zu'ād	z̤	/z/
ط	to'e	t	/t/
ظ	zo'e	ẓ	/z/
ع	‘ain	'	-
غ	ghain	gh	/ɣ/
ف	fe	f	/f/
ق	qāf	q	/q/
ک	kāf	k	/k/
گ	gāf	g	/ɡ/
ل	lām	l	/l/
م	mīm	m	/m/
ن	nūn	n	/n/
و	vā'o	v, o, or ū	/ʋ/, /oː/, /ɔ/ or /uː/
ہ, ﮩ, ﮨ	choṭī he	h	/h ~ ɦ/
ھ	do chashmī he	h	/ʰ/ or /ʱ/
ء	hamza	'	/ʔ/
ی	ye	y, i	/j/ or /iː/
ے	bari ye	ai or e	/ɛː/, or /eː/

Because of Anglicization and international use of the Latin script, Hindi-Urdu is also sometimes written in the Latin script. This adaptation is called Roman Urdu. As the Bollywood film industry is a great supporter of Latin script, Roman Urdu is gaining popularity especially among younger Internet users.

See also: Devanagari alphabet and Perso-Arabic script