Z in urdu

Re: Z in urdu

Irem : Urdu is derived from Hindi :stuck_out_tongue: (well mainly) The base from the hindi, words & phrases from 6 diffrent languages. Which include Hindi, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit & Greek.

There were two prime reasons for forming a new similar language to the one that is already spoken.

  1. Muslims werent comfortable using Hindi as their language, they wanted something ‘muslim’ (atleast we borrowed rasmulkhat from Arabic)

  2. Muslims felt hindi did not had much of a respectful words they need for a muslim soceity (keeping in mind Hindi also inherited alot of those words from urdu recently which include a big list from aap, janaab walay words)

Yes word Urdu is basically Turkish & means the same u mentioned, but interesting enough, the Oxford Dictionary also give another defination to the word which is something similar to this “The Hindustani language as spoken by the Muhammedans of India and by the Hindus who have intercourse with them”. I wonder from where this defination came from, perhaps bcos of those various “kothaas” in hinstoric India where muslim ladies used to perform dances & ppl who used to visit usually would speak urdu & do some poetry as well :slight_smile:

Anyway, back to original post Z

The answer to ‘why?’ is bcos Urdu has borrowed loads of words from diffrent languages, if one languages uses Z word with lets say “zaal” other language used Z word from “zay”. Since urdu borrowed both words, it borrowed both letters as well.

I think there r basically 4 Z words.

  1. Zal. is called “dal muajjena” its the 9th letter of Arabic & 13th of Urdu. In numeric (abjad) it stands for 700.

  2. Zay or Ze. Its called “Zae ma’jjama” or “Zae manquta” is the 11th Arabic & Persian letter & 16th of Urdu. In abjad, it stands for 7.

  3. Zad. Its purely Arabic letter. Its called “Zad-i-muajjama” & “Zad-i-manquta” Its 15th of Arabic letter, 18th of Persian & 21st of Urdu & if u care, in abjad it stands for 800.

  4. Zoe. In Arabic its pronounced as “Za” In abjad it stands for 900 & its a 17th Arabic letter. It dosent occur in pure Persian.

:bravo: