Dear Foreros,
I was curious to know how individuals in the forum pronounce the letter wao in their daily conversations or for whatever reason, especially when its part of a word? I personally would pronounce the letter as wa'o and not va'o. I feel that, that is the general consensus which is why most renowned Urdu dictionaries opt for the w. My personal inkling and understanding is that Sanskrit veers towards a v but classical Persian from which we borrowed Perso-Arabic words tended to veer towards a w sound. This has changed, which is why whilst Dari has clung on to ws', modern Tehrani Persian has turned towards a v sound. However, it is believed that this occurred due to Turkish influences which didn't affect us in the same vein. Therefore the pattern of Persian that we follow as far as pronunciation is concerned is wildly different to that in modern-day Tehrani Farsi but comparable, if not identical to Dari. Platts along with quite a few other lexicons do well in elucidating how Urdu words are meant to be or tend to be pronounced, and whilst the Sanskrit derived Svaad is definitely with a v, the Arabic derived sawaad i.e. soot has a definitive w sound.
So without getting entangled into how this came to be, I am not an authority on the matter, I simply would like to know how you would pronounce hawaa or Halwa for example. I have never in my life heard an Urdu-phone pronounce Halwa as a Perso-phone would i.e. by actually enunciating the v sound. In fact, most Urdu-phones I know do not know how to produce a v sound unless they have been made to by their English tutors. It is a sound which is alien to us otherwise unless taught. For instance, as a kid, I was quite often told by an Irish tutor that most Urdu-phones pronounced van as wan but pronounced wagon correctly. Given that most of the people here are well-versed in English or any other language where the v is pronounced, I am sure every distinguished fellow member is aware of the difference.
آب و ہوا pronunciation: How to pronounce آب و ہوا in Urdu here's an example of an Urdu-phone pronouncing aab au hawaa. Now as far as I can gather he's pronouncing it as aab o hawaa rather than aab o havaa. Nonetheless, I would love to hear your take. Do respond be it in the affirmative or the negative, as I am genuinely interested in seeing where other Urdu-phones stand. Personally, I would pronounce hawaa as hawaa and not havaa, unless I was speaking Turkish! In Turkish, the v sound is distinctly visible and exaggerated. It isn't in Urdu, as far as I can tell. The w sound in Urdu is comparable to that in Arabic, as opposed to that uttered in modern-day Tehrani Persian.
1) هوا हौ hawā (p. 1240) P هوا hawā (1˚ for A. هَوَاءِ, fr. هَوَي 'to blow,' &c.;—2˚ for A. هَوًي, fr. هَوِيَ 'to love'), However, for the sake of this post not becoming multi-topic lets stick to the mere guinea pig, in this case, which is hawaa. We can draw our own conclusions, based on that. Another test case could be the popular folk song hawaa hawaa ay hawaa, xush-buu luTaa de. In Urdu we tend to speak softly, to get a V sound through during normal passage of speech you'd have to stress on the sound more than you do with a w.
Best Regards,
Sheikh
I was curious to know how individuals in the forum pronounce the letter wao in their daily conversations or for whatever reason, especially when its part of a word? I personally would pronounce the letter as wa'o and not va'o. I feel that, that is the general consensus which is why most renowned Urdu dictionaries opt for the w. My personal inkling and understanding is that Sanskrit veers towards a v but classical Persian from which we borrowed Perso-Arabic words tended to veer towards a w sound. This has changed, which is why whilst Dari has clung on to ws', modern Tehrani Persian has turned towards a v sound. However, it is believed that this occurred due to Turkish influences which didn't affect us in the same vein. Therefore the pattern of Persian that we follow as far as pronunciation is concerned is wildly different to that in modern-day Tehrani Farsi but comparable, if not identical to Dari. Platts along with quite a few other lexicons do well in elucidating how Urdu words are meant to be or tend to be pronounced, and whilst the Sanskrit derived Svaad is definitely with a v, the Arabic derived sawaad i.e. soot has a definitive w sound.
So without getting entangled into how this came to be, I am not an authority on the matter, I simply would like to know how you would pronounce hawaa or Halwa for example. I have never in my life heard an Urdu-phone pronounce Halwa as a Perso-phone would i.e. by actually enunciating the v sound. In fact, most Urdu-phones I know do not know how to produce a v sound unless they have been made to by their English tutors. It is a sound which is alien to us otherwise unless taught. For instance, as a kid, I was quite often told by an Irish tutor that most Urdu-phones pronounced van as wan but pronounced wagon correctly. Given that most of the people here are well-versed in English or any other language where the v is pronounced, I am sure every distinguished fellow member is aware of the difference.
آب و ہوا pronunciation: How to pronounce آب و ہوا in Urdu here's an example of an Urdu-phone pronouncing aab au hawaa. Now as far as I can gather he's pronouncing it as aab o hawaa rather than aab o havaa. Nonetheless, I would love to hear your take. Do respond be it in the affirmative or the negative, as I am genuinely interested in seeing where other Urdu-phones stand. Personally, I would pronounce hawaa as hawaa and not havaa, unless I was speaking Turkish! In Turkish, the v sound is distinctly visible and exaggerated. It isn't in Urdu, as far as I can tell. The w sound in Urdu is comparable to that in Arabic, as opposed to that uttered in modern-day Tehrani Persian.
1) هوا हौ hawā (p. 1240) P هوا hawā (1˚ for A. هَوَاءِ, fr. هَوَي 'to blow,' &c.;—2˚ for A. هَوًي, fr. هَوِيَ 'to love'), However, for the sake of this post not becoming multi-topic lets stick to the mere guinea pig, in this case, which is hawaa. We can draw our own conclusions, based on that. Another test case could be the popular folk song hawaa hawaa ay hawaa, xush-buu luTaa de. In Urdu we tend to speak softly, to get a V sound through during normal passage of speech you'd have to stress on the sound more than you do with a w.
Best Regards,
Sheikh