Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script [Paperback]

Richard Delacy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2000 | Series: Teach Yourself

This guide to learning Urdu script should appeal to students of Urdu, travellers to Pakistan, and second or third generation emigrants of Pakistani or Indian origin who can speak Urdu but not read or write it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Delacy

has studied and taught Urdu at the university level in the USA and Australia --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 133 pages
• Publisher: Teach Yourself (November 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340779888
• ISBN-13: 978-0340779880
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,366,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual format but the book works, January 1, 2002

By 

Eds Word (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script (Paperback)

Good Urdu learning material can be hard to come by. Delacy hits the mark with a self-contained introduction that serves as an ideal base for launching into further studies of Urdu. The book presents Urdu letters in bite-size units with the emphasis on character recognition and handwriting. There are lots of reading and writing exercises, all with the answers provided. You'll learn about how, like Arabic, these letters change depending on if the letter is first or last in a word or somewhere in between. You'll also learn how to read and compose simple words.

Here are a few assorted findings. There are two styles of Urdu script: nasta'liq and naskh. Nasta'liq is a bit more intimidating than naskh although the latter is also common to Arabic and Persian. Delacy utilizes the nasta'liq in his text which may cause you to curse at first but in the end you'll be glad that the book is presented that way. Not only is nasta'liq is the more common Urdu script but its compact, slanted form gives written Urdu a distinct character compared to other languages that utilize Perso-Arabic scripts. Also, the letters are not presented in the order of the Urdu alphabet nor are letters which appear similar in shape presented together as a group, as intuition would suggest, but rather spread out throughout the book. This arrangement is a bit weird but it works. If you already know Arabic you'll simultaneously find a lot of commonality and difference with Urdu. For example, you'll find many of the same letters in Arabic as well as some letters that look the same but aren't. There are also different rules for connecting letters when constructing a word.

One of the book's chief benefits is that it will give you a head start when undertaking more advanced studies in Urdu. You will already know how to read the language and will not have to bother with messy transliteration schemes that use the roman alphabet (along with funky tildes, macrons, and umlauts) to teach pronunciation. The author does employ such a scheme but you'll need a native speaker to help you correctly pronounce Urdu. The chief benefit, however, is that this inexpensive book fulfills its purpose of teaching you how to read and write Urdu in an easy to follow manner.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource, November 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script (Paperback)

I am a university student who's studied Arabic for the last few years and am now thinking about learning Urdu. Because I know the Arabic script already, I figured this book might be a good way to teach myself the Urdu script before going on to learn to speak and read. I have to admit I was slightly skeptical about the whole teach yourself thing, but this book turned out to be a great resource! The author does a good job of teaching how to form the letters step-by-step in each of their positions, and how to link them together. It was especially important for me that this part be clear, as there are several key differences from Arabic. The whole book is easy to follow, but doesn't condescend to the reader. What was most helpful, though, is that it allowed me to deal with one part of the language at a time. Now that I feel comfortable with the script, I feel like I can go on to learn to read and speak. I would also guess that this would be an especially useful tool for native speakers who may not have learned to write in the Urdu script.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic resource, October 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script (Paperback)

(...) This is an unbelievable useful resource. The sections are very well organised and structured, slowly building up knowledge of the letters and how to write and combine them in initial, medial and final position (see how much I've learned already!). Take a look at the pages that you can view through Amazon and you will see how the book shows you how to write Urdu letters stroke by stroke, and then combine letters to forms words.
If you want to learn to write Urdu by yourself - this is the one!