7. Ḳhe, ze, zāl, swād, and zwād

David Boyk; Daniel Majchrowicz

7. Ḳhe, ze, zāl, swād, and zwād

This chapter introduces a set of letters that are primarily associated with words drawn from Arabic and Persian.

Ḳhe

The letter ḳhe represents a raspy sound created by raising the middle of your tongue to the palate and blowing air, as in the Scottish word “loch.” In Devanagari, this sound is represented by the dotted character ख़. In Urdu, it is written using the shape of the letter jīm, but with the dot placed above the letter:

ـٮخ	ـٮخـ	خـ	خ	ḳhe ख़े
				ḳh ख़

Here are some words featuring kḥe:

خان

ḳhān ‘Khan, lord’

بد بخت

bad-baḳht ‘ill-fated, unfortunate’

خیال

ḳhayāl ‘thought, imagination’

خبر

ḳhabar ‘news’

شیخ

shaiḳh ‘sheikh’

پٹاخہ

paṭāḳha ‘firecracker’

Insight

There are a few words borrowed from Persian in which ḳhe is followed by a silent wāw (though some speakers do pronounce the silent wāw when it is followed by alif). Some common examples include:

خواہش

ḳhāhish / ḳhwāhish ख़्वाहिश ‘desire’

خواب

ḳhāb / ḳhwāb ख़्वाब ‘dream’

تنخواہ

tanḳhāh / tanḳhwāh तनख़्वाह ‘salary’

خواہ مخواہ

ḳhāh-ma-ḳhāh / ḳhwāh-ma-ḳhwāh ख़्वामख़्वाह ‘willingly or not, willy-nilly’

خود

kḥud ख़ुद ‘oneself’

خوش

ḳhush ख़ुश ‘happy’

Note that Hindi spellings preserve the wāw sound of the “silent wāw” when it precedes an alif.

Ze

While Devanagari uses only the dotted letter ज़ to write the sound z, in Urdu this sound is written using four different letters. We will learn to write three of these letters in this chapter. Typically, you will need to memorize which letter to use in which word, though later we will introduce a few tricks to help you guess the proper spelling. As with other sounds represented by multiple letters, there is one letter that is by far the most commonly used to write the z sound, and which should be your first guess when you are in doubt about spelling. This is ze, which is a re-series letter and therefore a non-connector. It looks exactly like re, but with a single dot above:

ـز	ز	ze ज़े
		z ज़

Here are some words with the letter ze:

زندگی

zindagī ‘life’

چیز

chīz ‘thing’

زمین

zamīn ‘land’

Insight

When written compactly, a ze can sometimes be confused for a nūn followed by a re. Normally, the dot of the ze will be farther to the left:

ہنر

hunar ‘skill’

ہزار

hazār ‘thousand’

Zāl

The letter zāl is also used to represent the sound z or ज़. It is used almost exclusively in words borrowed from Arabic. Though it is a comparatively rare letter, it nevertheless appears in many common words. Zāl belongs to the dāl series and is a nonconnector. To write it, add a single dot above the letter dāl:

ـذ	ذ	zāl ज़ाल
		z ज़

Here are some words spelled with zāl:

مذہب

mazhab ‘religion’

ذہن

zěhěn ‘mind’

ذکر

zikr ‘mention’

گذارش

guzārish ‘request’

Swād

We mentioned earlier that the sound s or स can be written in multiple ways. After sīn, the second most common letter used to write this sound is swād (also called sād). Swād typically appears in words of Arabic origin. In the initial and medial positions, swād is written with a tapered loop above the line, followed closely by a small tooth. In the final and independent positions, the same loop is written, but the following tooth then drops down into a bowl like that of sīn:

ٮص ٮص	ٮصـ ٮصـ	صـ	ص	swād स्वाद
				s स

Here are some words spelled with swād:

صاحب

sāhib ‘sir’

اصلی

aslī ‘real, authentic’

صبح

subah ‘morning’

صوبہ

sūba ‘province’

خوبصورت

ḳhūbsūrat ‘beautiful’

خاص

ḳhās ‘special’

صحیح

sahīh ‘correct’

Insight

On occasion, a miniature version of the letter swād will be written below the letter, as was the case with sīn. This is purely aesthetic. Can you locate this calligraphic flourish in the magazine title below?

Ismat magazine. Image source: British Library.

Zwād

The third letter used to write the sound z is derived from the letter swād. Zwād (also called zād) is written by placing a single dot over swād, typically above the point at which the upward loop begins to taper.

ٮض ٮض	ٮضـ ٮضـ	ضـ	ض	zwād ज़्वाद
				z ज़

Like swād, zwād typically appears in loanwords from Arabic. Here are some words spelled with zwād:

ضرورت

zarūrat ‘need’

حضرت

hazrat (a term of respect)

مریض

marīz ‘patient, sick person’

مرضی

marzī ‘pleasure, consent’

Review

The z sound is made by four letters, but the most common is ze.

In this chapter, we introduced these letters:

Letter	Name	Sound
خ	ḳhe ख़े	ḳh ख़
ز	ze ज़े	z ज़
ذ	zāl ज़ाल	z ज़
ص	swād स्वाद	s स
ض	zwād ज़्वाद	z ज़

Exercises

Exercises
(Roman)

Exercises
(Devanagari)

Ḳhe

Ze

Zāl

Swād

Zwād

Review

Exercises

License