Urdu Vocabulary, Script and Grammar: A Learner’s Suggestions

Abstract

The type of learner who is learning Urdu is changing: learners of Urdu may now be older professionals who lack language backgrounds and are learning Urdu as a first second language for either personal reasons (such as marriage into the South Asian diaspora) or professional reasons (such as working with Urdu-speaking colleagues or customers). This paper argues that current resources for Urdu are often inappropriate for this type of learner. It details the author’s suggestions as a learner of Urdu, namely: that (1) vocabulary resources for Urdu should include everyday vocabulary and indicate the gender, category and pronunciation of any entry, (2) there is a more efficient way of teaching Urdu script that does not centre on four letter forms (“final”, “medial”, “initial” and “isolated”) and (3) there is a more efficient way of describing certain grammatical features of Urdu, such as categories of word, the oblique case and gender. This paper attempts thereby to break away from more traditional ways of teaching grammar and script. As an avenue of future research, it suggests that the same principles suggested for increasing the efficiency of specific grammatical descriptions in Urdu could also be applied in more widely taught languages.