Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script

Rating:
Summary: Unusual format but the book works
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Great resource
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Very good if you want to learn to read Urdu
Review: This is an excellent book if you want to learn how to read and write in Urdu. Unless you are a native speaker, you might need to consult someone who can speak a North Indian language to help with the pronounciations. The exercises are excellent-they are not only designed to test your reading skills, but they also test you on your writing abilities. All in all, it is highly recommended if you want to learn how to read & write Urdu.