INTRODUCTION

In this unit, we’ll take our knowledge of Urdu vowels even further by learning about two very important letters - ‘chhoTii ye’ (Devanagari: छोटी ये | IPA: /t͡ʃʰoːʈiː jeː/ | Pronunciation:     ) and ‘ba.Dii ye’ ( Devanagari: बड़ी ये | IPA: /bəɽiː jeː/ | Pronunciation:   )

ے
  • ba.Dii ye
  • बड़ी ये
ی
  • chhoTii ye
  • छोटी ये

Above: The letters ‘chhoTii ye’ & ‘ba.Dii ye’

In the Urdu language, these two letters help us with creating three more long-vowel sounds - ‘ii’ ( ई | /iː/ |  ) , ‘e’ ( ए | /eː/ | ) & ‘ai’ ( ऐ | /ɛː/ |  ) and the consonant sound ‘y’ ( य | /j/ |  )

11.1.1: ‘chhoTii ye’

This is the letter ‘chhoTii ye’ (Devanagari: छोटी ये | IPA: /t͡ʃʰoːʈiː jeː/; Pronunciation: )

As a vowel, this creates the sound of ‘ii’ (ई) as in “eel” , “feet”, “referee” etc. or as in Hindi words such as - “ईद”, “अमीर”, “अपनी” etc.

As a consonant, this creates the sound of ‘y’ (य) as in “yellow”, “banyan” etc. or as in Hindi words such as - “याद”, “दयार” etc.

chhoTii ye

छोटी ये

11.1.2: ‘ba.Dii ye’

This is the letter ‘ba.Dii ye’ (Devanagari: बड़ी ये | IPA: /bəɽiː jeː/; Pronunciation: )

This creates the sound of the long-vowel ‘e’ (ए) as in “eight”, “wake”, “away” etc. or as in Hindi words such as - “एक”,  “अनेक”, “अपने” etc.

With the diacritic zabar, this creates the sound of ‘ai’ (ऐ) as in “at”, “daddy” etc. or as in Hindi words such as - “ऐसा”, “चैन”, “मै” etc.

ba.Dii ye

बड़ी ये

Let’s move on to learning about these two letters in greater detail now and also some words where they’re used.