See also my Hindi-Urdu FAQ.

Urdu Supplements to the Perso-Arabic Alphabet
Letters
(Independent Forms Only)
Urdu Names Pronunciation Hindi
Equivalents
to Urdu
retroflex T
Daal retroflex D
retroflex R
Nun ghunna
(word-final only)
nasal N, close to
French bon or élan
Do
chashmi he

(see below)
H  
laam-alif Laa

(word-final only)
E as in hen
diphthong in eight

 

Do Chashmi He and the Aspirated Consonants of Urdu-Hindi

Aspiration is the release of breath following the pronunciation of a consonant. English has many aspirates but does not assign any unique characters to represent them. For example, the P in pot is an aspirate but the one in pie is not. (One can feel the exhalation in the former but not the latter.)

Urdu-Hindi counts eleven aspirated consonants. Fortunately, they're formed merely by attaching the do chashmi he to their unaspirated counterparts. This is the only use of the do chashmi he. Its forms are:

Independent Initial Medial Final

And the eleven aspirated consonants in Urdu and their Hindi-Devanagari equivalents:

Urdu Hindi Transcription
b - h
p - h
t - h
retroflex T + h
j - h
ch - h
d - h
retroflex D + h

retroflex R + h
k + h

g + h

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