Urdu, a major South Asian language with over 100 million speakers, is known for its rich literary tradition and linguistic complexity, shaped by Perso-Arabic, Sanskrit, and Turkic influences. The present book, provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of Urdu’s grammatical structure, serving as an authoritative resource for linguists, educators, language learners, and scholars. This grammar provides an exhaustive and systematic exploration of Urdu’s phonological system.
Additionally, the grammar explores Urdu’s syllabic constraints and phonotactics, such as permissible consonant clusters and vowel harmony tendencies. It also explores the Nastaliq script’s orthographic conventions. It delves into morphology, covering noun declensions, verb conjugations, and the intricate system of case markers that define Urdu’s syntactic flexibility. The syntax section elucidates sentence construction, including word order variations (SOV as standard), complex predicates, and agreement patterns, with attention to both formal and colloquial registers. The grammar incorporates numerous examples drawn from contemporary spoken and written Urdu. Special emphasis is placed on Urdu’s unique features, such as its split ergativity and extensive use of compound verbs, which distinguish it from related languages.
By addressing gaps in existing Urdu grammatical resources, this reference grammar facilitates deeper understanding and effective teaching of Urdu, contributing significantly to the preservation and study of its linguistic heritage.