Articles
Sound changes, script literacy, and the nuqta files — the essays that ship inside the Zubane app, here in full so they are easy to share.
Why Did F Replace Ph in Modern Hindi-Urdu?
A sound that did not exist in the subcontinent is quietly taking over. Tracing the merger from the 1800s to your group chat.
The Script Shaped the Sound
Zubane's working hypothesis: Nastaliq protects distinctions that Devanagari's optional dot lets slip.
Devanagari vs Nastaliq: Precision Meets Poetry
One script is an engineer, the other a poet. You should learn to read both.
Lafz, Alfaaz, Lafzon, Alfaazon
How Arabic broken plurals live inside Hindi-Urdu, and what alfaazon says about you.
Zubaan vs Zabaan
Two vowels, one word, and the story behind this project's name.
Kh, Gh, and Qaaf: Three Guests Who Stayed
Three consonants that arrived with Persian and Arabic and never left.
Karna vs Karni
Mujhe baat karni hai, or karna hai? A century-old argument over one vowel, with Delhi and Lucknow on opposite sides.
Kis Baat Ko Le Kar
A construction blamed on TV soaps turns out to have Lucknow grandfathers. On le kar, kar ke, and the much-maligned le kar ke.
Baahar vs Baahir
A cricket forum stopped talking cricket to argue about one vowel. Seven years later, everyone was still right.
Sabzi Accha Hai
What a Karachi housekeeper's grammar taught a language forum about Bihar, Banaras, and who gets called over-educated.
Persian Is a Cousin, Not a Parent
Urdu did not come from Persian, and Hindi is not Sanskrit alone. The family tree tells a better story.
Naam and Name Are the Same Word
Do and two, maata and mother, daant and dental. Your mouth keeps very old paperwork.
If Bhojpuri Is Hindi, What Is Urdu?
Two tongues of fifty million speakers each. The census files one under Hindi and gives the other its own line.
The Guests Stayed in the City
Seven varieties, one vowel chart, and two borrowed sounds, f and z, that never left the standard. What a phone-recording study heard.
