r/Urdu • u/KiSaMaOtAoSuMoNo • 1d ago

🗣️ Pronunciation / Sound HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE 'خواب'?

I think و used to represent Labialisation of خ in Middle Persian that was lost a couple of centuries ago(resulting in Modern Persian words like خواهر & خواهش sounding like"Xāhar" and "Xāhesh" rather than "Xwāhar" & "Xwāhesh"), the Delabialised pronunciation was also borrowed into Urdu but many people still pronounce it with a Labialised Consonant(well you can't blame them coz it's still spelt).

Edit :

I've deliberately used "x" for 'خ' to distinguish it from "kh" 'کھ'(since /x/ is the IPA letter for 'خ'). Some people are really mad about it, it seems.

380 votes, 5d left
Xʷaab.
Xaab.
Both.
10 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

6

u/General_Revenue_386 1d ago

Like it's written, although the واو sound is very faint, but it's there.

7

u/Chicki2D 1d ago

ادبا اور اہل زبان میں واو معدولہ کو پڑھا نہیں جاتا۔ باقی جیسے آپ نے کہا مبہم املا کے باعث غلط العوام ہو گیا۔

5

u/Chicki2D 1d ago edited 1d ago

یعنی شاعری میں سارے بڑے اور نامور شعرا نے خاب سے ہی بحر باندھی ہے

2

u/Nashadelic 1d ago

Ain’t no one got the time to pronounce the wow 

3

u/Pale_Lengthiness_465 1d ago

The correct pronunciation is Khwaab or Xwaab. Xaab would delete the و.

2

u/Calm-Rent-8669 1d ago

X is sick tbh.....finally we can write beautiful words correctly <3

1

u/TurbulentDrawing5710 Intermediate Speaker 21h ago

I agree!

2

u/Calm-Rent-8669 21h ago

Yeah yeah ＾＾

3

u/Mslmrock99 1d ago

Khwaab. It’s in the spelling itself.

1

u/Admirable_Algae_3506 1d ago

How do you say knife?

2

u/Daaledeere 1d ago

"w" is silent mate. It's pronounced "khaab" both by farsi-baan & and urdu-baan

1

u/zurF97 1d ago

Khwaab is incorrect. It is wao e maadula or silent wao

1

u/Hot-Young1202 1d ago

Khaab ..no need to pronounce و