Hyderabadi Urdu () is a

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

of Dakhini Urdu, spoken in areas of the former

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state in the Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and the ...

, corresponding to the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

, the

Marathwada Marathwada () is a geographical region of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Maharashtra. It was formed during the Nizam of Hyderabad, Nizam's rule and was part of the then Hyderabad State. The region coincides with the Aurang ...

region of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

and the

Kalyana-Karnataka Kalyana-Karnataka, also known as Hyderabad-Karnataka, is a region located in the northern part of the Indian state of Karnataka, which was part of Hyderabad State ruled by the Nizams and the Madras presidency of British India. The region compr ...

region of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. It is natively spoken by the

Hyderabadi Muslims Hyderabadi Muslims, also referred to as Hyderabadis, are a community of Deccani people, from the area that used to be the princely state of Hyderabad in the regions of Marathwada, Telangana, and Kalyana-Karnataka. While the term "Hyderabad ...

and their diaspora. It contains loan words from Indian languages like

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and foreign languages like

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Turkic and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. Hyderabadi is considered to be a northern variety of

Dakhini Deccani ( ''dakanī'' or ''dakhanī''; also known as Deccani Urdu, Deccani Hindi, and Deccani Hindustani) is an Indo-Aryan language variety based on a form of Hindustani spoken in the Deccan region of south-central India and is the native lan ...

History

Distinctive features

Hyderabadi is mutually intelligible with most

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

speakers but has distinctive features from interaction with local Indian Languages such as Marathi, Telugu, Kannada.

Phonology

The letter (

qāf Qoph is the nineteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''qōp'' 𐤒, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''qūp̄'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''qop'' 𐡒, Syriac alphabet, Syriac ''qōp̄'' ܩ, ...

) is pronounced as an unvoiced velar

fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...

/x/ with the same pronunciation as ( khe) whereas in Standard Hindustani dialects the is pronounced as a velar plosive /k/ with the same pronunciation as (

kāf Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''kāp'' 𐤊, Hebrew ''kāp̄'' , Aramaic ''kāp'' 𐡊, Syriac ''kāp̄'' ܟ, and Arabic ''kāf'' (in abjadi order). It is also related to the Anc ...

), or in more educated settings as /q/. For example, the word 'qabar' (grave) is pronounced almost identical as 'khabar' (news).

Lexical features

Distinct vocabulary unique to Hyderabadis: *Āra'en - (is) coming; "Ā rahe hain" "" in standard Urdu *Čindiyān kardiya - Nailed it *Čupke to bī / čupkaič - No reason *Hona - to want, instead of "čāhna" in Orthodox Urdu (instead of "mujhē woh čāhi'ē" "" in Orthodox Urdu, Hyderabadi Urdu would use "mērēku woh hona." "") *Hao - for yes, instead of "Hān" "". *Hallu - Slow *Haula - foolish, crazy person *Hota ki nai ki - May or may not happen *Jāndo - let it go *Jāra'un - I am leaving *Jāra'en - (is) going; "jā rahe hain" in standard Urdu *Kačča(i) - wet; in standard Urdu, wet would be "gīla". "kacha" in standard Urdu means "raw". *Kaīkū - why; "kyūn" or "kis li'ē" in standard Urdu. *Kaīkū ki - wonder why, who knows why *Katey - it is often used when a person mentions something told by someone else. It could be translated as "it seems". Usage: "Kal unay bahar jaara katey" means "It seems he is going outside tomorrow". * Kxayāli pulāo - Wishful thinking *Kunjī - keys; in standard Urdu, keys would be chābī . *Kya toh bī hora - what the hell is happening *Lāiṭ liyo - take it easy *Mērēku - my, instead of "mujhe" or "mujhko" in standard Urdu *Miyān - fellow (i.e. "Chalo miyan "" means "Let's go, man.") *Nakko - an alternate (and informal) negative, generally indicating "no", "no thanks" or "don't". It can be (and is often) used in place of "nahīn", "nā" and "mat" (from traditional Urdu) are used where "nakko" is inappropriate for the context or in polite situations. * Parsūn - literally it means the day before yesterday or the day after tomorrow but it is widely used for any time in recent past. *Phugat - for free, without cost; ("this food is free") *Poṭṭī - derogatory term for girl *Poṭṭā - derogatory term for boy *Paintābē - socks; in standard Urdu it would be "mauzē". *Tumārē ku - you, instead of tumhen or tumko in standard Urdu *Tērē ku (informal slang) - you, instead of tujhe or tujhko in standard Urdu *Uney - he/she, instead of woh in standard Urdu. * Zyāda nakko kar - don't act over smart * The word "ič" is often added after a noun or verb to express the confidence of the action. In standard Urdu, "hī" would be used. For example: "Biryāni'ič lāraun mēn" "". In standard Urdu this would be "Biryāni hī lā rahā hūn main" "". * The Urdu word "hai" (be) is often dropped. For example, Urdu "Mujhē mālūm hai" "" (I know it) would be "Mērē ku mālum" "". * Aisich - No reason/without any reason (casually) as in "" "I did it without any reason"

Peculiar features

The suffix ''"ān"'' is often used to mark plurality. The letter 'n' is an almost silent nasal stop. For example, ''Log'' (people) would become ''Logān'' , ''Bāt'' (talk) would become ''Bātān'' , ''Ādmi'' (men) pronounced as ''Admi'' would become ''Admiyān'' , etc. in the Hyderabadi dialect. While talking, many long a's (as in "father") are pronounced "uh" as in "hut." For example, instead of ''"ādmi"'' (man) or ''"rāsta"'' (path) in Orthodox Urdu, Hyderabadi would use ''"admi"'' and ''"rasta"'' . Similarly ''"bhūl"'' (to forget), ''"ṭūṭ"'' (to break) and ''"čūṛi'ān"'' (bangles) is ''"bhul"'' , ''"ṭuṭ"'' and ''"čuṛiyān"'' in Hyderabadi.

Popularity and usage

In the early sixties, film star

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Given name Mahmood *Mahmood Ali (1928� ...

popularized another dialect in Indian films, Dakhni slang, which originates from former Mysore State. A very famous Guinness record holder drama /stage comedy written in Dakhani is '' Adrak Ke Punjey''. Many Urdu poets also write in the Hyderabadi dialect of Dakhani, including Pagal Adilabadi, Khamakha Hyderabadi and Nukko Hyderabadi (of

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

). Hyderabadi gained sudden prominence and recognition in 2006 after the success of the comedy film ''

The Angrez ''The Angrez'' () is a 2005 Indian Hyderabadi-language comedy film directed by Kuntaa Nikkil. In this film, the word "Angrez" refers to Englanders and non-resident Indians. The film was a trend-setter at that time, as it was one of the first t ...

'' that adopted the dialect. The film's success sparked several other Hyderabadi dialect films including: ''Kal Ka Nawaab'', '' Hyderabad Nawaabs'', ''Aadab Hyderabad'', '' Gullu Dada'', ''Gullu Dada Returns'', ''Berozgaar'', ''

Hungama In Dubai ''Hungama in Dubai'' is a 2007 Indian Deccani comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dar ...

'', '' Daawat-e-Ishq''.

References

{{Central Indo-Aryan languages Urdu in India Dialects of Urdu Languages of Telangana Central Indo-Aryan languages Culture of Hyderabad, India Deccani language