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الموضوع: Urdu Prosody Basics

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    تاريخ التسجيل
    Nov 2005
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    Urdu Prosody Basics


    This page is still in its formative stages and most of the information is not necessarily complete in itself ... I present a semi-formal, though non-historical, approach to urdU prosody - but it is by no means an expert's thesis. All this information is culled mostly from my memory and the meagre notes from having read Agha Sadiq's treatise on urdU prosody "nikAt-e fann" a long time ago. If you are reading all this for the first time, you can safely skip the "Historical Background" perspectives that I have interspersed in the actual text; especially because there exists the possibility of notational confusion if you read both the perspectives together.

    If you are least interested in knowing the basis for generating the meters, you can, after having read the section on vazn, directly jump to the urdU Prosody (Meters and their Derived Forms) page.

    vazn (weight)

    To arrive at a semi-formal notion of vazn, let us assume that the symbols k, v, and V stand for a Consonant, Short Vowel, and Long Vowel respectively as used in urdU or hindI. Then, syllables may be classified as:


    Short closed = k
    Short open = kv
    Long closed = kvk
    Long open = kV [cvv] some consider
    Ultra long closed = kvk



    For the purposes of urdU prosody a distinction is not really made between the Closed and Open flavours. If at any point a distinction needs to be maintained, it will be explicitly mentioned at that point. Specifially, the closed syllable is indicated by a c subscript. Further, only the Short and Long forms are really "relevant" in urdU prosody. The Ultralong (kVk) is instead decomposed as Long + Short (kV + k). All other long syllables with trailing consonant clusters (e.g. kVkk, kVkkk etc.) are considered equivalent to kVk.

    We denote the Long as L and Short as S and classify them as syllabic atoms. There is no notion of any equivalence or conversion relationship between the L and S atoms - and thus they both need to be treated independently as first class entities. There is however a "popular" notion of attributing the value 1 to S and the value 2 to L. This, in my opinion, is sadly misleading and seems to suggest that the vazn of an L atom is twice that of an S atom. Nothing could be more farther than the truth ... (this is notwithstanding the fact that there are indeed many urdU meters that allow a legal subsitution of an SS pair in place of an L at specific locations).

    Definition: The vazn of a lafz (word) is defined as the syllabic equivalent defined in terms of the L and S. Syllabification in a lafz is defined in a manner such that the number of vowels in a lafz determines the number of syllables. While the first syllable in a lafz may start with a vowel (in which case the associated consonant is the void consonant), all following syllables begin with a single consonant. In other words, each consonant cluster in a word determines a syllable boundary, with the last consonant beginning the next syllable.

    Thus, the lafz "par" has a vazn of L, while the lafz "pAr" has a vazn of LS. Similarly, the lafz "pardah" has a vazn LL.


    Historical Background
    Every word, or lafz, is made up of repeated instances of two basic atomic entities, namely
    mutaharrik
    movable, a consonant accented with the short vowels a, i, or u. Denoted by M. It is related to the word harakat which stands for motion. A harakat is then said to be present on the consonant.

    sAkin
    quiescent, a consonant not followed by a vowel. Denoted by S. It is related to the word sukUnat which stands for rest or tranquility. A sukUnat is then said to be following the consonant.
    For instance, in the word "par'', p occurs as a M, while r occurs as a S. Similarly the word "kAr'' can be decomposed into ka[M]a[S]r[S]. Notice the splitting of the sound "kA'' into a MS pair.

    Every lafz can thus be split into its constituent M and S parts. Any such combination of M and S defines the vazn, or weight, of the corresponding lafz. Loosely put, the vazn is a measure of the time taken in pronouncing the lafz.

    Equivalence of vazn

    The primary focus in fann-e `arUz, or the art of prosody, is matching up the vazn of two different lines. The basis for this is the definition of equivalence of vazn for two different alfAz (plural of lafz). Thus two alfAz are said to be hamvazn, or equal in vazn, iff their syllabic patterns defined in terms of the L and S atoms are identical.

    Thus, "sabab" (sa[S] bab[L]) is hamvazn with "bahut" (ba[S] hut[L]).
    However, "sabab" (sa[S] bab[L]) is not hamvazn with "ShAd" (ShA[L] d[S]) even though the number of L and S atoms in both the words is the same.


    Historical Background
    Two alfAz are said to be hamvazn, or equal in vazn, iff
    They have the same count of hurUf (letters from the Persian alphabet).

    The harakAt (phenomenon of having harakat) and the sakanAt (phenomenon of having sakUnat) of one of the alfAz can be exactly matched up with that of the other.
    Note that the presence of fatha (the zabar or the vowel "a''), kasra (the zer or the vowel "i''), or zamma (the peSh or the vowel "u'') on a consonant does not modify the vazn. For instance, "pa'', "pi,'' and "pu'' are equivalent as far as the vazn is concerned.

    To consider an example of hamvazn alfAz,
    The lafz "sabab'' (sa[M]ba[M]b[S]) is hamvazn with "tarah'' (ta[M]ra[M]h[S])
    But "sabab'' (sa[M]ba[M]b[S]) is NOT hamvazn with "saKht'' (sa[M]Kh[S]t[S])
    As another example, notice that "GhAlib'' is NOT hamvazn with "hakIm'', as MSMS does not match up with MMSS, inspite of the fact that the sum durations of both the alfAz are the same! In the same vein "GAlib'' IS hamvazn with "nAsiKh'', as both are MSMS.

    The vazn forms the sole foundation of the considerations that are based on metre. Hence to be able to judge the hamvazn-ness of two different lines, one should be aware of the correct duration of the pronunciations as employed in actual speech. Simply knowing the correct pronunciation is not enough. For instance, the sound "ko'' in "mujHkO'' and "kOrA'' are not equivalent in vazn! In the former case, depending on the use and position in the eventual metre, it is equivalent either to a M or MS, whereas in the latter it is equivalent to MS. In other words the hurdle towards learning to proof-read verse is knowing how to read it correctly in the first place! The only solution seems to be learning the correct durations by constantly listening to the masters in prosody.

    As a consequence of this, note the following special cases
    "gA'o.n'' and words of that ilk should actually be matched with MSS as they are actually "gA.nv'' (ga[M]a[S]v[S]) etc..
    Similar to the one above are the words like "banA'o'' etc. which actually scan as "banAv'' (ba[M]na[M]a[S]v[S]).
    "dulhan'' actually scans as MMS since the "lh'' actually stand for the single sa.Nsk.rt consonant "lH''. Thus the breakup for "dulhan'' is du[M]lHa[M]n[S].
    Similarly, there are a host of alfAz which have multiple auzAn (plural of vazn). I hope I will be able to come out with a list some day soon ...
    taqtI` (scansion) and vazn

    The notion of vazn assumes importance only in the context of the rules of scansion or taqtI`. A brief heuristic treatise on taqtI` is available for digression.

    *****

    There is however a "popular" notion of attributing the value 1 to S and the value 2 to L. This, in my opinion, is sadly misleading and seems to suggest that the vazn of an L atom is twice that of an S atom.
    True this is misleading because it is misinterpreted.


    L = 2 because it is really composed of 2 letters . Consonant + Consonant or Consonant + long vowel
    S = 1 because it is really composed of 1 consonant letter
    Short vowels ( harakat) are not counted

    Numerically this is true

    but this does not mean that in wazn 2 is twice 1. With zehaf 2 is equavelent to 1

    Arabic is not only a quantitative prosody . It is basically (form + quantity) . This is not realized by any body

    I hope you understand some thing out of the two following





    I intend to write a comment on your subject
    Best Regards

  2. #2
    تاريخ التسجيل
    Nov 2005
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