Retroflex TAY

ب پ ت ٹ ث

Urdu Letter	Letter Name	Sound	Hindi Equivalent	Teacher
	Retroflex TAY	~ English “T”	ट	Teacher Icon

Sounds

Retroflex TAY is somewhat different from the English “t” sound. Pronounce “t” with tongue pulled back in your mouth, touching the ride of your palate. Look in the mirror when you pronounce Retroflex TAY. You should NOT be able to see your tongue. Be careful not to “aspirate” Retroflex TAY. Put your palm in front of your mouth when you pronounce this letter: you should NOT feel any puff of air. But see “Aspiration” below.

Retroflex TAY is used to transliterate the English “t” sound, although it is actually quite different. Use Retroflex TAY whenever you write an English word in Urdu that contains “t”.
Hindi Equivalent: ट

Connections

Retroflex TAY can connect from both sides. Thus it has four forms: detached, initial, medial, and final.

	Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
Basic Forms	ٹ	بٹن	اٹر	ٹ
In-Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
Write-In Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in

Retroflex TAY is a member of the “point system” family. The letters in this family consist only of a point or cusp in their initial and medial forms. Dots or symbols above or below the cusp differentiate the members of this family.

Other	Three Dots	Two Dots	One Dot
Retroflex TAY	SAY	TAY	NOON
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	Above
	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	Below
	PAY	YAY (Dots only in initial & medial forms)	BAY

Variations

For aesthetic reasons, the initial form of these letters can assume one of three slightly different shapes depending on which letter follows. The use of these three different shapes will come naturally with experience. Here are 3 examples of the three initial shapes of Retroflex TAY:

(If image is incorrect, replace with following code and fill-in urdu letters)

fill-in

Retroflex TAY

In some cases the cusp for medial ٹ gets smoothed out.

(If image is incorrect, replace with following code and fill-in urdu letters)

fill-in

Examples: example

Aspirations

Retroflex TAY can be aspirated by the addition of the letter DO CHASHMI HAY (ھ).
In this combination, Retroflex TAY does include a distinct puff of air. Put your palm in front of your mouth when you pronounce aspirated retroflex TAY: now you should feel a puff of air:

fill-in

ठ

Examples

fill-in	theek	ठीक
fill-in	meethā	मीठा
fill-in	baithnā	बैठना
fill-in	Thand	ठंड

Additional Examples of ٹ

Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in