# Urdu: Pronunciation of bahut



## UrduMedium

I understand that the correct pronunciation is _bahut. _However, at least in Pakistani Urdu I have almost never heard it pronounced this way. A closer estimate of that pronunciation is somewhere between _bohut _and _bohot_. Not sure exactly how to transcribe it. Curious if others have also observed this phenomenon, and how they say it.


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## marrish

I don't know whether the standard of correctness hasn't shifted. My experiences with this word concurr with those of you. I say it in the manner you described, I think. Many persons have the tendence to say _bohat_. In all these variants, the o sound is a short o, not the usual Urdu long one.


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## BP.

Here we use spelling denoting the vowel moments. People approximate them in speech. People also usually say behen while we'd transcribe it bahin to denote its correct vocal movements.


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## UrduMedium

marrish said:


> I don't know whether the standard of correctness hasn't shifted. My experiences with this word concurr with those of you. I say it in the manner you described, I think. Many persons have the tendence to say _bohat_. In all these variants, the o sound is a short o, not the usual Urdu long one.



Exactly. The long 'o' is what I was trying to avoid. Both _*b *_and _*h *_take a short _*o *_vowel, but not sure how to transcribe that. 

Based on couple of dictionary lookups, I assumed that the correct pronunciation is _bahut_. Which is how it seems to be spelled in Devnagari also (बहुत).


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## marrish

Well, I don't really know which is the correct one, I have been once corrected on this forum for writing _bahot_ or something like this - correctly, because we try to represent the spelling rather than the pronunciation when posting on this respected forum.

My suspicion is that bahut reflects the spelling (here: Nagari) and that could be a historical pronunciation, not the current one. However I'm sure that many people really say _bahut_, and maybe more so when speaking a dialect of Urdu or Hindi.


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## Qureshpor

I always say "bahut". I know a gentleman from "Chandpur", India whose mother tongue is Urdu and he is an Urdu poet, having published a number of his creations. He pronounces this word as "buhat/bohat". I don't know how far Chandpur is from Pakistan but I would say it is a fair distance. A crow would get pretty tired!


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## Qureshpor

The well known Urdu dictionaries give the word as "bahut". Platts gives its Sanskrit etymology as "bahu+tva". 

There is also of course "bahuteraa" as well to take into consideration.


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## Faylasoof

UrduMedium said:


> I understand that the correct pronunciation is _bahut. _However, at least in Pakistani Urdu I have almost never heard it pronounced this way. A closer estimate of that pronunciation is somewhere between _bohut _and _bohot_. Not sure exactly how to transcribe it. Curious if others have also observed this phenomenon, and how they say it.


 We always say _bahut_! I've heard the same from some in Pakistan but the pronunciation does vary a lot, ranging from what you describe, UM SaaHib, to even _'bo(h)ot'_, i.e. with the '_h_' virtually silent!


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## tonyspeed

UrduMedium said:


> I understand that the correct pronunciation is _bahut. _However, at least in Pakistani Urdu I have almost never heard it pronounced this way. A closer estimate of that pronunciation is somewhere between _bohut _and _bohot_. Not sure exactly how to transcribe it. Curious if others have also observed this phenomenon, and how they say it.



This is an h issue we have discussed elsewhere on this board. Similary kahna is pronounced kehna, where 'e' is a short-e sound. H often changes the surrounding vowel sounds in mainstream Urdu phonetics.


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## hindiurdu

I always says _bohot_, or _bo'ot_ at speed or _baut_ at even higher speed. _Bahut_ seems like an Eastern pronunciation to me (I could be wrong). It is similar to _pahuNch_, which I invariably pronounce _pohoNch_ or _po'oNch_ or _pauNch_. Interestingly, I do not pronounce _Bahuu_ (daughter-in-law) as _Boho_


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## Qureshpor

tonyspeed said:


> This is an h issue we have discussed elsewhere on this board. Similary kahna is pronounced kehna, where 'e' is a short-e sound. H often changes the surrounding vowel sounds in mainstream Urdu phonetics.


I am not sure if it is the "h" phenomenon coming into play. If this was the case, just as "kahnaa" goes to "kehnaa" and muHabbat becomes "moHabbat", "bahut" should go to "behot"!



hindiurdu said:


> I always says _bohot_, or _bo'ot_ at speed or _baut_ at even higher speed. _Bahut_ seems like an Eastern pronunciation to me (I could be wrong). It is similar to _pahuNch_, which I invariably pronounce _pohoNch_ or _po'oNch_ or _pauNch_. Interestingly, I do not pronounce _Bahuu_ (daughter-in-law) as _Boho_



hindiurdu SaaHib, in post 7 I mentioned Urdu "Classical dictionaries".Two of these are compiled by "Dihlavii" gentlemen and in both the pronunciation given is "bahut". But pronunciation is never static. I tried to find Talat Mahmood (from Lucknow) singing a song with the word in question. I found one, "dil bahut ghabraa rahaa hai". He seems to be saying "bohut/bohot. On the "Western front" Muhammad Rafi also appears to be pronouncing in the same manner..vuh jab yaad aa'e bohut yaad aaye..yih raat bohut rangiin sahii..


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## tonyspeed

QURESHPOR said:


> I am not sure if it is the "h" phenomenon coming into play. If this was the case, just as "kahnaa" goes to "kehnaa" and muHabbat becomes "moHabbat", "bahut" should go to "behot"!



As far as the a->short-e sound goes the rule is if both sides of the h have a, then a becomes short-e. So bahan->behen, mahal->mehel. But bahut has the u, so a cannot become short-e. U seems to have become o or somewhere in-between au and o. 

As for the a, in many peoples speech it is still there, but merged with the o and the h de-emphasized.  Therefore, bahot becomes baot or ba'aut.
As far as bohot, I would like to hear that version. Does anyone have a youtube description?


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## UrduMedium

tonyspeed said:


> As far as the a->short-e sound goes the rule is if both sides of the h have a, then a becomes short-e. So bahan->behen, mahal->mehel. But bahut has the u, so a cannot become short-e. U seems to have become o or somewhere in-between au and o.


That sounds like a very plausible explanation of _bahut --> bohut/bohot_ (both short o's) transition. Thanks.

Also thanks for everyone's input on this thread.


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## BP.

hindiurdu said:


> I always says _bohot_, or _bo'ot_ at speed or _baut_ at even higher speed. _Bahut_ seems like an Eastern pronunciation to me (I could be wrong). It is similar to _pahuNch_, which I invariably pronounce _pohoNch_ or _po'oNch_ or _pauNch_. Interestingly, I do not pronounce _Bahuu_ (daughter-in-law) as _Boho_


In the two instances, I too often round off the second vowels to bahot and pahonch. A secondary reason, apart form habit, is that people in Pk aren't used to a u in there.


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## greatbear

tonyspeed said:


> While I don't know what you mean by short e since the only 'e' in behan and mehal are long to me, however, please note that most HU speakers say "behan" and "mehal" ("e" approx. as "a" in "can"; "a" a schwa), not "behen" and "mehel".


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## UrduMedium

greatbear said:


> While I don't know what you mean by short e since the only 'e' in behan and mehal are long to me, however, please note that most HU speakers say "behan" and "mehal" ("e" approx. as "a" in "can"; "a" a schwa), not "behen" and "mehel".


Speaking for myself, it is _behen _and _mehel _(all short e's) for me.


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## hindiurdu

UrduMedium said:


> Speaking for myself, it is _behen _and _mehel _(all short e's) for me.



Me too, where the "e" is the vowel sound in "pen" (not the one in 'pain' or 'pan'). I believe in IPA this would be rendered bɛhɛn/बॅहॅन. greatbear, I think by "long e", the IPA /e/ sound is meant, so बेहेन. These are different vowel sounds. I strongly suspect you are saying a short "e" (ɛ/ऍ) also. In terms of regional accents, from what I perceive: bəhən/बहन is Eastern/Bihari (clear h articulation), behen → ben/बेन is Gujarati, bæh'n → bhæn → pæn (पैन/पैण - tonal p​) is Punjabi. Your mileage may vary. I think I have also heard Eastern speakers say "bahin" sometimes ("vah hamaari bahin hai"). In standard/Western, I feel like I usually hear "vo(h) meri bɛhɛn hai" (note the different vowel sounds in "meri"/long-e and "bɛhɛn"/short-e).


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## greatbear

hindiurdu said:


> I strongly suspect you are saying a short "e" (ɛ/ऍ) also.


  Well, I do mean ɛ (it is strange to me that it should be called as a short e). In short, I pronounce sister as "bɛhən" and the same applies to "mɛhəl". I am surprised to find you putting ɛ in both the places!


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## nineth

I pronounce sister as bxhyn where x = e in pen, and y is the u in hunter; and we always say bohat, and when speaking fast, we don't pronounce the 'h' or pronounce it very lightly. I have always thought that bahut is used by speakers of eastern UP and Bihar.


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## BP.

tonyspeed said:


> ... So bahan->behen, mahal->mehel. ...


I always understood the word to be _bahin_. Could you help me figure out if I'v ebeen wrong? Thanks.


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## JaiHind

UrduMedium said:


> I understand that the correct pronunciation is _bahut. _However, at least in Pakistani Urdu I have almost never heard it pronounced this way. A closer estimate of that pronunciation is somewhere between _bohut _and _bohot_. Not sure exactly how to transcribe it. Curious if others have also observed this phenomenon, and how they say it.



It is a Hindi word and we pronounce it as "bahut" most of the time. Many people with rural background pronounce it with many other variations.


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## greatbear

JaiHind said:


> It is a Hindi word and we pronounce it as "bahut" most of the time. Many people with rural background pronounce it with many other variations.



Oh, you are another one of those people here who represent some segment of a population by your "we"? So who are you representing? Not me, even though a Hindi speaker, since "bahut" is a Urdu and Hindi word, not just Hindi, and also because I pronounce it as "bauhat" ("au" as in "shauhar").


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## Faylasoof

QURESHPOR said:


> hindiurdu SaaHib, in post 7 I mentioned Urdu "Classical dictionaries".Two of these are compiled by "Dihlavii" gentlemen and in both the pronunciation given is "bahut". But pronunciation is never static. I tried to find Talat Mahmood (from Lucknow) singing a song with the word in question. I found one, "dil bahut ghabraa rahaa hai". He seems to be saying "bohut/bohot. On the "Western front" Muhammad Rafi also appears to be pronouncing in the same manner..vuh jab yaad aa'e bohut yaad aaye..yih raat bohut rangiin sahii..


 QP SaaHib, I reached for my _nasiim-ul-luGhaat_, which I mentioned earlier was compiled by _sayyad murtaDhaa_ (_murtaZaa_) _Husain faaDhil lakhnawii_, _sayyad qaa’ im riDhaa_ (_razaa_) _nasiim amrohawii_ and _aaGhaa muHammad baaqir _(_baaqar_), _nabiira-e-aazaad_, so ought to encompass both western and eastern forms of formal Urdu pronunciations. There too the word in question is pronounced as _bahut_ - same as Platts' بہت बहुत _bahut_ [S. बहु+त्वं] - or may be _bahot_. So at least for formal Urdu the pronunciation hasn't changed that much since Platts’ times, though we are all cognizant of the fact that speech is not static and regional variations do exist, as has been discussed before.


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## marrish

BelligerentPacifist said:


> I always understood the word to be _bahin_. Could you help me figure out if I'v ebeen wrong? Thanks.


I don't think your understanding has been wrong. Just a variety, I think. I say it '_baihain_' in Urdu. All ai's short. Your version explains the phonetics better.


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## tonyspeed

BelligerentPacifist said:


> I always understood the word to be _bahin_. Could you help me figure out if I'v ebeen wrong? Thanks.



There are several distinct spelling variations in Hindi. One is bahan. The other is bahin.
It is the bahan version that becomes behen for a segment of speakers.




JaiHind said:


> It is a Hindi word and we pronounce it as "bahut" most of the time. Many people with rural background pronounce it with many other variations.



I think this is somewhat mistaken. On Films/TV people say bahot/bohot 90% of the time. 
It is the bahut pronunciation that seems to be left or right of mainstream. As others have already stated, the East UP and Bihar regions are the most famous for saying bahut. I am sure there are other regions as well though.


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## marrish

tonyspeed said:


> I think this is somewhat mistaken. On Films/TV people say bahot/bohot 90% of the time.
> It is the bahut pronunciation that seems to be left or right of mainstream. As others have already stated, the East UP and Bihar regions are the most famous for saying bahut. I am sure there are other regions as well though.



A factor we forget, it can have to do with the level of education.


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## greatbear

marrish said:


> A factor we forget, it can have to do with the level of education.



What does education have to with the language one is born in and speaks, naturally? If anything, it only leads _educated_ speakers to speak some unnatural, pedantic variant of a tongue.


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## Faylasoof

greatbear said:


> What does education have to with the language one is born in and speaks, naturally? If anything, it only leads _educated_ speakers to speak some unnatural, pedantic variant of a tongue.


 Really? Please feel free to make your contributions of “natural, authentic", plebeian language!


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