Indo-Aryan Phonology

Part of Introduction by Schackle, Oranskaia and Pandey in New Indo-Aryan Languages.

Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences. [Languages of the World

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Indo-Aryan Phonology

Pramod Pandey

Centre for Linguistics

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067

<[email protected]>

1 INTRODUCTION

The present study of the phonological properties of Indo-Aryan languages takes into

account the languages of the following subgroups: (i) Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Maithili,

Rajbangshi, (ii) Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Nepali, Rajasthani, Lamani, (iii) Punjabi,

Sindhi, Kacchi, Dogri, Garhwali, Gojri, Lahndi, Haryanvi, (iv) Bhili, Marathi, Gujarati,

Rathvi, Konkani, Saurashtri, (v) Mandeali, Kangri, (vi) Kashmiri, Shina, (vii) Dakkhini

Urdu, (viii) Mahl, (ix) Bishnupuriya, Vaagri Boli.

The main aspects of the phonology of Indo-Aryan languages included here are: consonant

and vowel phoneme inventories (§ 1), consonant and vowel allophones (§ 2), constraints

on the occurrence of consonants and vowels in words (§ 3), and syllable structures (§ 4).

The facts presented are based on existing surveys (e.g., Masica 1991, Cardona & Jain

2001, among others), and draw heavily on the database collected by the present author

(Pandey In progress) from existing studies of individual languages.

2 CONSONANT AND VOWEL PHONEME INVENTORIES

2. 1 Vowels

All the I-A languages have nasal vowels. Most languages have nasal counterparts for all

the oral vowels. Bhili, Marathi, Rathvi and Saurashtri, all spoken in the western or

southern regions, have less nasal vowels than oral vowels. Length distinction has been

neutralized in the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Rajbanshi, Bhili, Garhawali,

Gujarati, Konkani, Maithili, and Oriya. Among the languages that have length

distinctions in vowels, there are two sub-groups. One is of those languages that have

more long vowels than short vowels- Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Kacchi, Sindhi, Dogri, Gojri

and Lahndi; perhaps these languages are in a transitional stage of neutralization of length

distinction. The other is of those languages that have equal or more number of short

vowels. All the other languages belong to this sub-group. Diphthongs are rare. Marathi,



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Bhojpuri and Magahi have two diphthongs each- / and / . Kashmiri has four-

/ : : / .

2.2 Consonants

Plosives

The commonest pattern of plosives in Indo-Aryan languages is of the four laryngeal types

- voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, voiced unasiprated, and voiced aspirated (e.g.

) - in four places of articulation, namely, bilabial, dental, retroflex, and velar.

There are exceptions among these on account of change or borrowing. Assamese and

some Bangladeshi dialects (Chittagong, Maimensing) of Bangla have alveolar plosives in

place of retroflex plosives. Bhili, and Sindhi have only two laryngeal types for the velar

place- / /. Kacchi (a dialect of Sindhi), thus, has three laryngeal types for all plosives,

like some others listed in the following paragraph. Hindi, Sindhi and Urdu have an

additional voiceless unaspirated uvular plosive //.

There are languages that have only three laryngeal types - unaspirated, voiceless

aspirated, and voiced unaspirated. These languages are the following: Dogri, Gojri,

Kashmiri, Punjabi, and Shina.

The following languages have only two laryngeal types- unaspirated voiceless and

unaspirated voiced, in the bilabial, dental, retroflex and velar places of articulation-

Garhwali and Mahl. Mahl has a glottal stop as well, the only Indo-Aryan language with

the sound.

Among the rare sounds of I-A languages found in the plosive group is the murmured

variety found in dialects of Gujarati, about which a lot has been written (e.g. Modi 1987).

The murmured plosives / / occur in place of voiced aspirates or breathy voiced

plosives, and are their variants. In other words, no dialect or language is found to contrast

murmured and breathy voiced/ aspirated plosives.

Implosives

Sindhi and its dialects are known to have implosives in them. Sindhi has the bilabial,

retroflex, palatal and velar implosives- / /, while Kacchi has only bilabial and

alveolar implosives- / /.



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Affricates

Most I-A languages have only one place of articulation for affricates- the palatal, and

have the same laryngeal pattern as the plosives in that place. The following differences,

however, are found. Assamese lacks them. Bhili has three laryngeal types for the

affricates, occurring in two places- alveolar and pre-palatal- / /.

Kashmiri has affricates in the dental and palatal places- / /. Rajbangshi has

the four laryngeal patterns in the alveolar place- / / . Shina differs in its

affricate patterns entirely from its plosive patterns, with three places of articulation-

dental, retroflex and palatal, and with variant laryngeal types- / /.

Saurashtri has three laryngeal types as palatal affricates- / /.

Nasals

Nasal consonantal phonemes show a remarkable variation among the languages, as

shown below: / /- Garhwali, Kashmiri; / /- Gojri, Mandeali, Mahl, Rathvi,

Saurashtri; / ()/- Maithili; / /- Assamese, Bengali, Nepali; / ()/- Hindi,

Urdu’; / /- Kacchi, Haryanvi, Lamani, Oriya, Shina, Sindhi; / ()/- Marathi;

/ /- Gujarati, Lahndi, Punjabi; / () /- Dogri; / /- Bhili; /

/- Bhojpuri, Magahi. The aspirated nasals (as also aspirated lateral, taps and trills) are

also sometimes argued to be phonemic in other varieties such as Hindi. In these cases,

however, the aspirated sonorants behave differently from the aspirated plosives and

affricates in their allophonic realizations. For instance, in Hindi, (as also / /

behaves like C+ clusters in being geminated when preceded by a short vowel, e.g.

[] < // ‘small, tiny’, following a general process of gemination of

C+// clusters. These are thus analyzed as clusters (+), rather than as aspirated

nasals.

Fricatives

Even more than nasals, it is for fricatives that we have the widest individual variation

among the I-A languages, so much so that a typological generalization is not possible.



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The following list demonstrates the variability rather clearly: / //- Bhojpuri,

Garhwali, Kacchi, Lamani, Nepali, Oriya, Rathvi; //- Bengali, Rajbanshi; / /-

Bhili; / /- Lamani, Mandeali; / /- Saurashtri; / () /- Gujarati; / /-

Assamese; / /- Kashmiri; / () () /- Maithili; /() () /- Marathi; /

/- Gojri; /() () /- Dogri; / /- Sindhi; / () () () /-

Punjabi; / /-Hindi, Sindhi, Urdu; / /- Mahl; /

() /- Lahndi.

Trills, Taps and Flaps

Most languages have either a tap [] or a trill. Often studies do not clearly specify the

phonetic quality of either. We have tried to verify the phoneme according to its widest

distribution as a tap or a trill. Some of the languages have nasal flap //; Mahl has

retroflex trill /ʀ/. The distribution patterns of these rhotics are given as follows: //- Bhili,

Garhwali, Mandeali, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Shina // Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati,

Lamani; //- Saurashtri; / /- Bhojpuri, Magahi, Lamani; // /- Dogri, Haryanvi,

Lahndi, Punjabi, Rajbanshi, Rathvi, Sindhi; / ()/- Maithili; / /- Hindi, Urdu; / ʀ/-

Mahl; / /- Gojri. Kacchi is the only language variety among I-A languages that has a

contrast between a trill, a tap and a flap: / /.

Approximants

Most languages have a labial or labio-dental and a palatal approximant. As for the

trill/tap difference, for the labial and labio-dental difference between approximants, too,

many descriptions do not make clear statements. We have tried to verify them for the

most part: //- Lahndi, Mahl; / /- Assamese, Bengali, Garhwali, Mandeali, Oriya,

Rajbanshi, Saurashtri; /() ()/- Maithili; / /- Bhili, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Haryanvi,

Hindi, Kacchi, Kashmiri, Lamani, Magahi, Marathi, Nepali, Saurashtri, Shina, Sindhi,

Urdu; / () )- Gojri, Punjabi.

Lateral Approximant



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The languages have either only dental/alveolar laterals or also retroflex laterals. Some

have aspirated laterals, too: //: Assamese, Bengali, Garhwali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili,

Nepali, Rajbanshi, Rathvi, Shina, Sindhi; / /- Bhili, Gojri, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Kacchi,

Lahndi, Lamani, Mandeali, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Mahl; / /- Bhojpuri, Lamani,

Magahi; / /- Saurashtri.

3. Allphones

Allophonic details of I-A languages, as of other language groups of Indian languages, are

available with considerable inconsistency. Most descriptions are short on them.

3.1 Vowels

Indo-Aryan languages have varied allophonic variations in cluding the following:

Lowering (Bengali: [ ] < / / (a) in non-initial syllables, and (b) before / / in the

following syllable; Gujarati: vowels are lowered in open syllables), Raising (Assamese:

the low vowel is raised following C__ ; Bengali: / / > [ ] when / / occur in the

following syllable; Dogri: // is raised with Low and Mid tones; Lahndi: / / > [ ] in

unstressed syllables; Mandeali: // > [] following //), Fronting (Bhili: vowels

before palatal consonants; Mandeali: [] < // before a palatal consonant), Backing

(Mandeali: [] < // before ), Centralization (Assamese: front and back vowels are

centralized following C cluster; Oriya: / / are centralized before retroflex stops),

Shortening (Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Hindi, Urdu: vowels are shortened non-finally in

unstressed syllables), Lengthening (Gujarati, Hindi, Oriya: word-finally), Onglides (Bhili:

/ / have a palatal onglide and / / have a labial onglide in onsetless syllables;

Kashmiri: / / have a palatal onglide word-initially), Diphthongization (Assamese: All

vowels except // are diphthongized before the C cluster), and Breathy voicing

(Colloquial Gujarati (not formal or standard Gujarati): of a vowel with the elision of //

in immediately preceding or following syllables).

3.2 Consonant allophones



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Consonantal allophones in Indo-Aryan languages introduce a large number of novel

segments on account of processes such as the following: Lengthening (Assamese,

Bengali, Gojri, Haryanvi, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi), Labialization (Assamese, Haryanvi,

Kashmiri), Palatalization (Kashmiri: consonants are palatalized before //),

Spirantization (Assamese, Bengali: [] < / / intervocalically; Dogri: [] < //

word-finally, [] < // intervocalically, [] < // before front vowels), Devoicing (Bhili:

of stops before voiceless consonants), Debuccalization (Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili: [ ]

< / /), Flapping (Bengali, Bhojpuri, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Magahi, Mandeali,

Marathi, Oriya, Shina, Urdu: [ ] < / /), Fronting (Kashmiri: of consonants before

front vowels; Shina: of velar plosives before high front vowels: Lamani, Marathi: [

] < / / before non-front vowels), and Glottalization (Mandeali: [] < //

intervocalically and finally). Nasal Place Assimilation is common to most languages.

4 SYLLABLE STRUCTURES

The languages have the following canonical syllable structures (CSS):

1. (C) V (C) Lahndi, Magahi, Mahl (word-initial), Nepali, Rajbangshi,

Sindhi, Bishnupuriya

2. (C) V (C) (C) Bhili (word-initial), Bhojpuri

3. (C) (C)V Mahl (non-initial)

4. (C)(C)V(C) Shina, Urdu-Dakhini, Vagri Boli, Saurashtri

5. (C)(C)V(C)(C) Bhili (non-initial), Dogri, Gojri, Kacchi, Kashmiri, Lamani,

Punjabi , Rathvi

6. (C)(C)(C)V(C) Bengali, Marathi

7. (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C) Assamese, Gujarati, Maithili, Mandeali, Oriya

8. (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C) Bangru, Hindi

Two of the languages, namely, Bhili and Mahl have asymmetrical structures for initial

and non-initial positions in words, as indicated above. Most languages have restrictions

on the word-initial and word-final consonant clusters, some of them allowing only liquids

and glides. Of the glides, the palatal glide is the commonest second member of an onset

cluster.



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5 DISTRIBUTION OF PHONEMES

5.1 Vowel Phonemes

There are restricted constraints on the general occurrence of vowel phonemes in initial,

medial, and final positions in words. The commonest constraint is on short vowels (

): these don’t occur word-finally in Bangru, Dogri, Gojri, Hindi, Kacchi, Punjabi,

Sindhi, and Urdu. Marathi prohibits / / from occurring in the word-final position. Indo-

Aryan languages contrast with the Austro-Asiatic languages of India (see Pandey 2007),

(but not with the Austronesian languages of east Asia) with regard to the occurrence of

vowel sequences: vowel sequences are freely permitted to occur within and across

morphemes in them, with the exception of Kashmiri. In Kashmiri, vowel sequences have

intervening -/ glide.

5.2 Consonant Phonemes

The only general constraint on the occurrence of individual consonant phonemes in these

languages is on dorsal (retroflex to velar) sonorants other than the palatal glide.

Generalizations on the occurrence of consonants in clusters are available for these

languages in the following subsections.

Word-initially, the distribution of 2-consonant clusters in the word-initial position is as

follows (C=Consonant, S=Stop, N=Nasal, G=Glide, L=Liquid):

NO. CONSONANT LANGUAGE

SEQUENCES

1. C+G/L Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi,

2. C+G Gojri, Kacchi, Lamani

3. C+j Bangru, Saurashtri

4. N+L Maithili

5. C+ Gojri, Kacchi, Kashmiri, Saurashtri

Constraints on the occurrence of 3-consonant clusters in the Onset position are restricted

to the +S+ sequences for the most part. In some languages, there may be greater

restriction, as in Bengali which has only cluster.



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Word-finally, the constraints on the occurrence of 2-consonant clusters in the Coda

position vary. In languages such as Hindi and Punjabi, any two consonants are found to

occur in general, whereas in Kashmiri, the first consonant must be a , and in Lamani,

only can occur as the coda cluster. In general, nasals and fricatives occur with greater

frequency as coda in the I-A languages.

Only Bangru and Hindi are found to allow three consonant clusters in the coda position.

Most I-A languages allow geminate consonants to occur inter-vocalically. Two of the

languages, namely Punjabi and Kacchi, allow geminates to occur word-finally, with

restrictions. Thus Punjabi allows geminates of / , /, and Kacchi of / /

word-finally.

6. PROSODIC FEATURES

6.1 Stress.

In a majority of I-A languages, word-stress is sensitive to rhythm (trochaic or iambic) and

weight, giving rise to stress being not fixed to a definite syllable, as can be seen in the

descriptions of stress in Assamese (Mahanta 200.), Bhojpuri (Shukla 19..), Hindi (Pandey

1989), and Maithili (Yadav 19..). The notion of heavy syllable differs for languages that

have vowel length contrast such as Hindi and Maithili, and languages that don’t, such as

Assamese and Bengali (Ghosh 2001). In the latter, only closed syllables are heavy.

6.2 Tone

Some of the Indo-Aryan languages provide evidence of tonogenesis, mostly on account

of h-loss. The full range of historical motivation of tonogenesis in I-A languages,

however, is a desideratum. Four of the I-A languages of the western region are found to

have lexical tone. These are Dogri, Gojri, Lahndi and Punjabi. On the basis of the

available descriptions, Dogri and Lahndi are found to have contour and register tones,

while Gojri and Punjabi have only register tones. The list of the tonemes for these

languages are as follows: Dogri: LH, HL, M; Gojri, Punjabi: H, M, L; and Lahndi: M,

LH.

I t would not be surprisiong if more Indo-Aryan languages are found to have tone

emerging in them, especially on account of contact with languages with lexical tone.



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6 CONCLUSION

We have tried to present above a comprehensive view of the synchronic phonology of

Indo-Aryan languages. We have confined ourselves to word- phonology, and not taken

up morphophonology and intonational phonology for lack of space.

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