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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 MAGAHI- AN INTRODUCTION

On 1st March, 2011, at 0:00 hours the population of India touched the ominous figure

of 1,201,193,422 which can roughly be put to 1.21 billion. For a country which

supports such a large population and where the media of communication change every

five kilometers the constitution has recognized only twenty- two official languages in

its eighth schedule. There are many languages which do not find any representation

otherwise and have been bracketed as being the dialects of the more prominent

languages. Magahi is one such language. It has been assigned the ISO number 639-3:

2007. It falls under the group of Bihari language (Grierson 1882 a:2) which is a sub

category of the classification of Eastern Zone languages under the category of the

Indo Aryan languages. It is not that Magahi has not been discussed but the extent to

which its description can be found in literature has been preliminary and superficial.

The chapter unfolds with a brief discussion on the origin of Magahi language and

literature which briefly traces the literary history of the language and how Magahi has

managed to get a script. It is essentially a language of Bihar; however, mixed varieties

of language are spoken in the adjoining areas of West Bengal and Orissa. The name

Magahi is a direct derivative of the name Magadhi itself. Magahi is spoken in the

southern parts of Bihar.

A major reason for the choice of the topic “The Stress and Rhythm of Magahi” for the

present thesis is that there is a complete lack of any type of account dealing with the

prosodic properties of the language. This thesis is a humble attempt in this direction.

1.1.1 Geographical Extent of Magahi

According to Grierson, it falls under the group of Bihari languages in the language

family of Indo- Aryan languages. At present there are roughly 20,362, 000 speakers of

this language which is around 1.67 % of the total Indian population as per the 2011

census by the Govt. of India. The speakers of Magahi and other Bihari languages like

Bhojpuri and Maithili have a sense of identity and great deal of cultural affinity with

the larger Hindi group in various ways. Often they identify their native language as

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Hindi because of which the correct number of people speaking the language becomes

difficult to ascertain.

Magahi is spoken in the area which formed the core of the ancient kingdom of

Magadh. The total geographical area covered by Magahi is much larger. In a very

broad sense, the river Ganga may be seen as marking a linguistic boundary making it

the language of South Bihar and North Jharkhand. In the west it extends to the eastern

parts of the district of Palamu, in east to the portions of the districts of Monghyr and

Bhagalpur, in the south to Singhbhum, and in the southeast to Dhanbad (Jharkhand).

Magahi does, however extend beyond Bihar, even though marginally, into Bengal in

the district of Purulia and into Orissa in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Bamra. Infact,

there is another region in Bengal, Malda in its northern part, where Magahi coexists

with Bangla (Sheela Verma, 1985). Magahi now uses the Devanagri script borrowed

directly from Hindi in place of the Kaithi script used earlier.

1.1.2 Magahi Script and Literary History- an Outline

In reconstructing the development of Indo- Aryan, scholars hypothetically posit a

common parent language from which the modern Magadhan languages are said to

have sprung. The unattested parent of the Magadhan languages is designated as

Eastern or Magadhi Apabhram s a (Chatterji, 1926) and is assigned to Middle Indo-

Aryan. Apart from the eastern languages, other modern representatives of the

Magadhan subfamily are Magahi, Maithili and Bhojpuri (Comrie 2001).

Let us first begin with a discussion on its script and its literary tradition as found in

the literature. The traditional script for Magahi has been Kaithi1 which is still used in

communication at a personal level. Kaithi alphabets have been tabulated with

Devanagari2 equivalents and transliterations. (Grierson 1903)3 There has been some

effort on the part of scholars in the Magahi belt to explore and identify any type of

literary tradition for this language. If one goes back to the eighth century then its

1 The Kaithi script gets its name from the word ‘Kaayath’ < ‘Kaayastha’, the caste of writers in Northern India, and has been current until recently in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. (Cardona, G. & Jain, Dhanesh. 2003. The Indo- Aryan Language. New York: Routledge. 2 Devanagri is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of India, Nepal, Tibet and South- East Asia. The fundamental principle of this script is that each letter represents a consonant which carries an inherent schwa vowel ([]) with it. This script was earlier used as a script for Gujrati before being adopted for Magahi. 3. Grierson, G.A. 1903. Linguistic Survey of India. (Vol. V, Part 2) 3 Grierson, G.A. 1903. Linguistic Survey of India. (Vol. V, Part 2)

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literary tradition can be found to exist to the same extent as Hindi (e.g. Aryani 1976:

28-31, Pandeya 1982, Singh 1982). It starts from the time of the Siddha saints who

existed as early as 800 A.D. Many linguists have tried to describe this language and

the first commendable effort was undertaken during the first linguistic survey of

India. Because of the use of the Devanagri for scholarly approaches to Magahi, most

language related discussions on Magahi routinely posit the same phonemic inventory

as the Devanagri alphabet implies. According to the existing literature the phonemic

inventory of Magahi can best be viewed as a somewhat reduced version of the core of

the New Indo- Aryan inventory in a systematic manner (Sheela Verma, 2003)4. It will

be unfair towards any language to dismiss it as being the reduced version of a more

popular language without investing adequate effort in describing its features. Every

language has some uniqueness in its characteristics. The present chapter is an effort

aimed at describing the sound system of the language and to investigate if it has any

unique feature with respect to its sounds (consonants and vowels).

1.2 MOTIVATION

Being the native speaker of one such lesser known languages Magahi, the first thing

that comes to my mind is to provide a phonological description of this language to the

best of my capabilities so that its linguistic features can be brought to the forefront. As

already mentioned the main attempt of this research would be to provide a

phonological description of this language, that is, to be exact, to provide the

description of the prosodic system of Magahi. This would require a study of the

consonant and vowel sounds, the syllable structure, the rules governing the placement

of stress, pitch and accent, the word stress, the sentence stress and tones, the rhythmic

foot types, the phonological phrase, the intonational phrase and the intonation system.

The objective of this research is to describe the word stress and rhythm pattern of

Magahi. Starting with the description of vowel and consonant sounds of Magahi the

thesis would proceed further explaining the other aspects of prosody of the language.

This will take into account its syllable structure, the rules governing the placement of

stress, pitch and accent, the word stress, the sentence stress, the rhythmic foot types

and the phonological phrase.

4 Magahi has been discussed as one of the NIA languages along with Gujrati, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Awadhi. (Masica 1993).

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Not many linguists have worked exclusively on this language, the closest being

Verma (1985) who has described the sounds of the language (consonants and vowels

together) with some phonetic and phonological features. However, a number of works

like Balasubramaniam (1974), Hayes (1991), Jun (1993) have been done on the

phonological features that will be researched in the present study. The research will

include the description of language starting from the sounds drawing references from

the existing literature as well as the collection of data from the field. This research

will prove to be a novel attempt in this field as nobody till date has worked on the

prosody of Magahi throwing light on the syntax-phonology-morphology interface.

According to the Rhythm Class Hypothesis (Pike, 1945; Abercrombie, 1967) in

phonology the world’s language have been divided into two: the syllable- timed and

the stress- timed on the basis of the rhythm pattern that they follow. In the first one all

syllables have the same length and are thereby isochronous, whereas in stress- timed

languages, the intervals between stressed syllables are isochronous. Several

reformulations of the rhythm class hypothesis have been attempted in light of the

untenable isochrony condition.

Several of these base the rhythmic distinction of languages mainly on syllable

complexity, as well as occurrence of vowel reduction. According to this explanatory

approach, stress- timed languages are those that allow reduced vowels and complex

syllables, syllable- timed languages permit neither. This idea has recently been

developed into an acoustic account of linguistic rhythm (Ramus, Nespor, Mehler

1999) which classifies languages based on statistical measures of duration which

correlate with these two rhythm class.

Languages of different rhythm types show different proportions of vocalic and

consonantal intervals. However, a close study of the prosody of some of the Indian

languages will lead to a third intermediate classification where the rhythm pattern

shows the dual features of being stress- timed as well as syllable- timed. This research

will try to bring out the similar prosodic features for Magahi.

Phonologists have tried to account for stress and the various parameters determining

the placement of stress in a language. Segmental effects of stress are the result of the

development of duration and magnitude of gesture as correlates of stress (Bybee et al.

1998). Accent has to be realized very distinctively in stress – timing languages, i.e.

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there must be a phonetically strong emphasis. The phonetic correlates of stress are:

pitch, intensity and duration. And the segmental effects of stress are dependent on

vowel reduction, vowel lengthening and consonant changes.

The stronger stress is realized phonetically, the more segmental effects of stress are to

be expected. Segmental effects of stress render stress placement less predictable (loss

of syllables) and enhance the development of morphological conditioning (Bybee et

al. 1998). Stress placement is fixed, weight- sensitive and is morphologically or

lexically conditioned. Geigerich when working on the stress rules of German (1985)

has provided with a good framework for to find out the same for other languages as

well. The Main Stress Rule of German according to him is:

Syllable → syllable / ─ [(light syllable) light syllable]

│

S

The rightmost terminal node may be followed by one or more light syllables. As per

the preliminary investigation of the Magahi language it was found that when the stress

is on the penultimate syllable, the vowel in the antipenultimate syllable gets

attenuated. When the stress is on the final (or the ‘ult’) syllable, the vowel in the

penult gets attenuated. With the shift in stress, the feature of vowel shortening also

gets shifted. Let us look at the data illustrated in Fig. 1(a).

Fig. 1(a)1. /:/ //

(to loot) (dacoity)

2. /p:/ //

(to bunk) (bunking)

3. // //

(shop) (shop-keeper)

A look at preliminary data as in Fig 1a(1-3) reveals that the main stress in Magahi

words seem to fall on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy; it seems to fall on the ult

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syllable if the penultimate syllable is light. The foot appears to be left- headed and the

movement of the stress is towards the right edge of the word. The syllable weight

appears to determine the stress system of Magahi. So, the inclination is to say that

Magahi is a quantity- sensitive language in this regard. However, without an in depth

investigation of a large bodies of data the authenticity of the claims stand

questionable. As the work progresses, the upcoming chapters will try to establish this

claim.

While talking about the stress pattern of Magahi, it is beneficial to consider studies in

similar areas specially those that have been done in languages which have similar

properties. Hindi and Maithili are two such languages and both have moraic trochees

as the basic foot type (Hayes 1995). Now the question is whether Magahi also has the

same kind of foot type or is the case different here? Let us deal with this as we

proceed. There are many phonological phenomena which are governed by the way

stresses are placed within the words. Let us have a look at the following data:

Fig.1 (b) 1. // (shop) / / (shopkeeper)

2. // (morning) // (in the morning)

There are instances of vowel shortening and vowel loss. Many phonological

phenomena occur at phonology- morphology interface level. The placement of stress

within a word is very much then dependent on the kind of vowel that the syllable

possesses. As a result we can find out stress rules at the morphophonemic levels. The

stress pattern in a sentence is rhythm. Stress gives us much information in the form of

focus. This is not conveyed through syntax. Whatever information appears in the

sentence it gets focused and stressed. The illustration in Fig. 1(c) will give us a hint of

what type of study will be undertaken in this research. The preliminary data analysis

in this chapter will pave way for the analysis of a larger body of data and it will the

readers receptive prepared for such kind of data analysis and interpretation.

Let us see the following two examples from Magahi as illustrated in Fig. 1(c).

Fig. 1 (c)1. / həm rəmes ke hiy e liye həl/

I Ramesh GEN. here go.1P aux.PT

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I went to Ramesh’s place. (gloss)

2. /həm rəmes ke hiy eliye həl lekin u kəhĭn e l hələi/

I Ramesh GEN. here go.1P aux.PT but he somewhere else go.3P aux.part

I went to Ramesh’s place but he had gone somewherelse. (gloss)

We see that in the first sentence /el/ is stressed. In the second sentence /el/ appears

at two places, the first with an affix and the second as free word. The first one is

unstressed while the second one is stressed because the first information is not new

information. When we analyze the information acoustically we do find the correlates

which are responsible for this marked distinction between these words. Pitch,

intensity, and duration were used as parameters to find an explanation for this. When

the word occurred once in the sentence the respective values were:

Fig. 1 (d) Pitch - 223.97 Hz

Intensity - 70.24 dB

Duration - 0.108 sec

However, in the second sentence where we have two samples we do find a difference

in the values of the acoustic features. They are as follows:

Fig. 1 (e) Initial final

Pitch 234.15 Hz 217.56 Hz

Intensity 68.76 dB 70.15 dB

Duration 0.128 sec 0.114 sec

When we compare the two sets of values we see a decline in the value of the pitch but

there is a marked increase in the value of the intensity of the verb occurring for the

second time. Also, the duration taken to articulate the second sample is lesser than

that of the first one. This information can be used to carry out further research in this

area. If not syntax then acoustic correlates definitely tell us as to why certain

information get focused others do not. Let us have a look at the following

spectrograms.

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GRAPH 1/1

/ həm rəmes ke hiyã eliye həl/

The highlighted portion shows /el/ when it occurs solely (in the first sentence)

Pitch - 223.97 Hz

Intensity - 70.24 dB

Duration - 0.108 sec

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GRAPH 1/2 /həm rəmes ke hiyã geliye həl lekin u kəhĭn el

hələi/

The highlighted portion shows /el/ when it occurs in the unstressed initial position in

the second sentence.

Pitch 234.15 Hz

Intensity 68.76 dB

Duration 0.128 sec

GRAPH 1/3

/həm rəmes ke hiy eliye həl lekin u kəhĭn el hələi/

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The highlighted portion shows /gel/ when it occurs in the stressed final position in the

sentence.

Pitch 217.56 Hz

Intensity 70.15 dB

Duration 0.114 sec

HYPOTHESES FORMULATED

1. My hypothesis for the Main Stress Rule for Magahi is:

Syllable → syllable/ — [(light syllable)]

|

S

According to my preliminary research I also hypothesise that Magahi is a quantity-

sensitive language. This has been dealt with in greater detail in Chapter 4.

2. When two same words occur in a sentence then one is focused by the speaker and

the other is not. Focus can be determined acoustically with respect to pitch, intensity

and duration. However, there is no apparent change in the pitch of the words and in

certain cases the focused word can have declining pitch in comparison to its non-

focussed counterpart. Same is the case when it comes to the durations of the two

words.

1.3 IN WHAT WAY IS THIS RESEARCH DIFFERENT

No significant work in the field of prosodic analysis has been done for Magahi. This

research accounts for the complete prosodic analysis of the language starting with a

brief description of the existing sounds moving on to the levels of prosody viz. stress,

rhythm and intonation. For the present research the rhythm and intonation of wh-

questions have been taken into account. Although it is possible to take up the prosodic

study of the different types of sentences but for a detailed study it is better to take up

one type of sentence that has also been the general practice in the academic circle.

Declarative sentences tend to have a lot of varieties so the general practice of

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confining the work to the rhythm and intonation patterns of Magahi wh- questions has

been followed. There is another advantage to it as this work can be compared to

similar researches in languages like Korean (Ishihara 2003), English (Grabe,

Kochanski& Coleman 2005), Dutch (Haan 2001), and Tamil (Savio 1991). This thesis

creates a wide scope for future research in this area and the researchers can use the

findings and the data for future reference.

After doing so, there is an account for phonology morphology interaction as well.

Phonological rules not only determine word structure but they also affect syntactic

constructions equally.

This research has been taken further to the level as there is an account of the

interaction between phonology and syntax. A comparison of phonological constraints

with the syntactic constraints and find a relationship between the two has also been

discussed. All the findings are well supported by quantitative as well as qualitative

analyses. What is the frequency of the occurrence of a certain type of prosodic feature

or which one appears the least number of times, all such information have been

represented through graphs. The use of software at every possible step of my work

has provided with a greater degree of authenticity and acceptability in the wider

circles.

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this research it was attempted to frame a basic pattern of methodology and tools

that would be used at various levels of analysis. Since the work pertains to the

prosody of the Magahi language, so, to begin with, data collection was needed. The

data has been collected from the native speakers of the language. The number of

subjects is twelve ranging between the age group of 20 yrs and 70 yrs.

A. DATA COLLECTION

The data comes from two sources.

1. primary source

This is basically the first hand data collection. This is to be done by going to the

targeted field. Under this I have followed the following steps:

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a) silent observation

A careful observation and recording of the useful information has been done.

b) Participation and observation

The collection of data has not just been by listening to the speakers but the

observer also actively participated so that more relevant data was elicited.

c) Questionnaire method

The subjects were asked various questions related to the basic word structure and

sentence constructions of the language. The interaction was framed in such a

manner that the data collected consisted of a lot of interrogative sentences elicited

from the informants. Also, they were asked to provide the Magahi equivalents of

around 500 words comprising the basic word list. [Abbi, A. (2001) ‘A Manual of

Linguistic Field work and Structures of Indian Languages ’; Lincom Europa]

2. secondary source

Many information regarding this research has also been obtained from various

books on similar topic. Some works also have Magahi inventories which have

been used at various levels of analysis.

B. SAMPLING

Since the size of the population was immense (by ‘population’ here, I mean the

collection of entities or the objects of investigation) it was really worthwhile to go

for some kind of sampling. For this research I have used stratified random

sampling. It was cumbersome to evaluate and analyze the data obtained from all

the sixty subjects at one go. Therefore, a kind of sub sample has been obtained

from each of the four categories. A combination of the sub samples has yielded

the desired sample for further analysis.

C. ANALYSIS

The sample thus obtained has been put to analysis so that useful inferences have

been drawn. The main focus of my research is to find out:

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a) the stress rules within words

b) the rhythmic pattern of the language

c) the intonation system of the language and

d) to comment on the phonology-syntax interaction .

The analysis comprises of two approaches:

1) quantitative and

2) qualitative

A combination of these two approaches has given a more authentic base to the

findings.

1) Quantitative approach

Correlation can be used when analyzing the various stress related phenomena within

words. Correlation is that area of statistics which is concerned with the study of

systematic relationships between two variables. It can be used in studying the

relationship between

a) stress and vowel lengthening

b) stress and vowel shortening

c) stress and deletion

d) Cluster simplification, stress and syllable position in a word.

This approach facilitated the second part of analysis.

2) Qualitative approach

A careful application of existing phonological theories has then been done. Also, the

recorded data has been analysed acoustically with the help of various softwares like

Wavesurfer 18 and PRAAT. The acoustic analysis has been done with the help of

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Tones and Break Indices (ToBI). With the help of these softwares the existing

rhythmic patterns of the language has easily been deciphered.

1.5 CHAPTERS IN BRIEF

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF STUDIES

This chapter discusses the existing literature in the relevant field of study. The chapter

tries to highlight the important studies and theoretical frameworks that have been used

in the analysis of data for the present thesis.

CHAPTER 3

THE SOUND SYSTEM

This chapter investigates the sound system of Magahi. With the help of the data

obtained from the varied sources an effort has been put in describing the vowel and

consonant sounds of the language. The chapter deals with the description of the

vowels, nasalized vowels, diphthongs, consonants and the probable consonant

clusters. The phonetic and the phonemic charts support the same. But the main focus

of the chapter is the description of the syllable structure of this language. Statistical

analyses reveal the most frequent syllable of the language. There are certain

phonological constraints which operate in determining the choice of consonants for

the onset and coda positions in a syllable. The chapter throws light on this area as

well.

CHAPTER 4

WORD STRESS

Various phonological features like vowel deletion, vowel shortening, gemination etc.

determine word stress. These have been discussed here. The discussion also

comprises of the stress pattern and the main stress rule for the language. Acoustically,

stress is dependent on pitch, intensity and duration. With the help of the softwares an

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attempt has been made to ascertain as to what extent these factors play a role in

determining stress as well as focus in a phrase.

CHAPTER 5

RHYTHM AND PHRASING PATTERNS

This chapter deals with the rhythm patterns in the language. Similar kind of acoustic

analysis continued here however this time the unit of analysis has been longer than the

previous one. This chapter has helped in finding out the basic foot type of the

language. I have also tried to explain the various types of phonological phrases and

how they are different from the syntactic phrases.

CHAPTER 6

THE PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERFACE

The various levels of linguistics cannot be compartmentalized. Keeping this in mind

this chapter tries to throw light on how phonology, morphology and syntax are

interrelated. There are instances where minor change in one brings significant change

in the other. The chapter discusses all such factors which have such effects.

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

In the concluding chapter I have basically summarized all my findings. This chapter

gives a short sketch of how I proceeded in my work at the outset and what kind of

changes I had to incorporate in the due course of time. The last part of this chapter

clearly states as to how far I was successful in describing the rhythm and stress of the

language and what could be the possible areas where more work can be carried out in

future.

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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF STUDIES

This chapter is an attempt to bring to light those researches which are relevant to the

present thesis. Keeping this in mind the chapter is divided into two sections. The first

section deals with the review of the existing literature in this field and the second

section deals with the theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of the data. In the

second section the discussion is centered on the discussion of prosodic phonology and

optimality theory.

2.1 EXISTING RESEARCH IN THIS AREA

It must be mentioned at the outset that there is a complete lack of any significant work

in the proposed area of research. Literatures dealing with Magahi phonology are

scarce and very superficial. The stress pattern of Magahi has not been previously

analyzed in the metrical literature. Stress is the linguistic manifestation of rhythmic

structure, a claim that has been part of metrical theory since Liberman (1975) and

Liberman & Prince (1977). A body of careful experimental work has established that

no one physical correlate can serve as a direct reflection of linguistic stress levels

(Lehiste 1970; Lea 1977; Ladd 1980; Beckman 1986).

Till now we have discussed the various researches which have been undertaken in

similar fields. Apart from the discussion of the various approaches the section has also

dealt with the major theories that have been propounded during the course of such

studies and researches. In continuation with this kind of discussion the following

paragraphs discuss the literature dealing with the phenomena like word stress (which

has been dealt with in detail in Chpater 4 of this thesis) and rhythm and phrasing

pattern of the wh- questions of Magahi (Chapter 5).

The absence of any clear definition of stress means that any theory of stress is in an

indirect relation with the facts that support it. In most areas of phonology, it is not too

difficult to ascertain when the observed facts confirm or falsify a hypothesis. This is

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because of the distinctive features5 which form the core of phonological

representation, have relatively clear acoustic or articulatory correlates. (Hayes 1995)

Stress serves multiple purposes: it creates phonemic contrasts, marks morphological

and syntactic structure, signals the distribution of focus and so on. The multiple

phonetic cues for stress are particularly interesting when one considers that languages

use duration and pitch in their phonological systems for entirely different purposes.

Duration is the phonetic cue for vowel length, which is phonemic in many languages

(not in the case of Magahi though). Duration is also widely used to mark phonological

phrasing (see Chapter 5): the right edges of major phrases typically receive extra

duration.

Further, pitch is the phonetic cue for tone, in languages with phonemic tone systems

(Magahi is a non- tonal language), and also in the phonetic basis of intonation (see

Chapter 5). The basic point is this that stress is parasitic, in the sense that it invokes

phonetic resources that serve other phonological ends. (Hayes 1995)

From a structural point of view, stress is a property of the rightmost or leftmost

syllable of a prosodic constituent, the foot. The prototypical foot is a sequence of two

syllables one of which is strong (s) and the other one weak (w). Stress is a property of

syllables. When the word is spoken in isolation, the stressed syllable is provided with

an intonational pitch accent, a tone or tone complex like H* (high) or L*H (low-

high). Stressed syllables thus serve as the location for the tones that make up the

intonation contour. Shifting of stress is related to the difference in the location of the

f0 (fundamental frequency) fall is clearly visible. Quantity and weight are expressed

in moras. It splits off the onset consonants (s) which are prosodically inactive, from

the segments in the rhyme. The rhyme includes a mora structure: a vocalic rhyme

with a single mora- light and two moras- heavy. (Gussenhoven 2004)

Keeping these arguments into consideration it becomes essential to see Magahi stress

system in the same light. Chapter 4 commences with the description of the syllable

and the foot structure of the language. The chapter is divided into four sections. The

first section of the chapter includes the introduction and the analysis of Magahi

syllable structure. The second section investigates its syllable based processes. The

5 The classification of Magahi segmental sounds on the basis of distinctive features has been provided in the charts 3/5 and 3/6 for consonants and vowels respectively.

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analysis of syllable structure discusses the patterns of syllabic units in Magahi, the

nature of syllabic peak and the phonotactic constraints. The section dedicated for the

discussion on the syllable based includes the discussion on syllable duration, syllable

weight and processes like epenthesis and vowel shortening.

The third section of the chapter deals with the analysis of the foot structure and the

foot based processes. The foot based processes includes a discussion on the process of

cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening. This section of the chapter also tries

to analyze Magahi prosodic templates. This section of the chapter will focus mainly

on the discussion of the prosodic template of Magahi plurals. The chapter closes with

a brief summary of the important findings of the chapter.

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of the syllables.

This prominence is a function of loudness, pitch or duration and it is often the change

in pitch along with other factors that is most important. The prominence of syllables is

referred to as stress. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the process of the placement

of word stress in Magahi. Therefore it becomes important to study the syllable and the

foot structure prior to the analysis of the stress placement in Magahi.

The analysis of word stress commences with a detailed description of the syllable and

the foot structure based on the data collected through the observation and the

interview methods6. The discussion includes a comprehensive analysis of the syllable

and the foot structure of Magahi. The first half of this chapter includes the analysis of

Magahi syllable structure (the patterns of syllabic peak and phonotactic constraints)

and the examination of its syllable based processes. Syllable based processes relate to

the syllable duration and the syllable peak. Epenthesis and vowel shortening too occur

very frequently in the language and so they also have been discussed under the

syllable based processes.

Bruce P. Hayes (1982) discussed the metrical theory of stress in English with respect

to the concept of extrametricality. He applied it to large segments of the vocabulary.

Extrametricality helps in capturing insights about the English stress system and also in

the treatment of word-final syllables in other languages where stress is sensitive to

6 The Observation Method requires fairly good advance knowledge of the language under consideration. While adopting this method, it is assumed that the basic grammar is already known to the fieldworker. In the Interview Method the field investigator can interview informants with or without the help of the questionnaire/s.

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syllable quantity. It also helps in the construction of a universal theory of possible

foot shapes.

Erik Fudge (1984) worked on the word stress system of English which would be of

immense help to me in my research. The concepts of nuclear syllable and nuclear

stress have been discussed explicitly. The nuclear syllable ‘seen’ is not necessarily

much louder than the rest, but it carries a very noticeable pitch movement, and is

longer than any two-syllable stretch in the utterance. Also, the placements of primary

and secondary stresses of English have been discussed. However, for this language,

the place of word-stress within the word remains constant.

The basic function of stress is the so-called culmination (crest-forming) function

which consists of the fact that the accents signalize the number of independent words

within the given speech flow. Modern phonologists, he says, accept the following two

statements:

(1) Prosodic features are relational elements which possess either a

culminative function or a function of word differentiation.

(2) Prosodic features are acoustic features.

Several discrepancies arise because of this and to avoid that the concept of prosodic

feature is split into two corresponding concepts: the concept of prosodic feature as a

construct which he calls “prosodeme” and the concept of the substratum of prosodic

features which he calls “prosodemoid”. In correspondence with the demarcation of the

two abstraction levels, the level of abstraction and the level of constructs, phonology

should distinguish two types of prosodic features as well; prosodemoids at the former

level, and prosodemes as the latter. Prosodemes are in relation of embodiment to

prosodemoids; in other words, prosodemoids embody prosodemes while prosodemes

are embodied in prosodemoids.

A statistical method has been applied to express isochrony in quantitative terms, and

an attempt has been made to find isochrony in the acoustic speech signal in Gibbon

and Richter edited “Intonation, Accent and Rhythm: Studies in Discourse Phonology”

(1984). It was assumed that if isochrony was at all detectable in the speech wave, it

should affect the duration of the phones which constitute rhythm units.

20

Any work of phonology would not be complete without the mention of Goldsmith’s

autosegmental phonology (1990). John Goldsmith in his book discussed a system of

multi-linear phonological analysis in which different features may be placed on

separate tiers, and in which the various tiers are organized by “association lines” and a

“well-formedness” condition. Autosegmental representation provides to generative

phonology one way to incorporate some more traditional and phonetically based

notions. On the other hand, it allows for revealing analysis of “suprasegmental”

elements using basic techniques of generative phonology.

Sun-Ah Jun worked on a similar topic. The topic for her PhD dissertation was “The

Phonetics and Phonology of Korean prosody” (1993, Ohio State University). She used

the theoretical framework developed by Pierrehumbert, Liberman (1980) and

Pierrehumbert, Beckman (1988) & Pierrehumbert and Pierrehumbert and Beckman

(1988). The framework assumes that the intonational contour consists of a sequence

of discrete tonal entities. There are only two tonal levels High and Low. There are six

types of pitch accents in English H*, L*, L*+H, L+H*, H+L* and H*+L. Choosing

different pitch accent does not change the lexical meaning of the word but only the

pragmatic meaning of an utterance. It is also proposed that two types of tonal entities

make up intonational contour of every Intonational Phrase. They are:

1) pitch accent

1) phrase tones. Phrase tones are further subdivided into phrase accents and

boundary tones.

The minimal intonational contour of an IP consists of a pitch accent, a phrase accent

and a final boundary tone. Sun-Ah Jun talks about Accentual Phrase which is defined

by the surface tonal pattern whose domain is determined by the syntactic/non-

syntactic factors that influence intonational units.

The seminar paper by Ramus, Nespor and Mehler (1999) gave evidence that simple

statistics of the speech signal could discriminate between different rhythmic classes.

They segmented utterances of various languages into vocalic and consonantal (i.e.

intervocatic) intervals. The results show that the consonantal clusters are not

homogeneous in their influence on duration measures of speech rhythm. Rather,

language distinctions seem to be strongly influenced by phonotactic factors even in

rhythmic analysis. This provided a phonetic basis for the conjecture that languages are

21

divided into different classes according to rhythmic properties (Pike 1945,

Abercrombie 1967). The linear law as proposed by M. Cassandro, P.Collet, D.Duarte,

A.Galves and J.Garcia ( ) strongly supports the classical linguistic picture of two

types of phonemes. Their notion of high sonority regions do not coincide exactly with

the notions of vowel and consonant, but it is consistent with it.

The central claim of Rhythm Class Hypothesis (Pike 1945, Abercrombie 1967) is that

there are two rhythmic types:

1)syllable timed languages

2)stress timed languages.

In the first one all syllables have the same length and are thereby isochronous,

whereas in stress-timed languages, the intervals between stressed-timed languages are

isochronous. Several reformulations of the rhythm class hypothesis have been

attempted in light of the untenable isochrony condition. Several of these base the

rhythmic distinction of languages mainly on syllable complexity, as well as occurance

of vowel reduction. According to this explanatory approach, stress-timed languages

are those that allow reduced vowels and complex syllables, syllable-timed languages

permit neither. This idea has recently been developed into an acoustic account of

linguistic rhythm (Ramus, Nespor and Mehler 1999), which classifies languages

based on statistical measures of duration which correlate with these two rhythm class

parameters.

The following six parameters have been considered to be reliable in etymologizing

linguistic rhythm:

• phonetic correlates of stress

• segmental effects of stress

• syllable structure

• length of contrasts

• tone

• vowel harmony

Gibbon (1984) applied a statistical method to express isochrony in quantitative terms,

and an attempt has been made to find isochrony in the acoustic speech signal. It was

22

assumed that if isochrony was at all detectable in the speech wave, it should affect the

duration of the phones which constitute rhythm units. In case of rhythm model with

two variables,

Let d = duration of any rhythm unit

n = size/ number of constituent phonemes

p = duration of each of the constituent phonemes.

So, d = np

And the two extreme cases can be

(a) no isochrony: p = k = d/n and

(b) strict isochrony: d = k = np.

Elisabeth Selkirk (2003) came up with a landmark work on sentence phonology.

According to the Prosodic Structure Hypothesis discussed in the paper, prosodic

structure organizes sentence phonology and phonetics just as it does word phonology

and phonetics. The constituents of the prosodic hierarchy most directly relevant to

sentence phonology are:-

1. the syllable

2. the foot

3. the prosodic word

4. the phonological phrase

5. the intonational phrase

6. The utterance.

She also discusses about the constraints of the prosodic structure, the chief ones

being, firstly, the strict layering of prosodic structure in an unmarked case and

secondly, the alignment of edges of prosodic phrases and prosodic phrase

prominences.

In “Phonology of Tone and Intonation” (2004), Carlos Gussenhoven uses Optimality

Theory (OT) to describe the system of intonation. OT comprises a component GEN

(ERATOR) which freely generates a large set of candidate output forms by

improvising on the input form. The set of possible output forms generated by GEN is

vetted by the constraints in a process known as EVAL (UATOR). The set of universal

23

constraints, referred to as CON (STRAINTS), is ranked for the language in question,

and it is this ranking that constitutes the language’s grammar.

Phonological adjustments occur as a result of the interaction of faithfulness

constraints, which strive to reproduce the underlying forms in the surface

representation and markedness constraints, which strive to banish phonologically

marked forms from the surface representation. Deletion or insertion of a tone or a

change in tone’s identity will occur whenever a markedness constraint outranks a

conflicting faithfulness constraint.

In “Intonational Phonology” (2008) D. Robert Ladd talks about the fundamental

concepts of autosegmantal-metrical phonology. This theory adopts the phonological

goal of being able to characterize contours adequately in terms of a string of

categorically distinct elements, and the phonetic goal of providing a mapping from

phonological elements to continuous acoustic parameters.

Marina Nespor and Irene Vogel in “ Prosodic Phonology” ( Mouton, 2008)

have worked on the phonological and intonational phrases English, Italian,

Turkish and Japanese. The phonological phrase (Ø) is the most crucial constituent

for the interface between syntax and phonology in that it is proposed to reflect

the relative order of heads and complements and thus also of most subordinate

clauses with respect to main clauses (Greenberg 1963 and Hawkins 1983).

Both the (Ø) domain and the location of main prominence within it change

according to whether in a language complements follow their head, as in

English or Italian or precede it, as in Turkish or Japanese. As established in

this book, the PP extends from the left edge of a phrase to the right edge of

its head in head complement languages, and from the left edge of a head to

the right edge of its minimal phrase in complement head languages. In the

book the authors propose that the intonational phrase offers cues to the

constituency of phrases within sentences, rather than, as in the case for the

PP, to the relative order of words within phrases. Main IP prominence

universally falls on the rightmost PP in broad focus sentences, otherwise on

the constituent that is interpreted as bearing narrow focus.

24

In various recent studies like the one done by Elizabeth Selkirk (2002) on Japanese

and English, researchers have tried to work on how phonology interacts with syntax in

determining various syntactic structures.

Many times phonological constraints determine syntactic constraints as well. We can

see such an instance when the structure of a phonological phrase is found to be similar

to a syntactic phrase or the parsing after such phrases is same as the pause that we put

after the completion of such syntactic constructions. Selkirk has tried to account for

this with the help of evidences derived through “domain convergence” and “domain

layering”. In English declarative sentence, the right edge of a major phrase (MaP) in

prosodic structure is marked by the presence of a low tone.

In Bengali sentence phonology (Hayes and Lahiri, 1991) MaP is marked at its right

edge by a High tone (H). The left edge bears other phenomena. The leftmost word of

the phrase is the head of the phrase and a low pitch accent, L*, is located on the initial

syllable of the stressed word. In fact, the process of assimilation takes place within a

phrase but is stopped at phrase boundaries. Also, the edge of a clause in the syntax

typically coincides with edge of the intonational phrase (IP). In English, a final rising

tonal contour on the last syllable of a word, sometimes, referred to as the continuation

rise, is taken to indicate the presence of the right edge of IP (Beckman and

Pierrehumbert, 1986) indicated with curly braces.

Selkirk’s work on syntax-phonology interface (1986, 1995) is also very noteworthy. It

discusses the dependence of intonational phrasing on the phrasal structural properties

of the interface syntactic representation. She assumes a grammatical architecture in

which syntax mediates between phonology and semantics.

In his Ph.D thesis “Intonation and Interface conditions” (2003) Ishihara discusses the

Japanese intonation system mainly with respect to Wh- questions. He tries to explore

the Focus Intonation Pattern (FIP) of the language in order to comment on the

phonology- syntax interface in relation to the Q- phrases of Japanese. An FIP is

obtained when a phrase in a sentence is semantically focalized. There is more than

one way to express “focus” even within a single language. In Japanese (a) one way to

express focus is to change word order, (b) to use cleft construction and (c) to use

focus- specific intonation pattern. The two elements of FIP are:

25

(a) P (Prosodic)- focalization in which the F0 peak of an element bearing FOCUS is

raised.

(b) Post- FOCUS reduction (PFR) in which the F0 peaks of the material after the

element bearing FOCUS are lowered. Wh- phrases are always P- focalized.

Accordingly, post Wh- material displays PFR. The PFR does not always continue

until the end of the sentence. He also proposes a model that accounts for the

mechanism of FIP formulation. The phonological rules proposed derive the effects of

P- focalization and PFR by first assigning prominence to the focus phrase and then

suppressing the prominence of the post- FOCUS material.

Apart from these literary works discussing the various phonological theories and the

possible aspects related to them, I found Joseph E. Grimes’s work “Phonological

Analysis” (1969) also to be of use to my research. According to him, the study of

language can be divided into:

(1) systematic phonology

(2) the nonphonological remainder of the transformational relation

(3) predicates and their combinations

(4) Reference.

Systematic phonology again comprises of three stages. The first and the second stage

can be referred to as analysis. They involve breaking down the utterances one hears to

arrive at units and patterns of combining units. The third stage is synthetic in the sense

that it involves building up a model of the systematic phonology of a language. With

respect to data gathered, he says that new material must be viewed in three general

ways:

(1) as illustrative material that confirms conclusion one has

already made,

(2) As working data that can be tested in the current plan of data

testing and

(3) As residue that cannot be handled yet.

The notion of structure, in its most common linguistic usage, refers to the

organization of a sentence or other unit of language in terms of the relationships

between its parts. However, the structure of a linguistic unit cannot be stated merely

by listing its constituent parts but must also include a description of the relationships

26

of these parts. The kinds of relationships that are assumed to be involved here vary

from theory to theory. But in Chapter 5, more attention has been paid to phonological

structures in more recent theories, especially in non- linear models, with a concern for

the nature of phonological representations. In these models, a more elaborate, multi-

dimensional form is assumed for utterances, manifested either as a hierarchical

organization, as in metrical phonology (Liberman and Prince 1977) and a number of

other models, or as a set of parallel and interacting tiers, as in autosegmental

phonology (Ladd 1978).

These prosodic structures are constructed as a result of the interaction of several

phonological rules which are manifested as being composed of output conditions or

surface phonetic constraints on the rules of the grammar, constraining the rules to

produce the desired outcome (Shibatani 1973). A more recent trend in this regard,

Optimality Theory or OT (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993) is

based on similar principles. OT assumes a set of constraints which take the place of

rules; unlike other approaches, however which attempt to establish exceptionless

constraints, it regards these constraints as violable, and therefore not absolute. They

are ranked in such a way that some may take precedence over others. The constraints

are universal but the ranking is language- specific.

All these models can apply only when the structural nature of prosody is established.

Prosodic features rest on fundamental aspects of the speech process itself which may

include the smallest of units such as syllable, which it has been claimed (Fry 1964,

1968), is a basic unit of neurological programming in speech. All of this entail

recognition of prosodic structure not as a mere device for the linguistic description but

as the fundamental basis for the production of speech.

2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS USED FOR ANALYSIS

This section is a discussion of two major theoretical frameworks which have been

primarily used in the thesis. They are (a) Prosodic Phonology and (b) Optimality

Theory. These two frameworks have already been discussed in general previously in

this chapter without any major focus. But in this section they have been discussed

individually and in greater detail since they form the basis of the main analysis of my

thesis.

27

2.2.1 Prosodic Phonology

The following paragraphs trace the development of prosodic phonology as it is

studied at present. In 1977, Liberman and Prince proposed that, in addition to the

hierarchical structures embodied in syntactic surface structure trees, an adequate

characterization of sentences required a description in terms of a separate

phonological hierarchy whose constituents were not everywhere identical to those of

the surface syntax.

Liberman and Prince focused on the usefulness of a hierarchy of phonological

constituents for describing prominence relations among the words and syllables of a

sentence. They argued that the differences between syntactic and phonological trees

were confined to the word and lower structures; above the level of the word, the

branching of the two trees was the same. Other investigators took up the concept of a

hierarchy of phonological constituents separate from (although related to) the

syntactic hierarchy and proposed differences between the two hierarchies above the

word level as well.

It was argued that the new constituents made it easier to state the phonological rules

of a language that govern interactions between sound segments or phonemes (e.g., in

English, /t/ flapping is blocked in certain prosodic contexts), as well as the

phonological rules that govern intonational, rhythmic, and pausing patterns that had

proven difficult to state in terms of syntactic structure (e.g., pauses, pre-boundary

lengthening, and boundary tones do not always occur at the boundaries of major

syntactic constituents in English).

The research program suggested by the concept of a phonological as well as a

syntactic hierarchy of constituents, i.e., the proposal of various hierarchies of

constituents and notations for expressing them and the search for phonological

evidence to support them, has occupied a number of investigators in the intervening

decade and a half, among them Liberman and Prince (1977), Selkirk (1980; 1984),

Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), Nespor and Vogel (1983), and Ladd (1986; Ladd

and Campbell, 1991). The term “prosodic constituents” is now generally accepted for

describing the structures that characterize each proposed level, but consensus on what

the appropriate constituents are has proved difficult to achieve. In the following, we

will briefly summarize some of the hierarchical structures that have been proposed by

28

these linguistic theorists, before turning to a description of the hierarchy used in the

present study.

Many recent phonological theories have either been inspired by, or proposed in

reaction to, the work of Chomsky and Halle (1968). Attempting to develop a general

accounting of English sound structure, they proposed a transformational approach to

grammar in which an abstract representation of a sentence's meaning, the “deep

structure,” is transformed into a “surface structure.” The surface structure contains a

complete syntactic bracketing of the sentence, and a variety of phonological rules

were proposed to describe the process by which the surface structure is transformed

into the phonetic representation, which actually describes the sounds to be produced.

Chomsky had observed earlier that syntactic phrases did not always correspond to the

perceived phrasing in speech. Consequently, in the Sound Patterns of English,

“readjustment” rules that may differ from the phrasing in the syntactic bracketing

were introduced. These rules may also modify or delete boundaries between distinct

lexical items. As a result, the perceived phrasing of a spoken sentence is not

necessarily the same as the syntactic structure, or bracketing, of the surface structure,

although the two are certainly related.

As noted above, Liberman and Prince (1977) formalized the idea of a phonological

hierarchy by proposing a phonological tree that, in its branching below the level of

words (which they refer to as “moras”), accounted for some of the prominence

relationships between syllables in a sentence. Selkirk, trying to describe more general

prosodic relationships, rejected Liberman and Prince's claim that the branching of the

prosodic tree above the word level was isomorphic to that of the syntactic tree and

presented a phonological tree that contains intonational phrase, phonological phrase,

prosodic word, foot, and syllable (Selkirk, 1980). In later work, however, Selkirk has

argued that use of a metrical grid obviates the need for separately defined prosodic

constituents between the intonational phrase and the foot (Selkirk, 1984). The idea of

a hierarchy containing intonational phrase, intermediate phrase, and word levels has

also been advanced by Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986) who suggest the

possibility of an accentual phrase level between the intermediate phrase and word

levels. Similarly, Nespor and Vogel (1983) have proposed a hierarchy containing

intonational phrase, phonological phrase, and phonological word levels. While the

29

hierarchies put forward in these proposals are quite distinct, there appears to be

general agreement on the need for levels corresponding to the intonational phrase and

the prosodic (or phonological) word, and possibly an intervening level.

Although the notion of a prosodic word is generally accepted, there is some debate

over the relationship between prosodic words and elements of the lexicon. Kurath

(1964), for example, pointed out that some rules governing the sequencing of

phonemes applied only within a lexical word. Chomsky and Halle also found that

some rules applied only within words and others applied across word boundaries.

Consequently, some of Chomsky and Halle's “words” can, through the action of the

readjustment rules, contain more than one lexical item. This view is compatible with

that of Booij (1983) who observes that a “phonological word” may correspond to

more than one lexical word in some cases, and less than one in other cases. In

contrast, Nespor and Vogel (1986) argue that, while the phonological word may be

smaller than the morphological constituent, it is not larger. Liberman and Prince

(1977) define “mots” as the unit that defines the domain of word-internal

phonological rules. This is essentially the same way that Selkirk (1980) defined the

phonological word in her earlier work. The relationship between prosodic words and

elements of the lexicon is decidedly nontrivial: as Kaisse (1985) has pointed out, there

seem to be several different mechanisms that can cause distinct lexical items to be

perceived as a single unit, and these must be carefully distinguished.

The other prosodic constituent that appears to be widely accepted is the intonational

phrase. The intonational phrase is a group of words in an utterance, which is delimited

in some way as a larger unit of phrasing. Most phonologists posit some sort of

intonational phrase, although there are differences in precisely how they define it.

Ladd (1986) traces the origins of the intonational phrase back over a half century, and

he identifies three properties common to all of the various proposals: intonational

phrases are the largest phonological entity with phonetically definable boundaries into

which utterances can be divided, they have a particular intonational structure, and

they are assumed to relate in some way to syntactic or discourse-level structure.

Although this broad definition is helpful in unifying the works of several researchers,

we need a more specific definition for this study. Consequently, we will adopt the

definition proposed by Pierrehumbert (1980), which says that an intonational phrase is

30

delimited by high or low boundary tones. Pierrehumbert proposed two types of

boundary tones: a low tone such as occurs at the end of a declarative sentence, and a

high tone such as at the end of a yes/no question. This definition (as part of a much

larger phonology of intonation proposed by Pierrehumbert), has been quite influential,

and her definition of intonational phrase has been adopted by a number of other

researchers (e.g., Selkirk, 1984; Nespor and Vogel, 1986). While Pierrehumbert's

definition of an intonational phrase differs from, for example, Lieberman's (1967)

``breath group,'' its boundaries seem to coincide with those of Halliday's (1967) ``tone

group.''

Although most researchers agree on at least two levels of a prosodic hierarchy

(prosodic words and intonational phrases), other constituents have been proposed and

are of interest in this study. Consequently, we now consider proposed constituents

both above and below the level of the intonational phrase.

Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986) argue that there is at least one, and possibly two

levels of phrasing between the prosodic word and the intonational phrase. Their

“intermediate phrase” groups words into phrases having at least one accented syllable.

That is, each intermediate phrase contains at least one “pitch accent,” a pitch marker

that makes a syllable more prominent perceptually. Intonational phrases are made up

by grouping together one or more intermediate phrases and marking the end of the

final one with a boundary tone. This intermediate phrase is similar to the unit Nespor

and Vogel (1986) refer to as a phonological phrase.

The other possible level of phrasing between the prosodic word and the intermediate

phrase, which has been explored by Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), is the

“accentual phrase.” Here, they find the evidence inconclusive: in Japanese they find

clear evidence for an accentual phrase as a simple grouping of words, but in English

they find the evidence for justifying it much less compelling, although it is clearly

possible to define such a unit.

As for levels of phrasing above the intonational phrase, Liberman and Pierrehumbert

(1984) have identified phonetic effects that appear to have a domain larger than a

single intonational phrase. Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), however, argue that

these effects are related to discourse structure and do not provide evidence of a

higher-level phonological unit.

31

In contrast to the relatively sparse hierarchies advocated in the works discussed

above, Ladd (1986) proposes allowing a recursive prosodic structure and sees no

principled reason to restrict the number of levels in the hierarchy. Ladd argues that the

single level of intonational phrasing is inadequate to capture both the boundary

phenomena (i.e., the boundary tones) and the relationship between the phonological

and syntactic units. Recently, Ladd and Campbell (1991) have begun to look for

acoustic evidence supporting this hypothesis and have shown that four levels of

phrasing above the word level account for more of the observed variation in

boundary-related lengthening phenomena than the two-level intermediate/intonational

phrase labeling.

Prosodic Hierarchy

Phonological utterance U

Intonational phrases IP

Phonological phrases Φ

Phonological words ω

( ) U

( )( )IP

( )( )( )Φ

( )( )( ) ( )( )( )( )( )ω

No language is produced in a smooth, unvarying stream. Rather, the speech has

perceptible breaks and clumps. For example, we can perceive an utterance as

composed of words, and these words can be perceived as composed of syllables,

which are composed of individual sounds. At a higher level, some words seem to be

more closely grouped with adjacent words: we call these groups phrases. These

phrases can be grouped together to form larger phrases, which may be grouped to

form sentences, paragraphs, and complete discourses. These observations raise the

questions of how many such constituents there are and how they are best defined.

32

The domain of linguistic theory most appropriate to address these questions is

phonology, traditionally defined as the study of sound units and their structural inter-

relationships in spoken language. Work in this field has been reported for seven

centuries [c.f. Jones' History of English Phonology (Jones, 1989)]. However, only in

the last half century have researchers begun to substantially address the relationships

between intonational, rhythmic, and pausing patterns. Pike (1945) described a

hierarchy of rhythmic units, separate from syntactic structure, and examined their

interaction with intonation and pausing.

With the development of syntactic surface structure trees, the phonological

information was thought to be contained within, or derived from, the single structure

(Chomsky and Halle, 1968). More recently, phonologists have again begun to develop

theoretical frameworks that include a separate hierarchy of prosodic constituents. The

next subsection reviews several of the prosodic hierarchies that have been proposed.

Although the proposals differ in many respects, we try to illuminate the many areas in

which they overlap. In particular, we note that one can extract a superset of

constituent types, which takes account of almost all of the proposals. The relationship

between this superset and the perceptual labeling used in this study is then explored in

the following subsection.

A fairly “mainstream” version of prosodic hierarchy (see, e.g., Selkirk 1978, 1986;

Nespor Vogel 1986; Beckman & Pierrehumbert 1986; Pierrehumbert & Beckman

1988) has been tabulated as under.

U (Utt) Utterance not too thoroughly studied as a prosodic category

IP

intonational

phrase

most evidence is intonational (boundary tones) • important in syntax/phonology interface

PhP

(MaP,

MiP)

(iP, AP)

phonological

phrase

intonational and segmental evidence • domain of phrasal stress, phrasal boundary tones • important in syntax/phonology interface Sometimes two levels are recognized: major ▸ vs. minor phrase (Selkirk & Tateishi 1988) ▸ intermediate vs. accentual phrase (B&P ‘86; P&B

‘88)

PrWd prosodic word intonational and segmental evidence • domain of word stress • important in prosodic morphology

33

Also known as phonological word Related idea: clitic group (Hayes 1989b, Nespor &

Vogel 1986)

Foot (F) Foot intonational/stress and segmental evidence • domain of (secondary) stress, bounded stress • important in prosodic morphology

Syllable Syllable evidence from phonotactics, stress assignment What is a syllable? “I know it when I see it...” ▸ local sonority peak? ▸ a “syndrome”? best defined phonologically?

Mora Mora tonal and segmental/phonotactic evidence • unit of syllable weight and/or segment length

2.2.2 Optimality Theory

The basic idea that has been explored is that Universal Grammar consists largely of a

set of constraints on representational well-formedness, out of which individual

grammars are constructed. The representational system that has been employed, using

ideas introduced into generative phonology in the 1970s and 1980s will be rich

enough to support two fundamental classes of constraints: those that assess output

configurations per se and those responsible for maintaining the faithful preservation

of underlying structures in the output. Departing from the usual view, we do not

assume that the constraints in a grammar are mutually consistent, each true of the

observable surface or of some level of representation. On the contrary: we assert that

the constraints operating in a particular language are highly conflicting and make

sharply contrary claims about the well-formedness of most representations. The

grammar consists of the constraints together with a general means of resolving their

conflicts. We argue further that this conception is an essential prerequisite for a

substantive theory of UG.

It follows that many of the conditions which define a particular grammar are, of

necessity, frequently violated in the actual forms of the language. The licit analyses

are those which satisfy the conflicting constraint set as well as possible; they

constitute the optimal analyses of underlying forms. This, then, is a theory of

optimality with respect to a grammatical system rather than of well- formedness with

respect to isolated individual constraints.

34

Structure of Optimality-theoretic grammar

a. Gen (Ink) {Out1, Out2,. }

b. H-eval( Outi, 1<i< infinity) Outreal

The grammar must define a pairing of underlying and surface forms, (inputi, outputj).

Each input is associated with a candidate set of possible analyses by the function Gen

(short for .generator.), a fixed part of Universal Grammar. In the rich representational

system employed below, an output form retains its input as a subrepresentation, so

that departures from faithfulness may be detected by scrutiny of output forms alone. A

candidate is an input-output pair. Gen contains information about the representational

primitives and their universally irrevocable relations: for example, that the node F

may dominate a node Onset or a node: (implementing some theory of syllable

structure), but never vice versa. Gen will also determine such matters as whether

every segment must be syllabified . we assume not, below, following McCarthy (1979

et seq. .) and whether every node of syllable structure must dominate segmental

material.

The function H-eval determines the relative Harmony of the candidates, imposing an

order on the entire set. An optimal output is at the top of the harmonic order on the

candidate set; by definition, it best satisfies the constraint system. Though Gen has a

role to play, the burden of explanation falls principally on the function H-eval, a

construction built from well-formedness constraints, and the account of interlinguistic

differences is entirely tied to the different ways the constraint-system H-eval can be

put together, given UG. H-eval must be constructible in a general way if the theory is

to be worth pursuing.

There are really two notions of generality involved here: general with respect to UG,

and therefore crosslinguistically; and general with respect to the language at hand, and

therefore across constructions, categories, descriptive generalizations, etc. These are

logically independent, and success along either dimension of generality would count

as an argument in favor of the optimality approach. But the strongest argument, the

one that is most consonant with the work in the area, and the one that will be pursued

here, broaches the distinction, seeking a formulation of H-eval that is built from

maximally universal constraints which apply with maximal breadth over an entire

35

language. Optimality Theory, in common with much recent work, shifts the burden

from the theory of operations (Gen) to the theory of well-formedness (H-eval). To the

degree that the theory of well- formedness can be put generally, the theory will fulfill

the basic goals of generative grammar. To the extent that operation-based theories

cannot be so put, they must be rejected. Optimality Theory abandons two key

presuppositions of earlier work. First, that it is possible for a grammar to narrowly and

parochially specify the Structural Description and Structural Change of rules. In place

of this is Gen, which generates for any given input a large space of candidate analyses

by freely exercising the basic structural resources of the representational theory.

The idea is that the desired output lies somewhere in this space, and the constraint

system of the grammar is strong enough to single it out. Second, Optimality Theory

abandons the widely held view that constraints are language-particular statements of

phonotactic truth. In its place is the assertion that constraints are essentially universal

and of very general formulation, with great potential for disagreement over the well-

formedness of analyses; an individual grammar consists of a ranking of these

constraints, which resolves any conflict in favor of the higher-ranked constraint. The

constraints provided by Universal Grammar are simple and general; interlinguistic

differences arise from the permutations of constraint-ranking; typology is the study of

the range of systems that re-ranking permits. Because they are ranked, constraints are

regularly violated in the grammatical forms of a language. Violability has significant

consequences not only for the mechanics of description, but also for the process of

theory construction: a new class of predicates becomes usable in the formal theory,

with a concomitant shift in what is thought the actual generalizations are.

36

CHAPTER 3

THE SOUND SYSTEM

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The analysis of any kind of phonetic and phonological phenomenon in a language

must begin with the description of the sound system of that language. The task

becomes even more important when the language has failed to get any type of major

linguistic lime light with regards to the examination of the phenomena pertaining to

its sound system.

The main aim of this chapter is to describe the sound system of Magahi. This includes

the description of the consonants and the vowels of the language. The description of

consonants will be followed by the description of the vowels which will include the

description of both the oral as well as the nasal vowels. Magahi has a lot of

diphthongs which will also be discussed in the same section. The last part of the

chapter will summarize all the important findings of the chapter.

3.2 SEGMENTAL SOUND DESCRIPTION

The chapter includes the description of the Magahi consonants, oral and nasal vowels,

diphthongs and permissible consonant clusters at the onset and the coda positions of

the syllable.

The data for this analysis have been obtained through silent participation and

observation methods. Major part of the data has been obtained using the Basic Word

Lists (Abbi, 2001). The list includes those words which occur in the day to day life of

a person on a very frequent basis. The data have been listed in the appendices (1, 2

and 3). Let us now begin with the description of the consonants in Magahi.

3.2.1 Phonemes

3.2.1.1 Consonants

A consonantal sound is produced when there is any type of partial or complete closure

of the vocal tract during articulation. The consonants make the second pillar on which

the building of any language is built. The first are the vowels which will be discussed

37

in the later sections. The multitude of the vowels leads to the creation of various

words in the language. Just as every language has a certain set of vowels which is

used in its use in the same manner every language has certain consonants which it

uses in its lexicon. The existence of all the possible consonants that can be articulated

by a human vocal tract has not been found in any language.

Let us see as to which consonants occur in Magahi. The minimal pairs for similar

consonants will be provided which will help to establish if the sounds are phonemic or

not. For better comprehension the sounds will be presented on a chart in keeping with

the IPA7. As in the case with Magahi vowels which have not been discussed much in

the previous literature, consonants too have found little space under the roof of

linguistics. Magahi has a total of 31 phonemic consonants.

a. The Phonemic chart of Magahi consonants

Bilabial Dental Alveloar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Plosive

Fricative

Affricate

Nasals

Trill

Lateral

Approximant J

Magahi Consonants (CHART 3/1)

7 In the IPA the consonant sounds are classified on the basis of the place and the manner of articulation with respect to the human vocal tract.

38

b. Minimal Pairs

The phonemic nature of two sound segments can be established only when the

language has minimal pairs for the pair of segments. An attempt has been made to

provide minimal pairs for similar sound segments in all the three word positions, that

is, initially, medially and finally.

Initial Medial Final

i. / // (bridge) /:/ (slapped) // (sob N)

// (flower) /:/ (misdeed) // (starch)

// and // exhibit phonemic properties with respect to all the three word positions.

They are well distributed word initially, word medially and word finally. However,

study of data has provided with a very interesting observation. The sound segment

[] never occurs succeeding a nasalized vowel in a word. There is a complete

absence of any such word in the language. However, its unaspirated counterpart

occurs very frequently in the language. It seems that [] acts as the allophone of

//when preceded by a nasalized vowel8. This will be discussed further in the

section 2.2.2 of the chapter which deals with allophonic nature of the Magahi sound

segments.

ii. / /:/ (sand) /:/ (Babur dim.) /:/ (pressure)

/:/ (bear) /:/ (a type of dish) /:/ (lime)

// and // exhibit phonemic properties with respect to word initial position. They

are well distributed word medially and word finally and here, as it can be seen, an

attempt has been made to provide minimal pairs for word medial as well as word final

positions. But due to less frequency of the occurrence of // it is difficult to obtain

any clear minimal pair. Also, it is very interesting to note that similar to the case with

[] and [] with respect to nasal vowels [] too seems to occur as the allophone of

// when preceded by a nasalized vowel9. (Any generalization for the word final

8 // (shroud) but // (shiver N); // (clean) but /:/ (snake) 9 /:/ (long) but // (sleepy)

39

position seems very hard to make at this stage as the frequency of occurrence of //

word finally is very scarce in the language. The data provided here for word final

position is a sub- minimal pair and not a minimal pair).

iii. / // (to study) // (Mahatma Gandhi) /:/ (curse)

// (to grow) // (father) /:/ (alcohol)

// and // are separate phonemes in all the three word positions.

iv. / // (to swell)

// (to forget)

These two are separate phonemes word initially but since the frequency of occurrence

of both the segments word medially and word finally is less, it is hard to account for

their behavior at these positions.

v. / /::/ (taunt) /::/ (mother) /:/ (seven)

/::/ (police station) /::/ (head) /:/ (together)

vi. / /:/ (alms) /:/(a type of vegetable)// (euphoria)

/(rice husk) /:/ (shoulder) // (honey)

vii. / /::/ (taunt) /::/ (mother) // (do not)

/::/ (grain) /::/ (female) // (euphoria)

viii. / /:/ (cloth reel) /::/ (head) // (to mix)

/:/ (rice husk) /::/ (half) // (honey)

ix. / // (dazed) // (nonsense) // (hair lock)

// (scornful laugh) //(laziness)// (big stick)

x. / /:/ (tree branch) // (latch) /:/ (fence)

/:/ (shield) // (curry) /:/(flood)

These two consonants do not occur word medially and word finally. These two

positions are taken by their respective allophones [] and []. The allophonic nature

of these consonants has been discussed in the section 2.2.2 further in the chapter.

xi. / // (group) // (pea) // (fat)

// (palanquin) // (murder) // (turn)

xii. / /:/ (hand carriage) // (pulp) /:/ (sixty)

40

/:/ (stone) // (staircase) /:/ (bull)

xiii. / /:/ (ear) /:/ (house) // (grief)

/:/ (mine N) /::/ (a type of dry fruit) // (pampered)

These two consonant segments are phonetic in nature and the evidentiary support of

the minimal pairs establishes the same but in instance where a nasal vowel precedes

the segment // does not occur at all and in such case [] acts as its allophone10.

xiv. / // (to count) /:/ (mug dim.) /:/ (garden)

// (to detest) /:/ (Magh11 dim.) /:/ (tiger)

xv. / /:/ (art) //(quadrilateral) // (stop N)

/:/ (neck) //12 (babysit) // (sickness)

xvi. / // (to open) /::/(to uproot)

//(to dissolve) /::/(to uncover)

// does not seem to occur frequently in the word final position in the language.

Therefore, it is quite difficult to provide minimal pairs for these two sound segments

at this position.

xvii. / /:/ (move N) /:/ (save caus.)

/:/ (net) /:/ (playing musical instrument caus.)

The minimal pairs have not been provided for the word final position. It is very

interesting to note that for this position // is in free variation with // however, the

case is not true vice versa. Also, the voiced consonant // does not occur in any

word where it has to succeed a nasal vowel. In such case only the voiceless //

occurs. This will be discussed further in the section 2.2.2 of the chapter.

xviii. / /:/ (a type of curry)// (being spread) // (spread V)

/:/ (carry bag) // (being rotten)13 // (rot V)

10 The following examples have been given to establish the claim that the allophonic nature is seen at the word final and the word medial positions. // (doubt) // (conch) ; // (metalled) // (fan) 11 It is the name of a month according to the Lunar calendar. It is transcribed as //. 12 Sub- minimal pairs have been provided for the word medial position for / segments. 13 This term is used only in the case of rotten grains and seeds.

41

xix. / // (braided hair) // (in between) // (sprain)

//(young fem.) / /(scorpion) // (moustache)

xx. / /:/ (awake) /:/ (to play)14 // (play)

/:/ (lather) /:/ (to engage) // (engage)

xxi. / /:/ (kick) /:/ (red)

/:/ (night) /:/ (saliva)

Obtaining minimal pairs for word medial position in case of these two consonants has

been difficult because at this position [] exists in free variation with []. Any word

consisting of // in the word medial position continues to retain the same lexical

meaning even when [] is replaces with []. However, vice versa does not hold

ground in the language.

xxii. / /:/ (medicine)

/:/ (mercy)

These two consonant segments occur only at the word medial position15.

xxiii. / /::/ (garland) // (sky) /:/ (price)

/::/ (big drain) // (bathe) /:/ (donate)

All the consonants mentioned above exist in the language in the phonemic form. As

can be seen in Chart 2/1 there are twenty eight phonemic consonants in the language.

The phonemic nature of each of the consonant has been adequately supported by the

existence of the minimal and the sub minimal pairs for every similar pair of

consonants in the three word positions. The minimal and the sub minimal pairs have

been extracted from the Basic Word Lists (Appendices 1, 2, 3 and 4).

A close look at the data reveals some more facts about Magahi consonants. Apart

from the +/- binary distinction with regards to voicing we can also see binary

distinction with regards to aspiration for bilabial, dental, retroflex, affricate and velar

consonants. Actually all the stop consonants of Magahi have this binary division.

14 The root /-/ is used when referring to the action of playing any musical instrument. 15 Apart from the minimal pairs provided here, their establishment as separate phonemes also lies in the fact that suffix / -/ is added in the formation of masculine diminutives and the suffix / -/ is added in the formation of feminine diminutives.

42

c. Let us now proceed by discussing the distribution of the consonantal sound

segments with respect to the three word positions.

Consonants initial medial final

1. // // (stomach) /:/ (cloth) /:/ (snake)

/:/ (claw) // (up) /:/ (curse)

2. // // (blow) // (breathlessness) // (ice)

// (flower) /:/ (to pant)

3. // // (elder) /:/ (ear ring) /:/ (bad)

// (child) // (all) /:/ (book)

4. // // (full) /:/ (sister-in-law) /:/ (to chew)

/:/ (heavy) /:/ (key)

5. // // (lake) // (child) // (many)

// (sharp) /:/ (dog) /:/ (night)

6. // // (tiredV) /::/ (head) /:/ (hand)

// (spit) /:/ (elephant) /:/(alongwith)

7. // // (day) // (cloud) // (dig)

// (far) // (sea) /:/(fertilizer)

8. // // (dust) /:/ (used up) // (honey)

/:/ (smoke)

9. // /:/(tomato) /:/ (fat) // (stomach)

// (horse carriage) /:/ (small/young) /:/ (cut V)

10. // /:/ (knee) // (room) // (lie)

// (alright) // (bag) // (sit)

11. // // (fear) // (bone)

// (palanquin) /:/ (flag)

12. // // (a musical instrument)

// (lid)

13. // /:/ (cut) // (catch) // (blow)

/:/ (black) /:/ (push) // (heart)

14. // /:/ (bad) // (wing) // (write)

// (blood) // (housefly) // (see)

15. // // (count) /:/ (fight) /:/ (fire)

// (round) // (one) /:/ (runV)

16. // // (grass) // (comb) // (horn)

// (enter) // (smell) // (to smell)

17. // /:/ (breath) /::/ (fog) /:/ (breath)

// (dry V) // (another) // (grass)

18. // // (hand) // (float) // (mouth)

43

/:/ (here) /:/ (flow) /:/ (arm)

19. // /:/ (four) // (tail) // (five)

/:/ (moon) /:/ (loft) // (pull)

20. // / :/ (bark) // (fish) // (some)

/:/ (small/ young) // (tail) //

21. // /:/ (cold) /:/ (liver) // (sharp)

// (floor) /:/ (enjoyment) /:/ (wash)

22. // /:/ (fight) /:/ (middle) /:/(infertile female)

// (lie) /:/ (third) /:/ (evening)

23. // // (die) // (floor) // (freeze)

/:/ (dirty) // (salt) // (I)

24. // /:/ (name) /:/ (float) // (blood)

/:/ (new) // (few) // (count)

25. // /:/ (night) /:/ (bad) /:/ (black)

// (rub) // (filled) // (to die)

26. // // (to write) /:/ (dirty) /:/ (bark)

/:/ (red) // (fish) // (flower)

27. // // (goddess)

// (medicine)

28. // /:/ (here)

/:/ (new)

After a close study of the available data it can be inferred that some of the consonantal

sound segments do not occur at the word initial position. They are // and //. Some

consonants do not occur at the word- medial position. They are // and //. Some

consonants do not occur at the word final position. They are //, //, // and //.

Apart from these exceptions all the other consonantal segments occur at all the three

word positions. The complementary nature of these segmental sounds will be

discussed in detail in the section 3.2.2 which deals with allophones. All these

consonantal sounds have been represented underneath on the phonemic chart.

d. Distributional and Phonotactic Constraints

• All the consonants are quite well distributed in the language with respect to

the three word positions except the continuants // and //.

• // and // do not occur after nasal vowels. The spot is invariably occupied

by their unaspirated or (- spread glottis) counterparts [] and [].

44

• The phonemes // and // do not occur at word medial positions and word

final positions. The place is occupied by their allophones [] and []

respectively.

• The [ + high, +back, + cont.] consonants // and // do not occur at all in the

word initial and the word final positions.

e. Phonotactic Generalizations

Based on the phonotactic constraints mentioned in the previous sub section it is

easy to make generalizations.

• The consonant // never immediately follows another consonant. There is

always the presence of the vowel // in between the two participant

consonants. Eg.

/:/ (onion)

/:/ (attention)

/:/ (marriage)

It is also worthwhile to mention here that the conjugation of // with // is not

restricted to the presence of a preceding consonant but in case of word initial position

also similar pairing is evident. Eg. /:/ (memory)

/:/ (friend)

• In case of word final positions, for syllables with nasal vowels as the

nucleus, the coda position is occupied by the plosive, bilabials (- spread

glottis) // and // only and not by (+spread glottis) // and //. The

language does not have any phonological construction which permits the

construction of a word having nasal vowel as its nucleus and // and //

as the consonant in the coda position.

• The segments // and // do not occur in the word initial position. Those

places are taken up by // and //.

45

• It is also interesting to note that the [+spread glottis] consonants do not

occupy the coda position as much as they occupy the onset position. Let

us look at the following graph for a better understanding of this statement.

Distribution of voiced and voiceless (+/- spread glottis) consonants at the onset and coda positions

(Graph 3/1)

A close to 500 words has been considered for this generalization. In the graph the blue

area represents the percentage of words in which the onset positions have been taken

up by the [+ spread gottis] consonants and the red area represents the percentage for

their [- spread glottis] counterparts. It is also interesting to observe here that of all the

[+ spread gottis] consonants which occur at the onset, [+ voiced] consonants have

greater frequency of occurrence at this position than at the coda position of the

syllable.

f. Gemination in Magahi

The process of gemination in Magahi can be best explained at the phonology – syntax

interface. Many words which originally do not have geminate constructions undertake

the process of gemination when undergoing a syntactic transformation. Two clear

instances of gemination can be provided here in support of this claim.

(i) when a reflexive pronoun transforms into its genitive form, eg.

1.[:] (1P REFL. Sing.) → [] (1P GEN. Sing.)

2.[:] (3P REFL. Sing.) → [] (3P GEN. Sing.)16

16 This kind of construction is not evident for [] (2P REFL. Sing). One reason for this can be implicit in the nature of the consonant participating in the process. // which is [+ cont., +spread glottis) does not seem to undergo gemination.

0

50

100

Voiced Consonant Voiceless Consonant

80 66

20 34

Coda

Onset

46

(ii) when verb class word transforms into an adjectival class word by the

addition of the suffix /-/.

Verb Adjective

1. [:] (to ripe) → [] (ripe)

2. [:] (to wake up) → [] (awake)

3. [:] (to write) → [] (written)

4. [:] (to sleep) → [] (sleeping)

5. [:] (to cut) → [] (cut)

6. [:] (to freeze) → [] (frozen)

7. [:] (to decorate) → [] (decorated)

8. [:] (to press) → [] (pressed)

9. [:] (to fill) → [] (filled)

10. [:] (to get entangled) → [] (entangled)

g. Degemination in Magahi

Degemination is a very frequent phonological process in Magahi. Let us first have a

look at the following words which have same consonants making the consonant

clusters.

Magahi Gloss

1. // (sugar)

2. // (behind)

3. // (salt)

4. // (sea)

5. // (rice husk)

6. // (bone)

7. /:/ (dog)

8. // (worm)

9. /:/ (leaf)

10. // (spoon)

47

11. // (rope)

12. // (housefly)

The clusters are broken or in other words degemination occurs in these words when

these words take the diminutive forms. For eg.

(i) [] + -: → [:] ; (ii) [] + - : → [:]

(iii) [] + -: → [:] ;(iv) [] + -: → [r:]

(v) [:] + -: → [:; (vi) [] + -: → [:]

(vii) [:] + -: → [:] ;(viii) [] + - : → [:]

(ix) [:] + - : → [:] ;(x) [] + -: → [:]

(xi) [] + - : → [:] ; (xii) [] + - : → [:]

3.2.1.2 Vowels

In Phonetics, a vowel is a sound spoken in language with an open vocal tract so that

there is no build- up air pressure at any point above the glottis. Depending on certain

types of articulatory features the vowel quality changes and the overall sound

becomes entirely different. The basic reference for articulatory features in the

description and tabulation of the Magahi vowels is the IPA.17 The articulatory features

have been used as references in differentiating one vowel from the other. The

description of the vowel sounds is patterned on the description and tabulation of

cardinal vowels18. The vowels have been classified into two:

a. The oral vowels

The oral vowels, as the name suggests, are vowel sounds produced without the

participation of the nasal chamber. This category can further be subcategorized as

monophthongs and diphthongs.

(i) Monophthongs

17 International Phonetic Alphabet was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. 18 Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundness (lip position). These three parameters are used in the IPA vowel charts for the description of vowel sounds of any language generally. (Jones, Daniel.1982. Cardinal Vowels, Vol.1. Linguaphone Institution.

48

The existing literature holds that Magahi has lost the phonemic contrast of length

in the high vowels, both front // and back //. (Verma 2003) The question of

phonemic length in the vowels arises only in the case of high vowels anyway.

However, this kind of contrast does not seem to be consistent with the data. Vowel

length does not seem to be phonemic in Magahi. Therefore, there are a total of six

phonemic oral monophthongs in the language. The following table lists the vowels

along with the articulatory features of each of them but before going through the

table let us first study the distribution of these vocalic sounds with respect to the

word positions viz. initially, medially and finally.

Monophthongs initial medial final

// /(light) /:/ (write) // (comb)

/::/ (gesture) // (alright) /:/ (cough N )

// // (one) // (stomach) // (all)

/:/ (favour) // (plum) /:/ (meaning)

// /:/ (egg) // (big)

// (sky) // (die)

// /:/ (white) // (child) // (worm)

// (up) // (dry) /:/ (alcohol)

// // (in that) // (dig) // (one)

/:/ (there) /:/ (fat) // (boat)

// /:/ (man) /:/ (ash) /::/ (head)

/:/ (mango) /:/ (bark) /:/ (dog)

Monophthongs (Oral) Three- term labels

// High, front, unrounded

// Higher mid, front, unrounded

49

// Mean mid, central, unrounded

// High, back, rounded

// Higher mid, back, rounded

/:/ Low, back, rounded (long)

Three – term labels for Oral Monophthongs (Chart 3/2)

Vowels are the backbone of any language. The table above lists all the oral

monophthongs of Magahi. It is clear from the table that there are a total of six

phonemic oral vowels. Also, it can be seen that the mean mid, central, unrounded

vowel // does not occur word- finally. The claim here is well- supported by the

presence of minimal and sub-minimal pairs in the data collected during the study (see

Appendices 1, 2 & 3) for each of the vocalic sounds. In phonology, minimal pairs are

pairs of words which differ only in one phonological element and have distinct

meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two different

phonemes in the language. Keeping this in mind let us now have a look at the minimal

pairs obtained for the purpose of establishing the vocalic phones as phonemes. In a

few cases sub- minimal19 pairs have been used to establish the claim.

Phone pairs initial medial final

/i/, /u/ /ime/ (in this) // (in frenzy) // (in that) // (beginning) /: /, // /::/ (stethoscope) /::/ (lock) /:/ (hail) /:/ (measuring unit for wight) //, // /:/ (mine) // (blood) //, // /:/ (lazy) /:/ (jam) // (a type of pulse) // (to freeze) //, // // (tobacco) // (round) //, // // (burrow) /:/ (friend) // (a type of fruit) //(alongwith) //, // // (to grow) // (to exchange)

19 Sub- minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ in only two phonological elements and have distinct meanings. In the absence of minimal pairs the occurrence of sub-minimal pairs also establishes the fact that two phones are phonemic in nature.

50

(ii) Diphthongs

Diphthong refers to two vocalic sounds occurring one after the other within the same

syllable. A diphthong is also labeled as a ‘gliding vowel’. In a more comprehensible

term the tongue moves during the utterance of the two vowel sounds. Diphthongs are

formed when two vowel sounds are run in rapid speech during the utterance.

Languages I general do have a quite a number of diphthongs. Magahi too has a lot of

vowel combinations which act as diphthongs.

After a close look of the list the following oral diphthongs have be sorted out which

have been tabulated as under:

Oral Diphthongs Initial medial final

// // (mirror) // (how) // (carpenter)

// // (knee)

// // (pond)

// // (woman) // (sister-in-law)

// // (and) // (rice)

b. Nasal Vowels

(i) Monophthongs

The nasal vowels, as the name suggests, are the vocalic sounds produced with

the help of the partial or impartial participation of the nasal chamber. In such

cases, the air stream being released outside finds outlet through the oral

chamber as well as the nasal chamber. The existing literature is devoid of any

discussion on the nasal vowels of Magahi. Before proceeding further in the

chapter let us first look at the distribution of these nasal sounds with respect to

word positions initially, medially and finally.

Nasal vowel initial medial final

// /:/ (here) /:/ (water)

// // (camel) // (blow) // (mouth)

// // (scratch)

51

// // (intestine) // (laugh)

// /:/ (eye) /:/ (breath) /:/ (yes)

// /:/ (to throw)

After going through the distribution of nasal vowels as discussed above let us now

proceed to the discussion on their minimal pairs. It is noteworthy that the nasalization

of oral vowels is not always allophonic in nature. The data collected as part of the

present study gives the evidence for the existence of minimal pairs which establishes

the claim that the nasal vowels are as much phonemic in nature as the oral vowels. Let

us look at the following data as an evidence of the claim made above.

Phone pairs Magahi Magahi

• /i/, /i/ - /pi/ (drink) /pi/ (blowing horn)

• /u/, /u/ - /du:/ (prayer) /du :/ (smoke)

• /o/, /o/ - /ko/ (coach) /ko/ (stuffed)

• // , // - /s:s/ (mother-in-law) /s:s/ (breath) • // , // - /hns/ (swan) /hs/ (laugh)

All the six oral vowels and the six nasal vowels have been presented in the following

chart. The chart gives the relative position of each of the vocalic sound in relation to

each other with respect to the position of the tongue.

Front Central Back

Close

Close-mid

Mean- mid

Open- mid

Open : :

The Oral and the Nasal monophthongs of Magahi (chart 3/3)

52

(ii) Diphthongs

The frequency of the occurrence of nasal diphthongs is very less in the language. The

study of data has revealed the occurrence of only the following nasal diphthongs.

Nasal Diphthongs Initial medial final

1. // // (bird)

2. // /:/ (floor)

3. // /:/ (there)

There are only three nasal diphthongs. The distribution of the diphthongs is very

restricted.

c. Distributional and Phonotactic constraints

The following observations can be made after analyzing the distribution of the monophthongs.

• [-low, +back] vowels, that is, //, // and // do not occur word finally. • Minimal pairs for // with any other monophthongs has not been provided

for word medial position because only the // vowel is used in the reduplication construction with all the other vowels.

• The monophthongs pairs // & // and // & // occur in free variation in the word initial position.

• Only one oral diphthong // occurs on at all the three word positions.

• None of the nasal diphthongs seem to occur at the word initial position.

• The phones [] and [] occur in complementary distribution so it will not

be wrong to claim that they are allophones.

• The distribution of nasal vowels is very restricted with respect to the word

positions. //, // and // do not occur word- initially.

• //, // and // do not occur word- finally.

• The only nasal vowel which occurs at all the three positions is /:/.

3.2.2 Allophones

Magahi is very rich as far as allophones are concerned. These allophones play crucial

role in governing the syllable structure of the language and as a result influence the

53

prosody of the language. The following phonetic chart lists all the consonantal sounds

of Magahi including phonemes and allophones.

Bilabial

Dental

Alveloar

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Stops

Fricative

Affricate

Nasals

Trill

Lateral

Approximant

The Phonetic Chart of Magahi Consonants (chart 3/4)

3.2.2.1 The Allophonic Processes

Quite a few phonological rules can be framed to explain the various types of

phonological processes taking place in the language. Vowel nasalization too seems to

affect allophony in many interesting ways. As a result, the segmental sounds behave

strangely when accompanied with nasal vowels. Let us now deal with each case

individually to get to know in detail as to what exactly happens.

(i) Labial Plosives and nasalization

In the word medial and the word final position // and // do not occur following a

nasal vowel. That place is taken up by // and // respectively. These two sounds

seem to act as the allophones of their [+spread glottis] counterparts. (section 3.2.1.1)

Let us look at the following examples:

54

// (white) but /:/ (snake charmer)

/:/ (half) but /: / (breathlessness)

The following phonological rule can be used to explain this:

[+labial +spread glottis] → [+labial –spread glottis] / vowel [+nasal]______

(ii) Retroflex consonants and word medial and word final positions

The consonants // and // do not occur word medially and word finally. At these

places the allophones // and // occupy the positions respectively. It should also be

noted here that the segmental sound // too occurs in free variation with // for the

word medial and word final positions where it can be substituted in place of //

without any change in the lexical meaning. However, vice versa does not hold true.

The allophones of // for word medial and word final position can be represented as:

// []

[]

Eg. [] (road) [] (road)

[:] (horse) [:] (horse)

[:] (rice water) [:] (rice water)20

The phonological rule for this can be:

[+ stop +retroflex] → [+tap +retroflex] / C or V ____

20 This allophonic construction is ambiguous in nature as // also means ‘to beat’. Therefore, syntactic construction becomes important for the determination of the correct lexical meaning.

55

(iii) [], [] free variation word medially

[] occurs in free variation with [] for word medial position. That is, to say that, []

can be substituted for [] in the word medial position without affecting the lexical

meaning in any way.

Eg. // (ointment) and // (ointment)

/:/ (liver) and /:/ (liver)

/:/ (thin) and /:/ (thin)

/:/(to dissolve) and /:/ (to dissolve)

// (fish) and // (fish)

(iv) Vowel free variation

Two significant free variations can be noticed in the case of oral monophthongs.

They are [] & [] free variation and [] & [] free variation. But the phonotactic

constraint limits them to the word initial positions only.

(v) Nasal spreading as an allophonic process.

The phonemic nature of the nasal monophthongs has already been established earlier.

But, in certain cases where the vowel is succeeded or preceded by a nasal consonant it

also acquired nasal features known as spreading. The spreading can be forward as

well as backward. The following examples are of help in understanding this.

/: / (nose); /:/ (respect); /: / (moon); // (wing); /:/ (queen)

and /:/ (gold) etc.

3.2.3 Loan Phonology of English, Arabic, Hindi and Magahi.

This can be understood in a better way if similar cases are clubbed together and

considered one by one. For example,

a. Consonant substitution

56

Magahi does not use fricative sounds //, // and //. However, these sounds are

replaced with //, // and //21 respectively in case of borrowings from English

and Hindi/Urdu languages especially at word initial and word medial positions.

The following examples support the statement made above.

// → // (English borrowing)

(name of an adhesive)

// → // (Urdu borrowing)

(journey)

// → // (English borrowing)

(motor van)

// → // (Urdu borrowing)

(fragrance)

/::/ (bravo) →/::/ (Hindi, Urdu borrowing)

Another interesting substitution is that of velar // in place of uvular // mainly in

words borrowed from Arabic. The following data supports this claim (see Appendix

Some More Words).

// → //

(promise)

// →//

(variety)

// →//

(fault)

There are several other words of Persian and Sanskrit origin which undergo

substitution (Verma 2003).

21 A comparative study of the phonetic inventories of seven dialects of Hindi was carried out. It was found that almost all the dialects (which includes Haryanvi, Awadhi, Bagheli, Bundeli, Bhojpuri and Kanauji), with the exception of Khari Boli do not distinguish consistently between the alveolar fricative // and the palatal //, the former being the preferred form. (Mishra, Bali 2011).

57

b. Consonant Cluster

Magahi does not allow for any kind of consonant clustering especially at the syllable

onset position. However, at the syllable coda position specific clustering can be

viewed. The absence of any such syllable having consonant cluster in the initial

position in any of the words of the Basic Word Lists (see appendices) supports the

claim. Let us now look at the data for clustering at the coda position.

Magahi Gloss

• // (paint) • // (wing) • /:/ (moon) • // (sweet potato)

First, the data for consonant clustering is very scarce and second, the data shows

clustering only in the case of alveolar nasal and velar consonants as being the first

constituent of the clustering at the coda position. It has already been mentioned earlier

that // and // are allophonic in nature.

3.2.4 Classification of Magahi Segmental Sounds on the basis of Distinctive Features

A complete account of Magahi phonemes in terms of distinctive features22 (irrelevant features and feature values have been omitted from this matrix in order to retain marginal legibility)” has been provided as under:

Consonantal features:

[con] [son] [cont] [voice] [spr.glt] [lat] [nas] [strid] [distr] [high] [low] [bck] [rnd] [ant] [cor]

+ - - - - - - +

+ - - - + - - +

+ - - + - - - +

+ - - + + - - +

+ - - - - - - + +

+ - - - + - - + +

+ - - + - - - + +

+ - - + + - - + +

+ - - - - - - -

+ - - - + - - -

+ - - + - - - -

+ - - + + - - -

+ - - - - - - + +

+ - - - + - - + +

22 Gussenhoven and Jacobs (1998); Chomsky and Halle’s universal set of phonetic features (1968)

58

+ - - + - - - + +

+ - - + + - - + +

+ - + - - - - +

+ - + + + - - -

+ - - - - - - + +

+ - - - + - - + +

+ - - + - - - + +

+ - - + + - - + +

+ + - + - - + -

+ + - + - - + -

+ + + + - - - -

+ - - + - - - -

+ - - + + - - - +

+ + + + - + - -

+ + + + + + - -

+ + + + - - - - + - + +

+ + + + - - - - +

Classification of consonants based on Distinctive Features (chart 3/5)

Vowel Features:

[cons]

[son]

[cont]

[vcd]

[asp]

[glot]

[lat]

[nas]

[strd]

[high]

[low]

[bck]

[rnd]

- + + + - - - - + + - - - - - + + - - + - - + + + - + + - + + - - + + - + + - + + - Classification of oral vowels based on Distinctive Features (chart3/6)

3.3 SUMMARY

The chapter has dealt with Magahi sound system with special focus on the vowels and

the consonants. Magahi has oral as well as nasal vowels. There are a total of six oral

vowels and six nasal vowels. The oral vowel // and the nasal vowel // occur in

complementary distribution. Magahi has a lot of diphthongs. The data analysis has

revealed the existence of as many as eight diphthongs both oral and nasal. Out of the

eight diphthongs three have nasal vowels in the diphthongal combination. The oral

vowel // is the most frequent choice for the formation of a diphthong. The diphthong

// occurs in all the three word positions.

59

There are twenty eight phonemic consonants in Magahi. Just like other Indo- Aryan

languages, aspiration is phonemic in this language. The alveolar nasal consonant //

displays allophony when followed by a velar consonant. The analysis of words

containing aspirated consonants reveals that the frequency of the occurrence of voiced

consonants at the onset position is far greater than at the coda position. For easy

understanding and to have a clear picture of the allophonic processes occurring in the

language the phonemic as well as the phonetic charts have been provided in the

chapter both for consonants and vowels.

Magahi is rich in allophones and allophonic processes. Segmental sounds exhibit

allophony depending on their position of occurrence in the word. Allophonic nature is

also exhibited by certain segments depending on the environment in which they

occur. This has been the case with labial plosives where aspirated consonants use their

unaspirated counterparts as allophones when they are preceded by a nasal vowel.

Fricative sounds //, // and // are not present in Magahi phonetic inventory and

they are substituted with //, // and // respectively. Similarly, the uvular // is

substituted with the velar //. Magahi has no scope for consonant clusters. And the

only type of clustering that one comes across in the language is in the form of

gemination. Gemination in Magahi is as a result of ablauting where high vowels like

// and // get lowered to // and // respectively. The gemination occurs in order to

preserve word stress at specific syllables as per language prosodic rules.

This chapter has been an attempt to describe the sound segments of Magahi. Any type

of study on language prosody cannot be possible without developing a basic

understanding of the sound system of the language. The distinctive feature charts

illustrated for consonants and the vowels in the chapter will be of help in grouping the

sound segments depending on the various types of phonological processes with

similar features. The next chapter will deal with the syllable structure of the language

and it will also account for the various syllable- based and foot- based processes of

the language.

60

CHAPTER 4

WORD STRESS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the system of word stress in Magahi. The stress pattern of

Magahi has not been previously analyzed in the metrical literature. Stress is the

linguistic manifestation of rhythmic structure, a claim that has been part of metrical

theory since Liberman (1975) and Liberman & Prince (1977). A body of careful

experimental work has established that no one physical correlate can serve as a direct

reflection of linguistic stress levels (Lehiste 1970; Lea 1977; Berinstein 1979; Ladd

1980; Beckman 1986).

The absence of any clear definition of stress means that any theory of stress is in an

indirect relation with the facts that support it. In most areas of phonology, it is not too

difficult to ascertain when the observed facts confirm or falsify a hypothesis. This is

because of the distinctive features23 which form the core of phonological

representation, have relatively clear acoustic or articulatory correlates. (Hayes 1995)

Stress serves multiple purposes: it creates phonemic contrasts, marks morphological

and syntactic structure, signals the distribution of focus and so on. The multiple

phonetic cues for stress are particularly interesting when one considers that languages

use duration and pitch in their phonological systems for entirely different purposes.

Duration is the phonetic cue for vowel length, which is phonemic in many languages

(not in the case of Magahi though). Duration is also widely used to mark phonological

phrasing (see Chapter 4): the right edges of major phrases typically receive extra

duration (Klatt 1975; Wightman et al. 1992). Further, pitch is the phonetic cue for

tone, in languages with phonemic tone systems (Magahi is a non- tonal language), and

also in the phonetic basis of intonation (see Chapter 4). The basic point is this that

stress is parasitic, in the sense that it invokes phonetic resources that serve other

phonological ends. (Hayes 1995)

23. The classification of Magahi segmental sounds on the basis of distinctive features has been provided in the charts 2/5 and 2/6 for consonants and vowels respectively.

61

From a structural point of view, stress is a property of the rightmost or leftmost

syllable of a prosodic constituent, the foot. The prototypical foot is a sequence of two

syllables one of which is strong (s) and the other one weak (w). Stress is a property of

syllables. When the word is spoken in isolation, the stressed syllable is provided with

an intonational pitch accent, a tone or tone complex like H* (high) or L*H (low-

high). Stressed syllables thus serve as the location for the tones that make up the

intonation contour. Shifting of stress is related to the difference in the location of the

f0 (fundamental frequency) fall is clearly visible. Quantity and weight are expressed

in moras. It splits off the onset consonants (s) which are prosodically inactive, from

the segments in the rhyme. The rhyme includes a mora structure: a vocalic rhyme

with a single mora- light and two moras- heavy. (Gussenhoven 2004)

Keeping these arguments into consideration it becomes essential to see Magahi stress

system in the same light. This chapter commences with the description of the syllable

and the foot structure of the language. The chapter is divided into four sections. The

first section of the chapter includes the introduction and the analysis of Magahi

syllable structure. The second section investigates its syllable based processes. The

analysis of syllable structure discusses the patterns of syllabic units in Magahi, the

nature of syllabic peak and the phonotactic constraints. The section dedicated for the

discussion on the syllable based includes the discussion on syllable duration, syllable

weight and processes like epenthesis and vowel shortening.

The third section of the chapter deals with the analysis of the foot structure and the

foot based processes. The foot based processes includes a discussion on the process of

cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening. This section of the chapter also tries

to analyze Magahi prosodic templates. This section of the chapter will focus mainly

on the discussion of the prosodic template of Magahi plurals. The chapter closes with

a brief summary of the important findings of the chapter.

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of the syllables.

This prominence is a function of loudness, pitch or duration and it is often the change

in pitch along with other factors that is most important. The prominence of syllables is

referred to as stress. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the process of the placement

of word stress in Magahi. Therefore it becomes important to study the syllable and the

foot structure prior to the analysis of the stress placement in Magahi. The analysis of

62

word stress commences with a detailed description of the syllable and the foot

structure based on the data collected through the observation and the interview

methods24. The discussion includes a comprehensive analysis of the syllable and the

foot structure of Magahi. The first half of this chapter includes the analysis of Magahi

syllable structure (the patterns of syllabic peak and phonotactic constraints) and the

examination of its syllable based processes. Syllable based processes relate to the

syllable duration and the syllable peak. Epenthesis and vowel shortening too occur

very frequently in the language and so they also have been discussed under the

syllable based processes.

In the second half, the discussion proceeds to the foot structure and the foot based

processes. Here Cluster Reduction and Compensatory Lengthening have been

discussed as being types of the foot based processes evident in Magahi. Every

language has its preferred template structure and its determination occurs at the word

level. The template for Magahi plurals has been analyzed in the following section. Let

us now begin with the analysis of the nature of Magahi syllable and its structure.

4.2 THE SYLLABLE

Syllables are units of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. They are often

considered as the phonological building blocks of words. Attempts have been made to

provide physiological, acoustic and auditory explanations and definitions of syllable.

According to the ‘prominence theory’25 the number of syllables in a word is

determined by the number of peaks of prominence. Another approach is presented by

the ‘sonority theory’26 (Giegerich, 1992:132). A syllable can, thus, be defined as a

unit of speech which appears to the hearer as “one sound beat” or “as a segment of

speech that is heard as one unit of sonority.”

A syllable can be divided into an onset and a rime (Roach, 2000 & Ladefoged, 2001).

A rime can further be classified as a nucleus and a coda. Generally, the nucleus occurs

24 The Observation Method requires fairly good advance knowledge of the language under consideration. While adopting this method, it is assumed that the basic grammar is already known to the fieldworker. In the Interview Method the field investigator can interview informants with or without the help of the questionnaire/s. 25 Crystal, D. (Ed.). (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. USA: Blackwell Publishing. This theory, however, does not help much in the discussion of syllable division. 26 According to this theory the pulses of pulmonic air stream in speech corresponds to ‘peaks in sonority’.

63

at the centre of the syllable. Every syllable requires of a peak and the minimal syllable

consists of only a nucleus. The syllabic nucleus is usually a vowel but sometimes a

syllabic consonant can also act as a peak. The sound segments (consonants) preceding

and following the nucleus are termed as margins: onset and coda respectively. After

going through the definition and the concept of a syllable let us now proceed with the

discussion on syllable structure.

4.2.1.The Syllable Structure

In Magahi, a syllable is a vocalic unit or a combination of consonants preceding or

following the vocalic unit. Some of the examples have been taken out from the list of

data on the basis of random sampling27 which have been illustrated underneath (see

appendices)

Magahi(marked with syllable division) Syllable pattern28

. (all) CVC.CV

≅:. (and) V.V

: . (animal) CVC.CVC

: (ash) CVC

.: (bad) CV.CVC

(fly) VC

.: .: (fog) CV.CV.CV

: .: (art) CV.CV

.: . (blouse) CV.CV.VC

.: (book) CV.CVC

:. (blind) V.CVC

.: . (brave) CV.CV.CVC

27 Examples have been picked from the Basic Word Lists A,B,C (see appendices) randomly in order to get the knowledge of Magahi syllables as being only vocalic as well as a combination of consonants and vowels (consonants occurring at either onset position, coda position or both). 28 The syllable division has been done on the basis of the Sonority Theory in which a syllable is a unit heard by hearer as ‘one sound beat’. (Giegerich, 1992).

64

Let us have a look at the patterns of syllable units and the permissible combinations

for onset and coda positions.

4.2.1.1The Patterns of Syllabic Units

If ‘V’ represents a syllable peak including the nasalized vowel form and ‘C’

represents the syllable margins then following are the monosyllabic patterns of

Magahi. (‘##’ stands for the syllable boundary).

## V## /i/ (this)

##VC## :(eye) ##CV##: (yes) ##CVC##(fruit) ##CVCC##(feather)

Analysis of the syllable structure of Magahi leads to the following observation:

• The above mentioned syllabic patterns can exist freely as independent words

or they can exist as constituent syllables of di/tri or polysyllabic words.

4.2.1.2The Nature of Syllabic Peak

The nucleus of the syllable comprises both oral and nasal vowels. There are six oral

vowels in Magahi and all the oral vowels take the syllable peak position29.

The data provided in the basic word lists (see appendix) yielded the minimal pairs

(Chapter 3) which helped to account for the occurrence of the following vowels in the

syllabic peak position.

Monophthongs Magahi Gloss

/i/ / (louse)

// // (flower)

29 Magahi shows the distinction of long and short oral vowels /ι; /Ι and υ; Υ The minimal and sub-minimal pairs give evidence for it. However, in case of diminutive forms, the long vowels get converted to short vowels because of the addition of the diminutive markers to the stem (pp 17).

65

/ (fair)

(open)

/ / (art)

(garland)

The number of nasal vowels as observed in the data in the basic word lists (see

appendix) is six. The nasal vowels were found to take the syllable peak position in

the following cases:

Nasal Vowels Magahi Gloss

(sound of horn)

/ (smoke)

// (stuffed)

// (breath)

/ (laugh)

4.2.2.Syllable Based Processes

4.2.2.1 Syllable weight

The functional equivalence of CVV and CVC syllables, as opposed to CV syllables, is

a time- honored observation holding true for numerous languages over a variety of

phonological and morphological phenomena including stress- assignment (cf.

Newman 1972 for a review). Traditionally the opposition between the two types of

syllables has been informally described by reference to syllable weight: CVV and

CVC syllables are heavy, CV syllables are light (e.g. La Grasserie 1909: 31- 32). It

has also been observed, however, that in languages sensitive to the CV/ CVV,

distinction CVC syllables do not necessarily pattern with CVV syllables, but may

instead pattern with CV syllables, thus counting as light rather than heavy (Hyman

1985: 5- 6; Mc Carthy & Prince 1986: 32- 34; Hayes 1989: 255- 256). The concept of

syllable weight can be best understood with the help of Moraic Theory (Hayes

66

1989)30. The theory does not recognize either the onset or the rhyme (rime)

constituents. Onset elements are directly dominated by ‘σ’ node and are not assigned

a mora (weight unit, represented by ‘μ’) while the nucleus and the coda are assigned

morae because they contribute to syllable weight.

σ σ σ

μ μ μ μ μ

[ : ] [ : ] [ : ]

As per the data collected for the purpose of this study it can be concluded that six

different types of syllable structures occur in this language. They are: V, CV, VC,

CVC and CVCC and CV:C.

4.2.2.2 Epenthesis and Vowel Shortening

In a disyllabic word the initial syllable has to be heavier compared to the final syllable

so that it can bear stress. The language undertakes those phonological phenomena

which facilitate such phonological processes. This is clear through the following

illustrations:

In order to indicate a specific or a particular person, animal or object the suffix -:-

:is added (diminutive forms)31 depending on the type of vowel in the final

syllable. If the vowel in the final syllable is back (+/- rounded) then the suffix -:

follows. The suffix -: occurs in the elsewhere condition. This process of suffixation

results in the formation of specifiers in the language.

Let us see the following examples:

1. a) ::→:→:

30 The Moraic theory captures the functional equivalence of CVV and CVC syllables through bimoraicity (instead of the disjoint notions of branching nucleus and branching rhyme, while the cases where CV and CVC syllables belong together (as opposed to CVV syllables) fall under monomoraicity. 31 (Kachru 2006). Hindi. John Benjamins Publishing Co. It is possible to derive a gender- different noun forms based on the diminutives. At times the diminutive forms express affectionate or pejorative meanings as in /βετι+ /-α→ /βετια (hindi) (daughter) (diminutive form)

67

(Garland) (the garland)

b) ::→:→:

(umbrella) (the umbrella)

c) ::→:→:

(fodder) (the fodder)

d) :→ : → :

(gram) (the gram)

e) : → : → :

(money) (the money)

f) u:32 → :

(bridegroom) (the bridegroom)

After paying a close look at the examples above it is clear that two processes are

occurring here. Firstly, there is vowel shortening in the final syllable and secondly,

the shortened vowel gets deleted. As a result, the initial syllable retains its heaviness

and the stress. In (f) however, it can be seen that the addition of suffix is preceded by

epenthesis. There can be another explanation for this. Preceding to the addition of the

diminutive suffixes the last vowel segment in the root word is dropped so the

corresponding stems become /-,,-,-,-

&-/ a) to f) respectively. Let us examine the following data:

2. a) → i → pi :

(feather) (the feather)

b) i → i → i:

32 The original lexical item for ‘bridegroom’ in Magahi is /α/ but the formation of a diminutive form presumes an epenthesis which can be represented as: /α/ → /α/. The aspirated lateral consonant // is broken down in such a way that a disyllabic word transforms into a trisyllabic word. The same happens with similar other words like /α/ (stove).

68

(fish) (the fish)

c) : → i → i:

(book) (the book)

d) → i→ i:

(bride) (the bride)

From (2 a- d) it can be seen that all the stems have vocalic ending with the exception

of 2cand 2d. The morphological process of addition of suffix /-:/ is accompanied

by a series of phonological processes. From 2a to 2d it can be seen that the suffix is

preceded by a stem extender /-i/. Also, in 2b the process of suffixation is preceded by

the process of epenthesis. So, the underlying form for the diminutive forms in Magahi

does have a vocalic ending in the stems for both /-:and /-:forms.

Therefore, the first explanation seems to be the most efficient and optimal in

explaining both the cases.33

Vowel shortening in Magahi operates on the morphophonemic level as well. Magahi

has a derivative suffix in stressed // which derives intransitive passive verb stems

and denominatives. This is against the general rule where in a disyllabic word the

stress is on the penultimate. As in,

3. a) /::/ ( let’s go) /::/ (made to go)

b) /:/ (see) /:/ (made to see)

c) /:/ (write) /:/ (made to write)

33 The explanation for this can be derived from the Optimality Theory (Kager, 1999) which says that given two sets of candidates A and B; A is a better candidate on a constraint if it incurs fewer violations than B. A is optimal in its candidate set if it is better on the constraint hierarchy than all the other candidates.

69

The stressed penultimate vowel of disyllabic word will retain the stress when it

becomes the antepenult vowel of a trisyllabic word through suffixation, but will

become attenuated even when stressed34. As in,

d) /:/ (see) /:/ (you saw)

e) /:/ (write) /:/ (you wrote)

The words become disyllabic in fast speech with the predictable stress on the penult

but on an antepenult vowel, provided the syllabic structure is CVC- CV. We can say

that this syllabic structure becomes a general phonological condition for the

occurrence of an attenuated vowel and stress for words ending in such a syllabic

structure.

4.3 THE FOOT

The unit is composed of syllables, the number of which is limited, with a few

variations, by the sound pattern the foot represents.35 The foot is a purely metrical

unit; there is no inherent relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning or syntax.

The feet are classified first by the number of syllables in the foot (disyllabic have two,

trisyllabic have three and tetrasyllabic four) and secondarily by the pattern of vowel

lengths or syllable stresses; ‘long’ becomes ‘stressed’ (accented) and ‘short’ becomes

‘unstressed’ (unaccented).(Nespor and Vogel 2007).

4.3.1The Foot Structure

Out of the six possible monosyllabic patterns the V and the CV structures can be

considered as light syllables owing to the absence of any element at the coda position.

VV too does not have any element at the coda position but the occurrence of two

vowels at the nucleus position makes this syllable heavy. VC and CVC syllables are

also heavy. CVCC as well as CV:C syllable structure can be labeled as being super

heavy because of its heavy rime. Therefore, with respect to syllable weight three types

34 Many times the attenuation becomes so severe that the vowel sounds are completely deleted as in /α/ (you saw) and // (you wrote). 35 The structure of a foot can be characterized as consisting of a string of one relatively strong and any number of relatively weak syllables dominated by a single node (Liberman and Prince 1977; Kiparsky 1979).

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of syllables have been observed in Magahi. they are: light (l), heavy (h) and super

heavy syllable. A light syllable is either of /CV/ or /V/ type where ‘V’ is any vowel

other than /:/. A heavy syllable (h) is either of the type /CVC/ or /CV:/ where ‘V’ is

only /:/. A super- heavy syllable is a combination of heavy and light syllables (h+l).

In this case it will be of the type /: C/ where ‘C’ can be any consonant. It can also be

deduced from the data that /:/ results in a heavy syllable when occurs word internally

but results in a light syllable when occurs word- finally.

Syllable weight also determines the placement of stress in a word. It is fixed, weight-

sensitive and is morphologically or lexically conditioned. The study of Magahi data

shows that when the stress is on the penultimate syllable, the vowel in the

antepenultimate gets attenuated. When the stress is on the final (ult) syllable, the

vowel in the penult gets attenuated. With the shift in the stress, the feature of vowel

shortening also gets shifted. Let us have a look at the following data (extracted from

the Basic Word List A, B and C/ appendix).

4. a) /: : (to loot)(dacoity)

b) /: / (tobunk) // (bunking)

c) /:(shop) :(shopkeeper)

Instances of vowel loss dependent on the placement of stress can also be witnessed in

the language. One such example is as follows:

d) : (morning) (in the morning)

The main stress in Magahi words fall on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy; it falls

on the ultimate syllable if the penultimate syllable is light.

Such phonological phenomena occur at phonology- morphology interface level. The

placement of stress within a word is very much then dependent on the kind of vowel

that the syllable possesses. The foot in this case is left-headed and the movement of

the stress is towards the right edge of the word. The syllable weight appears to

determine the stress system of Magahi. Therefore, Magahi seems to be a quantity-

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sensitive language. In comparison with Hindi and Maithili (Hayes, 1994)36 which

have moraic trochees as the basic foot type Magahi too appears to have the same as its

basic foot type.

In Magahi feet are left- headed (=trochees); namely, the leftmost syllable in a foot is

the strongest. E.g.

Magahi

(elder)

: . (animal)

4.3.2 Stress Placement and Extrametricality

It has already been established that the possible syllable structures in Magahi are V,

CV, VC, CVC, CV:C and CVCC (see 3.2.2.1) of which VC, CVC are considered to

be heavy syllables and CVCC37 and CV:C are considered to be super heavy syllables.

CV acts as heavy syllable when it gets an additional weight due to the lengthening of

the constituent vowel (CV :). The moraic trochee captures the idea that a single heavy

syllable is quantitatively and metrically equivalent to two light syllables (Allen 1973;

Halle & Vergnaud 1978; McCarthy 1979a; Prince 1983). Magahi avoids consonant

clusters at the onset and the coda position. This renders CVC as the most preferred of

all the syllable structure types.

After establishing the syllable structure the next step is to see as to how stress is

placed on the syllables. A set of words have been taken to investigate the

phenomenon of stress placement in the language. The feet have been marked as being

heavy (h) or light (l). The words are represented on the metrical grid where the foot

stress is marked with an asterisk (*). Metrical grid has been included to see if the

language permits any kind of stress clash. The metrical grid consists of a base line

and a stress line. In the baseline, all and only the segments that qualify to bear stress

36 Hayes, P. (1994), Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies, Chicago: University of Chicago. In his account of metrical stress theory, Bruce Hayes builds on the notion that stress constitutes linguistic rhythm- that stress patterns are rhythmically organized, and that formal structures proposed for rhythm can provide a suitable account of stress. 37 Consonant cluster in the coda position lends an additional mora to the syllable thus making it heavy. However, such clusters are very limited in the language.

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are marked with an asterisk. Those are normally the syllable heads. The brackets are

due to Hayes (1995).

4.3.2.1 Analysis

The placement of main stress in Magahi can be summarized as follows.

5. a) . <> (cobbler)

b) . <> (unroot)

c) .. <> (lineage)

The argument for the extrametricality in (5/ a- c) can be drawn from Pandey (1989)

and more recently in Vijaykrishnan (2007). The final syllables //, // and //

respectively are light syllables in themselves thus becoming extrametrical.

6. d). .<> (art)

e). .<> (fat)

f). .<> (deny)

In cases like (6/ d- f) the rightmost heavy syllable becomes extrametrical thus

resulting in degenerate foot (A degenerate foot is simply a foot that would consist of a

single light/ monomoraic syllable). The primary stress falls on the leftmost light

syllable.

7. g). ∩..<> (family)

h). ∩..<> (landlord)

i). ∩..<> (business)

The extrametricality shown in (7/ vii- ix) draws its argument from Pandey (1989) and

more recently in Vijaykrishnan (2007). The final syllables in such cases are light

syllables in themselves and thus become extrametrical.

8. j). .(). <> (brain diminutive)

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k). . () <> (lineage diminutive)

l). . (). <:> (glass diminutive)

9. m)...<> (ablution)

n)...<> (woman)

o). . ().<> (niece)

10. p). ∩...<> (land lordship)

q). ∩...<> (family diminutive)

11. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

#

The point is that the primary stress or the main stress of Magahi falls on the

penultimate syllable in unmarked conditions which includes a heavy syllable structure

at this position and a comparatively light syllable word finally. Another point that can

be made here is that a final syllable can attract stress just in case it is not preceded by

a heavy syllable as in (6) resulting in degenerate foot. Suppose the syllables are

organized from right to left into moraic trochees then the relevant examples will be

footed as in (11).

12. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

(x) (x.) .) (x)

……. # ……. #

To pick out the right /x/ for the main stress, it is sufficient to mark the final foot as

extrametrical when it is preceded by a heavy syllable.

13. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

x) x)

(x) <(x)> .) (x)

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# #

Extrametricality in Clash must be restricted to cases where the clashing stress is

constituted by a long -voweled syllable. Thus, the rules of Magahi can be stated as in

(14).

14. a) Foot Construction Form moraic trochees from right to left.

x

b) Extrametricality in Clash Foot → <Foot > / V: ___ ]word

c) Word Layer Construction End Rule (Right)

In this analysis, rule (14a) sets up metrical feet, end rules (14b) and (14c) select a foot

for the main stress.

In (15) to (18) are further metrical structures generated by the rules of (14). The

following structures suggest that Magahi has both primary as well as secondary stress.

15. Final Heavy, No Extrametricality: Final Stress

a) (x)

(x)

(x)

:

16. Word Ending in / /: Extrametricality, Penultimate Stress

a) (x) b) ( x) c) ( x)

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

(x) <(x)> (x) (x) <(x)> (x) (x) (x) <(x)>

. <:> . :. <:> . . : <>

17. Word Ending in / /: Penultimate Stress

a) ( x )

( . x)

( . (x) (x)

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. :.

18. Word Ending in / /: Extrametricality, Penultimate Stress

a) (x) b) ( x) c) ( )

(x) ( . x) (x) (x) (x)

(x) <(x)> ( . (x) <(x)> (x) (x) (x) (x)

. : . . : ∩. . . <>

19. Word Ending in / /: Final Stress, Final Syllable extrametricality

a) ( x) b) ( x)

(x) (x) ( . x)

(x) (x) ( . x)

. <> . :<>

In the rules so far it has been assumed that both CVV and CVC syllables are heavy

and the /:C/ syllables are super heavy and the presence of a super heavy syllable

triggers peripheral Extrametricality. Vowel shortening appears to be a prevalent

feature in morphological processes like affixation. But contrary to Maithili (Hayes

1995) in Magahi the syllable undergoing vowel shortening bears the primary stress as

long as it continues to be heavy and at the penultimate position. Three examples have

been given underneath in which the penultimate syllable experiences vowel

shortening in the formation of the respective diminutives.

20. a) (x ) (x )

(x ) (x )

(x) <(x)> (x <(x)>

_ _ _ _

: <:> (paternal grandfather SING.) .<:>

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b) ( x) ( . x)

( x) ( . x)

(x) (x) <(x)> ( . x) <(x)>

. :<> (brain) . . <:>

c) ( x) ( x)

(x ) (x) ( x)

(x) (x) (x) (x ) ( x) <(x)>

. . <> . . .<:>

4.3.2.2 Discussion

The analysis bears on a number of theoretical issues.

(A) EXTRAMETRICALITY IN CLASH: The analysis provides support for this

type of rule. A final foot of the form CV: attracts stress only if it does not

clash with a preceding stress on another CV: syllable. The same holds for a

final foot of the form CVC. The analysis also shows that the clash results in

Extrametricality as well as de- stressing which occurs in a disyllabic word of

the type (hh) or a polysyllabic word consisting of adjacent heavy and super-

heavy syllables.

What is interesting about this analysis is that both CV: and CVC induce this

clash governed Extrametricality. And it also appears that CVC is considered to

be heavier than CV: syllable. This is in contradiction to the popular

typological observations where CV: is considered to be the heavier of the two.

However, there are still no concrete suggestions as to why this should be taken

in a rigid manner (Hayes 1995). Magahi seems to fall out of this notion.

(B) VOWEL SHORTENING: a further question to be considered is why a rule of

vowel shortening/ reduction should occur in a trochaic language, given the

77

prediction of the Iambic/ Trochaic Law38 that segmental phonology should

preserve the even timing of the foot (Hayes 1995). The previous analysis

shows that vowel reduction does not govern stress assignment in Magahi so

long as the primary stress falls on the penultimate syllable.

21. a) ( x) ( x)

( x) ( x)

( . x)<(x)> ( . x) <(x)>

. ≅:<> . . <:>

b) ( x) ( x)

( x) ( x)

(x) (x) (x) (x) <(x)>

. :<n> . . <:>

The most clearly documented evidence of a more objective character is that because

vowel reduction does not govern stress assignment, its role has been delimited in

Magahi phonology. This type of phenomena is however purely morpho- phonemic

where the addition of the suffix /-:/ word finally leads to the shortening of the

vowel in the preceding syllable. The shifting of stress in such cases could be a

consequence of this morph phonemic process and not vice versa. Vowel Reduction is

blocked in initial syllables. It can be supposed that reduction is blocked here because

it would ordinarily create an unsyllabified consonant cluster.39 The evidence for the

avoidance of consonant cluster has just been seen for Magahi.

(C) AVOIDANCE OF STRESS CLASH:

Magahi avoids any kind of stress clash. A stress clash refers to a sequence of adjacent

stressed syllable. Avoiding clash is assumed to be one of the driving forces behind the

38 The Iambic/ Trochaic Law forms the basis of the foot inventory and it forms part of the theory of the rhythm, not of language popular. It determines the set of possible feet, as well as motivating large number of segmental rules that adjust metrical structure. (Hayes 1995:33) 39 Avoidance of consonant cluster is a factor in Maithili phonology as well. (Hayes 1995)

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placement of stresses (e.g. Prince 1983), in recent work in particular (Kager 2001,

2005 a, 2005 b; Gordon 2002; McCarthy 2003; Alber 2005; Buckley 2009). One way

in which this is made possible is by the avoidance of consonant cluster at the coda

position of a foot40 which is preceded by another heavy foot.

A final foot of the form CVC or CV: attracts stress only if it does not clash with a

preceding stress on another CVC or CV: syllable. Magahi has numerous words having

the prosodic shape CVC.CV. Apart from the avoidance of consonant clustering, the

language also has phonological phenomenon of epenthesis due to which a

monosyllable with a consonant cluster at coda position following a heavy syllable

acquires a vowel thus creating one more syllable.

22. (a) *

(feather)

(H)

* (b) * *

.

(H) (H)

(c) *

* * *

. . <> (Peacock feather)

(H) (H) L

Words like (22b) do not occur in the language because they lead to stress clash which

is completely avoided in the language. Words like (22c) abide by the metrical rule of

the language. So there is a hierarchy of prominence among syllables in words and

among words in compounds and phrases. This prominence hierarchy is grounded in

40 Magahi does not have cluster at the coda position except for such clusters in which a nasal consonant is the preceding constituent.

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rhythm. Moraic trochees are constructed over two light syllables or one heavy

syllable. The last foot on the left is assigned main stress (End Rule).41

4.3.3 The Prosodic Template in Magahi

A template can be thought as the fixed prescribed shape that a word or paradigm must

have to be well-formed. In other words, a template stipulates a prosodic unit, e.g. a

foot or syllable or a combination of prosodic units, e.g. a foot and two syllables,

which constrain the shape of stems or words. The template used in a particular

paradigm is assumed specifically for that paradigm and does not necessarily dictate

the shape of all words and paradigms.

Magahi Plurals

Pluralisation in Magahi occurs by the addition of the suffix /-/ or /-/ to the

stem indicating masculinity or feminity of the object respectively. When the word

final ending is consonantal like

23. a) → . <>

(H) H H

(tree) (trees)

b) :. → . . <>

(H ) (H) L (H) ( H)

(paper) (papers)

The suffix /- / is added. In case where the root word has a vowel ending then the

stem undergoes modifications to facilitate such suffixation.

c) k. → + - → .<>

41 The foot templates are based on the Iambic/ Trochaic law, which in turn is related to phonological duration and therefore, to mora count. This is what sets up the crucial empirical prediction of this approach; namely that stress rules that refer to prominence are limited to the mechanisms of the theory other than footing, namely the End Rule. In cases of Hindi, Maithili and Awadhi also a heavy penult always receives the main stress (Hayes 1994).

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(H) L (H) (H)

(dog) (dogs)

d) .<:> → + - → .<>

(H) H (H) (H)

(child) (children)

e) .→ → + - → ..

(H) L L (H) (H)

(spoon) (spoons)

In the examples (22c) and (22d) it is clear that the final syllable is dropped and then

suffixation occurs. In (21e) degemination occurs which creates the environment for

suffixation.

When the word final ending is vocalic then /- / gets affixed.

f) → .<>

(H) (H) (H)

(cow) (cows)

g) :.<i> → .. <>

(H) <L> L (L) <H>

(paternal aunt) (paternal aunts)

The data presented so far clearly states that Magahi permits H, LL, LH and HL type

of feet avoiding stress clash. Let us have a look at some more data below to

understand Magahi feet type in a better way.

• H type feet occur in two types of cases:

24. a) in case of disyllabic words like:

(i):. <:> (garland)

(ii):. <:> (lock)

Where both the syllables are of heavy type but since there is final syllable

extrametricality in Magahi, the rightmost syllable gets extrametrical and thus, the

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primary stress falls on the leftmost or the word- initial syllable. So, the surface foot

structure for such words appear to be of HH type but the underlying structure is of H

type.

b) in case of polysyllabic words like

(i) . . : (lad)

(ii) . . : (land lord)

In (b) above the heavy syllable in the middle is followed by a super heavy final

syllable. The primary stress falls on the right most super heavy syllable. The middle

syllable is also of the heavy type but the stress does not fall on the middle syllable

because of stress clash resolution. Therefore, the secondary stress shifts to the word

initial or the left- most syllables.

• LL type feet occur in disyllabic words like

25. (i) . (fat female)

(ii) . (husband)

Where both the syllables are light and the left most syllable bears the primary stress.

• LH type feet too occur in disyllabic words like

26. (i) . <:> (art)

(ii) . <:> (deny)

Where the right most heavy syllable becomes extrametrical due to Final syllable

extrametricality and so the stress falls on the left most light syllable resulting in a

degenerate foot.

• HL type feet occur in words like

27. (i) :. (water)

(ii) :. <> (massage)

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LOAN PHONOLOGY : THE ROLE OF PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS

Phonotactic rules determine which sounds are allowed or disallowed in each part of

the syllable. Magahi phonology is determined in such a manner that phonetically the

realization of consonant clustering is completely avoided in the syllable initial

position.42 As for the borrowed words especially from Hindi and English consonant

clustering in the syllable initial position is avoided by means of phonological

phenomena like epenthesis

A separate word list was prepared in order to get data for the borrowed words of

Hindi and English origin (See appendix). There are sufficient examples which can

illustrate the existence of the above mentioned phonological phenomenon. Some of

those examples have been illustrated as under:

28. Hindi Magahi

a) /(love)

English Magahi

b) /(cream)

Or deletion

Hindi Magahi

c) /(Lord Krishna)

Or metathesis

e.g.

d) Hindi Magahi

e) /(proper noun)

42 As opposed to Hindi which is a major linguistic influence in Bihar none of the Bihari languages (Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpiri) show any consonant clustering in the onset position. The data obtained in the Basic Word Lists A, B and C (see appendix) also do not show the occurrence of consonant clustering in the syllable initial position.

83

English Magahi Gloss

f) cricket43

However, consonant clustering is noticed in the coda position of the syllable. But it

seems that the choice of the first consonant in the cluster is restricted to nasal

consonants.44 The phonetic feature of the nasal consonant is determined by the type of

consonant following it. Alveolar nasal consonant is preceded by alveolar consonants

and velar nasal consonant is preceded by velar consonants.45 The existence of other

types of consonant clustering is absent as per the collected data (see appendices).

4.5 SUMMARY

The chapter outlines the syllable structure of Magahi as well as accounts for the foot

structure and the placement of stress at the level of words. The analysis of the data has

resulted in the inference that there are six monosyllabic patterns in Magahi. They are

/V/, /VC/, /CV/, /CVC/ /CV:/ and /CVCC/ of which the /CVC/ pattern is the most

preferred form for the formation of monosyllabic words. These syllabic patterns can

exist freely as well as independent words or they can exist as constituent syllables of

di/ tri or polysyllabic words.

Orals as well as nasal vowels, both, occupy the syllabic peak position. The language

seems to completely avoid consonant clustering in the syllable initial position. In the

syllable end position also the choice of consonants for the initial position of clustering

is limited to alveolar nasal only. As for the borrowed words, the language has several

underlying phonological rules which reduce the possibility of the occurrence of

consonant clusters. However, the phonological processes are not always the same for

the borrowed words of Hindi and English origin.

The basic foot structure for Magahi is Quantity- sensitive unbounded moraic trochee

and it is left- headed. Magahi stress pattern shows Final syllable extrametricality. The

43 The borrowed words /κριΣν(Lord Krishna) and /κριµ/ cream) have the same consonants in the onset position but there is deletion in the former and epenthesis in the latter. The language may have different phonological rules for the borrowed words of different languages. 44 A similar discussion on the phonological constraints can be found in: Hulst, Harry van der & Ritter, Nancy, A (1999), The Syllable- Views and Facts, The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter. 45 // (wing), /α/ (moon), // (smell) and /α/ (tie) (Appendix 1,2,3; The Basic Word Lists)

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language obeys the END RULE for stress placement. The primary stress occurs on the

penultimate syllable in unmarked condition and the final syllable does not participate

in stress assignment thus becoming extrametrical. The language avoids stress clash

with the help of other phonological processes like avoidance of consonant clusters

the use of epenthesis as well as de stressing.

Processes which are foot- based like cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening

are evident but only in the cases of borrowed words. An examination of Magahi

plurals has yielded in the template structure for them. The templates for disyllabic

words are H, LL, LH and HL types. The next chapter will take the analysis to the

level of utterance. Rhythm and phrasing patterns will be the main focus of the next

chapter. The chapter will try to account for the uniqueness of Magahi intonation with

respect to wh- questions.

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CHAPTER 5

RHYTHM AND PHRASING PATTERN

5.1 INTRODUCTION: PROSODIC STRUCTURE

The preceding chapters have provided us with the basic understanding of the

phonological and the phonetic sound systems of Magahi as well as the rules that

govern the patterning of stress assignment in the language. So, far the domains of our

analyses have been the syllable (chapter 3) and the phonological word (chapter 4). But

in this chapter we will take into consideration larger domains than the ones discussed

earlier: the phonological phrases.

As the title of the chapter suggests, this chapter will be an attempt to discuss the

phrasing patterns operative in the language which is also referred to as the “rhythm”.

The previous chapters have shown us that the analysis and the discussion of prosodic

features in isolation is impossible because of their interdependence. They have high

degrees of interactions and also have many things in common. These features often

share their phonetic foundation but what unites these features more than any

phonological interaction or common phonetic basis is the way they fit together, they

share a common organization, a common structure which they collectively create and

on which they all depend (Fox 2000).

5.2 PROSODIC STRUCTURE

5.2.1 Domains

The idea of ‘prosody’ can be said to apply to, or be properties of, larger stretches of

speech than the individual segment (Fox 2000). These stretches of speech to which we

assign a particular feature are called their domain. Different features may share

domains; both the syllable and the foot are domains for a number of prosodic features.

Some of them being stress assignment, accenting and so on. The facts that such

domains are shared by various phonological features, we can assume the presence of

smaller prosodic units. The existence of such prosodic units, and their importance as

domains for more than one feature, suggest that the systemization of prosodic

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structure depends to a large extent on the systemization of these units and the

relationship between them.

Selkirk (1978) proposes that rules of phrase- level phonology are sensitive to a

prosodic hierarchy composed of several levels: words, phonological phrase,

intonational phrase and utterance. In later works, Selkirk (1986), following Chen

(1985), proposes that prosodic phrasing is constructed by referring solely to the ends

of well- defined X’ representations. Languages may select the right or left edge of a

level on the X’ hierarchy to delimit a prosodic phrase. Prosodic domains are defined

as the span between these ends (Rice 1987).

5.2.2 The intonational phrase and the prosodic hierarchy

As we now know that the simplest conception of a hierarchical phonological structure

is as a set of units of different sizes or scopes with the smaller progressively nested

within the larger. The basic prosodic unit, probably recognizable in all language is

syllable. The syllable is the domain of several prosodic features such as tone, and it is

generally the unit which can be regarded as ‘accented’ (Fox 2000).

We must consider, however, the possibility of other units in the hierarchy. Many

scholars recognize the mora (𝜇𝜇) as a legitimate unit, though its relationship to the

syllable is somewhat uncertain. The mora has often been included in the hierarchy as

a unit below syllable. (McCarthy and Prince 1995) For the present discussion on

Magahi phonological phrasing we must consider the significance of mora since it has

already been established that the basic foot type of this language is moraic trochee

(see 3.2.2.1). Considering this, a parallel ‘Quantity Tier’ can be postulated at the foot

level as in 4.2.2 (a) - (b).

(1) a. PrWd (prosodic word) (b) F ----- Q tier

F (foot) σ ----- 𝜇𝜇 tier

σ (syllable)

𝜇𝜇 (mora)

However, some linguists have argued in favor of a typological distinction here.

Trubetzkoy (1939) distinguishes syllable languages from mora languages, and

87

syllable- counting languages from mora- counting languages. Japanese is a mora

language, since for this language the mora can be regarded as the unit of timing (Fox

2000, Pierrehumbert and Beckman 1988)), and the syllable has a subordinate role. As

for Magahi it is a weight- sensitive language and the stress assignment is directly

governed by syllable weight (see 3.3.2). The relevant syllable types in Magahi are

light (/CV, V/), heavy (/CVC, VC/) and super heavy (/CVCC and CVV/). The

syllables attract stress depending on the moraic weight attached to them.

In the previous chapters (Chapter 3 and 4) we have already discussed the syllable and

the foot structure of Magahi. Therefore, the present chapter will focus primarily on

the rhythm, that is, the phrase structure of the language. Talking of rhythm we have to

consider the structure of intonational phrase (IP) chiefly. Selkirk (1984, 1986)

suggests that the level of IP is determined semantically rather than from syntactic

structure. There is general agreement that certain types of syntactic constituents

obligatorily define IPs. At times, the boundaries of clauses and the break between

subject and verb phrase tend to attract IP boundaries (Hayes 1984). However, these

latter boundaries can be overridden by both phonological factors and semantic factors

(Rice 1987).

Coming to the analysis of rhythm of wh- questions let us first look into their syntactic

structures. The simplest declarative sentence of Magahi consists of a noun phrase

(NP) and a verb phrase (VP) as in

• []NP [ ]VP

3P. Sing Ram AUX.

Let us now make an interrogative sentence of this declarative sentence.

• []NP []Q []VP

3P. Sing who AUX.

It can be seen that the Q- word is getting inserted between the NP and the VP. Here, it

will not be wrong to say that the Q- word in itself gets inserted between the NP and

the VP as an independent phrase and does not align either with the NP or VP

syntactically. This is possible because of the freedom of movement of phrases within

88

an utterance in the language. The following orderings too exist in the language which

further establishes the claim that the Q- word behaves like an independent phrase.

• []NP []Q []VP (the most unmarked case) • []NP []VP []Q

• []VP []Q []NP

• []VP []NP []Q

• []Q []VP []NP • []Q []NP []VP

Thus, it can be established that in the formation of an interrogative sentence in the

most unmarked case in Magahi, the Q- word gets inserted between the NP and the VP

and behave like an independent phrase. So, syntactically the phrase structure of an

interrogative sentence of Magahi is:

[NP] [Q] [VP].

Let us now examine the same with respect to the six wh- questions that are to be

analyzed for the present thesis:

(2) 1. [ ]NP [ ]Q []VP

2P. Sing. GEN. name what AUX.

(What is your name? )

1. [ ]NP [ ]Q [ ]VP

2P. Sing. Where stay AUX.

(Where do you stay? )

2. [ ]NP [ ]Q []VP

2P. Sing. How AUX.

(How are you? )

3. [ ]NP [ ]Q [- ]VP

2P. Sing. when Home – to go stay AUX.

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(When are you going home? )

4. []NP [ ]Q [

]VP

2P. Sing. why Delhi go stay AUX.

(Why are you going to Delhi? )

5. [ ]NP [ ]Q []VP

2P. Sing. Brother who AUX.

(Who is your brother? )

As is clear from the analysis of these six questions above, these wh- questions are also

structured on the same pattern, that is, [NP] [Q] [VP]. The next task now is to

investigate the presence of alignment between the syntactic phrase (XP) and the

phonological phrase (Ο) of these question sentences. But before proceeding to the

level of phonological phrases it is important to analyze each of these six questions

based on prosodic hierarchy.

5.3 PROSODIC FEATURES

5.3.1 Accent

In Metrical Phonology, stress is reduced to a binary relational feature which is derived

from metrical stress, or equivalent grids, with syllable designated as weak or strong.

This in effect interprets accent as a class of syllable. Thus, accent is not a phonetic

property but a matter of structure, and this is reinforced by its role in the rhythmical

organization of the utterance. In several languages, Level 2 accents designate the

nuclear foot of the intonation unit.

It is because of this structural role that the place of accent in prosodic structure is

more basic than that of other features justifying Beckman’s claim (1986) than it is

‘organizational’, in the sense that it is not merely a property associated with specific

prosodic units but it is rather a defining characteristics of the structure itself. Let us

now take the case of the six wh- questions which have been used for various types of

prosodic analysis in the chapter. The illustrations of the wh- sentences consist of the

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stressed syllables being marked with and the syllable bearing the accent being

highlighted.

(3) 1. / /

2. / i/

3. / i/

4. / : /

5. / i: /

6. / i /

The Q- words in all the six cases illustrated above get the strongest accent in

comparison to the neighboring words. One basic feature of pitch accent is that when a

pitch accent occurs on a word containing more than one syllable, the accent occurs on

the lexically stressed syllable of the word (Ladd 2008).

5.3.2 Nuclear Contours

The basic contour type for Magahi interrogative sentences is LHL. The utterances

start with a low tone (Li) as in Fig.4.4.1- Fig.4.4.6. The nuclear contour is at the Q-

word in all the six cases and it consists of a high pitch accent (H*). Towards the right

boundary of the utterance the tone becomes low, hence represented by the low

boundary tone L%. the following figures 4.4.1- 4.4.6 illustrate the contour pattern of

the intonation of the wh- questions of Magahi. { } have been used to mark an IP

Fig. 5.4.1

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

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Fig. 5.4.2

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.3

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.4

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.5

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

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Fig. 5.4.6

{ }

Li → H*L- → L%

5.3.3 Rhythm and Intonation

Prosodic phrases () are supposed to be set off by audible boundaries: if boundaries

were not audible, then much of the point of the chunking function would be lost. At

the same time they are frequently assumed to have an internal prosodic structure of

some sort, an intonational tune etc46. (Ladd 2008) The details of the supposed internal

structure vary from analysis to analysis. The most important and the most complex

conflict of criteria arises from the twin assumptions that (a) the division of sentence

into prosodic phrases in some way reflects syntactic, semantic, or discourse

constituency, but that (b) prosodic structure is somehow fundamentally simpler than

syntactic structure. (Ladd 2008)

What determines the division of utterances into prosodic phrases is best explained by

Optimality Theory/ OT (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004). There are three

governing factors (a) prosodic constituents tend to have their right or left edges

coincide with the corresponding edges of specific morpho- syntactic constituents; (b)

many languages require the left or right edge of the focus information, to coincide

with some prosodic constituent; (c) the length of prosodic constituents tends to be less

variable than that of morpho- syntactic constituents which is due to size constraints on

prosodic phrases. These factors are captured in OT by interacting prosodic structure

constraints. (Gussenhoven 2004)

46 An essential feature of an intonational tune is that it consists of a nuclear accent and a phrase accent. The phrase accent is also referred to as the post- nuclear accent. Both prenuclear and the post- nuclear accents are secondary relatives of the primary nucleus and therefore they are obligatory: prenuclear accents can be completely absent, but the post- nuclear phrase accent is always manifested phonetically, either as a post- nuclear accent or a boundary tone. (Ladd 2008)

93

This section (see 5.3.3) presents a phonological description of in Magahi, an

intonation only language. The and to a lower extent the prosodic word determines

the distribution of pitch accents, which arise from the interplay between clash

resolution and the desire to mark boundaries of s and prosodic words with pitch

accents.

Generally no variation is found in the distribution of pitch accent with respect to

variety or style of speech. The nuclear contour for Magahi interrogative sentences

(wh- question type) is LHL (see section 4.3.2) with a complex boundary tone LLi

similar to Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991a).

This kind of intonation system in the language is a complex interplay of pitch accents

and phrase accents and every consists of at least one accented syllable. Fig 5.5.1 –

5.5.6 illustrate the phrasing pattern in the wh- questions of the language. The

intonation contour has a low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase may consist of

an L* or a an H* depending on the focus of the utterance. In all the six utterances

discussed earlier the pitch accent occurs at the Q- word only.

An interesting observation can be made at this point. The Q- word is the nucleus

attracting the maximum pitch and then as the utterance proceeds there is a sharp

decline in the pitch in all the six cases observed so far. This entails that there is a

nucleus in the utterance and then there is post- nuclear reduction (PNR) and

invariably it is the VP which is subjected to the phenomenon of PNR. The NP which

precedes the nucleus does not seem to get affected by the presence of the nucleus in

the succeeding position. This observation here can lead to the assumption that unlike

three XPs in a Magahi wh- question (see section 4.2.2) there are only two

phonological phrases. The question phrase [Q] seems to get aligned with the VP

leading to the formation of a single phonological phrase. Thus, a wh- question of

Magahi seems to have two phonological phrases where the first phonological phrase

aligns with the NP/ Subject and the second phonological phrase is the combination of

[Q] and [VP] and as already discussed earlier [Q] acts as the nucleus subjection the

VP to undergo PNR. The boundary tone for this phonological phrase is low (L%).

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5.3.4 The Prosodic branching

Now we can produce a detailed account of the branching of these interrogative

sentences based on the prosodic hierarchical model. The syllable is represented here

as (σ), the mora is represented as (𝜇𝜇), the foot as (F), the prosodic word as ( w ) and

the phonological phrase as (Ο).

(a) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ

Utt

(b) IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ

95

Utt

(c) IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w

F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ

(d) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w w w w

F F F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

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(e) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w w w w

F F F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

(f) ) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ

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5.3.5 The Metrical Grid Structure

The prosodic features discussed in the previous subsections of this chapter have

provided us with the foundation on which the structure of the metrical grid of the wh-

questions can be accounted for. This subsection is dedicated chiefly to this purpose.

Let us consider each of the six questions one by one and see as to how they are

manifested on the metrical grid.

(a) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * * Wd

(b) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * * Wd

(c) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * Wd

(d) * IP

* * * * Ο

* * * * * * wd

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(e) * IP

* * * * Ο

* * * * * * wd

(f) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * * wd

5.4 SUMMARY

This chapter has been an attempt to describe the rhythm or the phrasing pattern of the

wh- questions of Magahi. It has been established in this chapter that in the formation

of an interrogative sentence in the most unmarked case in Magahi, the Q- word gets

inserted between the NP and the VP and behave like an independent phrase. So,

syntactically the phrase structure of an interrogative sentence of Magahi is:

[NP] [Q] [VP].

It has also been established that the Q- words in all the six cases (the six wh-

questions) illustrated above get the strongest accent in comparison to the neighboring

words. The intonation contour has a low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase may

consist of an L* or a an H* depending on the focus of the utterance. In all the six

utterances discussed earlier the pitch accent occurs at the Q- word only.

An interesting observation has also been made in this chapter. The Q- word is the

nucleus attracting the maximum pitch and then as the utterance proceeds there is a

sharp decline in the pitch in all the six cases observed so far. This entails that there is

a nucleus in the utterance and then there is post- nuclear reduction (PNR) and

invariably it is the VP which is subjected to the phenomenon of PNR. The NP which

precedes the nucleus does not seem to get affected by the presence of the nucleus in

the succeeding position. This observation here can lead to the assumption that unlike

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three XPs in a Magahi wh- question (see section 5.2.2) there are only two

phonological phrases. The question phrase [Q] seems to get aligned with the VP

leading to the formation of a single phonological phrase. Thus, a wh- question of

Magahi seems to have two phonological phrases where the first phonological phrase

aligns with the NP/ Subject and the second phonological phrase is the combination of

[Q] and [VP] and as already discussed earlier [Q] acts as the nucleus subjection the

VP to undergo PNR. The boundary tone for this phonological phrase is low (L%).

Finally in the last section of the chapter (see section 5.3.4) the metrical grid structure

for the six wh- questions have been produced.

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CHAPTER 6

PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERFACE

6.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous chapters have dealt with the prosodic features of Magahi in relation to

wh- questions. Chapter 5 has established the structure of as well as its

correspondence with XP (see 5.3.3). At this stage it becomes imperative to find out if

there is any kind of influence that one exercises on the other or the correspondence is

only on the surface level. As the name suggests, this chapter will deal with the

phenomena operating at the interface level.

This chapter is an effort to throw light on some of the morphophonemic as well as

phonosyntactic phenomena of the language. However, the major focus of the chapter

will be phonology- syntax interface in Magahi because of the absence of any previous

study in this area. The chapter also aims to provide data which may be used in the

study of prosodic typology. Because Magahi to date is poorly understood, it is hoped

that the data provided in the thesis will pave way for future work on prosodic theory

and the syntax- phonology interface.

Studies related to interface conditions have become the latest trend in the academic

circles. Not only interdisciplinary interface studies are attracting scholars but also the

intradisciplinary interface studies have caught the fancies of the researchers. The

researchers have taken distinguishing language features and examined the extent to

which they affect other levels of organization in the language. At the

morphophonemic level the segmental effects of stress render stress placement less

predictable (loss of syllables) and enhance the development of morphological

conditioning (Bybee et al. 1998).

The acoustic correlates of stress are one or a combination of the following features-

pitch, intensity and duration (Bybee et al. 1998). Studies on Greek compounding

based on stress placement (Nespor and Ralli, 1994) and new insights into

understanding the placement typology of infixes have necessitated a more constrained

view of the Phonology- Morphology interface (Yu, 2007).

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Similarly, Phonology- Syntax interface studies are also coming up with new and

insightful points of view. The pronunciation of a sentence is the function of the

surface phonological representation of the sentence and not merely the stringing of

individual words (Selkirk, 2003)47. Studies have also been directed to specific

utterance types. Exploration of the Focus Intonation Pattern of Japanese reveals

interface conditions in relation to Q- phrases of the language. (Ishihara, 2003) this

chapter is divided into four sections. The first section has already been discussed

earlier and its main purpose was to introduce us to the basic concepts related to the

interface studies. Let us now proceed to the other sections.

6.2 PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY INTERPLAY

The nature of interaction between phonology and morphology has gained renewed

interest in the phonological literature in recent years. The advent of Optimality

Theory (OT)48 in particular has driven many researchers to rethink earlier

assumptions about the nature of Phonology- Morphology interface. For example, the

rejection of harmonic serialism49 and strict adherence to only two levels of

representations (e.g., Hermans and vans Oostendorp 1999; Mc Carthy 1999); OT’s

emphasis on output well- formedness raises questions on the need for underlying

representations itself (e.g., Burzio 2005; Flemming 2005). Optimality theory adopts a

view of the prosody- morphology interface that is radically different from its rule-

based ancestors.

According to this view prosodic well- formedness requirements directly interact with

morphological requirements. Interaction takes the form of constraint domination , the

setting of priorities among conflicting constraints, which make general requirements

about output forms. This new idea of prosody- morphology interface is embedded in a

theory of language as a whole. This section of the chapter focuses on one such area of

debate, namely, the extent of influence that a phonological component may have on

47 The Prosodic Structure Hypothesis which draws evidence from domain convergence and domain layering says that the right edge of a Major phrase (in Prosodic Heirarchy) coincides with a syntactic phrase and the dge of a clause in the syntax typically coincides with the edge of an Intonation Phrase. 48 Mc Carthy, John J. (Ed.) (2004) Optimality Theory in Phonology: A reader.UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 49 Prince and Smolensky entertain a serial architecture for OT known as harmonic serialism. The idea is that Gen Eval iterates sending the output of Eval back to Gen as the new input. This loop continues till the derivation converges. In the implementation of Harmonic Serialism that Prince and Smolensky consider, each iteration of Gen is limited to making a single change in the input (Mc Carthy; 2000).

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morphology and vice versa with respect to word formation processes and wh-

questions in Magahi. But before proceeding with this it is imperative that we discuss

some works in this area in brief.

It has been studied that the shape of bound morphemes is prosodically determined

(Kaisse; 2005). Morphological phenomena like infixation have been heralded as the

poster child of the intense interaction between phonology and morphology, as

conceptualized in OT- Prosodic Morphology. However, the typological evidence does

not support this50 (Yu; 2007). The understanding of the placement typology of infixes

necessitates a more constrained view of the Phonology- Morphology interface.

Synchronically, morphological objects may target phonological entities in

subcategorization. Phonological factors may determine the selection of allomorphs

but may never influence the satisfaction of their respective subcategorization

restriction directly.

Some linguists have termed the relation between phonology and morphology as

“complex” (Kaisse; 2005:25).51 Morphology, infact, appears to be ranked higher than

phonology because in cases of English and Dutch affixation patterns the outputs of

the morphological processes are less optimal than the phonological processes (Booij;

2003). In the succeeding paragraphs (see 5.2.1 and 5.2.2) we will examine word

formation process, namely, compounding (both derivational and inflectional) to see as

to what kind of relationship exists between phonological processes and morphological

processes. Word formation is a universal language feature. Therefore, phonology-

morphology interplay can best be explained by using some of the processes of word

formation. Stress assignment plays a major role in determining the interface

conditions between phonology and morphology. Similar kind of work has been done

to explain Greek compounding in relation to stress placement (Nespor & Ralli; 1996). 52

50 The evidences have been drawn from the analyses of the languages of Muskogean family (Haas; 1977 & Martin and Munro; 2005) as well as Lepcha of Sino- Tibetan Language family (Blevins and Garrett; 1998, 2005). 51 The basic claim by Kaisse is that “the morphological make-up of a word has considerable influence on its pronunciation”. 52 It has been claimed that two types of compounds are distinguished on the basis of the stressing procedure a) [stem+ stem] compounds, submitted to the application of antepenultimate stress rule and b) [stem+word] and [word+ word] compounds governed by stress preservation.

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6.2.1 Compounding

Morphologically, a compound word in Magahi is formed according to one of the

following processes:

a) [word + word] compounding,

b) [stem + word]/ [word + stem] compounding and

c) [stem + stem] compounding.

Let us now look at the following data illustrated in Fig. 5.1 (a)- (c) to know the

examples of each type. The syllables bearing the primary stress have been

marked ( ).

5.1 a) i) // < // //

(headache) (head) (pain)

ii) // < // //

(Seat of Goddess Durga) (Goddess Durga) (place)

iii) // < // //

(nonvegetarian food) (mutton) (fish)

iv) / / < // //

(family) (hair) (child)

v) // < // //

(first- aid) (ointment) (bandage)

. 5.1 b) vi) // < // //

(festival of Sun in the month of Caitra) (Chaitra month) (festival of

Sun)

vii) // < // //

(grand son-in-law maternal) (granddaughter maternal) (son- in-law)

viii) // < // //

(ablution) (water) (to touch)

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ix) // < // //

(incense stick) (smoke) (lamp)

x) // < // //

(offerings to elders during (leg) (to

worship)

religious rituals)

5.1 c) xi) // < // //

(worship of Banyan tree) (Banyan tree) (to

worship)

xii ) // < // //

(stingy) (skin) (to lick)

xiii) // < // //

(pickpocket) (knot) (to cut)

xiv) // < // //

(marriage ritual) (soil) (to dig)

xv) // < //

//

(marriage ritual) (ghee) (to

pour)

6.2.2 Discussion

The main motivation to distinguish [stem + stem] compounds from [stem + word] or

[word + stem ] compounds comes from inflection. The inflectional endings of items

belonging to the [stem + stem] compounds do not generally have the same ending

when occurring in isolation.

The Fig. 5.1 (a) (i to v) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [word +

word] combination. The primary stresses ( ) have already been marked at their

respective place of occurrence for each word. Let us try to find out if there is any

overlapping pattern between the morphological structuring and the placement of stress

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in the compounds. We can see that the primary stresses occurring in the constituent

words have been retained in the compound. As in (a) i) the primary stress for the

constituent words // and // fall on the first syllables respectively and

they are retained on the same syllables in the compound //. Similarly,

in ii) the primary stress is located on the first syllable of the first constituent / /

and on the second syllable of the second constituent //. The stress positions

are retained in the resultant compound //. Likewise the stress

placement for //, // and // (iii to v) follow

similar pattern. In fact, it can be assumed that the location of stress follows from the

principle of stress preservation. (Burzio, 1994)

The Fig. 5.1(b) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [stem + word]

combination (vi to ix) and [word + stem] combination (x). the case is slightly different

here. In (i) it can be seen that the stem / / and the word // have primary

stresses in their respective initial syllables but in the resultant compound

// the stress on the stem is dropped. Similarly, in vii) the primary stress

lies on the first syllable of the stem // and last syllable in the word //. In

the compound // the primary stress of the stem is dropped while that of

the word is retained. Likewise, /the compounding processes for // and

// can be understood. But for // this explanation does not

suffice. Here, the primary stress on // is dropped despite it being a word and the

primary stress for // is retained even though it is a stem. The explanation for this

cannot be limited to the level of word and stem combinations. We will deal with this a

little later in the chapter.

The Fig. 5.1 (c) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [stem + stem]

combination (xi to xv). Let us look at the example (xi). The compound // is

a combination of two stems // and // where both have primary stresses in

isolation. However, in // the primary stress on the first stem is dropped and

that on the second stem is retained. Similarly, in the case of // the primary

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stress occurs only on the second stem // while that of the first stem / / is

dropped. Likewise, the stress placement for //, // and

// (xiii to xv) follow similar pattern.

This entire analysis can also be viewed in a different light altogether. Fig. 5.1(a)

consists of the compounds whose constituent words belong to the noun class and they

retain their primary stresses in the resulting compounds. Fig. 5.1(b) consists of

compounds whose constituent stems /-/, /-/, /-/, /-/ and //

are adjectival in nature53 and the constituent words belong to the noun class (vi to x).

The primary stresses of the adjectival stems are dropped while those on the nouns are

retained. This explains as to why in // the primary stress on // is

dropped in the compound even when it is a word in itself while primary stress is

retained in the stem /p/.

Fig. 5.1(c) consists of compounds whose both constituents are stems. But the initial

stems of all the compounds (xi to xv) //, //, //,

// and // are adjectival in nature while the succeeding constituents

belong to the verb class. The primary stress on the adjectival stem is dropped and that

on the verb stem is retained in this type of compounding.

Therefore, it will not be incorrect to infer that the order of preference for the retention

of primary stress in compounding is noun > verb > adjective. In a compound

formation consisting of the combination of these, the primary stress of preceding one

is chosen over the ones succeeding it.

6.3 PHONOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERPLAY

It has always been a matter of great debate as to which of the two: phonology or

syntax acquire a more basic role in the structuring of discourse in a language.

Language is a summation of various domains. The main aim of this section of the

chapter is to look into phonology- syntax interplay with respect to Magahi and to also

53 The root words for these are: /-/ < // (the month of Chaitra according to the indu calendar); /-/ < // (maternal granddaughter); /-/ < /α/ (water); /-/ < /α/ (smoke) and /-/ < // (leg). These root words belong to the noun class.

107

see if prosody and syntax have any kind of complementary roles with regards to each

other54.

6.3.1 Prosodic Structure Formation

One of the most read theories in the area of prosodic structuring and syntactic

alignment is Match Theory (Selkirk 2009b, 2011). It is a prosodic constituency that

proposes that prosodic constituency relates to syntactic constituency under pressure

from violable syntax- prosody correspondence constraints. These constraints call for a

one- to- one correspondence between syntactic and phonological constituents in the

grammar.

Correspondence in Match Theory is proposed as an extension of Correspondence

Theory as developed for the OT framework by McCarthy and Prince (1995, 1999),

where it is used to established relations between linguistic objects. Match Theory is a

particular proposal for how syntactic and prosodic constituencies are related to one

another, namely, that a correspondence relation exists between constituency in the

syntactic component and the prosodic constituency in the phonological component.

Syntax- prosody match constraints may be summarized as in Fig 5.2(a).

Fig. 5.2 (a) Syntax- prosody Match Constraints

Match-Clause: Syntactic clause → Intonational phrase (IP)

Match-Phrase: Syntactic phrase → Phonological phrase ()

Match-Word: Syntactic word → Prosodic Word

Like the edge- based theory proposed in Selkirk (1986, 1995), Match Theory appeals

to the idea that the edges of syntactic and prosodic constituents must be aligned. The

previous chapters (see 3.3.2 and 4.3.3) have already established the validity of the

match Theory in Magahi. The phonological phrases are derived from a right- edge

based parameter setting an alignment analysis (see 4.3.3) of which has already been

provided. This analysis is consistent with the distribution of pitch accents and a right-

edged phrase accent, both indicators of the right edge of a prosodic word, as reported

54 The structural alignment of and XP have already been established in the section 4.3.3 and the rules have also been arrived at for this correspondence. The right edge of every iP of an IP aligns with the right edge of an XP.

108

in Kissenberth (2005). Each IP of a wh- question utterance ends with a low boundary

tone marking its right edge which corresponds to the right edge of the clause. The

Syntax- prosody mapping for Magahi (wh- questions) can be presented as:

Fig. 5.2 (b) XP xp

x YP x yp

y z y z

In the syntactic structure, the syntactic node XP exhaustively dominates the set

terminal nodes {x, y and z} and YP exhaustively dominates {y and z}. Similarly, the

prosodic node dominates the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and yp exhaustively

dominates the set terminal nodes {y and z}. In other words, there is a perfect match

between the sets of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by syntactic nodes in the

syntactic representation, on the one hand, and the sets of the exponents of these

terminal nodes dominated by in the phonological representation, on the other.55

After establishing this kind of correspondence the next question that arises in mind is

whether this kind of perfect alignment can be flouted in any case. This will be

answered by discussing the information structure cues of a language.

6.3.2 Prosody and Information Structuring

Prosody is an integral component of any language and production depends critically

on the information- structuring cues provided by it. The role of prosody in

comprehension and production becomes important especially for languages involving

relatively free word- order such as Hindi, German and also Magahi. The flexibility of

word- order increases the number of options available for expressing information

structure significantly complicating the means by which the incoming signal is

decoded. Any extra- syntactic cue, such as prosody, would a priori be expected to

provide an important cue for facilitating comprehension. (Fery 2007)

55 Similar work has been done in Elfner (2012) in which the syntax- prosody mapping has been done for Irish declarative sentences.

109

European languages such as English and German (Gussenhoven 2008, Ladd 1996,

Selkirk 2007, Truckenbrodt 1995) have received a great deal of attention concerning

the prosodic marking of information structure. However, not much is known about the

Indian languages especially the lesser known languages like Magahi.

6.3.2.1 Focus and Prosodic Phrasing

European languages such as English and German (eg. Gussenhoven 2008, Ladd 1996,

Selkirk 2007, Truckenbrodt 1995) have received a great deal of attention concerning

the prosodic marking of information structure. However, not much is known about the

lesser known languages like Magahi in this respect. In an attempt to fill this gap, this

section discusses the syntax- phonology interface.

Chapter 5 (see 5.3.3) has established that an IP in a wh- sentence consists of an iP and

the right edge of the iP coincides with the right edge of the focalized constituent

which is preverbal. In this respect, Magahi and Hindi appear to be similar. In Hindi, a

focused constituent typically occupies the immediately preverbal position, and wh-

markers also tend to occur preverbally. (Kidwai 2000)

So, “focus” in Magahi is not morphologically marked. Rather, those constituents are

“focused” which are informationally more important than other backgrounded facts of

the same sentence. This “focus” determines the prosodic phrasing (p- phrasing) of the

utterance as clear from the section 4.3.3.

It will not be wrong to state here that Magahi has two prosodic levels below the IP:

the foot (see 4.3.2) and a higher prosodic level the iP (see 4.3.3). This latter level of

phrasing separates a focused element from the rest of the phrase. Thus, focus has a

phrasing effect. The same effect of focus has also been observed in the closely related

languages like Hindi (Moore 1953, 68, 75) and Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991).

Also, an IP contains at least one iP and furthermore, each iP contains at least one foot

indicated by a rising pitch accent. The Graphs 5/1- 5/6 show the pitch analysis of the

wh- questions (see Appendix 6). These graphs illustrate the high f0 (pitch) value for

the focused constituent and the reduced f0 value for the constituents following it.

(This is similar to PFR reported in Ishihara 2000). Focus has been studied as being the

direct perceptual correlate of pitch accent which in itself can be calculated

experimentally by calculating prominence or the relative duration of utterance.

110

Several studies have been done in this area. One basic feature of pitch accents that has

been investigated is that when a pitch accent occurs on a word containing more than

one syllable, the accent occurs on the lexically stressed syllable of the word. (Ladd

2008) However, sentence stress cannot always be explained so straightforwardly.

Narrow Focus is on a single word and Broad Focus is on a larger constituent.

Bolinger (1972) argued that words- any word in any utterance- can be focused or

highlighted to signal newness, contrast, or some other special informativeness, and

that focused words are marked by pitch accents. The link between focus and sentence

stress is ultimately mediated by a hierarchical prosodic structure. Ladd (2008) says

that it is not pitch accent per se, but relative metrical strength that is essential signal of

focus. Also, sentence stress involves a syntagmatic relation between two constituents.

The main point is that some sort of metrical structure is at the heart of sentence

prosody, and that pitch accents are essentially only one manifestation of the structure.

Further justification for a metrical account of sentence stress comes from deaccenting.

(Ladd 2006, Jun 2006) Deaccenting is fundamentally a matter of metrical structure,

and only secondarily of pitch accent. Deaccenting is reversal of relative strength in

metrical tree. When one word is deaccented for pragmatic reasons, another word must

be accented because of the inherently relational or syntagmatic nature of prominence.

Prominence and focus go hand in hand. If one gets to know as to where the

prominence is being marked in a language the knowledge about focus becomes clear.

A contemporary approach regarding the calculation of prominence has been provided

by Ishihara(2000) which is called as Focus- Intonation Pattern (FIP).

The two basic features that underline this phenomenon are:

• There is an f0 (fundamental frequency)56 rising of the constituent bearing the

focus

• The constituents immediately following the focused element gets reduced in f0

value.

The former condition can be referred to as (Prosodic) focalization and the latter one

can be referred to as the post-focus reduction (PFR). Similar studies have been done

56 It is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In case of human speech, f0 is the fundamental frequency at which human vocal cords vibrate during the production of speech sounds.

111

for Hindi and specifically for Hindi declarative sentences it has been found that the

focused constituents show greater pitch excursion and longer duration and that post –

focal material undergoes prosodic compression (Moore 1965, Harnsberger 1994,

Harnsberger and Judge 1996).

Focused words have expanded pitch range, post focus words have lowered/

compressed pitch range (similar to FIP; Ishihara 2000) and the pre-focus and the final

focus have neutral pitch range.

Here, all the six questions will be analyzed. All the six questions will henceforth be

referred to as U1- 6. All the six respective spectrograms will be followed by the

tabulation (Table 4/5) of the values of P- focalized element and the elements

undergoing PFR.

GRAPH 6/1 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U1)

a) /(o ) /recorded data\informant 2 2P. Sg.GEN wh- name AUX.

What is your name? (gloss)

In the above graph the f0 peaks can be observed at four places corresponding to

/o/, //, // and //. The highest peak can be observed at // which is

the focus and the subsequent auxiliary constituent /h/ has reduced f0 value

corresponding to the post- focus reduction.

112

GRAPH 6/2 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U2)

(b) /() i /recorded data\informant 4 2P. Sg Wh stay AUX. Where do you stay? (gloss)

In this graph there are four f0 peaks. These four peaks correspond to //, /k/, // and /i / respectively. The unit bearing the maximum pitch as well as focus is / k/, and the following constituent /i/ has lower pitch or f0 value.

GRAPH 6/3 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U3)

(c) /() i /recorded data\informant 2 2P. Sg Wh AUX. How are you? (gloss)

The graph shows three f0 peaks corresponding to //, // and //. There the

contour for the second element // is the highest followed by the contour for

// which undergoes PFR.

113

GRAPH 6/4 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U4)

(d) /() i /recorded data\informant 4 2P. Sg. Wh Home go stay AUX. When are you going home? (gloss)

In Graph 6/4 the maximum pitch is realized at // which has the highest pitch

contour as can be seen in the spectrogram. The following elements see a decline in the

f0 value as can be seen in the downward slope of the pitch contour as the utterance

culminates.

GRAPH 6/5 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U5)

(e) / ii i /recorded data\informant 4 2P. Sg Delhi Wh go stay AUX. Why are you going to Delhi? (gloss)

114

The maximum pitch and therefore the f0 value is borne by the constituent //

which, as a result, gets focalized. The subsequent constituents get lowered in pitch

value showing faithfulness to the concept of PFR.

GRAPH 6/6 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U6)

(f) /o i /recorded data\informant 6 2P. Sg.GEN brother Wh AUX. Who is your brother?

In Graph 6/6 the pitch contour is the highest at the end for //. As there are no

more constituents that follow so any instance of PFR is absent.

6.3.2.2 Discussion

The graphs (Graph 5/1- 5/6) have been analyzed keeping in mind the concept of p-

focalization and PFR. All the utterances (U1- 6) abide by the theory of FIP. The

maximum or the highest pitch contour is present on the q- word then the pitch

declines for the following elements. The interesting thing to be noted here is that

unlike most other languages the wh- questions of Magahi do not end with a rising

intonation. The questions show a pitch contour that slopes downward towards the end.

Therefore, the presence of PFR in every utterance becomes obligatory. The following

table lists the elements that undergo p- focalization and PFR in the utterances (U1- 6).

115

TABLE 6/1 (The elements undergoing p- focalization and PFR)

Utterance (U) Number Q- word p- focalized element PFR

1

2

3

4

5

6

It can be seen in the table that the q word is focused (except in the cases of U3 and

U6) and the other succeeding elements experience a reduction in the pitch or

f0. It can well be inferred here that the unmarked prosodic condition for

Magahi wh- questions is that they have a falling intonation pattern. This

makes the existence of PFR obligatory. The q- word itself gets focalized and

the final element undergoes PFR thus abiding by the unmarked condition for

intonation.

6.3.2.3 Relative Prominence and “focus” in Magahi wh- questions: Duration

Analysis

Focus is marked by relative prominence. (Selkirk 2002, Rump & Collier 1996) It

depends on pitch movement, duration and loudness. With an increase in the

prominence of focus there is a decrease in the prominence of the post- focal material.

Post- focal pitch movements can be reduced rather than being completely as

prominence gradient is fundamentally flattened. All syllables which do not bear a

pitch accent are not equally weak. Some syllables can be prominent comparing to

neighboring weaker syllables, but still less prominent than a syllable bearing a pitch

accent. Also, not all pitch accented syllables are equally prominent either. The

acoustic correlates that mark prominences and groupings (phrasings) are:

• f0 pattern (related to the perceived pitch pattern) and

• Relative duration.

The analysis of “focus” in relation to pitch has already been done earlier (see 6.3.2.1).

In this sub- section let us analyze focus on the basis of relative prominence

116

considering relative duration as the fundamental acoustic cue. The following tables

provide the duration of each of the constituents (word level) of all the six wh-

questions. The data from five native speakers (henceforth referred to as I, II, III, IV

&V) have been used. The five speakers consist of four males and one female. The

informants for this section have selected on the basis of sampling and special attention

has been given to include informants of the same age- group. Difference in age can

result in variations in the duration of utterance which may affect the findings

adversely.

Since the primary focus here is to find out relative prominence of constituents within

an utterance it becomes important to include those informants whose data are

conducive to this aspect of the research. The investigation of relative prominence is

based on the calculation of relative duration of each of the uttered constituent. The

time consumed while uttering every single constituent word of the utterance has been

recorded. This then leads to the calculation of the mean duration for each of the

individual constituent words of the utterances. The utterances have been labeled (U1-

6) for each of the interrogative questions respectively.

a) Utterance 1 (U1)= [/o /]

Each of the four constituents of (U1) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the ease

of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence

in case of the first utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the

utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented

underneath in a matrix of 4*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)

taken to complete U1 by each of the five informants respectively and let ‘σ’ be the

mean duration57 of the utterance of each word of U1.

TABLE 6/2 (Mean duration ‘σ’ of each word of U1 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

o(1) 0.157 0.214 0.212 0.176 0.167 0.185

(3) 0.234 0.246 0.243 0.249 0.212 0.237

57 Mean duration (σ) has been calculated by summing up the durations of one word when uttered by all the speakers under consideration and then dividing the result by 5 as five speakers are being considered here.

117

(2) 0.205 0.284 0.216 0.212 0.192 0.221

(4) 0.142 0.205 0.148 0.191 0.184 0.174

Total 0.739 0.949 0.819 0.828 0.755

GRAPH 6/7 (Mean duration of each word of U1 for native speakers I to V)

The table (6/2) and the graph (6/7) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (3) of U1 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical

representation is for individual words across five speakers. At this stage we know

that all the five speakers have taken maximum duration in the utterance of the third

constituent. Now we need to know the duration of each of the four constituents in

relation to each other within a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/1 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U1)

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /o/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for //

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for // and

4 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd4) for //.

0.1850.221 0.237

0.174

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

1 2 3 4

Mean Durations of (1-4) of U1

0.185

0.2210.247

0.174

Relative duration for U1

1

2

3

4

118

The quarter representing rd3 has the largest area which confirms the relative

prominence of the third constituent over the others. Let us now proceed with the

analysis of the relative prominence of the second interrogative question.

b) Utterance 2 (U2) = / i /

Each of the four constituents of (U2) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the

ease of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative

prominence in case of the second utterance includes the calculation of the duration

taken for the utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has

been presented underneath in a matrix of 4*5.

Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms) taken to complete the utterance

by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/3 (Mean duration of each word of U2 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

(1) 0.064 0.058 0.062 0.141 0.118 0.088

(2) 0.280 0.424 0.382 0.349 0.193 0.325

(3) 0.264 0.315 0.253 0.278 0.242 0.274

(4) 0.145 0.197 0.115 0.165 0.118 0.148

Total 0.753 0.994 0.812 0.933 0.671

GRAPH 6/8 (Mean duration of each word of U2 for native speakers I to V)

0.088

0.3250.274

0.148

00.05

0.10.15

0.20.25

0.30.35

1 2 3 4

119

The table (6/3) and the graph (6/8) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (2) of U2 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need

to know the duration of each of the four constituents in relation to each other within a

sentence. The following chart explains this: CHART 6/2 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U2)

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /u/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for //

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for // and

4 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd4) for /i/.

The quarter representing rd2 has the largest which confirms the relative prominence

of the second constituent over the others.

c) Utterance (U3) = / i /

Let us now proceed with the analysis of the third interrogative sentence.

Each of the three constituents of (U3) has been labeled 1 to 3 respectively for the ease

of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence

in case of the third utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the

utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented

underneath in a matrix of 3*5.

Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms) taken to complete the utterance

by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/4 (Mean duration of each word of U3 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

(1) 0.099 0.159 0.068 0.079 0.087 0.098

0.088

0.3250.274

0.148

Relative duration of U2

1

2

3

4

120

(2) 0.303 0.492 0.535 0.443 0.327 0.420

(3) 0.257 0.349 0.181 0.189 0.207 0.236

Total 0.753 0.994 0.812 0.933 0.671

GRAPH 6/9 (Mean duration of each word of U3 for native speakers I to V)

The table (6/4) and the graph (6/9) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (2) of U3 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need

to know the duration of each of the three constituents in relation to each other within

a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/3 (Relative duration of 1-3 of U3)

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /u/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for // and

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for /i/.

0.098

0.42

0.236

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

1 2 3

0.098

0.42

0.236

Relative duration of U3

1

2

3

121

The quarter representing rd2 has the largest area which confirms the relative

prominence of the second constituent over the others. The same calculations will be

done for the fourth interrogative sentence. The fourth wh- question is

d) Utterance 4 (U4) = / i /

Each of the six constituents of (U4) has been labeled 1 to 6 respectively for the ease

of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence

in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the

utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented

underneath in a matrix of 6*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)

taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/5 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

(1) 0.092 0.970 0.128 0.140 0.148 0.295

(3) 0.231 0.487 0.351 0.359 0.386 0.362

(2) 0.219 0.294 0.243 0.304 0.243 0.260

(4) 0.104 0.188 0.185 0.220 0.130 0.165

(5) 0.208 0.323 0.228 0.284 0.238 0.256

(6) 0.129 0.308 0.162 0.240 0.222 0.212

Total 0.983 2.570 1.297 1.547 1.367

GRAPH 6/10 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for native speakers I to V)

The table (6/5) and the graph (6/10) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (3) of U4 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need

0.2950.26

0.362

0.165

0.2510.212

00.05

0.10.15

0.20.25

0.30.35

0.4

1 2 3 4 5 6

122

to know the duration of each of the six constituents in relation to each other within a

sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/4 (Relative duration of 1-6 of U4)

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent. The same calculations

will be done for the fifth interrogative sentence. The fifth wh- question is

e) Utterance 5 (U5) = / ii i /

Each of the six constituents of (U5) has been labeled 1 to 6 respectively for the ease

of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence

in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the

utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented

underneath in a matrix of 6*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)

taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 5/6 (Mean duration of each word of U5 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

(1) 0.084 0.090 0.066 0.110 0.090 0.088

(3) 0.326 0.535 0.421 0.456 0.471 0.441

(2) 0.188 0.279 0.324 0.338 0.291 0.284

(4) 0.163 0.193 0.166 0.201 0.120 0.168

(5) 0.247 0.313 0.270 0.284 0.301 0.283

(6) 0.107 0.236 0.162 0.201 0.301 0.194

Total 1.115 1.646 1.409 1.590 1.537

0.295

0.26

0.3620.165

0.256

0.212

Relative duration of U4

1

2

3

4

5

6

123

GRAPH 6/11 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for native speakers I to V)

The table (6/6) and the graph (6/11) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (3) of U5 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical

representation is for individual words across five speakers. At this stage we know

that all the five speakers have taken maximum duration in the utterance of the third

constituent. Now we need to know the duration of each of the four constituents in

relation to each other within a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/5 (Relative duration of 1-6 of U5)

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent. The same calculations

will be done for the sixth interrogative sentence. The sixth wh- question is

0.088

0.284

0.441

0.168

0.283

0.194

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

1 2 3 4 5 6

0.088

0.284

0.4410.168

0.283

0.194

Relative duration of U5

1

2

3

4

5

6

124

f) Utterance 6 (U6) = /o i /

Each of the four constituents of (U6) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the ease

of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence

in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the

utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented

underneath in a matrix of 4*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)

taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/7 (Mean duration of each word of U6 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

(1) 0.157 0.207 0.151 0.207 0.270 0.198

(2) 0.193 0.241 0.243 0.318 0.291 0.257

(3) 0.224 0.361 0.259 0.580 0.339 0.352

(4) 0.147 0.265 0.151 0.290 0.212 0.213

Total 0.721 1.074 0.804 1.395 1.112

GRAPH 6/12 (Mean duration of each word of U6 for native speakers I to V)

The table (6/7) and the graph (6/12) show that the mean duration of the constituent

number (3) of U6 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical

representation is for individual words across five speakers. Let us now know the

duration of each of the four constituents in relation to each other within a sentence.

The following chart explains this:

0.1980.257

0.352

0.213

00.05

0.10.15

0.20.25

0.30.35

0.4

1 2 3 4

125

CHART 6/6 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U6)

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent.

6.3.2.4 Discussion

Relative prominence of a constituent compared to other constituents in the utterance

clearly indicates that it has been “focused” in the utterance. The analysis in 5.3.2.3

tries to find out these “focused” constituents. This has been done by the calculation of

the relative durations and the mean durations of each of the constituents of all the six

wh- questions. It can be seen that the mean durations of the constituent words

immediately following the q- word is the maximum (Table 5/2 – 5/7 & Graph 5/7 to

5/12). Similarly, the relative duration of the same constituents, that is, the ones that

immediately follow the q- word is the maximum compared to the neighbouring

constituents taken syntagmatically. These findings are in consonance with the

findings of the sub- section 5.3.2.1. At this stage we now know that in Magahi wh-

questions, the most “focused” constituent is the one that immediately follows the q-

word and the rest of the constituents following the “focused” constituent undergo PFR

or reduction in pitch.

6.4 CONCLUSION

Interface studies have always been very intriguing. This chapter has been an attempt

in explaining some language phenomena that occur at the morphophonemic and the

phonosyntactic levels with reference to Magahi. This kind of study is a humble

attempt in reestablishing claims that language structuring is a game of complex

interplay of its various domains: phonological, morphological, syntactic and so on.

0.198

0.2570.352

0.213

Relative Duration of U6

1

2

3

4

126

Section 6.2 deals with phonology- morphology interface studies focusing on

compounding as a word- formation process (see 6.2.1). When two lexical words come

together in forming a compound, the size of the prosodic word changes which is the

domain of stress assignment. This results in the reassignment of stress on the

constituents of the compound thus making it different compared to its constituent

words when they occur in isolation (see 6.2.2).

As for phonology- syntax interface (see 6.3), the chapter is an attempt in finding a

correspondence between a syntactic phrase and a phonological phrase using the

Match Theory (Selkirk 2009b, 2011). After the establishment of this correspondence

relation (Fig. 5.1- 5.2) the chapter attempts to establish a relation between the various

information cues of the language between focus and pitch and between focus and

relative prominence. The focused constituent has the highest f0 (pitch) (see 6.3.2.1)

and is the most prominent of all the constituents in the entire utterance owing to the

maximum relative duration (6.3.2.3).

Thus, there is not just a relation between the syntactic and the phonological phrasing

patterns but there is also a relation in the syntactic and the phonological ways in

which a language conveys information.

127

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

As an aid to the reader, this final chapter of the thesis restates the research problem

and reviews the findings of the study. The major sections of this chapter summarize

the results and discuss their implications. In Chapter 1 we were introduced to the brief

history of Magahi- a language spoken essentially in Bihar. According to the 2011

census conducted by the Govt. of India around 1.67% of the total population was

found to speak Magahi. This figure might seem small but in a country like India with

a population of more than 1 billion this percentage translated to roughly 20,362,000

speakers.

The literary history of the language might date back to the eighth century A.D.

(Aryani 1976, Pandeya 1982, Singh 1982) but the language appeared to be lagging

behind a great deal when it came to its linguistic description. The situation seemed to

become even grimmer when its speakers failed to identify themselves as its native

speakers. This seemed to happen because of the great deal of cultural affinity with the

larger Hindi group in various ways. In such a case they identified their native

language as Hindi because of which the correct number of people speaking the

language became difficult to ascertain.

The main aim of this research was to provide a phonological description of the

language, that is, to provide the description of the prosodic system of this language.

This required the study of the segmental sounds of the language and account for its

various allophonic processes. The study also necessitated the classification of the

segmental sounds on the basis the distinctive features (Gussenhoven and Jacobs

1998).

The next part of the phonological description included an account of word stress in

Magahi which included the analysis of the various types of underlying phonological

phenomena that determine stress assignment in the language. In fulfillment of the aim

of the thesis, the study was taken further to the level of phrasing patter in the

language. This included an account of the rhythm and intonation of the language with

special reference to the wh- questions. This extent of description with respect to

segmental sounds, syllable structure, stress assignment pattern and the patterns of

128

phonological phrasing and intonation completely sufficed the main aim of the

research that was undertaken but stopping at this juncture would have left us groping

for answers for some other questions which relate to the interface studies. Also, the

examination of some of the processes at the interface of phonology and morphology

as well as phonology and syntax brought a sense of completeness to the research.

As explained in Chapter 1 the research here was the description of Magahi prosody

with special emphasis on stress and rhythm. As a phonological study, this research

primarily used a synthesis of qualitative as well as quantitative perspectives. The

research relied chiefly on the data obtained from twelve native speakers of varying

age groups and it included both males and females in order to have an inclusive study.

The data was collected through questionnaire method as well as the observation

method participating silently in the conversations.

For the description of segmental sounds and word stress the need was to have words

as part of the data. The informants were provided the Basic Word Lists (Abbi 2001)

and the Magahi equivalents were noted for further analyses. The informants were

asked various questions related to the basic word structure and sentence construction

of the language. The interaction was framed in such a manner that the data collected

consisted of a lot of interrogative sentences. This constituted the primary source of

data for my research. The secondary sources for my research consisted of the readings

from various books on related topics.

For a systematic research, the data obtained through the primary and the secondary

sources needed to be sorted out through sampling. Because of the immense size of the

population (by ‘population’ here, I mean the collection of entities or the objects of

investigation) it proved useful to go for some kind of sampling. For this reason I used

stratified random sampling which provided me with sub-samples for various types of

analyses.

The analysis of the samples resulted in useful inferences which were used to account

for: (a) the segmental sounds (consonantal and vocalic both); (b) the patterns of stress

assignment; (c) the phonological phrasing patters operative in the language and (d) the

processes occurring at the interface level especially between phonology- morphology

and phonology- syntax interface.

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As already stated earlier, my research comprised of qualitative as well as quantitative

approach. The recorded data was analyzed acoustically with the help of various

softwares like Wavesurfer 18 and PRAAT. Tones and Break Indices or ToBI (Jun

2006, Ladd 2008) were used to describe phonological patterning in the wh- questions.

These tools have immensely helped to decipher the existing rhythmic patterns of the

language. Various types of graphs, charts and tables were used throughout the study

to make the presentation organized, scientific and easily comprehensible.

Throughout the entire period of the research the focus was on the phonological

properties which could be used in the description of the prosody of the language. In

Chapter 3 we saw that the analysis of the segmental sounds of Magahi was presented.

The description of phonemes (see 3.2.1) included the descriptions of consonants as

well as vowels. As for the consonants we noted that eight phonemic consonants were

found to exist in the language (see Chart 3/1). The phonemic nature of the consonants

was adequately supported by the existence of the minimal and the sub- minimal pairs

for every similar pair of consonants word-medially, word-initially and word-finally.

We also observed that apart from the +/- binary distinction with regards to voicing,

binary distinction with regards to aspiration for bilabial, dental, retroflex, affricate and

velar consonants existed as well.

The analysis of the consonantal sound segments with respect to the three word

positions revealed that the consonants were not equally distributed in this respect. //

and // did not seem to occur word-initially. We also saw that // and // did not

occur word-medially and //, //, // and // did not occur word-finally. On the basis

of these observations we arrived at some inferences regarding the phonotactic

generalizations of these sounds. The consonant // never seemed to follow another

consonant immediately. The vowel // always existed between two consonants. We

also noted that the language does not have any phonological construction which

permitted the construction of a word having a nasal vowel as its nucleus and // and

// as the consonant in the coda position. // and // did not seem to occur word-

initially and these places were taken up by // and //.

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We also observed the process of gemination in Magahi especially in two instances: (a)

when a reflexive pronoun transformed into its genitive form and (b) when words of

verb class transformed into an adjectival class word by the addition of the suffix /-

/. Contrarily, degemination was also found to exist in the language in instances

where the consonant clusters were broken during the formation of diminutive forms of

the noun class verbs.

In section 3.2.1.2 we read the discussion on the vowels of Magahi. It was noted that

Magahi has lost the phonemic contrast of length in the high vowels, both front and //

and // (Verma 2003). The analysis of data also confirmed that vowel length did not

seem to be phonemic in Magahi. We saw that in total there were eleven oral vowels of

which six were monophthongs and five were diphthongs. Also, we saw that there

were nine nasal vowels: six monophthongs and three diphthongs.

The analysis of data helped us to arrive at certain phonotactic generalizations related

to the distribution of vowels. The [-low, +back] vowels //, // and // did not seem

to occur word-finally. Minimal pairs for // with any other monophthongs were not

provided for word-medial position, because it was found that this vowel was being

used in the reduplication construction with all the other vowels. We also noted that

the pairs // & // and // & // occur in free variation word-initially. Only one oral

diphthong // occurred at all the three word positions. Also, the phones // and //

occurred in complementary distribution exhibiting allophonic properties. Next, the

distribution of nasal vowels appeared to be very restricted with respect to the word

positions; //, // and // did not occur word-initially. The only nasal vowel which

seemed to occur at all the three positions was /α/.

The study on segmental sounds revealed the richness of the language in allophones

(see 3.2.2). Some phonological rules were framed which seemed to affect allophony

in the language. The rules were:

(a) [+labial +spread glottis] → [+labial –spread glottis] / vowel [+nasal] _____

(b) [+stop +retroflex] → [+tap +retroflex] / C or V ____

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We also saw that // and // exhibited free variation word-medially. // occurred in

free variation with // for word-medial position. We also inferred that // could be

substituted for // in the word-medial position without affecting the lexical meaning

in any way. In case of vowels we noted that nasal spreading contributed to allophonic

process in the vowels. In certain cases where the vowel was succeeded or preceded by

a nasal consonant it also acquired nasal features due to spreading. Spreading could be

both backward and forward. It seemed that the vowel pairs // & // and // & //

occurred in free variation but the phonotactic constraint limited them to the word-

initial positions only. We also saw that Magahi did not allow for any kind of

consonant clustering especially at the syllable onset position; however, at the syllable

coda position specific clustering could be viewed that also only in the case of alveolar

nasal and velar consonants as being the first constituent of the clustering at the coda

position. Finally, we reached to a stage when the segmental sounds were classified on

the basis of distinctive features (see 3.2.4, Chart 3/5).

Chapter 4 focused on the system of word stress in Magahi. The chapter started with a

discussion on the syllable structure of the language. A Magahi syllable was found to

be a vocalic unit or a combination of consonants preceding or following the vocalic

unit. Five types of monosyllabic patterns were deduced from the observation of data.

They were V, CV, VC, CVC and CVCC. We saw that both oral and nasal vowels

could act as syllabic peak. The establishment of the syllabic structure led us to

analyze the foot structure of the language. Out of the five possible monosyllabic

patterns the V and the CV structures could be considered as light syllables owing to

the absence of any element at the coda position. VV too did not have any element at

the coda position but the occurrence of two vowels at the nucleus position made this

syllable heavy. VC and CVC syllables also seemed to be heavy. CVCC syllable

structure could be labeled as being super heavy because of its heavy rime. Syllable

weight determined the placement of stress in a word. The analysis showed that stress

in Magahi was fixed, weight-sensitive and was morphologically or lexically

conditioned. The study of data showed that when the stress was on the penultimate

syllable, the vowel in the antepenultimate got attenuated. When the stress was on the

final (ult) syllable, the vowel in the penult got attenuated. The main stress in Magahi

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words was found to fall on the penultimate syllable if it was heavy; it fell on the ult

syllable if the penultimate syllable was light.

We saw that the possible syllable structures in Magahi were V, CV, VC, CVC and

CVCC (see 3.2.2.1) of which VC, CVC and CVCC were considered to be heavy

syllables. CV seemed to act as heavy syllable when it got an additional weight due to

the lengthening of the constituent vowel (CV :). The moraic trochee captured the idea

that a single heavy syllable was quantitatively and metrically equivalent to two light

syllables (Allen 1973; Halle & Vergnaud 1978; McCarthy 1979a; Prince 1983).

Magahi seemed to avoid consonant clusters at the onset and the coda position. This

rendered CVC as the most preferred of all the syllable structure types.

The analysis of data revealed a number of observations regarding the placement of

main stress in Magahi. If a word consisted of a long vowel (V :) in the penult, it

received penultimate stress. If a word had CVC syllable structure in the penult, it

received penultimate stress. We also noted that the stress assigned to words with a

word final CVC syllable depended on what preceded it. If it was preceded by a CV or

a V syllable then the ult syllable got the ultimate primary stress. If a word was

disyllabic with a CVC.CVC structure then the stress seemed to fall on the penultimate

syllable. But if the disyllabic structure was CVC.CV: C then the stress was on the

final syllable.

Next, we observed that the word got penult stress when it had CV: structure at the

penultimate position despite being followed by a CVC syllable in disyllabic as well as

trisyllabic words. So, the point that was being made was that the primary stress or the

main stress of Magahi seemed to fall on the penultimate syllable in unmarked

conditions which included a heavy syllable structure at this position and a

comparatively light syllable word finally. Another point that was made here was that a

final syllable seemed to attract stress just in case it was not preceded by a heavy

syllable. All these observations led to the formulation of word stress rules of Magahi

which were summarized as under:

c) Foot Construction Form moraic trochees from right to left.

x

d) Extrametricality in Clash Foot → <Foot > / V: ___ ]word

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e) Word Layer Construction End Rule Right

The formulation of these rules bore on a number of theoretical issues. They were:

EXTRAMETRICALITY IN CLASH: The analysis provided support for this type of rule.

A final foot of the form CV: seemed to attract stress only if it did not clash with a

preceding stress on another CV: syllable. The same was for a final foot of the form

CVC. The analysis also showed that the clash results in Extrametricality rather than

distressing.

What is interesting about this analysis as we saw was that both CV: and CVC could

induce this clash governed Extrametricality. And it also appeared that CVC was

considered to be heavier than CV: syllable. This was in contradiction to the popular

typological observations where CV: was considered to be the heavier of the two.

VOWEL SHORTENING: A further question to be considered was why a rule of

vowel shortening/ reduction should occur in a trochaic language, given the prediction

of the Iambic/ Trochaic Law58 that segmental phonology should preserve the even

timing of the foot (Hayes 1995). The previous analysis showed that vowel reduction

did not govern stress assignment in Magahi so long as the primary stress fell on the

penultimate syllable.

The most clearly documented evidence of a more objective character was that because

vowel reduction did not govern stress assignment, its role has been delimited in

Magahi phonology. Vowel Reduction was blocked in initial syllables. It could be

supposed that reduction was blocked because it would ordinarily create an

unsyllabified consonant cluster.59

AVOIDANCE OF STRESS CLASH: Magahi seemed to avoid any kind of stress clash.

A stress clash refers to a sequence of adjacent stressed syllable. Avoiding clash was

assumed to be one of the driving forces behind the placement of stresses (e.g. Prince

1983), in recent work in particular (Kager 2001, 2005 a, 2005 b; Gordon 2002;

McCarthy 2003; Alber 2005; Buckley 2009). One way in which this was made

58 The Iambic/ Trochaic Law forms the basis of the foot inventory and it forms part of the theory of the rhythm, not of language popular. It determines the set of possible feet, as well as motivating large number of segmental rules that adjust metrical structure. (Hayes 1995:33) 59 Avoidance of consonant cluster is a factor in Maithili phonology as well. (Hayes 1995)

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possible was by the avoidance of consonant cluster at the coda position of a foot60

which was preceded by another heavy foot.

Thus, we observed that the basic foot structure for Magahi was Quantity- insensitive

unbounded moraic trochee and it was left- headed. Extrametricality occurred in the

language. The language obeyed the END RULE for stress placement. We also

observed that processes which are foot- based like cluster reduction and compensatory

lengthening were evident but only in the cases of borrowed words. An examination of

Magahi plurals yielded in the template structure for them. The template for a

disyllabic plural formation was found to be HH and of the trisyllabic plural formation

LHH (see 4.3.3).

In Chapter 5 we discussed the phonological phrasing pattern and the intonation

pattern of the language. This kind of discussion included a systematic study of the

prosodic structure of the language. The prosodic features discussed above are not

completely independent of one another. The discussion of each of these features

involved the cross- references to other features which were relevant to its

systemization. The discussion on syllable structure, for example required reference to

segmental sounds for determining the syllable types of the language while the

systemization of foot and stress assignment involved mora (a unit of syllable weight)

and syllable structure. There are thus considerable mutual dependencies and

interactions among the prosodic features.

As we observed one property of prosodic structure that has repeatedly emerged in the

previous discussion (see 4.1) was its hierarchical nature. More recent non- liner

theories, especially Metrical Phonology (Liberman and Prince 1977, Hogg and

McCully 1987, Goldsmith 1990) attempted to redress the balance and had not only

accepted the independent structure of prosodic structure but had also frequently

employed hierarchical tree structures. One approach which explicitly recognized and

advocated the use of such a hierarchy was Prosodic Phonology. (Nespor and Vogel

1982, 1983, 1986)

For the discussion on Magahi phonological phrasing we thus considered the

significance of mora since it was already established that the basic foot type of this

60 Magahi does not have cluster at the coda position except for such clusters in which a nasal consonant is the preceding constituent.

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language was moraic trochee (see 4.2.2.1). Considering this, a parallel ‘Quantity Tier’

can was postulated at the foot level as in Fig 4.1(a) and 4.1(b). Therefore, there is

nevertheless an argument for a typological distinction after considering the arguments

presented here.

We also observed that the representation for feet in Fig. 4.2.1 (b) in Magahi was very

different from that of English as we could see that the assignment of feet was not

dependent on the number of syllables. Rather, it was dependent on syllable weight or

mora (see 4.3.2). The stress analysis (see 3.3.2) revealed that Magahi seemed to

follow END RULE RIGHT (see 3.3.2) for stress placement and also avoids stress

clash. These two observations leave 4.2.1 (b) in contradiction to the already

established rules. Also, the language does not have provision for the occurrence of an

extrametrical constituent at the END INITIAL position. This also adds to the

contradictory nature of 4.2.1 (b). Six wh- questions of Magahi were considered at this

stage in the same light as 4.2.1 being represented through Fig. 4.2.1 – Fig. 4.2.6.

The language employed a series of phonological phenomena that helped the language

constraints to be maintained. / . /, for example, had two syllables. The second

syllable did not seem to bear any accent. Therefore, while foot assignment and

phrasing, // was dropped thus making the disyllabic // into monosyllabic

//. Thus, the representation of three levels got revised as // . / /

//.

We also observed that for the wh- types of interrogative sentences that were used for

the study the language employed various underlying phonological phenomena.

Firstly, the optional pronominal was deleted. This was then followed by the deletion

of // at all the unaccented weak positions as in /el/ which became // and

in // which became //.

The discussion in this chapter then progressed to account for the prosodic features in

the language. One basic feature of pitch accents was found to be that when a pitch

accent occurred on a word containing more than one syllable, the accent occurred on

the lexically stressed syllable of the word (Ladd 2008): as could be seen 5.3.1 (a) to

(f) in which the lexically stressed syllables had been accented.

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The discussion so far led us to infer that the basic contour type for Magahi

interrogative sentences was LHL. The utterances started with a low tone (Li) as in

Fig.5.4.1- Fig.5.4.6. The nuclear contour seemed to be at the constituent preceded by

the auxiliary verb. The nuclear contour consisted of a high pitch accent (H*) with a

low phrase accent (L-) together represented as (H*L-). Towards the right boundary of

the utterance, the tone appeared to become low, hence, represented by the low

boundary tone L%.

All these conclusions and inferences brought us to the focus of the thesis and that was

to the second focus of the thesis which was rhythm and phrasing pattern, the first

being the description of word stress as discussed earlier. The and to a lower extent

the prosodic word seemed to determine the distribution of pitch accents, which arose

from the interplay between clash resolution and the desire to mark boundaries of s

and prosodic words with pitch accents. Pitch accents were found to be relatively

frequent and there appeared to be usually more than one pitch accent in a . Phrase

boundaries had been marked with [ ].

Generally no variation was found in the distribution of pitch accent with respect to

variety or style of speech. The nuclear contour for Magahi interrogative sentences

(wh- question type) was LHL (see section 5.3.2) with a complex boundary tone LLi

similar to Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991a). This kind of intonation system in the

language seemed to be a complex interplay of pitch accents and phrase accents and

every consists of at least one accented syllable. Fig 4.5.1 – 4.5.6 illustrated the

phrasing pattern in the wh- questions of the language. The intonation contour had a

low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase might consist of an L* or an H*

depending on the focus of the utterance. We observed that in case of Fig. 4.5.3 and

fig. 4.5.6, the q- word bore H* unlike the other cases where the q- word bore the L*.

In the latter case the H* was borne by the constituent immediately following the q-

word and it also bore the focus.

We also observed that pitch accent distribution in Magahi was determined by prosodic

word and . As for , it could be equated with XP (syntactic phrase). Thus, the rules

for the alignment of an XP and appeared to be:

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ALIGN (, H*, Left): Align the right edge of every with a pitch accent

ALIGN (, L*, Right): Align the left edge of every with a pitch accent

NO CLASH: Pitch accents are not adjacent.

ALIGN (XP, ): ALIGN (XP, Rt, , Rt), or align the right edge of every XP

with the right edge of .

ALIGN (S, i) ALIGN (S, Rt, i, Rt), or align the right edge of every S with the right

edge of i.

The pitch variation (f0 variation) helped to mark the pitch accents and phrase tones

and confirmed that every IP was made up of one or more iPs which corresponded to

XPs.

As we saw that the discussion then progressed to Chapter 6 which was an effort to

throw light on some of the morphophonemic as well as phonosyntactic phenomena of

the language. However, the major focus of the chapter was phonology- syntax

interface in Magahi because of the absence of any previous study in this area. The

chapter also aimed to provide data which might be used in the study of prosodic

typology. Because Magahi to date is poorly understood, it was hoped that the data

provided in the thesis would pave way for future work on prosodic theory and the

syntax- phonology interface.

The review of the existing literature helped us to get acquainted with the concepts

related to interface studies. We learnt that phonology- syntax interface studies were

coming up with new and insightful points of view. We observed that the

pronunciation of a sentence was the function of the surface phonological

representation of the sentence and not merely the stringing of individual words

(Selkirk, 2003)61. Studies seemed to be directed to specific utterance types.

Exploration of the Focus Intonation Pattern of Japanese revealed interface conditions

in relation to Q- phrases of the language. (Ishihara, 2003)

61 The Prosodic Structure Hypothesis which draws evidence from domain convergence and domain layering says that the right edge of a Major phrase (in Prosodic Heirarchy) coincides with a syntactic phrase and the dge of a clause in the syntax typically coincides with the edge of an Intonation Phrase.

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Some points were made regarding the interface between phonology and morphology.

The study focused specially on the word formation process with special reference to

compounding. This kind of choice was made only because this process seemed to be

universal for all known languages. Morphologically, a compound word in Magahi

was formed according to one of the following processes:

[word + word] compounding,

[stem + word]/ [word + stem] compounding and

[stem + stem] compounding.

The main motivation to distinguish [stem + stem] compounds from [stem + word] or

[word + stem ] compounds came from inflection. The inflectional endings of items

that belonged to the [stem + stem] compounds did not generally seemed to have the

same ending when occurring in isolation. Apart from considering the placement of

stresses being the phenomenon of the domain of morphemes this entire analysis could

also be viewed in a different light altogether. As we saw fig. 5.1(a) consisted of the

compounds whose constituent words belonged to the noun class and they retained

their primary stresses in the resulting compounds. Fig. 5.1(b) consisted of compounds

whose constituent stems /-/, /-/, /-/, /-/ and // were

adjectival in nature62 and the constituent words belonged to the noun class (vi to x).

The primary stresses of the adjectival stems were dropped while those on the nouns

were retained. This explained as to why in // the primary stress on //

was being dropped in the compound even when it was a word in itself while primary

stress was being retained in the stem /p/.

We also saw that fig. 5.1(c) consisted of compounds whose both constituents were

stems. But the initial stems of all the compounds (xi to xv) //, //,

//, // and // were adjectival in nature while the

succeeding constituents belonged to the verb class. The primary stress on the

62 The root words for these are: /-/ < // (the month of Chaitra according to the indu calendar); /-/ < // (maternal granddaughter); /-/ < /α/ (water); /-/ < /α/ (smoke) and /-/ < // (leg). These root words belong to the noun class.

139

adjectival stem was being dropped and that on the verb stem was being retained in

this type of compounding.

Therefore, as we noted, it would not be incorrect to infer that the order of preference

for the retention of primary stress in compounding is noun > verb > adjective. In a

compound formation consisting of the combination of these, the primary stress of

preceding one was chosen over the ones succeeding it. After this the discussion

progressed to the phonology- syntax interface study for Magahi.

In Chapter 5 correspondence in Match Theory was proposed as an extension of

Correspondence Theory as developed for the OT framework by McCarthy and Prince

(1995, 1999), where it was used to established relations between linguistic objects.

Match Theory was a particular proposal for how syntactic and prosodic constituencies

were related to one another, namely, that a correspondence relation existed between

constituency in the syntactic component and the prosodic constituency in the

phonological component. As we saw, the syntax- prosody match constraints were

summarized as in Fig 5.2(a) which was:

Match-Clause: Syntactic clause → Intonational phrase (IP)

Match-Phrase: Syntactic phrase → Phonological phrase ()

Match-Word: Syntactic word → Prosodic Word.

We also learnt that like the edge- based theory proposed in Selkirk (1986, 1995),

Match Theory too appealed to the idea that the edges of syntactic and prosodic

constituents must be aligned.

Next, we saw that the phonological phrases were derived from a right- edge based

parameter setting an alignment analysis (see 4.3.3) of which had already been

provided. The analysis was consistent with the distribution of pitch accents and a

right- edged phrase accent, both indicators of the right edge of a prosodic word, as

reported in Kissenberth (2005). Each IP of a wh- question utterance ended with a low

boundary tone marking its right edge which corresponded to the right edge of the

clause. The Syntax- prosody mapping for Magahi (wh- questions) was presented as:

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XP xp

x YP x yp

y z y z

As we had noted earlier, in the syntactic structure, the syntactic node XP exhaustively

dominated the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and YP exhaustively dominated {y and

z}. Similarly, the prosodic node dominated the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and

yp exhaustively dominated the set terminal nodes {y and z}. In other words, there

was a perfect match between the sets of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by

syntactic nodes in the syntactic representation, one the one hand, and the sets of the

exponents of these terminal nodes dominated by in the phonological representation,

on the other.63 After establishing this kind of correspondence the next question that

was attempted to be answered was whether this kind of perfect alignment could be

flouted in any case. This was answered by discussing the information structure cues of

a language. The relationships between focus and prosodic phrasing as well as relative

prominence and prosodic phrasing were explored.

At this stage, it would not be wrong to state that Magahi seemed to have two prosodic

levels below the IP: the foot (see 4.3.2) and a higher prosodic level the iP (see 5.3.3).

This latter level of phrasing separates a focused element from the rest of the phrase.

Thus, focus seemed to have a phrasing effect. The same effect of focus had also been

observed in the closely related languages like Hindi (Moore 1953, 68, 75) and Bengali

(Hayes and Lahiri 1991). Also, an IP contained at least one iP and furthermore, each

iP contained at least one foot indicated by a rising pitch accent. The Graphs 6/1- 6/6

showed us the pitch analysis of the wh- questions (see Appendix 6). These graphs

illustrate the high f0 (pitch) value for the focused constituent and the reduced f0 value

for the constituents following it. Focus had been studied as being the direct perceptual

correlate of pitch accent which in itself could be calculated experimentally by

calculating prominence or the relative duration of utterance.

63 Similar work has been done in Elfner (2012) in which the syntax- prosody mapping has been done for Irish declarative sentences.

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We observed that “focus” in Magahi was not morphologically marked. Rather, those

constituents were “focused” which were informationally more important than other

background facts of the same sentence. This “focus” determined the prosodic phrasing

(p- phrasing) of the utterance as clear from the section 6.3.3. This part of the

discussion was based on the experimental observation that prominence and focus

went hand in hand. If one got to know as to where the prominence was being marked

in a language the knowledge about focus became clear. A contemporary approach

regarding the calculation of prominence was provided by Ishihara (2000) which was

called as Focus- Intonation Pattern (FIP).

Focused words seemed to have expanded pitch range, post focus words seemed to

have lowered/ compressed pitch range (similar to FIP; Ishihara 2000) and the pre-

focus and the final focus the neutral pitch range. We saw that the graphs (Graph 6/1-

6/6) had been analyzed keeping in mind the concept of p- focalization and PFR. All

the utterances (U1- 6) abided by the theory of FIP. The maximum or the highest pitch

contour was present on the constituent element that immediately followed the q- word

and then the pitch declined for the following elements. The interesting thing that we

noted in this relation was that unlike most other languages the wh- questions of

Magahi did not end with a rising intonation. The questions showed a pitch contour

that sloped downward towards the end. Therefore, the presence of PFR in every

utterance seemed to be obligatory.

In the later section of the chapter we observed that the relative prominence of a

constituent compared to other constituents in the utterance clearly indicated that it had

been “focused” in the utterance. The analysis in 6.3.2.3 tried to find out these

“focused” constituents. That was done by the calculation of the relative durations and

the mean durations of each of the constituents of all the six wh- questions. We saw

that the mean durations of the constituent words immediately following the q- word

was the maximum (Table 6/2 – 6/7 & Graph 6/7 to 6/12). Similarly, the relative

duration of the same constituents, that is, the ones that immediately follow the q-

word was the maximum compared to the neighbouring constituents taken

syntagmatically. These findings were in consonance with the findings of the sub-

section 6.3.2.1. So, we got to know that in Magahi wh- questions, the most “focused”

constituent was the one that immediately followed the q- word and the rest of the

constituents following the “focused” constituent underwent PFR or reduction in pitch.

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Thus, we inferred that there was not just a relation between the syntactic and the

phonological phrasing patterns but there was also a relation in the syntactic and the

phonological ways in which a language conveyed information.

The hidden aim of my study was to provide a phonological description of a language

which never received the limelight of scholarly discussions. The unavailability of any

type of authentic research in this area prompted me to take up this topic for research

and discussions. I believe that the findings of this research will prove beneficial for

future researches in similar areas. The implications of the findings are not confined to

Magahi alone. Other languages belonging to the same language family may have

similar prosodic properties as the ones that have been discussed in the previous

chapters of the thesis. Also, for languages that belong to different language families

my findings of my study will provide fuel for several types of comparative and

contrastive studies.

The data provided in the appendices will prove to be useful for various other types of

language oriented researches as well. Since the prosodic analysis was restricted to the

wh- questions only, there is immense possibility to carry out similar researches for

declarative sentences and other types of sentence forms. The novelty of attempt and

the complexity of research restricted me to wh- questions only. I made an attempt to

make the methodology for this research exhaustive and efficient; however, there is

still scope for improvements for future researchers. The data can be collected in a

more exhaustive manner and the inclusion of a few more informants will only add

credibility to the findings. I sincerely hope that my research will benefit future

researchers motivating them to take up less explored languages for study. Human

speech would have been as monotonous as robotic speech if prosody would have been

missing from it. It is due to prosody and its various features that make human speech

so interesting, intriguing and ever explorable.

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APPENDIX 1

THE BASIC WORD LIST [A]

1. All

2. And

3. Animal δΖ

4. Ashes

5. Back

6. Bad

7. Bark

8. Because

9. Belly

10. Big

11. Bird τΣ

12. Bite

13. Black

14. Blood

15. Blow

16. Bone

17. Breast

18. Breathe

19. Burn δΖ

20. Child

21. Claw

22. Cloud

23. Cold

24. Come

25. Count

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26. Cut

27. Day

28. Die

29. Dig /

30. Dirty

31. Dog

32. Drink

33. Dry

34. Dust

35. Ear

36. Earth /

37. Egg

38. Eye

39. Fall

40. Far

41. Fat

42. Father

43. Fear

44. Feather

45. Few

46. Fight

47. Fire

48. Fish

49. Five

50. Float

51. Flow

52. Flower

53. Fly

54. Fog

55. Foot

145

56. Four

57. Freeze

58. Fruit

59. Full

60. Give

61. Good

62. Grass

63. Green

64. Guts

65. Hair

66. Hand

67. He

68. Head

69. Hear

70. Heart

71. Heavy

72. Here

73. Hit

74. Hold

75. Horn

76. How

77. Hunt

78. Husband

79. I

80. Ice

81. If

82. In

83. Kill

84. Knee

85. Lake

146

86. Laugh

87. Know

88. Leaf

89. Leftside

90. Leg

91. Lie

92. Live

93. Liver

94. Long

95. Louse

96. Man

97. Many

98. Meat

99. Moon

100. Mother

101. Mountain

102. Mouth

103. Name

104. Narrow

105. Near

106. New

107. Night

108. Nose

109. Not

110. Old

111. One

112. Other

113. Person

114. Play

115. Pull

147

116. Push

117. Rain

118. Red

119. Right

120. Right

121. River

122. Road

123. Root

124. Rope

125. Rotten

126. Round

127. Rub

128. Salt

129. Sand

130. Say

131. Scratch

132. Sea

133. See

134. Seed

135. Sew

136. Sharp

137. Short

138. Sing

139. Sit

140. Skin

141. Sky

142. Sleep

143. Small

144. Smell

145. Smoke

148

146. Smooth

147. Snake

148. Snow

149. Some

150. Spit

151. Split

152. Squeeze

153. Stab/ pierce /

154. Stand

155. Star /

156. Stick

157. Stone

158. Straight

159. Suck

160. Sun

161. Swell

162. Swim

163. Tail

164. That

165. There

166. They

167. Thick

168. Thin

169. Think

170. This

171. Thou

172. Three /

173. Throw

174. Tie

175. Tongue

149

176. Tooth

177. Tree

178. Turn

179. Two /

180. Vomit

181. Walk

182. Warm /

183. Wash

184. Water

185. We

186. Wet

187. What

188. When

189. Where

190. White

191. Who

192. Wide

193. Wife

194. Wind

195. Wing

196. Wipe

197. With

198. Woman

199. Woods

200. Worm

201. Yes

202. Year

203. Brother

204. Clothing

205. Cook

150

206. Dance

207. Eight /

208. Hundred /

209. Seven /

210. Sister

211. Spear

212. Twenty /

213. Work m

151

APPENDIX 2

THE BASIC WORD LIST [B]

• *Refers to the typical North Indian concepts

1. *Bindi

2. *Flour (kneaded)

3. *Jura

4. *Roti /

5. Banana

6. Bangles

7. Blouse

8. Book

9. Brother, elder

10. Brother’s wife (elder) ,

11. Cat

12. Chilli

13. Cold

14. Comb

15. Copper m

16. Cough

17. Cow

18. Crow

19. Cry

20. Dog

21. Door /

22. Down

23. Drizzle

24. Ear ring

152

25. Elephant

26. Eye brow

27. Fever

28. Finger

29. Fish

30. Flour (dry)

31. Food

32. Forest

33. Garlic

34. God /

35. Goddess

36. Gold

37. Grandfather (Father’s father)

38. Grandfather (Mother’s father)

39. Grandmother (Father’s mother)

40. Grandmother (Mother’s mother)

41. Green vegetable

42. Hot

43. House

44. Housefly

45. Itch

46. Language

47. Lion

48. Lips

49. Liquor

50. Mango

51. Medicine

52. Milk //

53. Mirror //

54. Money //

153

55. Mosquito //

56. Mouse //

57. Nails //

58. Necklace //

59. Nose-pin //

60. Oil //

61. Onion //

62. Pain //

63. Peacock //

64. Plait //

65. Pond //

66. Potato //

67. Rice (cooked) //

68. Rice (raw) //

69. Road //

70. Round //

71. Run //

72. Saree //

73. Shawl //

74. Shirt //

75. Sister, elder //

76. Sister’s husband //

77. Small //

78. Snake //

79. Spectacles //

80. Spices //

81. Spoon //

82. Sugar //

83. Tasty

84. Tea //

154

85. Thumb //

86. Turmeric //

87. Up //

88. Village //

89. Aunt (paternal) //

155

APPENDIX 3

The Basic Word List [C]

• * Refers to the typical North Indian concepts

1. *Belan

2. *Chakla

3. *Charpoy

4. *Dal

5. *Karahi

6. *Neem

7. *Tawa

8. Abuse

9. Air

10. Ant

11. Aroma

12. Bald

13. Bazaar

14. Begin

15. Behind

16. Blind

17. Brass

18. Brave

19. Bull

20. Butterfly

21. Buy

22. Cheap

23. Coconut

24. Corpse

156

25. Costly

26. Cry of lion

27. Cry of dog

28. Curse

29. Daily

30. Danger

31. Deaf

32. Donkey

33. Double

34. Draught

35. Earn

36. End

37. Enemy

38. Farmer

39. Feed

40. Flood

41. Front of

42. Gold

43. Goldsmith

44. Halves

45. Hard

46. Heels

47. Her

48. High

49. His

50. Honey

51. Horn

157

52. Hunger

53. Ill

54. Ironsmith

55. King

56. Land lord

57. Lazy

58. Letter

59. Lonely

60. Love

61. Mad

62. Maize

63. Memory

64. Mine

65. Monkey

66. Paint

67. Pig

68. Price

69. Priest

70. Read

71. Remember

72. Rice (crushed)

73. Rice (husk)

74. Rice (paddy)

75. Rice (puffed)

76. Sell

77. Sheep

78. Sometimes

158

79. Sparrow ci

80. Sugarcane

81. Sweet potato

82. Tailor

83. Teach

84. Teacher

85. Thirst

86. Tongs

87. Train

88. Upside down

89. War

90. Weave

91. Weaver

92. Well

93. Wheat

94. Worship

95. Write

159

APPENDIX 4

Informant Details

INFORMANT DETAILS (1)

• NAME : Ravi Ranjan Kumar

• AGE : 23

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A (Hons)

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, Spanish

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ : Hindi, English, Spanish

2) WRITE : Hindi, English, Spanish

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English,

Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Bhojpuri and

Magahi

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 Years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (2)

• NAME : Awnish Kumar

• AGE : 23 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. (Hons.)

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English and Korean

160

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ: Hindi, English and Korean

2) WRITE: Hindi, English and Korean

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English, Korean

& Magahi.

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (3)

• NAME : Ritesh Raman

• AGE : 19 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. Hons.IIIrd yr.

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ : Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

2) WRITE: Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 19 yrs ( Nalanda)

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

161

INFORMANT DETAILS (4)

• NAME : Ved Prakash

• AGE : 23 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : BHM

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, bangla

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Bank Manager

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 21 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : 2 yrs.

INFORMANT DETAILS (5)

• NAME : Raju

• AGE : 18 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. II yr

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

162

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 18 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (6)

• NAME : Rajiv Ranjan

• AGE : 30 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : M.Phil

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Astt. Professor

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 30 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

163

INFORMANT DETAILS (7)

• NAME : Sanjeev Nayan

• AGE : 19 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. IInd yr

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, magahi,

Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 19 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (8)

• NAME : Bimla Devi

• AGE : 74 yrs

• SEX : Female

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : Higher Secondary

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi

2) WRITE Hindi

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, magahi,

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

164

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Housewife

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 74 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (9)

• NAME : Anup Kumar Sinha

• AGE : 54 yrs

• SEX : Male

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.E.

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi, English

2) WRITE Hindi, English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, Magahi, Maithili,

Bhojpuri

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Businessman

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 54 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

165

INFORMANT DETAILS (10)

• NAME : Kajal

• AGE : 23 yrs

• SEX : Female

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. (Hons.)

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ: Hindi, English

2) WRITE: Hindi, English

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English &

Magahi.

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (11)

• NAME : Sweta Sinha

• AGE : 27 years

• SEX : Female

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : Research Scholar

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi & English

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ :Hindi & English

2) WRITE:Hindi & English

3) UNDERSTAND: Magahi, Hindi, English

& Bangla

166

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 21 years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? In 2005 for pursuing higher studies.

INFORMANT DETAILS (12)

• NAME : Annapurna Sinha

• AGE : 50 years

• SEX : Female

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A.

• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi

• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ :Hindi & English

2) WRITE:Hindi & English

3) UNDERSTAND: Magahi, Hindi &

English

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Housewife

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 50 years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? No

167

APPENDIX 5

List of questions

1. / α /

2P. Sing. Food eat. PAST.Sing.

(Did you have food? )

2. / α /

2P. Sing. HON. Market go.FUT.Sing.

(will you go to the market? )

3. / α α /

2P. Sing. GEN. what name AUX.

(What is your name?)

4. / /

2P. Sing. Where stay AUX.

(Where do you stay?)

5. / /

2P. Sing. How AUX.

(How are you? )

6. / - α α /

2P. Sing. Home – to when go stay

AUX.

(When are you going home? )

7. / αα α /

2P. Sing. Delhi why go stay AUX.

(Why are you going to Delhi? )

8. / α /

2P. Sing. Brother who AUX.

(Who is your brother? )

168

APPENDIX 6

Figure 1

The distribution of informants on the basis of age.

7

1

2

1 1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

(15- 30)yrs (30- 55)yrs (55 & above)yrs

Male

Female

169

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