Maithili phonology
This article describes the phonology of the Maithili language.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | short | long | |
Close | इ ɪ | ई iː | उ ʊ | ऊ uː | ||
Mid | ऎ e | ए eː | अ
ə~ɐ |
अऽ əː | ऒ o | ओ oː |
Open | ऍ
æ~ɛ |
ꣾ ɛː | ॴ ä | आ äː | अऽ ɔ | ॵ ɔː |
Diphthongs | ꣾ əɪ̯ | ॵ əʊ̯ | ||||
ऐ aːɪ̯ | औ aːʊ̯ |
- All vowels have nasal counterparts, represented by "~" in IPA and ँ on the vowels, like आँ ãː .
- All vowel sounds are realized as nasal when occurring before or after a nasal consonant.[1]
- Sounds ɛː and ɔː are often replaced by diphthongs əɪ̯ and əʊ̯ in most of the dialects.
- æ is a recent development.
- ɔ is replaced by a (short a) or even ə̯ in northern dialects and by o in southernmost dialects.
- There are three short vowels, as described by Grierson, but not counted by modern grammarians. But they could be understood as syllable break :- ॳ / ɘ̆ /, इऺ/ ɪ̆ /, उऺ/ ʊ̆ / . Or as syllable break ऺ in Devanagari and "." in IPA.
- ꣾ is a Unicode letter in Devanagari, (IPA /əɪ̯/) which is not supported currently on several browsers and operating systems, along with its mātrā (vowel sign).
Diphthongs
अय़(ꣾ) / əi̯ / ~ /ɛː/ - अय़सनऺ (ꣾ सनऺ) / əi̯sənᵊ / ~ /ɛːsɐnᵊ/ 'like this'
अव़(ॵ) / əu̯ / ~ /ɔː/- चव़मुुखऺ(चॏमुखऺ) / tɕəu̯mʊkʰᵊ / ~ /tɕɔːmʊkʰᵊ/ 'four faced'
अयॆ / əe̯ / - अयॆलाः / əe̯la:h / 'came'
अवॊ (अऒ) / əo̯ / - अवॊताः / əo̯ta:h / 'will come'
ऐ / a:i̯ / - ऐ / a:i̯ / 'today'
औ / a:u̯ / - औ / a:u̯ / 'come please'
आयॆ (आऎ) / a:e̯ / - आयॆलऺ / a:e̯l / 'came'
आवॊ (आऒ) / a:o̯ / - आवॊबऺ / a:o̯bᵊ / 'will come'
यु (इउ) / iu̯/ - घ्यु / ghiu̯ / 'ghee'
यॆ (इऎ) / ie̯ / - यॆः / ie̯h / 'only this'
यॊ (इऒ) / io̯ / - कह्यो / kəhio̯ / 'any day'
वि (उइ) / ui̯ / - द्वि / dui̯ / 'two'
वॆ (उऎ) /ue̯/ - वॆ: / ue̯h / 'only that'
Svarabhakti (Vowel Epenthesis)
A peculiar type of phonetic change is recently taking place in Maithili by way of epenthesis i.e. backward transposition of final i and u in all sort of words.[2] Thus:
Standard Colloquial - Common Pronunciation
अछि / əchi / - अइछऺ / əich / 'is'
रवि / rəbi / - रइबऺ / rəib / 'Sunday'
मधु / mədhu / - मउधऺ / məudh / 'honey'
बालु / ba:lu / - बाउलऺ / ba:ul / 'sand'
Consonants
Maithili has four classes of stops, one class of affricate, which is generally treated as a stop series, related nasals, fricatives and approximant.
Stops
There are four series of stops- bilabials, coronals, retroflex and velar, along with an affricate series. All of them show the four way contrast like most of the modern Indo-Aryan languages:
- tenuis, as /p/, which is like ⟨p⟩ in English spin
- voiced, as /b/, which is like ⟨b⟩ in English bin
- aspirated, as /pʰ/, which is like ⟨p⟩ in English pin, and
- murmured or aspirated voiced, as /bʱ/.
Apart from the retroflex series, all the rest four series show full phonological contrast in all positions.The retroflex tenius ʈ and ʈʰ show full contrast in all positions. ɖ and ɖʱ show phonological contrast mainly word-initially.[3] Both are defective phonemes, occurring intervocalically an word finally only if preceded by a nasal consonant. Word finally and postvocalically, ɖʱ surfaces as ɽʱ or rʱ.[1] Non-initially, both are interchangeable with ɽ or r and ɽʱ or rʱ respectively.[3]
Nasals
m and n are present in all phonological positions. ŋ occurs only non-initially and is followed by a homorganic stop, which may be deleted if voiced, which leads to the independent presence of ŋ. ɳ occurs non-initially, followed by a homorganic stop, and is independent only in tatsama words, which is often replaced with n. ɲ occurs only non-initially and is followed by a homorganic stop always. It is the only nasal which does not occur independently.
Fricatives
s and h are most common fricatives. They show full phonological opposition. ɕ and ʂ, which is present in tatsama words, is replaced by s most of the times, when independent. ɕ occurs before tɕ and ʂ before ʈ. x and f occurs in Perso-Arabic loanwords, generally replaced by kʰ and pʰ respectively. x and ɸ also occurs in Sanskrit words (jihvamuliya and upadhmaniya), which is peculiar to Maithili.
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop/ Affricate |
voiceless | प p | त t | ट ʈ | च tɕ | क k | |
aspirated | फ pʰ | थ tʰ | ठ ʈʰ | छ tɕʰ | ख kʰ | ||
voiced | ब b | द d | ड ɖ | ज dʑ | ग ɡ | ||
voiced aspirated | भ bʱ | ध dʱ | ढ ɖʱ | झ dʑʱ | घ ɡʱ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | फ़ (ɸ~f) | स s | ष (ʂ) | श (ɕ) | ख़ (x) | ः -(h)* |
voiced | ज़ (z) | झ़ (ʑ) | ह (ɦ) | ||||
Nasal | म m | न n | ण ɳ | ञ (ɲ) | ङ ŋ | ||
Flap and Trill consonants | र ɾ~r | ड़ (ɽ) ढ़ (ɽʱ) |
|||||
Lateral | ल l | ||||||
Approximant | व (ʋ~w) | य (j) |
- Fricative sounds [ʂ, ɕ] only occur marginally, and are typically pronounced as a dental fricative /s/ in most styles of pronunciation.ः is always added after a vowel.
- In most styles of pronunciation, the retroflex flap [ɽ] occurs marginally, and is usually pronounced as an alveolar tap /r/ sound.
- A retroflex nasal sound [ɳ] only occurs before a voiced retroflex /ɖ/ sound.
- Approximant sounds [ʋ, w, j] and fricative sounds [ɸ, f, z, ʑ, x], mainly occur in words that are borrowed from Sanskrit or in words of Perso-Arabic origin. From Sanskrit, puʂp(ə) as puɸp(ə). Conjunct of ɦj as ɦʑ as in graɦjə as graɦʑə.[3]
Non syllabic Vowels
There are four non-syllabic vowels in Maithili- i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. Most of the times, these are written without nukta.
References
- Yadav, Ramawatar (1996). A Reference Grammar of Maithili. Trends in Linguistics: Documentation, 11.: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 15–27.CS1 maint: location (link)
- "Maithili". lisindia.ciil.org. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- Grierson, George Abraham; Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India) Journal and proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1909-). An introduction to the Maithili dialect of the Bihari language as spoken in North Bihar. University of California Libraries. Calcutta : Asiatic Society. Check date values in:
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