Maithili phonology

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This article describes the phonology of the Maithili language.

Vowels[]

Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close ɪ ⟨इ⟩ iː ⟨ई⟩ ʊ ⟨उ⟩ uː ⟨ऊ⟩
Mid e ⟨ऎ⟩ eː ⟨ए⟩ ə~ɐ ⟨अ⟩ əː ⟨अऽ⟩ o ⟨ऒ⟩ oː ⟨ओ⟩
Open æ~ɛ ⟨ऍ⟩ ä ⟨ॴ⟩ äː ⟨आ⟩ ɔ ⟨अ
Diphthongs əe̯ ⟨ꣾ⟩ əo̯ ⟨ॵ⟩
aːɪ̯ ⟨ऐ⟩ aːʊ̯ ⟨औ⟩
  • 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 eː and oː are often replaced by diphthongs əɪ̯ and əʊ̯.
  • æ is a recent development.
  • ɔ is replaced by ə 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 /əe̯/) 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.[4] Non-initially, both are interchangeable with ɽ or r and ɽʱ or 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 and ʂ before ʈ. x and f occurs in Perso-Arabic loanwords, generally replaced by and respectively. x and ɸ also occurs in Sanskrit words (jihvamuliya and upadhmaniya), which is peculiar to Maithili.

Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m ⟨म⟩ n ⟨न⟩ ɳ ⟨ण⟩ (ɲ) ⟨ञ⟩ ŋ ⟨ङ⟩
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless unaspirated p ⟨प⟩ t ⟨त⟩ ʈ ⟨ट⟩ ⟨च⟩ k ⟨क⟩
aspirated ⟨फ⟩ ⟨थ⟩ ʈʰ ⟨ठ⟩ tɕʰ ⟨छ⟩ ⟨ख⟩
voiced unaspirated b ⟨ब⟩ d ⟨द⟩ ɖ ⟨ड⟩ ⟨ज⟩ ɡ ⟨ग⟩
aspirated ⟨भ⟩ ⟨ध⟩ ɖʱ ⟨ढ⟩ dʑʱ ⟨झ⟩ ɡʱ ⟨घ⟩
Fricative voiceless (ɸ~f) ⟨फ़⟩ s ⟨स⟩ (ʂ) ⟨ष⟩ (ɕ) ⟨श⟩ (x) ⟨ख़⟩ -(h)* ⟨ः⟩
voiced (z) ⟨ज़⟩ (ʑ) ⟨झ़⟩ (ɦ) ⟨ह⟩
Rhotic unaspirated ɾ~r ⟨र⟩ (ɽ) ⟨ड़⟩
aspirated (ɽʱ) ⟨ढ़⟩
Lateral l ⟨ल⟩
Approximant (ʋ~w) ⟨व⟩ (j) ⟨य⟩
  • 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[]

  1. ^ Yadav, Ramawatar (1996). A Reference Grammar of Maithili. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 15–27.
  2. ^ "Maithili". lisindia.ciil.org. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b c 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.
  4. ^ Yadav, Ramawatar (1996). A Reference Grammar of Maithili. Trends in Linguistics: Documentation, 11.: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 15–27.CS1 maint: location (link)
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