Nepali phonology

Last updated

Nepali is the national language of Nepal. Besides being spoken as a mother tongue by more than 48% of the population of Nepal, it is also spoken in Bhutan and India. The language is recognized in the Nepali constitution as an official language of Nepal.

Contents

The variety presented here is standard Nepali as spoken in Nepal. There are three major dialects: eastern, central, and western. Though many dialects can be distinguished in Nepal and other South Asian countries, there is reported to be little variation in phonology from one to another. [1]

Vowels

Nepali has 11 phonologically distinctive vowels, including 6 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels). In addition, due to a process of h-dropping, there are words with intervocalic h that speakers pronounce with a long, breathy-voiced vowel in its place (e.g. पहाड 'mountain' /pʌɦaɖ/ → [pa̤ːɽ]). [2]

Nepali vowel phonemes [2] [3]
Front Central Back
oral nasal oral nasal oral nasal
Close i ĩ u ũ
Close-mid e ẽ o
Open-mid ʌ ʌ̃
Open a ã

As the above list shows, there are five nasal vowels. The high mid back vowel /o/ does not have a nasal counterpart at the phonological level; although the vowel [õ] does exist phonetically in the language, it is often in free variation with its oral counterpart, as in [hot͡so] ~ [hõt͡so] 'short', [bʱeɽaː] ~ [bʱẽɽaː] 'sheep'. Nasal vowels are not frequent in the Nepali lexicon, compared to French in which the number of lexicon with nasal vowels is large. They occur mostly in verbs.

According to Bandhu et al. (1971), the evidence for the distinctiveness of vowel nasalization is not nearly as strong as that for the distinctiveness of the six oral vowels. They state that minimal pairs are easily obtainable only for the vowel /a/. Examples are shown below:

Other minimal pairs include /naũ̯/ 'name' vs. /nau̯/ 'barber' and /ɡaũ̯/ 'village' vs. /ɡau̯/ 'sing!' (sing.2SG.IMP). At the phonetic level, oral vowels can be nasalized when following a nasal consonant. [4]

Diphthongs

Pokharel (1989 :37–38) followed two diphthongs first elaborated by Shivaraja Acharya in वर्णोच्चारण शिक्षा in 1974.

DiphthongsExamplesGlossOrthographic
/ʌi̯//kʌi̯le/'when'कैले
/ʌu̯//d͡zʌu̯/'barley'जौ
/ai̯//bʱai̯/'younger brother'भाइ
/au̯//au̯/'come!'आऊ!
/ei̯//sʌnei̯/'trumpet'सनेई
/eu̯//eu̯ʈa/'one'एउटा
/iu̯//d͡ziu̯/'body'जीउ
/oi̯//poi̯/'husband'पोइ
/ou̯//dʱou̯/'wash!'धोऊ!
/ui̯//dui̯/'two'दुई

Schwa-deletion

The following rules can be followed to figure out whether or not Nepali words retain the final schwa:

  1. The schwa (transcribed and pronounced in modern Nepali as /ʌ/ instead of /ə/) is retained if the final syllable is a conjunct consonant. अन्तanta [ʌntʌ] 'end', सम्बन्धsambandha [sʌmbʌndʱʌ] 'relation', श्रेष्ठśreṣṭhasɾeʂʈʰʌ 'greatest'.
    Exceptions: conjuncts such as ञ्च and ञ्ज in मञ्चmañc [mʌ̃t͡s] 'stage' and गञ्जgañj [ɡʌ̃d͡z] 'city', respectively, and occasionally conjuncts such as न्त in the surname पन्तPanta [pʌnt(ʌ)] .
  2. For any verb form, the final schwa is always retained unless the schwa-cancelling halanta is present, e.g. हुन्छhuncha [ɦunt͡sʰʌ] 'it happens', भएरbhaera [bʱʌeɾʌ] 'therefore', and गएछgaecha [gʌet͡sʌ] 'he apparently went'; however, छन्chan [t͡sʰʌn] 'they are', and गईन्gain [gɛi̯n] 'she went'.
    Meanings may change with the wrong orthography, e.g. गईनgaina 'she didn't go' vs. गईन्gain 'she went'.
  3. Adverbs, onomatopoeia and postpositions usually maintain the schwa and if they don't, halanta is required: अबaba [ʌbʌ] 'now', तिरtira [tiɾʌ] 'towards', and आजāja [ad͡zʌ] 'today', as opposed to सिम्सिमsimsim 'drizzle', and झन्jhan [d͡zʱʌn] 'more'.
  4. A few nouns retain the schwa, e.g. दुखdukha [dukʰʌ] 'suffering, sorrow', and सुखsukha [sukʰʌ] 'pleasure'.

Note: final schwas in Indo-Aryan languages are often retained in music and poetry to facilitate singing and recitation. (Refer to "Sayaun Thunga Phulka" and "Jana Gana Mana" for this case.)

Consonants

Spoken Nepali has 30 consonants in its native system though some have tried to limit the number to 27.

Nepali consonant phonemes [1] [2] [5] [6]
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m ⟨म⟩ n ⟨न/ञ⟩( ɳ ⟨ण⟩) ŋ ⟨ङ⟩
Plosive/
Affricate 		voicelessunaspirated p ⟨प⟩ t ⟨त⟩ t͡s ⟨च⟩ ʈ ⟨ट⟩ k ⟨क⟩
aspirated pʰ ⟨फ⟩ tʰ ⟨थ⟩ t͡sʰ ⟨छ⟩ ʈʰ ⟨ठ⟩ kʰ ⟨ख⟩
voicedunaspirated b ⟨ब⟩ d ⟨द⟩ d͡z ⟨ज⟩ ɖ ⟨ड⟩ ɡ ⟨ग⟩
aspirated bʱ ⟨भ⟩ dʱ ⟨ध⟩ d͡zʱ ⟨झ⟩ ɖʱ ⟨ढ⟩ ɡʱ ⟨घ⟩
Fricative s ⟨श/ष/स⟩ ɦ ⟨ह⟩
Trill r ⟨र⟩
Approximant ( w ⟨व⟩) l ⟨ल⟩( j ⟨य⟩)

The glides [j] and [w] are nonsyllabic variants of /i/ and /u/, respectively. [5] The combination of the labio-velar approximant /w/ and /e, i, o, ʌi̯, r, w, j/ is constrained in Nepali, thus the orthographic ⟨व⟩ is always pronounced as a bilabial stop /b/ in such cases, but only sometimes otherwise. All consonants except /j,w,ɦ/ have geminates between vowels. [7] Apart from forming lexically distinctive words, as in /tsʌpʌl/चपल ('unstable') and /tsʌpːʌl/चप्पल ('slipper'), gemination also forms the intensive degree of adjectives, as in /miʈʰːo/ ('very delicious'), compare /miʈʰo/ ('delicious').

The murmured stops may lose their breathy-voice between vowels and word-finally. [7] Non-geminate aspirated and murmured stops may also become fricatives, with /pʰ/ as [ ɸ ], /bʱ/ as [ β ], /kʰ/ as [ x ], and /ɡʱ/ as [ ɣ ]. Examples of this are /sʌpʰa/ 'clean' becoming [sʌɸa] and /ʌɡʱaɖi/ 'before' becoming [ʌɣaɽi]). [7]

/ɖɖʱ/ are flapped ([ ɽ ]) in postvocalic position. /r/ is usually a trill [ r] but may be a tap [ ɾ] in intervocalic position. [8] [9]

Typically, sounds transcribed with the retroflex symbols ⟨ʈ,ʈʰ,ɖ,ɖʱ,ɽ,ɳ,ɽ̃⟩ are not purely retroflex [ʈ,ʈʰ, ɖ,ɖʱ, ɽ, ɳ,ɽ̃] but apical postalveolar [t̠,t̠ʰ, d̠,d̠ʱ, ɾ̠, n̠,ɾ̠̃]. Some speakers may use purely retroflex sounds after /u/ and /a/, but other speakers use the apical articulation in all positions. [10]

The unvoiced and voiced alveolar affricates [ts,tsʱ, dz,dzʱ] are frequently realized as unvoiced and voiced fricatives [s, z] respectively in intervocallic as well as occasionally in word initial positions. Aspiration is often maintained in the case of aspirated affricates, such as /ad͡zʱʌi̯/ 'still, until now' becoming [azʱʌi̯]. Additionally, the voiceless fricative [s] is realized as the voiced fricative [z] before the voiced stop [d] in the morpheme boundary. [11]

Debated consonants

Mostly words from Sanskrit have consonants that are not very common in inventory of the spoken language, [10] occurring in borrowed words where they are prescriptively pronounced as described in Sanskrit grammars. The retroflex nasal /ɳ/ occurs in the speech of some speakers, in words such as /baɳ/बाण ('arrow'). It is flapped [ɽ̃] in spelling pronunciations of some loanwords in Sanskrit. [3] A posterior sibilant [ʃ] occurs in such words as /nareʃ/नरेश ('king'). The language does not have any minimal pairs opposing /s/ and /ʃ/, and speakers sometimes use these sounds interchangeably.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure

Syllables may be structured as (C1)(C2)(C3)V(C4). [2]

Nepali syllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset, consisting up to three consonants; an obligatory syllable nucleus, consisting of a vowel; and an optional syllable coda, consisting of one consonant. The following restrictions apply:

Final Cluster

Additional consonant(C5) in coda occurs in loanwords and in handful of native words such as [ɡʌnd͡z] (गञ्ज) and [mʌnt͡s] (मञ्च).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allophone</span> Phone used to pronounce a single phoneme

In phonology, an allophone is one of multiple possible spoken sounds – or phones – used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosive and the aspirated form are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in some languages such as Central Thai. Similarly, in Spanish, and are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in English.

Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence. This class is composed of sounds like and semivowels like and, as well as lateral approximants like.

In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits. In the education field it is variously called a consonant cluster or a consonant blend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maithili language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and Nepal

Maithili is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of India and Nepal. It is native to the Mithila region, which encompasses parts of the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand as well as the Nepal's Koshi and Madhesh Provinces. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It is the second most commonly spoken language of Nepal. It is also one of the fourteen provincial official languages of Nepal.

In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is.

English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R-colored vowel</span> Phonetic sound in some languages

An r-colored or rhotic vowel is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various ways: the tip or blade of the tongue may be turned up during at least part of the articulation of the vowel or the back of the tongue may be bunched. In addition, the vocal tract may often be constricted in the region of the epiglottis.

A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable on its own, like the m, n and l in some pronunciations of the English words rhythm, button and awful, respectively. To represent it, the understroke diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet is used, ⟨U+0329◌̩COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW⟩. It may be instead represented by an overstroke, ⟨U+030D◌̍COMBINING VERTICAL LINE ABOVE⟩ if the symbol that it modifies has a descender, such as in.

Sikkimese is a language of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Bhutia people in Sikkim in northeast India, parts of Koshi province in eastern Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the official languages of Sikkim.

The phonology of Bengali, like that of its neighbouring Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, is characterised by a wide variety of diphthongs and inherent back vowels.

Tamil phonology is characterised by the presence of "true-subapical" retroflex consonants and multiple rhotic consonants. Its script does not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants; phonetically, voice is assigned depending on a consonant's position in a word, voiced intervocalically and after nasals except when geminated. Tamil phonology permits few consonant clusters, which can never be word initial.

The phonology of Sesotho and those of the other Sotho–Tswana languages are radically different from those of "older" or more "stereotypical" Bantu languages. Modern Sesotho in particular has very mixed origins inheriting many words and idioms from non-Sotho–Tswana languages.

The Gujarati language is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. Much of its phonology is derived from Sanskrit.

The phoneme inventory of the Marathi language is similar to that of many other Indo-Aryan languages. An IPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Marathi is provided below.

Hindustani is the lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan, and through its two standardized registers, Hindi and Urdu, a co-official language of India and co-official and national language of Pakistan respectively. Phonological differences between the two standards are minimal.

This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Macedonian based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal stops, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.

Ottawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of communities in southern Ontario and a smaller number of communities in northern Michigan. Ottawa has a phonological inventory of seventeen consonants and seven oral vowels; in addition, there are long nasal vowels the phonological status of which are discussed below. An overview of general Ojibwa phonology and phonetics can be found in the article on Ojibwe phonology. The Ottawa writing system described in Modern orthography is used to write Ottawa words, with transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) used as needed.

This article discusses the phonology of the Inuit languages. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer to Inuktitut dialects of Canada.

This article aims to describe the phonology and phonetics of central Luxembourgish, which is regarded as the emerging standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nepali language</span> Indo-Aryan Language

Nepali, or Gorkhali is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. Nepali has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of West Bengal. It is spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan's population. Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Uttarakhand. In Myanmar it is spoken by the Burmese Gurkhas. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia and worldwide also use the language. Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and another 14 million as a second language.

References

  1. 1 2 Bandhu et al. (1971)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Pokharel (1989)
  3. 1 2 Khatiwada (2009 :377)
  4. ↑ Khatiwada (2009 :378)
  5. 1 2 Khatiwada (2009 :373)
  6. ↑ Jayaraj, p.19
  7. 1 2 3 Khatiwada (2009 :376)
  8. ↑ Acharya (1991 :16, 24)
  9. ↑ Khatiwada (2009) [ page needed ]
  10. 1 2 Khatiwada (2009 :374)
  11. ↑ "Nepali Language Structre". lisindia.ciil.org. Retrieved 21 December 2024.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.