Phonological history of Hindustani

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The inherited, native lexicon of the Hindustani language exhibits a large number of extensive sound changes from its Middle Indo-Aryan and Old Indo-Aryan. Many sound changes are shared in common with other Indo-Aryan languages such as Marathi, Punjabi, and Bengali.

Contents

Indo-Aryan etymologizing

The history of Hindustani language is marked by a large number of borrowings at all stages. [1] [2] Native grammarians have devised a set of etymological classes for modern Indo-Aryan vocabulary:

In the context of Hindustani, other etymological classes of relevance are:

Like many other languages, many phenomena in the historical evolution of Hindustani are better explained by the wave model than by the tree model. In particular, the oldest changes like the retroflexion of dental stops and loss of ṛ have been subject to a great deal of dialectal variance and borrowing. In the face of doublets like Hindustani baṛhnā "to increase" and badhnā "to increase" where one has undergone retroflexion and the other has not, it is difficult to know exactly under what conditions the sound change operated. [6] [7] One often encounters sound changes described as "spontaneous" or "sporadic" in the literature (such as "spontaneous nasalization"). This means that the sound change's context and/or isogloss (i.e. dialects in which the sound change operated) have been sufficiently obscured by inter-dialect borrowing, semi-learned adaptations to Classical Sanskrit or Prakrits, or analogical leveling.

From Vedic Sanskrit to Early Middle-Indo-Aryan

This section summarizes the changes occurring between Vedic Sanskrit (ca. 600 BCE) and the first attestations of Early Middle-Indo-Aryan in Pali or Ashokan Prakrit (ca. 280 BCE). [8]

Early changes common to Dardic

The following changes are common to Middle Indo-Aryan and Dardic:

Middle Indo-Aryan assimilations

After the split of Dardic languages, the following changes are common to Pali and Prakrit:

Several changes below will yield a very distinct phonotactic structure in MIA that almost resembles that of Dravidian languages. [8] Regarding the assimilations of Old Indo-Aryan consonant conjuncts, the Jayadhavalā (ca. ninth century AD) writes

dīsaṁti doṇṇi vaṇṇā saṁjuttā aha va tiṇṇi cattāri
tāṇaṁ duvvala-lōvaṁ kāūṇa kamō pajuttavvō
"When two, or three or four, consonants appear in combination, elide the weakest one, and continue the process" [12]

Here, "weakest" refers to sounds of higher sonority, and "elide" refers to either true elision/loss or total assimilation of the weaker sound to the stronger sound. Specifically, the sonority scale of Prakrit is (weakest) h < r < y < v < l < sibilants < nasals < stops (strongest). It will be helpful to keep this notion of "stronger" and "weaker" sounds in mind through the following sound changes. The relevant changes (organized by approximate chronology) are:

Some interesting cases and further sound changes:

The above sound changes are rather sweeping and complex, so it helps to walk through certain examples:

Changes after the split of Pali and Prakrit

The following changes are only seen in Prakrit and not in Pali (other Pali-specific changes do also occur beyond this point):

Orthographic changes

Up to Dramatic Prakrits

These changes occur after Pali and Early Prakrit, but before the development of the dramatic regional Prakrits like Maharashtri Prakrit and Shauraseni Prakrit (ca. 200 AD):

Pleonastic Suffixes

Another change worth noting here that will become more prevalent by late MIA and early NIA is the extension of Old Indo-Aryan nominals and roots with pleonastic suffixes. The consensus, implied by the name, is that these innovative suffixes have little semantic purpose and mainly serve to distinguish homophones (created by the sweeping sound changes between Sanskrit and Prakrit). They are applied after nominal and verb stems, before inflecting suffixes. Some are recognizable as the reflexes of Old Indo-Aryan diminutive suffixes. [13]

The most important suffixes are feminine -iā- (< earlier -igā < Sanskrit -ikā) and masculine -a- (< earlier -ga < Sanskrit -ka). The equivalent Sanskrit endings were already common in Old Indo-Aryan as diminutives, but become more popular at this stage and ultimately become the "marked" declension of nouns in Hindustani and other Indo-Aryan languages.

The other common suffixes are -kka-, -ḍa-, -illa-, -la-, -lla-, -ulla-, and -ra-. These suffixes are very often combined with each other:

Up to Apabhraṃśa

These changes occur after the dramatic Prakrits, and characterize the Late Prakrit, or Apabhraṃśa, stage (ca. 900 AD). Some of these changes start to differentiate Hindustani dialects (part of the central Indo-Aryan zone) from other Indo-Aryan languages.

Development of a Latin-like stress system

Abandonment of Vedic lexical stress in favor of a Latin-like positional stress system. Stress falls on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy, failing which it falls on the antepenultimate syllable if it is heavy, failing which it falls on the fourth syllable from the end.

This system retroactively came to characterize Classical Sanskrit, but it can be considered a MIA development that was only fully completed around the Apabhraṃśa stage. Once it had developed in languages like Gujarati and Hindustani, it affected many sound changes which occurred afterwards. It is not seen in Pali, and happened late enough that some modern languages like Marathi, which have vestiges/reflexes of Vedic stress, do not appear to be included in this development. [8]

Up to Hindustani

Changes after this point characterize the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) era from the MIA period. Many of these changes distinguish Hindi from nearby languages like Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi.

Before, it was convenient to use the nominal/verbal stem as the "dictionary" form in describing sound changes (e.g. ending in -a for the nominative masculine a-stem). In Hindustani, the dictionary form (e.g. ending in -ā for many masculine nouns) actually descends from the Prakrit nominative case (e.g. ending in -aō, from Sanskrit -akaḥ, rather than ending in -aya from Sanskrit -aka). The nominative form for nouns in Prakrit will be used below unless otherwise specified.

New-Indo-Aryan vowel coalescence

Several processes which were already underway in Late Apabhraṃśa.

Concerning diphthongs:

Concerning glides:

Concerning ā̆:

Other sequences of vowels in hiatus require medial -y-.

Turner explains the occasional further contraction of ai > e and au > o (at least for Gujarati) in terms of inherited words versus semi-learned words: in the former the process has had time to go further. A similar explanation of occasions where -y- possessed more reality could be drawn up to word frequency, dialectal borrowing, and semi-learned borrowings.

Vowel lengthening and shortening rules

Counter-examples to vowel rules

The above rules and their caveats still do not sufficiently explain all cases of vowel length and gemination encountered in Hindustani, but it is closest to the ordering of the rules that Turner proposes in his analyses of Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi. More complex phenomena must be employed to explain the counter-examples. [7] The first set of counter-examples are cases where gemination appears to have been lost early-on, predating the VCː > VːC rule. These are confined to:

The second set of examples are from semi-learned adaptation to Sanskrit. For instance, from Prakrit aṃdhaa we predict Hindustani *ā̃dhā but find andhā "blind", under influence of the Sanskrit etymon andha. From Prakrit suddhi we predict Old Hindi *sūdha (> Hindustani *sūdh) but find sudha "memory, sense" (> Hindustani sudh), under influence of the Sanskrit etymon śuddhi.

The third set of examples are from analogy and morphological processes. In the case of verbs with an expected long vowel in the root, there is competition throughout the paradigm due to word rhythm shortening. Based on the participle in -atā and infinitive in -anā, the root's vowel should be shortened; elsewhere, it should stay lengthened. The result of this is usually a short vowel which has been analogically leveled throughout the paradigm. There was also a tendency to associate short root vowels with intransitive verbs and long vowels with transitive verbs, which is inherited from the Sanskrit tendency (compare Sanskrit tapyatē "is heated" and tāpayati "causes to heat up"). Hence, based on Prakrit tappaï "is heated", we find both Hindustani tapnā "is heated" and tāpnā "heats (sthg.) up", where the long-vowel form has been analogically created. Other verbs with a long vowel in the root have either been re-lengthened or evaded rhythmic shortening based analogically on the de-verbal nominal form. For instance, we have Hindustani nācnā "to dance" (with nāc "dancing") and bā̃dhnā "to bind" (with bā̃dh "bond").

The fourth set of examples are borrowings from the northwest (whence Punjabi and Sindhi). The vowel lengthening rules did not take place in the northwestern region (words with this sound change in Punjabi and Sindhi are themselves borrowings from other Indo-Aryan languages, like Hindustani). [8] These borrowings, likely from a Western Hindi dialect transitional to Punjabi, [8] result in a large number of doublets in Hindustani, where in many cases the native word has been or is being eclipsed by the borrowed word:

PrakritHindustani
native term		Hindustani
borrowed term		Meaning
makkhaṇamākhanmakkhan"butter"
haḍḍahāṛhaḍḍā"bone"
acchaaāchāacchā"clear, good"
saccasāc, sā̃cāsac, saccā"true"
maṭṭi, miṭṭimāṭīmiṭṭī"soil"
pakkaapākāpakkā"ripened, full"

The final set of examples occurs in unstressed small words (e.g. postpositions) that were reduced without lengthening. This is probably due to rhythmic vowel shortening across a larger phrase. Compare reductions of English the, a, etc. in unstressed environments. Such words include Hindustani sab "all" (< Prakrit savva), tujh "you (oblique)" (< Prakrit tujjha), and is "this (oblique)" (< Ap. ĕssa < Prakrit ēassa).

Sound changes from Old Hindi through modern Hindustani

Examples of sound changes

The following table shows a possible sequence of changes for some basic vocabulary items, leading from Sanskrit to Modern Hindustani. All entries are romanized. An empty cell means no change at the given stage for the given item. Only sound changes that had an effect on one or more of the vocabulary items are shown. Words may not be attested at each stage.

Gloss juhi tigerdonkeyduskyit growstwo and halfto support
Sanskrit (nominative)yūthikāvyāghraḥgardabhakaḥśyāmalakaḥutpadyatiardhatṛtīyaḥsambhālanam
Sandhi (e.g. final -aḥ > -ō)vyāghrōgardabhakōśyāmalakōardhatṛtīyōsaṃbhālanaṃ
Early Cerebralizationarḍhatṛtīyō
Loss of ṛarḍhatatīyō
Sibilant mergersyāmalakō
C + y, s palatalizationutpajyati
Initial cluster simplif.vāghrōsāmalakō
Two-mora rulevaghrō
Medial cluster simplif.vagghōgaddabhakōuppajjatiaḍḍhatatīyō
Paliyūthikāvagghōgaddabhakōsāmalakōuppajjatiaḍḍhatatīyōsaṃbhālanaṃ
Init. y > j, med. yy > jjjūthikā
Merging of nasalssaṃbhālaṇaṃ
Intervocalic lenitionsjūhiāgaddahaōsāmalaōuppajjaïaḍḍhaaīō
Pleonastic suffix additionssaṃbhālaṇaō
Prakritjūhiāvagghōgaddahaōsāmalaōuppajjaïaḍḍhaaīōsaṃbhālaṇaō
-VmV- > -VṃvV-saṃvalaō
Shorten final long vowelsjūhiavagghugaddahaüsaṃvalaüaḍḍhaaīusaṃbhālaṇaü
Positional stressjū́hiavágghugáddahaüsáṃvalaüuppájjaïaḍḍháaīusaṃbhā́laṇaü
Dentalization of ṇ, ḷsaṃbhā́lanaü
vv > bb and initial v > bbágghu
Vowels in hiatus coalescejū́hīgáddahausáṃvalauaḍḍhā́īsaṃbhā́lanau
VCː > VːC or VṃC > ṼːCbā́ghugā́dahausā̃valauūpā́jaïāḍhā́īsā̃bhā́lanau
Pre/post-tonic vowel shortensupā́jaïaḍhā́īsãbhā́lanau
Word rhythm shorteninggádahauupájaï
Final nominative -au > -āgádahāsā̃valāsãbhā́lanā
Final short vowels > /ǝ/bā́gha
Old Hindijūhībāghagadahāsā̃valāupajaiaḍhāīsãbhālanā
Final -ai, -au > -e, -oupaje
Schwa deletionbāghgadhāsā̃vlāupjesãbhālnā
Unstressed initial vowel lossḍhāī
-Ṽbh-, -Ṽb- > -Vmh-, -Vm-samhālnā
Hindustani Romanizedjūhībāghgadhāsā̃vlāupjeḍhāīsamhālnā
Hindustani Devangariजूहीबाघगधासाँवलाउपजेढाईसम्हालना
Hindustani Urduجوہیباگھگدھاسانولااپجےڈھائیسمہالنا

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References

  1. ↑ "A Guide to Hindi". BBC - Languages - Hindi. BBC. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Kumar, Nitin (28 June 2011). "Hindi & Its Origin". Hindi Language Blog. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Masica, Colin P. (1993). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-29944-2.
  4. ↑ Grierson, George (1920). "Indo-Aryan Vernaculars (Continued)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies. 3 (1): 51–85. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00087152. S2CID   161798254. at pp. 67-69.
  5. ↑ Turner, Ralph Lilley, ed. (1969–1985). A comparative dictionary of Indo-Aryan language. London: Oxford University Press. p. 599. OCLC   503920810.
  6. 1 2 J. Bloch (1970). Formation of the Marathi Language. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 33, 180. ISBN   978-81-208-2322-8.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Turner, Ralph Lilley (1975). Collected Papers, 1912-1973. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780197135822.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Masica, Colin P. (1993). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 167. ISBN   978-0-521-29944-2.
  9. ↑ Kobayashi, Masato (2004). Historical Phonology of Old Indo-Aryan Consonants. Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Monograph Series. Vol. 42. pp. 60–65. ISBN   4-87297-894-3.
  10. ↑ J. Bloch (1970). Formation of the Marathi Language. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 6. ISBN   978-81-208-2322-8.
  11. ↑ J. Bloch (1970). Formation of the Marathi Language. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 129, 130. ISBN   978-81-208-2322-8.
  12. 1 2 https://prakrit.info/prakrit/grammar.html?r=phonology
  13. ↑ "The -kk- verbal extension in Indo-Aryan". 3 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Jaroslav Strnad (2013). Morphology and syntax of Old Hindī: edition and analysis of one hundred Kabīr vānī poems from Rājasthān. Brill. p. 191.
  15. ↑ Thomas Oberlies (2005). A Historical Grammar of Hindi. Leykam. p. 5.
  16. ↑ Jaroslav Strnad (2013). Morphology and syntax of Old Hindī: edition and analysis of one hundred Kabīr vānī poems from Rājasthān. Brill. p. 384.
  17. ↑ Shapiro 2003, p. 260.
  18. 1 2 Shapiro 1989, p. 9–21.

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