Hindustani phonology

Template:Short description Template:IPA notice Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Indian EnglishHindustani 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.

Vowels

File:Hindi vowel chart.svg

The oral vowel phonemes of Hindi according to Template:Harvcoltxt

Hindustani vowel phonemes

	Front		Central	Back
	long	short		short	long
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Close-mid	Template:IPA link				Template:IPA link
Open-mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Open	(Template:IPA link)		Template:IPA link

Hindustani natively possesses a symmetrical ten-vowel system. The vowels are always short in length, while the vowels , , , , , , are usually considered long, in addition to an eleventh vowel which is found in English loanwords. The distinction between short and long vowels is often described as tenseness, with short vowels being lax, and long vowels being tense.Template:Sfn Vowels are somewhat longer before voiced stops than before voiceless stops. Additionally, and occur as conditional allophones of .

Vowel

is often realized more open than mid Template:IPAblink, i.e. as near-open Template:IPAblink. It is subject to schwa deletion word-medially in certain contexts.

Vowel

The open central vowel is transcribed in IPA by either or .

In Urdu, there is further short (spelled , as in kamra ) in word-final position, which contrasts with (spelled , as in Template:Nq laṛkā ). This contrast is often not realized by Urdu speakers, and always neutralized in Hindi (where both sounds uniformly correspond to ).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Vowels , ,

Among the close vowels, what in Sanskrit are thought to have been primarily distinctions of vowel length (that is and ), have become in Hindustani distinctions of quality, or length accompanied by quality (that is, and ). The opposition of length in the close vowels has been neutralized in word-final position, only allowing long close vowels in final position. As a result, Sanskrit loans which originally have a short close vowel are realized with a long close vowel, e.g. ( – 'energy') and ( – 'item') are and , not * and *.

Vowels ,

The vowel represented graphically as – (romanized as ) has been variously transcribed as or . Among sources for this article, Template:Harvcoltxt, pictured to the right, uses , while Template:Harvcoltxt and Template:Harvcoltxt use . Furthermore, an eleventh vowel is found in English loanwords, such as ('bat'). Hereafter, – (romanized as ) will be represented as to distinguish it from , the latter.

In addition, occurs as a conditioned allophone of (schwa) within the sequence ( before the next syllable or word-finally due to schwa deletion). This change is part of the prestige dialect of Delhi, but may not occur for every speaker. Here are some examples of this process:

Hindi/Urdu	Transliteration	Phonemic	Phonetic
कहना / Template:Nq "to say"	kahnā
शहर / Template:Nq "city"	śahar
ठहरना / Template:Nq "to wait"	ṭhaharnā

However, the fronting of schwa does not occur in words with a schwa only on one side of the such as ( – 'a story') or ( – 'outside').

Vowels ,

The vowel occurs in proximity to if the is surrounded on one of the sides by a schwa and on other side by a round vowel (due to Hindustani phonotactics, this generally only occurs in the sequences or ). It differs from the vowel in that it is a short vowel. For example, in the is surrounded on one side by a schwa and a round vowel on the other side. One or both of the schwas will become giving the pronunciation .

Some Eastern dialects keep as diphthongs, pronouncing them as .Template:Sfnp

Nasalization of vowels

As in French and Portuguese, there are nasalized vowels in Hindustani. There is disagreement over the issue of the nature of nasalization (barring English-loaned which is never nasalized). Template:Harvcoltxt presents four differing viewpoints:

1. there are no and , possibly because of the effect of nasalization on vowel quality;
2. there is phonemic nasalization of all vowels;
3. all vowel nasalization is predictable (i.e. allophonic);
4. Nasalized long vowel phonemes () occur word-finally and before voiceless stops; instances of nasalized short vowels () and of nasalized long vowels before voiced stops (the latter, presumably because of a deleted nasal consonant) are allophonic.

Masica supports this last view.

Vowel orthography with diacritics and English approximations

The principal vowel phonemes may be organised as follows to demonstrate the orthographic conventions for vowels.

Vowels
IPA	Hindi		ISO 15919	Urdu			Approximate English equivalent
	Initial	Combining		Final	Medial	Initial
Template:IPA link	अ		a	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	about
Template:IPA link	आ	ा	ā	Template:Nq		Template:Nq	far
Template:IPA link	इ	ि	i	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	still
Template:IPA link	ई	ी	ī		Template:Nq	Template:Nq	fee
Template:IPA link	उ	ु	u	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	book
Template:IPA link	ऊ	ू	ū	Template:Nq		Template:Nq	moon
Template:IPA link	ए	े	ē	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	mate
Template:IPA link	ऐ	ै	ai	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	Template:Nq	fairy
Template:IPA link	ओ	ो	ō	Template:Nq		Template:Nq	force
Template:IPA link	औ	ौ	au	Template:Nq		Template:Nq	lot (Received Pronunciation)
Template:IPA link			h	Template:Nq			aspiration of the preceding consonant, as in cake
Template:IPA link		ँ	m̐	Template:Nq	Template:Nq		heavy nasalisation of the preceding vowel, like can't in rapid GA
		ं	ṁ				homorganic nasal before the succeeding consonant, like jungle or branch, and light vowel nasalisation

Consonants

Hindustani has a core set of 28 consonants inherited from earlier Indo-Aryan. Supplementing these are two consonants that are internal developments in specific word-medial contexts, and seven consonants originally found in loan words, whose expression is dependent on factors such as status (class, education, etc.) and cultural register (Modern Standard Hindi vs Urdu).

Most native consonants may occur geminate (doubled in length; exceptions are ). Geminate consonants are always medial and preceded by one of the interior vowels (that is, , , or ). They all occur monomorphemically except , which occurs only in a few Sanskrit loans where a morpheme boundary could be posited in between, e.g. for ('without shame').

For the English speaker, a notable feature of the Hindustani consonants is that there is a four-way distinction of phonation among plosives, rather than the two-way distinction found in English. The phonations are:

1. tenuis, as , which is like Template:Angbr in English spin
2. voiced, as , which is like Template:Angbr in English bin
3. aspirated, as , which is like Template:Angbr in English pin, and
4. murmured, as .

The last is commonly called "voiced aspirate", though Template:Harvcoltxt notes that,

"Evidence from experimental phonetics, however, has demonstrated that the two types of sounds involve two distinct types of voicing and release mechanisms. The series of so-called voice aspirates should now properly be considered to involve the voicing mechanism of murmur, in which the air flow passes through an aperture between the arytenoid cartilages, as opposed to passing between the ligamental vocal bands."

The murmured consonants are believed to be a reflex of murmured consonants in Proto-Indo-European, a phonation that is absent in all branches of the Indo-European family except Indo-Aryan and Armenian.

Hindustani consonant phonemes

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
	voiceless aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)		Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		(Template:IPA link)	(Template:IPA link)
Approximant			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Tap/Trill	unaspirated		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	aspirated			Template:IPA link

Notes

• Marginal and non-universal phonemes are in parentheses.
• is lateral Template:IPAblink for some speakers.Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
• , , and are post-velar.
• , , , and are mostly replaced by , , , and respectively in Hindi, except in the careful speech of educated speakers.Template:Sfn is found in Urdu and is rarer in Hindi, often being replaced with (or further by ) in the latter; an example of a word containing this sound is ( – 'dragon').
• /ŋ/ mostly only occurs in clusters before velars as in aṅkit but there are also words like tinkā, ākramaṇkārī, mumkin making it phonemic. Sanskritic loans with ṅ occurring elsewhere is made ṅg as in Sanskrit vāṅmaya being pronounced /ʋaːŋ(ɡ)mɛː/.

Stops in final position are not released, although they continue to maintain the four-way phonation distinction in final position. varies freely with , and can also be pronounced . is usually flapped or trilled. In intervocalic position, it may have a single contact and be described as a flap Template:IPAblink, but it may also be a clear trill, especially in word-initial and syllable-final positions, and geminate is always a trill in Arabic and Persian loanwords, e.g. ( – 'little') versus well-trilled ( – 'particle'). The palatal and velar nasals occur only in consonant clusters, where each nasal is followed by a homorganic stop, as an allophone of a nasal vowel followed by a stop, and in Sanskrit loanwords. However /n/ + velar clusters also occur, eg. /ʊn.kaː/ making /ŋ/ phonemic. There are murmured sonorants, , eg. nanhā, lhesnā, kulhāṛī, tumhārā (< ślakṣṇa, śleṣayati, kuṭhāra, yuṣme-), but these are considered to be consonant clusters with in the analysis adopted by Template:Harvcoltxt.

The fricative in Hindustani is typically voiced (as ), especially when surrounded by vowels, but there is no phonemic difference between this voiced fricative and its voiceless counterpart .

Hindustani also has a phonemic difference between the dental plosives and the so-called retroflex plosives. The dental plosives in Hindustani are laminal denti-alveolar as in Spanish, and the tongue-tip must be well in contact with the back of the upper front teeth. The retroflex series is not purely retroflex; it actually has an apico-postalveolar (also described as apico-pre-palatal) articulation, and sometimes in words such as ( – 'broken') it even becomes alveolar.

In some Indo-Aryan languages, the plosives and the flaps are allophones in complementary distribution, with the former occurring in initial, geminate and postnasal positions and the latter occurring in intervocalic and final positions. However, in Standard Hindi they contrast in similar positions, as in ( – 'bird') vs ( – 'fearless').

Allophony of and

Hindustani does not distinguish between and , specifically Hindi. These are distinct phonemes in English, but conditional allophones of the phoneme in Hindustani (written Template:Angbr in Hindi or Template:Angbr in Urdu), meaning that contextual rules determine when it is pronounced as and when it is pronounced as . is pronounced in onglide position, i.e. between an onset consonant and a following vowel, as in ( , 'food dish'), and elsewhere, as in ( , 'vow'). Native Hindi speakers are usually unaware of the allophonic distinctions, though these are apparent to native English speakers.

In most situations, the allophony is non-conditional, i.e. the speaker can choose , , or an intermediate sound based on personal habit and preference, and still be perfectly intelligible, as long as the meaning is constant. This includes words such as advait ( ) (pronounced [əd̪ˈʋɛːt̪]), which can be pronounced equally correctly as or .

External borrowing

Sanskrit borrowing has reintroduced and into formal Modern Standard Hindi. They occur primarily in Sanskrit loanwords and proper nouns. In casual speech, they are sometimes replaced with and . does not occur word-initially and has a nasalized flap as a common allophone.

Loanwords from Persian (including some words which Persian itself borrowed from Arabic or Turkic) introduced six consonants, . Being Persian in origin, these are seen as a defining feature of Urdu, although these sounds officially exist in Hindi and modified Devanagari characters are available to represent them. Among these, , also found in English and Portuguese loanwords, are now considered well-established in Hindi; indeed, appears to be encroaching upon and replacing even in native (non-Persian, non-English, non-Portuguese) Hindi words as well as many other Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi, as happened in Greek with phi. This to shift also occasionally occurs in Urdu. While [z] is a foreign sound, it is also natively found as an allophone of /s/ beside voiced consonants, eg, rasgullā, nasbandī. Similarly v can get devoiced before voiceless consonants, eg. bevkūf.

The other three Persian loans, , are still considered to fall under the domain of Urdu, and are also used by some Hindi speakers; however, other Hindi speakers may assimilate these sounds to respectively. The sibilant is found in loanwords from all sources (Arabic, English, Portuguese, Persian, Sanskrit) and is well-established. Some Hindi speakers (especially those from rural areas) pronounce the sounds as , though these same speakers, having a Sanskritic education, may hyperformally uphold and . In contrast, for native speakers of Urdu, the maintenance of is not commensurate with education and sophistication, but is characteristic of all social levels. The sibilant , found in loanwords from Persian, Portuguese, and English, is very rare and is considered to fall under the domain of Urdu; although it is officially present in Hindi, many speakers of Hindi assimilate it to or .

Being the main sources from which Hindustani draws its higher, learned terms, English, Sanskrit, Arabic, and to a lesser extent Persian provide loanwords with a rich array of consonant clusters. The introduction of these clusters into the language contravenes a historical tendency within its native core vocabulary to eliminate clusters through processes such as cluster reduction and epenthesis. Template:Harvcoltxt lists distinctively Sanskrit/Hindi biconsonantal clusters of initial and final , and distinctively Perso-Arabic/Urdu biconsonantal clusters of final .

Suprasegmental features

Hindustani has a stress accent, but it is not as important as in English. To predict stress placement, the concept of syllable weight is needed:

• A light syllable (one mora) ends in a short vowel : V
• A heavy syllable (two moras) ends in a long vowel or in a short vowel and a consonant: VV, VC
• An extra-heavy syllable (three moras) ends in a long vowel and a consonant, or a short vowel and two consonants: VVC, VCC

Stress is on the heaviest syllable of the word, and in the event of a tie, on the last such syllable. If all syllables are light, the penultimate is stressed. However, the final mora of the word is ignored when making this assignment (Hussein 1997) [or, equivalently, the final syllable is stressed either if it is extra-heavy, and there is no other extra-heavy syllable in the word or if it is heavy, and there is no other heavy or extra-heavy syllable in the word]. For example, with the ignored mora in parentheses:

Examples of Hindustani stress

Hindi spelling	Urdu spelling	Romanization	Pronunciation	Gloss
रेज़गारी	Template:Nq	rezgārī	[ˈreːz.ɡaː.ri(ː)]	small change, coins
समिति	Template:Nq	samiti	[sə.ˈmɪ.t(ɪ)]	committee
क़िस्मत	Template:Nq	qismat	[ˈqɪs.mə(t)]	fate
रौज़ाना	Template:Nq	rozānā	[roː.ˈzaː.na(ː)]	daily
किधर	Template:Nq	kidhar	[kɪ.ˈdʱə(r)]	where, where to
जनाब	Template:Nq	janāb	[dʒə.ˈnaː(b)]	sir, mister
असबाब	Template:Nq	asbāb	[əs.ˈbaː(b)]	goods, property
मुसलमान	Template:Nq	musalmān	[mʊ.səl.ˈmaː(n)]	Muslim
परवरदिगार	Template:Nq	parvardigār	[pər.ʋər.dɪ.ˈɡaː(r)]	epithet of God

Content words in Hindustani normally begin on a low pitch, followed by a rise in pitch. Strictly speaking, Hindustani, like most other Indian languages, is rather a syllable-timed language. The schwa has a strong tendency to vanish into nothing (syncopated) if its syllable is unaccented.

See also

• IPA vowel chart with audio Template:Spoken
• IPA pulmonic consonant chart with audio Template:Spoken
• IPA chart (vowels and consonants) - 2015. (pdf file)
• Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages
• Urdu alphabet
• Devanagari
• Phonological history of Hindustani

Bibliography

• .
• .
• .
• .
• .
• .