Page 107 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

Table 4.2 shows that vowel length before regular consonant in each case is longer
than that before its sonorant counterpart. Similarly, Table 4.3 shows that length of the regular

consonant is shorter than the respective sonorant counterparts in each case in average.
Findings of the spectrograms lead towards aspirate character of Bhojpuri
sonorants. Likewise facts extracted from Table 4.2 and Table 4.3 lead towards

voicelessness of the aspirate sonorants in Bhojpuri. Phonetically the aspirate sonorant
consonants in Bhojpuri retains voicing in intervocalic position and drop it in the

word-final position such as [m ̥ , m ̤ ], [n ̥ , n ̤ ], [l̥, l̤], [r ̥ , r ̤ ], [ɽ ̊ , ɽ̈ ] and [ŋ ̊ , ŋ ̈ ]. But they do not
have phonemic contrast. So, the aspirate sonorant consonants in Bhojpuri in this study

have been presented as 6 /m ̥ /, ऩ /n ̥ /, @ /l ̥ /, ऱ /r ̥ /, ढ़ /ɽ ̊ / and 7 /ŋ ̊ /.

4.1.3 Distribution of consonants
In sub-section 4.1.1 we tried to outline phonological contrasts of the
consonants in Bhojpuri. Now we present distribution of the consonants in different

positions: word-initial, inter-vocalic, word-final, pre-consonental, post-consonantal
and geminate in this sub-section along with the summary. Table 4.4 provides their
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positional distribution.
Table 4.4 Distribution of consonants in Bhojpuri

Consonants Word-initial (#-) Inter-vocalic (v-v) Word–final (-#) Preconsonantal (_C) Post consonantal (C_) Geminate

प /p/ + + + + + +

फ /pʰ/ + + + + + –

ब /b/ + + + + + +

भ /b ̤ / + + + + + –

त /t/ + + + + + +

थ /tʰ/ + + + + + –
द /d/ + + + + + +

ध /d ̤ / + + + + + –

4. Please see Annex III for detailed examples of positional distribution of the Bhojpuri consonants.
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