Page 109 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

The following generalizations can be made with regard to the distribution of
the consonants in Bhojpuri as summarized in Table 4.4.

a) All the consonant phonemes occur in the inter-vocalic and word-final position
in Bhojpuri.

b) Except 6 /m ̥ /, ऩ /n ̥ /, 7 /ŋ ̊ /, ऱ /r ̥ /, ड़ /ɽ/, ढ़ /ɽ ̊ / and @ /l ̥/; all of them occur in the
word-initial position.

c) All aspirated and breathy consonants are absent in gemination because they
cannot be repeated while articulated.

d) All aspirate sonorants are only present in preconsonantal position as they
cannot be articulated in either postconsonantal or geminate position.

e) Voiceless but nonaspirated and voiced consonants are available in all three
positions of clusters.

f) Bilabial glide व /w/ is only available in postconsonantal position while clustering.

g) The palatal glide य /y/ is only absent in preconsonantal position for clustering.
4.2 Vowels
"The basic parameters of most vowel systems are the three scales whose

endpoints are traditionally called high and low, front and back, and rounded and
unrounded" (Ladefoged & Maddieson, 1996:282). They are of two types in Bhojpuri:

oral and nasal. The oral vowels in Bhojpuri are further categorized into
monopththongs, diphthongs and triphthongs. In this section, we first present an

inventory of the oral monophthongs and then we discuss their phonological contrasts
as well as their positional distribution. Then, the nasal monophthongs will be

discussed. Finally, we examine the diphthongs and triphthongs in Bhojpuri.
4.2.1 Inventory of oral monophthongs
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There are eight oral monophthongs in Bhojpuri. The vowel length is not
contrastive except a contrast between back open आ /ɑ/ and back half-open अ /ʌ/.

Table 4.5 presents quadrilateral of the Bhojpuri oral monophthons.

5. Grierson (1883:21) introduces 10 oral monophthongs for Bhiharí which Bhojpuri belongs to /ɑ, ɑ ́ , i, í,
u, ú, ě, e, ǒ, o/, Tiwari (1954:71/1960:3) presents 14 Bhojpuri oral vowels /i:, i, e:, e, ɛ, a, ʌ, ɑ, u:, u, o:,
o, ɔ:, ɔ/, Shukla (1981:26-7) displays 11 /i:, i, e:, e, æ, a:, a, o:, o, u:, u/, Trammell (1971:127-8) records
10 /i, ɩ, e, ɛ, æ, ə, a, ɔ, o, u/, Verma (2003:572) and exhibits 6 /i, e, a, ā, o, u/ Bhojpuri oral vowels.
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