Page 110 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

Table 4.5: Oral monophthongs in Bhojpuri
Front Mid Back

Close i u Close

Half-close   Half-close



Half-open ɛ ɔ Half-open
ʌ

Open  Open

Front Mid Back

Table 4.5 shows that there are eight monophthongs in Bhojpuri in terms of

high-low and front-back position of the tongue. Maithili (Yadav 1996:15) exhibits the
same oral monophthongs as Bhojpuri does. Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal 2013:52) and

Nepali (Adhikari 2014:5) exhibit six of them except ऐ /ɛ/ and औ /ɔ/. Awadhi (Saksena

1937/1971:25) exhibits eleven oral monophthongs that excludes ऐ /ɛ/ and औ /ɔ/ but
adds ई /i:/, एऽ /e:/, अ /ə/, ओऽ /o:/ and ऊ /u:/. Hindi (Koul 2008:11) exhibits ten oral

monophthongs adding ई /i:/ and ऊ /u:/ with those available in Bhojpuri. The

Bhojpuri oral monophthongs are classified as close front इ /i/, half-close front ए /e/,

half-open front ऐ /ɛ/, open back आ /ɑ/, half open back अ /ʌ/ and औ or ऑ /ɔ/, half-
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close back ओ /o/ and close back उ /u/.

4.2.2 Phonological contrasts in oral monophthongs
The oral monophthongs present the phonological contrast in terms of height
and front-back positions of tongue in Bhojpuri.

a. Height contrasts
We present the contrasts for the vowels in terms of the height of the tongue, as

in (12a-m).
(12) a. इ /i/ vs. ए /e/

Word-initial Inter-consonantal word-final

इतवार /itwɑr/ 'trust' िबल /bil/ 'a hole' जी /ji/ 'yes, yea'
एतवार/etwɑr/ 'Sunday' बेल /bel/ 'wood-apple' जे /je/ 'the one'

6. The diphthongs /ʌi/ and /ʌu/ are presented by the Devanagari letters ऐ and औ as in some of the Indo-
Aryan languages including Sanskrit and Nepali but Bhojpuri, with its close neighbours Awadhi,
Maithili and Hindi, presents monophthongs /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in Devanagari with the same letters.
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