Page 126 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

/dʰʌnpʌt/ 'wealthy', जङली /jʌŋli/ 'wild'. The retroflex and palatal nasals are allophones

of the alveolar nasal न /n/, and as such they do not occur as isolate aksharas.
c. Consonant gemination

Morpheme-internally, consonants are geminated when they precede a

proximant or a glide, i.e., य /y/, र /r/ and व /w/ as presented in Table 4.10.
Table 4.10: Consonant gemination in Bhojpuri

Bhojpuri gloss Input form Output form Gloss
हXया /ɦʌtyɑ/ [ɦʌttyɑ] 'murder'

पिव\ /pʌbitrʌ/ [pʌbittr] 'sacred'

तXव /tʌtwʌ/ [tʌttwʌ] 'element'

Table 4.10 shows that the Bhojpuri orthography represents non-geminated input
forms before proximants and glide but they turn into geminated ones when pronounced.

4.5.2 Historical phonological facts
Bhojpuri orthography also represents facts of historical phonology, as few segments

of the Old Indo-Aryan. The inputs of them are Sanskrit forms altered in Bhojpuri.
a) Voiceless postalveolar श [ʃ] and retroflex fricative ष [ʂ]

Orthography of Devanagari for Bhojpuri retains श [ʃ] and ष [ʂ] but phonology

has dropped them as shown in Table 4.11.
Table 4.11: Voiceless postalveolar and retroflex fricatives श [ʃ] and ष [ʂ]

Bhojpuri gloss Input form Output form Gloss
शंकर [ʃʌŋkʌr] /sʌnkʌr/ 'Lord Shiva'

देश [deʃ] /des/ 'country'

िवशेष [viʃeʂ] /bises/ 'special'

वष> [vʌrʂ] /bʌrs/ 'year'

पृ_ [pɹʂʈʰ] /prisʈʰ/ 'page'

Table 4.11 exhibits that श [ʃ] and ष [ʂ] have been dropped out in phonology

but retained in orthography, so, they have now become allophones of स /s/, i.e.,
श [ʃ]
स /s/
ष [ʂ].

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