Page 580 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

Besides these, as Maithili (Jha, 1993:93 & Yadav, 1996:21), Awadhi (Saksena 1971:29)
and Hindi (Koul, 2008:12) retain retroflex stops but Nepali (Adhikari, 2016:10) records

post-alveolar, Darai (Dhakal, 2011:51) and Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal, 2013:61) record
them as alveolar and Rājbansi (Wilde, 2008:24) as apico-retroflex. Diachronically, the
Sanskrit retroflex stops have been adapted to apico-alveolar in Bhojpuri being

typologically nearer to Chitoniya Tharu and Darai, Nepali, and Rājbansi respectively
and attests functional-typoligical as well as adaptive approach to grammar.

(b) Nasals
Corresponding to the five oral stops in Sanskrit, the basic nasal articulations
were also counted to be five by the ancient Indian phoneticians: म /m/, न /n/, ण /ɳ/, ञ

/ɲ/ and ङ /ŋ/ (Masica 1991:95). But Bhojpuri has already dropped ण /ɳ/ and ञ /ɲ/ and

now they have become allophones of न /n/ as its close neighbours Chitoniya Tharu,
Maithili, Awadhi and Nepali do, already mentioned in Chapter 4.1.1. Among them,

the former two occur in all three initial, medial and final positions of a word and the
last one only occurs at medial and final position in all its neighbours but Bhojpuri
displays its word-initial position, already discussed. Moreover, Bhojpuri exhibits !

/m ̥ /, ऩ /n ̥ / and # /ŋ ̊ / as the aspirate sonorant counterparts, phonetically breathy in inter-
vocalic as well as voiceless in word-final position, in opposition to म /m/, न /n/ and ङ

/ŋ/ respectively. But Rājbanshi (Wilde, 2008:24) and Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal,

2013:61) record them as the aspirated nasals whereas Awadhi (Saksena, 1971:44)
records only $ह /mɦ/ and &ह /nɦ/. It attests basic Bhojpuri nasals to be nearer to

Chitoniya Tharu, Maithili, Rājbansi, Awadhi, Hindi and Nepali respectively
functionally and typologically but their aspirate sonorant counterparts are its own

inventory that attests adaptive approach to grammar in Bhojpuri.
(c) Laterals and flaps

All NIA dialects have a lateral ल /l/ and a flap र /r/ (Masica 1991:97) and so
Bhojpuri does have. Besides, Bhojpuri exhibits their aspirate sonorant counterparts, '

/l̥ / and ऱ /r̥ / respectively, whereas Awadhi (Saksena, 1971:48-9), Rājbanshi (Wilde,

2008:24) and Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal, 2013:61) exhibit them as aspirated ones.

Likewise, Bhojpuri has also the retroflex flap ड़ /ɽ/ in opposition to flap र /r/, and its
aspirate sonorant counterpart ढ़ /ɽ ̊ /. Though Hindi, Nepali, Maithili and Awadhi, the

close Indo-Aryan neighbours of Bhojpuri, have allophonic pairs of ड /ɖ/ and ड़ /ɽ/, ढ

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