Page 581 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

̈
/ɖ/ and ढ़ /ɽ ̊ /; they are only phonemic in Bhojpuri. So, Bhojpuri is functionally and

typologically nearer to its close neighbours but the presence of phonemic retroflex
flap is its own inventory along with the aspirate sonorant counterparts of all the three.
It attests the functional and typoligical closeness of Bhojpuri with its neighbours with

its own adaptive character in developing devoicing sonority.
(d) Fricatives
The Indo-Aryan languages traditionally count three sibilants श /ʃ/, ष /ʂ/ and स

/s/ along with a glottal ह /ɦ/ as fricatives (Masica 1991:99). In practice, the retroflex
fricative ष /ʂ/ has already been dropped except in Sanskrit and the palatal fricative श

/ʃ/ has also been dropped in so many languages including Bhojpuri, Nepali, Maithili

and Awadhi but Hindi (Koul 2008:17) retains श /ʃ/ as the same and ष /ʂ/ as glottal
counterpart of ख /kʰ/. So, Bhojpuri has a single sibilant fricative alveolar स /s/ and

other two are its allophones. However, the glottal fricative ह /ɦ/ has been retained in

Bhojpuri along with its close neighbours. It attests its functional adaptive character
and groups it typologically with Chitoniya Tharu, Maithili, Awadhi and Nepali.

(e) Semivowels
The semivowels य /y/ and व /w/ are a somewhat shaky part of the NIA inventory (Masica,

1991:99). Grierson (1903a:6) denotes, "Eastern languages cannot tolerate an initial य /y/ or व

/w/". Thus, in a number of languages including Bhojpuri, their occurrence is practically
restricted to semi-predictable intervocalic glides. It is attested to a greater extent in NIA

group the OIA word-initial य /y/ in relative pronouns, adjectives and adverbs turns to be
ज /j/ in NIA including Bhojpuri, already discussed in Chapter 13.4. Similarly OIA word-

initial व /w/ turns to ब /b/ or ओ /o/ in NIA including Bhojpuri. But Bhojpuri has also

tolerance of their word-initial presence, especially for tatsama and other borrowings.
(f) Voicing

All the NIA languages except Tamil have a voicing opposition in the basic
stop series ब /b/, द /d/, ड /ɖ/, ज /j/ and ग /ɡ/ vs. प /p/, त /t/, ट /ʈ/, च /c/ and क /k/

(Masica, 1991:100) and so does Bhojpuri.
(g) Aspiration

Normally, all IA languages including Sanskrit have an aspirated series of both
voiceless and voiced stops, exhibiting a four-way contrast between प /p/, फ /pʰ/, ब /b/

and भ /bʰ/ at all five basic points of articulation (Masica, 1991:101). Bhojpuri also

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