Page 79 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

CHAPTER 4
PHONOLOGY

4.0 Outline
This chapter deals with the phonology of Bhojpuri. It consists of 6 sections.
Section 4.1 analyzes consonants. In section 4.2 we present vowels. Section 4.3

presents distinctive features of the Bhojpuri phonemes. Section 4.4 exhibits syllable
structure in the language. Section 4.5 describes phoneme and grapheme interface and

we summarize findings in the chapter in section 4.6.
4.1 Inventory of the consonants

Going through Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) and Ladefoged (2001)
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Bhojpuri has 36 consonant phonemes discussed in this study. They can be described
and classified primarily according to their phonation. According to the place of
articulation, the Bhojpuri consonants can be classified into nine categories: 1.
Bilabial, 2. Dental, 3. Alveolar, 4. Apico-alveolar, 5. Alveo-palatal, 6. Retroflex, 7.

Palatal, 8. Velar, and 9. Glottal. Likewise when classified according to their manner
of articulation, they can be grouped into seven categories: 1. Stops, 2. Fricatives, 3.

Affricates, 4. Nasals, 5. Flap, 6. Lateral and 7. Approximants. As in other Indo-Aryan
neighbours voicing and aspiration are contrastive in Bhojpuri. In terms of voicing,

there are two types of consonants: voiceless and voiced; whereas in terms of
aspiration, there are also two types: aspirated and unaspirated. The Bhojpuri

1. Masica (1991:94-104) records five distinctive tongue positions: labial, dental, retroflex, palatal and
velar for the basic Indo-Aryan stops /p, t, ṭ, c, k/ from Sanskrit, quotes Indian phoneticians observing
five nasals [m, n, ɳ, ɲ, ŋ] corresponding to those five oral stops, depicts two laterals /r, l/, one more
retroflex /ṛ/, three fricatives /ʃ, s, h/, two semivowels /y, w/, five voiced counterparts /b, d, ḍ, j, g/ of
the basic stops /p, t, ṭ, c, k/ respectively and aspirate pairs /pʰ, tʰ, ṭʰ, cʰ, kʰ/ and /bʰ, dʰ, ḍʰ, jʰ, gʰ/ of
each of the voiceless and voiced stops respectively in general. Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996:58)
records stops from Hindi as /p, t̪, ṭ, t̠ʃ, k/, /pʰ, t̪ʰ, ṭʰ, t̠ʃʰ, kʰ/, /b, d ̪ , ḍ, d ̠ ʒ, ɡ/ and /bʱ, d ̪ ʱ, ḍʱ, dʒʱ, ɡʱ/.
Grierson (19883:19) presents 35 consonants for what it says Bihari which Bhojpuri belongs to /k, kh,
ɡ, ɡh, n ̆ , ch, chh, j, jh, ń, ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ṛ, ḍh, ṛh, ṇ, t, th, d, dh, n, p, ph, b, bh, m, y, r, l, w, ś, sh, s, h/.
Likewise, Trammel (1971:128) introduces bi-labial stops /p, p', b, b'/, apico-dental stops /t, t', d, d'/,
retroflex stops /ṭ, ṭ' ḍ, ḍ'/, dorso-velar stops /k, k', g, g'/, alveo-alveolar affricates /č, č', j, j'/, groove /s,
h/, lateral /l/, nasals/m, n, ṇ, ñ, ŋ/, flaps /r, r', ṛ, ṛ'/ and glides /w, y/. Tiwari (1960:9-14) records labial
plosives /p, ph, b, bɦ/, dental stops /t, th, d, dɦ/, retroflex stops /ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍɦ/, velar stops /k, kh, g, gɦ/,
͡
͡
͡
͡
affricates /cʃ, cʃh, ɟʒ, ɟʒɦ/, nasals /m, mɦ, n, nɦ, ɲ, ŋ, ŋɦ/, laterals /l, lɦ/, rolled /r, rɦ/, flapped /ṛ, ṛɦ/,
fricative /s, h/ and semi-vowels /w, j/. Similarly, Shukla (1981:13) collects bilabial stops /p, pʰ, b, bʰ/,
dental stops /t, tʰ, d, dʰ/, retroflex /T, Tʰ, D, Dʰ/, velar stops /k, kʰ, g, gʰ/, affricates /c, cʰ, j, jʰ/,
fricatives /s, h/, nasals /m, mʰ, n, nʰ, n ̰ , n ̰ ʰ/, laterals /l, lʰ/, flaps /r, rʰ, R, Rʰ/ and glides /y, w/.
Moreover, Verma (2003:520) sketches Bhojpuri consonants in terms of labial stops /p, ph, b, bh/,
dental stops /t, th, d, dh/, retroflex stops /ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh/, palatal stops /c, ch, j, jh/ and velar stops /k, kh,
g, gh/, nasals /m, mh, n, nh, ŋ, ŋh/, fricatives /s, h/, flaps /r, rh, ṛ, ṛh/, laterals /l, lh/ and glides /w, y/.
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