Appendix:Sylheti pronunciation
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Sylheti
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The phoneme inventory of Sylheti differs from other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. It is characterized by a loss of breathiness and aspiration contrasts, leading to a significant reduction in its phoneme inventory and the development of tones. Notable phonological developments include:
- Both voiced and voiceless aspirated stops have become unaspirated (e.g., /d̪ʱ/ → /d̪/; /t̪ʰ/ → /t̪/).
- Voiceless labials have spirantized to homorganic fricatives (e.g., /p/ → /ɸ/; /pʰ/ → /ɸ/).
- Velar stops have become velar fricatives (e.g., /k/ → /x/; /kʰ/ → /x/), although /[k]/ can be an allophone of /x/ when preceded by high vowels /i, u/.
- Post-alveolar affricates have spirantized to alveolar fricatives (e.g., /tʃ/ → /s/; /dʒ/ → /z/).
- Among voiceless stops, only the dental /t̪, d̪/ and retroflex /ʈ, ɖ/ stops have remained stops.
| Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|
| /i/ ꠁ | /u/ ꠃ | |
| /e/ ꠄ | ||
| /ɔ/ ꠅ | ||
| /a/ ꠀ |
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex/Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ ꠝ | /n/ ꠘ | /ŋ/ ꠋ | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate | /t̪/ ꠔ ꠨ ꠕ | /ʈ/ ꠐ ꠨ ꠑ | ||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | /b/ ꠛ | /d̪/ ꠖ ꠨ ꠗ | /ɖ/ ꠒ ꠨ ꠓ | /ɡ/ ꠉ ꠨ ꠊ | ||
| Fricative | /f/ ꠙ ꠨ ꠚ | /s/ ꠌ ꠨ ꠍ | /ʃ/ ꠡ | /x/ ꠇ ꠨ ꠈ | ||
| Fricative | /z/ ꠎ ꠨ ꠏ | /ɦ/ ꠢ | ||||
| Flap | /ɾ/ ꠞ | |||||
| Approximant | /l/ ꠟ |
Sylheti is a tonal language, which is rare among Indo-Aryan languages. It features two types of tonal contrasts: high tone and level tone, with a more recent analysis suggesting a three-way tonal system for words with two syllables or more. The tones typically arose from the loss of aspiration in consonants.
Examples:
| Word | Transliteration | Tone | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ꠀꠔ | at | level | 'intestine' |
| ‘ꠀꠔ | át | high | 'hand' |
| ꠇꠣꠟꠤ | xali | level | 'ink' |
| ꠈꠣꠟꠤ | xáli | high | 'empty' |
See also
[edit]- Wikipedia's article on Sylheti language
- Wikipedia's phonology section of Sylheti language
- Help:IPA/Sylheti on Wikipedia
References
[edit]- Gope, Amalesh. The phonetics and phonology of Sylheti tonogenesis. Guwahati: Indian Institute of Technology, 2016.
- Mahanta, Shakuntala & Gope, Amalesh. An acoustic analysis of Sylheti phonemes. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Phonetic Sciences, 2015.
Further reading
[edit]- Eden, S. (2020) Language Documentation and Description, volume 18, London, , pages 23-41