Hindustani phonology

Vowel [ə]

/ə/ is often realized more open than mid [ə], i.e. as near-open [ɐ].^[3] It is subject to schwa deletion word-medially in certain contexts.

Vowel [aː]

The open central vowel is transcribed in IPA by either [aː] or [ɑː].

In Urdu, there is further short [a] (spelled ہ, as in کمرہ kamra [kəmra]) in word-final position, which contrasts with [aː] (spelled ا, as in لڑکا laṛkā [ləɽkaː]). This contrast is often not realized by Urdu speakers, and always neutralized in Hindi (where both sounds uniformly correspond to [aː]).^[4][5]

Vowels [ɪ], [ʊ], [iː], [uː]

Among the close vowels, what in Sanskrit are thought to have been primarily distinctions of vowel length (that is /i, iː/ and /u, uː/), have become in Hindustani distinctions of quality, or length accompanied by quality (that is, /ɪ, iː/ and /ʊ, uː/).^[6] The opposition of length in the close vowels has been neutralized in word-final position, only allowing long close vowels in final position. As a result, Sanskrit loans which originally have a short close vowel are realized with a long close vowel, e.g. śakti (शक्ति – شکتی 'energy') and vastu (वस्तु – وستو 'item') are [ʃəktiː] and [ʋəstuː], usually not *[ʃəktɪ] and *[ʋəstʊ].^[7]

Vowels [ɛ], [ɛː]

The vowel represented graphically as ऐ – اَے (romanized as ai) has been variously transcribed as [ɛː] or [æː].^[8] Among sources for this article, Ohala (1999), pictured to the right, uses [ɛː], while Shapiro (2003:258) and Masica (1991:110) use [æː]. Furthermore, an eleventh vowel /æː/ is found in English loanwords, such as /bæːʈ/ ('bat').^[9] Hereafter, ऐ – اَے (romanized as ai) will be represented as [ɛː] to distinguish it from /æː/, the latter.

In addition, [ɛ] occurs as a conditioned allophone of /ə/ (schwa) within the sequence /əɦə/ (/əɦ/ before the next syllable or word-finally due to schwa deletion).^[7] This change is part of the prestige dialect of Delhi, but may not occur for every speaker. Here are some examples of this process:

However, the fronting of schwa does not occur in words with a schwa only on one side of the /ɦ/ such as kahānī /kəɦaːniː/ (कहानी – کہانی 'a story') or bāhar /baːɦər/ (बाहर – باہر 'outside').

Vowels [ɔ], [ɔː]

The vowel [ɔ] occurs in proximity to /ɦ/ if the /ɦ/ is surrounded on one of the sides by a schwa and on other side by a round vowel (due to Hindustani phonotactics, this generally only occurs in the sequences /əɦʊ/ or /ʊɦə/). It differs from the vowel [ɔː] in that it is a short vowel. For example, in bahut /bəɦʊt/ the /ɦ/ is surrounded on one side by a schwa and a round vowel on the other side. One or both of the schwas will become [ɔ], giving the pronunciation [bɔɦɔt].

Nasalisation of vowels

As in French and Portuguese, there are nasalised vowels in Hindustani. There is disagreement over the issue of the nature of nasalisation (barring English-loaned /æ/ which is seldom nasalised).^[9] Masica (1991:117) presents four differing viewpoints:

1. there are no *[ẽː] and *[õː], possibly because of the effect of nasalization on vowel quality;
2. there is phonemic nasalization of all vowels;
3. all vowel nasalization is predictable (i.e. allophonic);
4. Nasalized long vowel phonemes (/ɑ̃ː ĩː ũː ẽː ɛ̃ː õː ɔ̃ː/) occur word-finally and before voiceless stops; instances of nasalized short vowels ([ə̃ ɪ̃ ʊ̃]) and of nasalized long vowels before voiced stops (the latter, presumably because of a deleted nasal consonant) are allophonic.

Masica supports this last view.^[10]

Vowel orthography with diacritics and English approximations

The principal vowel phonemes may be organised as follows to demonstrate the orthographic conventions for vowels.

Allophony of [v] and [w]

Hindustani does not distinguish between [v] and [w], specifically Hindi. These are distinct phonemes in English, but conditional allophones of the phoneme /ʋ/ in Hindustani (written ⟨व⟩ in Hindi or ⟨و⟩ in Urdu), meaning that contextual rules determine when it is pronounced as [v] and when it is pronounced as [w]. /ʋ/ is pronounced [w] in onglide position, i.e. between an onset consonant and a following vowel, as in dvīp (द्वीप​ دویپ, 'island'), and [v] elsewhere (though it is not universal), as in vrat (व्रत ورت, 'vow'). Native Hindi-Urdu speakers are usually unaware of the allophonic distinctions, though these are apparent to native English speakers (as well as usually to the speakers of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, such as Odia, Bengali, Assamese, etc.).^[36]

When /ʋ/ is preceded by a consonant which itself is preceded by a vowel (i.e. in the environment VC_), the allophony is non-conditional, i.e. the speaker can choose [v], [w], or an intermediate sound based on personal habit and preference, and still be perfectly intelligible. This is due to ambiguity in the syllabification of such words. For example, advait (अद्वैत ادویت) which is underlyingly /əd̪ʋɛːt̪/, may be syllabified as /ə.d̪ʋɛːt̪/, /əd̪.ʋɛːt̪/, or /əd̪.d̪ʋɛːt̪/. Accordingly, the word can be pronounced equally correctly as [əˈd̪wɛːt̪], [əd̪ˈvɛːt̪], or [əd̪ˈd̪wɛːt̪].^[36]

In final clusters, /ʋ/ is [w] when preceded by a more sonorous consonant and [v] otherwise. For example, dvandv (द्वंद्व دوندو, 'pair') is pronounced [d̪wən̪d̪w], but garv (गर्व​ گرو, 'pride') is usually (though not always) pronounced [gəɾv].^[36]

External borrowing

Sanskrit borrowing has reintroduced /ɳ/ and /ʂ/ into formal Modern Standard Hindi. They occur primarily in Sanskrit loanwords and proper nouns. In casual speech (as well as in Urdu), they are usually replaced with /n/ and /ʃ/.^[9] /ɳ/ does not occur word-initially and has a nasalized flap [ɽ̃] as a common allophone.^[19][37]

Loanwords from Persian (including some words which Persian itself borrowed from Arabic or Turkic languages), or even directly from Arabic, introduced six consonants, /f, z, ʒ, q, x, ɣ/. Being Perso-Arabic in origin, these are seen as a defining feature of Urdu, although these sounds officially exist in Hindi and modified Devanagari characters are available to represent them.^[38][39] Among these, /f, z/, also found in English, French and Portuguese loanwords, are now considered well-established in Hindi (though not in the rural parts of India, as well as among older generation-speakers); indeed, /f/ appears to be encroaching upon and replacing /pʰ/ even in native (non-Persian, non-English, non-Portuguese) Hindi words as well as many other Indian languages such as Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi, as happened in Greek with phi.^[19] This /pʰ/ to /f/ shift also occasionally occurs in Urdu (especially in India).^[40] While [z] is a foreign sound, it is also natively found as an allophone of /s/ beside voiced consonants, eg, rasgullā, nasbandī. Similarly, v can get devoiced before voiceless consonants, eg., bevqūf.

The other three Persian loans, /q, x, ɣ/, are still considered to fall under the domain of Urdu, and are also used by some Hindi speakers; however, other Hindi speakers may assimilate these sounds to /k, kʰ, g/ respectively.^[27][38][41] The sibilant /ʃ/ is found in loanwords from all sources (Arabic, English, Portuguese, Persian, Sanskrit) and is well-established.^[9] Some Hindi speakers (especially those from rural areas, as well as among older generation-speakers) pronounce the /f, z, ʃ/ sounds as /pʰ, dʒ, s/, though these same speakers, having a Sanskritic education, may hyperformally uphold /ɳ/ and /ʂ/.^[42][26] In contrast, for native speakers of Urdu, the maintenance of /f, z, ʃ/ is not commensurate with education and sophistication, but is characteristic of all social levels.^[41] The sibilant /ʒ/, found in loanwords from Persian, Portuguese, French, and English, is very rare and is considered to fall under the domain of Urdu; although it is officially present in Hindi, many speakers of Hindi assimilate it to /z/, /dʒ/, or even /dʒʱ/.^[29][26]

Being the main sources from which Hindustani draws its higher, learned terms, English, Sanskrit, Arabic, and to a lesser extent Persian provide loanwords with a rich array of consonant clusters. The introduction of these clusters into the language contravenes a historical tendency within its native core vocabulary to eliminate clusters through processes such as cluster reduction and epenthesis.^[43] Schmidt (2003:293) lists distinctively Sanskrit/Hindi biconsonantal clusters /kj, kr, kl, kʃ, sk, st, sʋ, ʃr, ʃʋ, sn, sp, sm, sj, sʋ, nj, tj, tʋ, dj, dʋ, nj, lj, rj, mj, nʋ, lʋ, rʋ, mʋ, dʒj, dʒʋ, tʃj, tʃʋ, rj, ʂk, ʂʈ, ʂɳ, ʂp, ʂm, ʂj, ʂʋ/, and distinctively Perso-Arabic/Urdu biconsonantal clusters /ʃt, ʃk, ʒd, ʒg, fʃ, ʃf, ft, tf, fr, lx, xl, rf, fr, xf, mt, ms, mz, bl, nz, zf, fz, zq, qz, xr, rx, xt, qt, tq, nf, fn, nx, xn, mx, xm, xʃ, ɣz, rɣ/.