Phonological Behavior of Aspirated Consonants in Urdu

Adnan Nisar - Zeeshan Baqir41Phonological Behavior of Aspirated Consonants in Urdu|Abstract: Aspirated sounds in Urdu show variation indifferent contexts, which mainly occur due to somephonological rules. Some of these variations showrandom behavior, which makes them harder to begeneralized into phonological rules. This paper intendsto uncover these phonological rules and to explain thephonological behavior of aspirated consonants in Urdulanguage. The rules described are supported by relevantdata from Urdu.Keywords: auto segmental, aspiration, deletion,assimilation, dissimilation, epenthesis, metathesis,lenition, phonotactic constraint.1. INTRODUCTIONTo achieve the motive of ease of articulationfeatures, which require more effort, are normally dropped.This causes the alteration of some phonemes fromphonemic to the phonetic representation. Thesealterations are described through the phonological rules.The major categories of these rules are assimilation,dissimilation, epenthesis (insertion), deletion andmetathesis (reordering).The ‘aspirated’ feature is never assimilated toneighboring segments. Dissimilation and deletion widelyoccur with aspirated sounds in Urdu. The phenomenon ofepenthesis and metathesis occur, but are not verycommon. Some controversial phonemes of Urdu (/m h /,/n h /, /l h /, /r h /, / h /) (Saleem, et. al. 2002), showdistinctive behavior when they are used as aspiratedconsonants in different words.2. LITERATURE REVIEWThis section provides a brief overview of thereference material consulted to carry out the studyregarding phonological behavior of aspirates in Urdu.According to Hussain and Nair in (Hussain andNair, 1995), in aspirated stops there is a period ofvoicelessness after the articulation of stop, during thisperiod a burst of air comes out. In Urdu both aspiratedstops and affricates exist as distinct phonemes e.g. /b h /,/ h /, /d h /, /d h / etc.Rules that specify how the sounds of a languageinteract with each other are called phonological rules.Examination of these rules shows that a component isshared by most of the rules, which can be crudely ortraditionally called ‘ease of articulation’ (Lass, 1995).Assimilation is the process when a soundchanges to become similar to a nearby sound. A subclassof assimilation is change in stricture; it can be weakening(lenition) or strengthening (fortition). These changesoccur due to change in sonority or openness (Napoli,1996).In dissimilation a sound changes to be unlikesound nearby it (Napoli, 1996). In deletion of aspiration,an aspirated consonant changes to unaspirated one.During epenthesis a segment or a feature isinserted within a word or a phone respectively. Sinceaspiration is a feature so it can be inserted in a consonanti.e. it becomes [+asp] from [-asp]. Bokhari in (Bokhari,1985) gives example of insertion of aspiration. He statesthat whenever dative article /e/ or intensifier /i/ is addedas a suffix to a word, its last unaspirated consonant ischanged to aspirated one. But as it is discussed later thatit does not happen all the time. For example, when suffix/i/ is added to the word [sn] it becomes [sni] and thusno aspiration is inserted.Metathesis involves linear transposition of wholesegments (Lass, 1995), but in case of aspiration itbecomes the linear transposition of the ‘aspirated’ feature.There are two possible ways of representingphonological rules:1. Linear Phonology: The basic assumption of linearphonology is that the phonological representation ofsound is a linear slicing of segments into discretematrices.(www.coolschool.auf.net/02/abstracts/Jacobs_Introduction_to_Non-linear_Phonology.html).2. Auto segmental Phonology: Autosegmentalphonology treats phonological representations asmulti-dimensional, having several tiers. Each tier ismade up of a linear arrangement of segments(Goldsmith, 1990).The processes of assimilation can be completelyspecified in linear phonology, whereas the process ofdissimilation is most of the times non-linear, so it cannotbe explained through linear phonology. Deletion issometimes better explained by autosegmental phonology.In case of metathesis it cannot be said which one is abetter representation (Napoli, 1996).3. PROBLEM STATEMENTWhat sort of phonological rules are followed byaspirated consonants in Urdu?4. METHODOLOGY4.1 Data CollectionAt present, a standard dictionary of Urdu is notavailable in electronic form. So, data was collected from

five dictionaries (Ahmed, 2002), (Feroze-ud-Din), (Haqi,1995), (Nayyar, 1989), (Platts, 1911). Those words wereselected for analysis, which showed some variation withaspiration. Some other words were also selected whichcontained aspirated consonants but are spoken differentlyfrom their pronunciation given in the dictionary. Inappendix these words are differentiated with a ‘*’ insuperscript (e.g. word * ). We have included only thosevariations, which were clearly stated in most of thedictionaries. In some cases dictionaries gavecontradictory data. For reaching to a decision only thosewords were included which were present in at least threeof the reference dictionaries. To choose the base formfrom different variations of a word, we used thedictionary by John T. Platts as reference as it was theoldest published from all other dictionaries. All thosewords, which contained their meanings as well as theirother variations, were taken as base form words.4.2 Analysis of DataTo see which rule applied to a given set ofwords, the syllable structure and stress in the syllableswas analyzed. The context, i.e. the features ofneighboring segments, in which aspiration exhibitedvariation, was also considered. To represent thephonological rules both linear and autosegmentalrepresentations were considered and the representationthat best explained the data was chosen.5. RESULTS5.1 DeletionAnalysis of data showed that deletion ofaspiration from aspirated consonants occurs at twodifferent places in words. Rule 5.1(a) describes deletionof aspiration from the consonant at word boundary. Fore.g. /t h et h / becomes [t h et].[+asp]X #[+cons]except for /k/Rule 5.1(a) Deletion of aspiration from aspiratedconsonants at word boundary in wordsIn Rule 5.1(a), ‘#’ represents word boundary.The data for this rule is given in the Appendix A.1.Deletion of aspiration from consonant occurring mediallyin the word is given by Rule 5.1(b). For example the word/ob h i/ becomes [obi]. The data analyzed for Rule5.1(b) is given in the Appendix A.2.While analyzing the data, it was observed thataspiration from the consonant present at the beginning ofthe word is never deleted.[+asp]X 1 X 2 X 3[+son][+obs][+son]except when X 1 = V and X 3 = NRule 5.1(b) Deletion of aspiration from aspiratedconsonants occurring medially in words5.2 MetathesisThe words showing metathesis with aspirated consonantswere very limited. Due to dependency of rule on a lot offactors, the phonological rule for metathesis could not beformulated, either in linear form or in autosegmentalform. For example the word /k∂t h t h a/becomes [k h ∂tta]. Words in which metathesisoccurs is given in the Appendix B.It was noticed that aspiration of consonant occurring atthe beginning of word is never shifted (e.g. /b h ∂rna/).5.3 InsertionThe stem’s last consonant becomes aspiratedwhenever the suffixes /e/ and /i/ are added to the stemsof closed class words. For e.g. when suffix /i/ is added to/n/ it becomes [n h i] . The data corresponding toinsertion is given in the Appendix C. Rule 5.3 shows theinsertion of aspiration.[+asp]XX+ X[+syl] [-cont] [+syl][+ant] [-back][+voiced] [+tense][-low]XRule 5.3 Insertion of aspiration[+syl][-cont][+syl][+ant] [-back][+voiced][+tense][-low]5.4 DissimilationThe process of dissimilation of aspiration inUrdu is described in Rule 5.4.[+asp]XV (V) (C).XXXRule 5.4 Dissimilation of aspiration

In Rule 5.4, ‘V’ represents a single timing slotfor a vowel, as long vowel takes two timing slots so it willbe represented as ‘VV’ in this case, ‘.’ represents thesyllable boundary. The example of dissimilation is/t h ∂t h t h a/ which dissimilates to [t h ∂tta].The datain which dissimilation occurs is given in the Appendix D.5.5 Rules for Aspirated Sonorant ConsonantsTwo different types of behavior are shown bythese aspirated consonants (/m h /, /n h /, /l h /, /r h /, / h /).First is simple deletion and second is in which aspirationis promoted to /h/ consonant.The process of deletion of aspiration fromsonorant consonant is illustrated in Rule 5.5(a). For e.g.the word /bu h a/ becomes [bua].Data for Rule 5.5(a) is given the Appendix E.1.The rule showing promotion of the aspiration to form thesonorant /h/ is represented in Rule 5.5(b). The example ofthis is /ba h ∂i/which becomes [bah∂i]. Datarepresenting this phenomenon is given in theAppendixE.2.X.[+asp]XX[+syl][+tense][+syl] [+cons][-tense][+son][+ant][+asp]XX[+cons][+son][+ant]Rule 5.5(a) Deletion of aspiration from sonorant consonants(/m h /, /n h /, /l h /, /r h /, / h /)[+asp][+syl] [+cons] [+son][-tense] [+son] [+cont][+ant][+spread]Rule 5.5(b) Promotion of aspiration from to /h/The contexts in which these rules are applied arediscussed in the discussion section.5.6 Phonotactic ConstraintsFollowing are the phonotactic constraints,regarding aspiration, found during the analysis of thedata:1. In Urdu, the aspiration never follows the approximant/j/.X.X2. No word in Urdu can have more than two aspiratedconsonants.6. DISCUSSION6.1 DeletionThe basic motive of deleting aspiration fromconsonants is ease of articulation. The two cases ofaspiration deletion are discussed below.6.1.1 At Word BoundaryIn Urdu aspirated consonant at word boundarybecomes unaspirated. The data showed one exception,that aspiration is never deleted if the last consonant wasunvoiced velar stop i.e. /k/ (See rows 13 to 16 ofAppendix A.1).6.1.2 Medially in WordAspiration gets deleted from consonants, whichoccur somewhere in the middle of the word i.e. not at thestart or end of the word. The analysis of data showed thatthere are some special contexts in which aspiratedconsonant can or cannot become unaspirated. Thesecontexts were, aspirated consonant occurring in between avowel and nasal (V__N), vowel and vowel (V__V), nasaland vowel (N__V) and nasal and nasal (N__N). Here ‘V’covers both short and long vowels. Followingobservations were made regarding these contexts:• Aspiration does not get deleted from the consonant,when it comes in between a vowel and nasal i.e. inthe V__N context. For examples see the rows 24 to31 of Appendix A.2. There is an exception in thiscase, the aspiration is deleted from velar nasal ‘’stop in V__N context (See rows 22 and 23 ofAppendix A.2).• Aspiration from consonant is always deleted when itcomes in the contexts as in V__V, N__N, and N__V(See rows 1 to 12 and 18 to 21 of the Appendix A.2).There are some examples that have different context,which has not been discussed explicitly, butaspiration deletion does occur in them (see rows 32 to34 of Appendix A.2).Due to some conflicting data (See rows 13 to 17of Appendix A.2, we also did the analysis by taking intoaccount the stress and syllabification, but no effect wasobserved. This data is considered as exception. Forexample /h∂t h a/ and /b∂k h ea/, both words havethe onset of their stressed syllable aspirated. But in thefirst word aspiration is deleted and in the second it is not.6.2 MetathesisWe did not get much data in this regard. Datafor metathesis is given in the Appendix B. The datashowed following properties:• Metathesis in case of aspiration is only true for stopsi.e. no examples involved aspirated affricates.

• The linear transposition of aspiration takes placebetween stops, which are in two different syllables.• The aspiration is shifted in the stop of precedingsyllable. If the preceding syllable has both coda andonset, it shifts on the onset and if there is no onset itshifts to coda.• Metathesis does not take place if the first syllable ofthe word has aspirated stop, in the word base form.• Metathesis occurs only if the phones of both syllablesare either voiced or unvoiced.• In most of the cases first and second syllables wereinvolved except for one example [k∂t h t h a], inwhich it takes place between second and thirdsyllable.The data involved one word i.e. /k∂t h t h a/, whichcontained geminate stop that showed metathesis. For thecase of geminate stops, we have assumed that theaspiration will be realized in the second segment i.e. inthe onset of the proceeding syllable. The data alsoshowed one exception i.e. /kat h t h a/.InsertionWhen the suffixes /e/ and /i/ are added to the stems ofclosed class words aspiration is inserted to the stem’s lastconsonant. Closed class is that class, which does notcontain nouns, verbs and adjectives. It does not happenwith consonants which are unvoiced, for example /s/ +/e/ gives /se/. The only exception in this rule is [h∂me](/h∂m/+/e/), in which [m] remains un-aspirated.6.4 DissimilationIf two adjacent syllables contain the same aspiratedconsonant in their onsets, dissimilation occurs andaspiration is removed from second consonant. In all casesthe two consonants involved should have exactly samefeatures before dissimilation takes place.Dissimilation does not occur in some words (See rows 14to 17 in the Appendix D). Although they satisfy thedissimilation rule (Rule 4.4), these words share a commonfeature i.e. they are formed by a process calledreduplication. In reduplication, morpheme pluralizationtakes place in the word formation process. For example/p h s/ + /a/ gives [p h sp h sa].6.5 Rules for Aspirated Sonorant ConsonantsThese phonemes contain m h , n h , l h , r h and h . Thestatus of these phonemes in Urdu is still controversial thatwhether they exist or not. They all demonstrate similarkind of behavior with aspiration i.e. aspiration deletionand promotion. The processes are discussed below:• Deletion of aspiration: Whenever aspirated sonorantconsonant has a long vowel preceding it, theaspiration gets deleted.• Promotion of aspiration: When aspirated sonorantconsonant has a short vowel preceding it, theaspiration is promoted to form a new sonorant /h/.The sonorant consonant becomes the coda of thepreceding open syllable and /h/ becomes the onset ofthe next syllable, which previously had no onset.The data given in the Appendix E.2 and E.2 falls in theabove-mentioned rules without any exception.6.6 Other FindingsThere is a word /unt/ in which the aspiration isinserted at word boundary i.e. it becomes [unt h ]. Noother example was found in the collected data, whichcould help to elaborate this phenomenon.We found that lenition (a type of assimilation)occurs only in case of unvoiced aspirated affricate. In thiscase an aspirated affricate weakens to form a fricative,this happens in a very restricted context e.g. /p∂t h ta/becomes [p∂ta]. The data found for support of this rulewas limited to one word /p∂t h ta/ and its derivatives,which was not enough to form a rule. So it is possiblethat [p∂ta] is just another pronunciation of /p∂t h ta/.There are some words that satisfy conditions ofmore than one rule but only one rule is applicable to it.For example, the word /ob h i/ satisfies the conditions ofboth deletion and metathesis, but only deletion rule isapplicable.REFERENCESAhmed, M.S. Farhang-e-Asfiah. Sang-e-MeelPublishers. 2002.Bokhari, Sohail. Phonology of Urdu Language. RoyalBook Company, Karachi. 1985.Feroze-ud-Din, M. Feroz-ul-Lughat Urdu Jaibi.Ferozsons, Lahore.Goldsmith, John A. Autosegmental and MetricalPhonology. Basil Blackwell Ltd, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford, UK. 1990.Haqi, S.u.H. Farhang-e-Talaffuz. Muqtadara QaumiZaban, Islamabad. 1995.Hussain S., Nair R. Voicing and Aspiration in Hindi andUrdu, Northwestern University. 1995.Lass, Roger. PHONOLOGY An Introduction to BasicConcepts. Cambridge University Press, USA. 1995.Napoli, Donna Jo. LINGUISTICS An Introduction.Oxford University Press, USA. 1996.Nayyar, Noor-ul-Hassan. Noor-ul-Lughat, 3 rd edition.National Book Foundation, Islamabad. 1989.Platts, John T. A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi andEnglish. Crosby Lockwood and Sons. 1911.Saleem, A. M., Kabir, H., Riaz, M. K., Rafique, M. M.,Khalid, N., Shahid, S. R. Urdu Consonantal and VocalicSounds. Akhbar-e-Urdu. 2002.

APPENDIX A (Deletion)Appendix A.1 Data for Deletion at Word BoundarySr. Transcription Meaning inNo. Phonemic Phonetic English1. d it h d it Stubborn2. t h at h t h at Lavish3. t h et h t h et Pure4. bd h bd * Wednesday5. d h nd h d h nd Fog6. dud h dud * Milk7. m∂lit h m∂lit Barbarian8. band h band Barren9. hont h hont Lip10. su h su To smell11. u h u To doze12. me h me A cloud13. ak h Remains same Eye14. dk h Remains same Worries15. sk h Remains same Comfort16. p∂nk h Remains same WingsAppendix A.2 Data for Deletion of AspirationOccurring Word MediallySr. Transcription Meaning inNo. Phonemic Phonetic English1. h∂tti h ∂tti Skill of hand2. h∂teli h ∂teli Palm3. op h ∂n op∂n To hide4. s∂tja s ∂tja Surgeon5. nh∂tta nh ∂tta Unarmed6. ob h i obi Cabbage7. ∂b h b h a ∂bba Bedding8. sb h ita sbita Timid woman9. run∂k h k h a run∂kka Ready to weep10. bak h a baka Literature11. ka h i kai Comb12. da h a daa Panties13. bt h ana Remains To spreadsame14. bd h ana Remains Blow outsame15. ∂t h ∂t∂r Remains Seventy eightsame16. bak h ea Remains Difficultysame17. bot h a Remains Heavy rainsame18. anda anda The hempplant19. d∂l∂nd h ∂r d∂l∂nd Dropsy∂r20. band h na bandna To tie21. ant h na antna To tie22. u h na una Dozing23. su h na suna Smelling24. bd h na Remainssame25. r∂k h na Remainssame26. n∂tna Remainssame27. t ∂k h na Remainssame28. rut h na Remainssame29. sud h na Remainssame30. sl∂d h na Remainssame31. bt h na RemainssameTo extinguishTo keepNostrilTo TasteTo be irritatedTo be visibleTo be solvedSpreadSpecial cases32. d∂d h jal d∂djal Paternalgrandfather’shouse33. od h i odi Intestine34. b∂rk h a RemainssameAPPENDIX B (Metathesis)RainData for MetathesisSr. Transcription Meaning inNo. Phonemic Phonetic English1. k∂t h t h a k h ∂tta United2. ∂tk h ela ∂t h kela Playfulactivities3. p∂t h t h ∂r p h ∂tt∂r Stone4. amb h ir h ambir Serious5. k∂t h t h a RemainssameA vegetableextract

APPENDIX C (Insertion)Data of Insertion of AspirationSr. TranscriptionNo.Phonemic(beforeInsertion)Phonemic(afterinsertion)Meaning inEnglish1. n n h i This, these2. n n h e These3. un un h i Them, those4. din din h e Whom, whose5. un un h e Them, those6. kn kn h e Whom7. k∂b k∂b h i When8. tum tum h e You9. d∂b d∂b h i When10. h∂m h∂me WeAPPENDIX D (Dissimilation)Data for DissimilationSr. Transcription Meaning inNo. Phonemic Phonetic English1. h a h ∂ra h a∂ra Petticoat2. p h p h a p h pa Uncle3. b h ∂b h oka b h ∂boka Blazing4. k h ∂k h e k h ∂ke Difficulty5. t h ∂t h t h a t h ∂tta Laughter6. b h ab h ∂k b h ab∂k Burst oflaughter7. t h o h i t h oi Chin8. d h d h ∂k d h d∂k Shyness9. d h und h la d h undla Foggy10. t h t h ∂kna t h t∂kna Drawback inamazement11. b h ∂mb h ona b h ∂mbona To tear12. b h k h ari b h kari Beggar13. k h uk h k h ∂l k h ukk∂l Hollow14. p h ld h ∂i p h ld∂i Firework15. p h ep h a p h epa Lung16. p h ∂p h undi p h ∂pundi Fungus17. p h sp h sa p h sp h sa Spongy18. d h nd h nad h nd h naChild’srattle19. b h rb h ra b h rb h ra Crisp20. b h sb h sa b h sb h sa SoftAPPENDIX E (Data for Aspirated SonorantConsonants)Appendix E.1 Data for Deletion of AspirationSr. Transcription Meaning inNo. Phonemic Phonetic English1. si h i sii Ladder2. sol h wa solwa Sixteenth3. bu h a bua Aged4. tul h a tula Stove5. te h a tea Bent6. o h na ona Put onAppendix E.2 Data for Promotion of AspirationSr.Transcription MeaningNo. Phonemic Phonetic in English7. ba h ∂i bah∂i Carpenter8. b h apa bhapa Old age9. t ∂ h ana t ∂hana To mount10. dr h ∂m drh∂m Acurrency11. dl h a dlha Bridegroom12. dn h e dnhe When13. tm h e tmhe You