Phonological Behavior of Aspirated Consonants in Urdu

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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.
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Page 5 and 6: APPENDIX A (Deletion)Appendix A.1 D

Phonological Behavior of Aspirated Consonants in Urdu

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