The Assamese phonemic inventory consists of eight vowels, ten diphthongs, and twenty-three consonants (including two semivowels).[1]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | ROM | Script | IPA | ROM | Script | IPA | ROM | Script | |
| Close | i | i | ই/ঈ | u | u | উ/ঊ | |||
| Near-close | ʊ/o | ú/o' | ও | ||||||
| Close-mid | e | é | এʼ | o | ó | অʼ | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ | e | এ | ɔ | o | অ | |||
| Open | a | a | আ | ||||||
| a | i | u | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ɔ | ɔi | ||
| a | ai | au | |
| i | iu | ||
| u | ua | ui | |
| e | ei | eu | |
| o | oi | ou |
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | ROM | Script | IPA | ROM | Script | IPA | ROM | Script | IPA | ROM | Script | ||
| Nasal | m | m | ম | n | n | ন/ণ | ŋ | ng | ঙ/ং | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | p | প | t | t | ত/ট | k | k | ক | |||
| aspirated | pʰ | ph | ফ | tʰ | th | থ/ঠ | kʰ | kh | খ | ||||
| voiced | b | b | ব | d | d | দ/ড | ɡ | g | গ | ||||
| murmured | bʱ | bh | ভ | dʱ | dh | ধ/ঢ | ɡʱ | gh | ঘ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | s | চ/ছ | x | x | শ/ষ/স | ɦ | h | হ | |||
| voiced | z | z | জ/ঝ/য | ||||||||||
| Approximant | central | w | w | ৱ | ɹ | r | ৰ | j | y | য়/্য (য) | |||
| lateral | l | l | ল | ||||||||||
Consonant clusters[]
Consonant clusters in Assamese include thirty-three pure consonant letters in the Assamese alphabet. Each letter represents a single sound with an inherent vowel, the short vowel /ɔ/.
The first twenty-five consonants letters are called "sparxa barna". These "sparxa barnas" are again divided into five "bargs". Therefore, these twenty-five letters are also called "bargia barna".
Alveolar stops[]
The Assamese phoneme inventory is unique in the Indic group of languages in its lack of a dental-retroflex distinction among the coronal stops as well as the lack of postalveolar affricates and fricatives.[2] Historically, the dental and retroflex series merged into alveolar stops. This makes Assamese resemble non-Indic languages of Northeast India (such as Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages). The only other language to have fronted retroflex stops into alveolars is the closely related eastern dialects of Bengali (although a contrast with dental stops remains in those dialects). Note that /r/ is normally realized as [ɹ] or as a retroflex approximant.
Voiceless velar fricative[]
Assamese and Sylheti are unusual among Eastern Indo-Aryan languages for the presence of the /x/ (which, phonetically, varies between velar ([x]) and a uvular ([χ]) pronunciations, depending on the speaker and speech register), historically the MIA sibilant has lenited to /x/ and /h/ (non-initially).[3] The derivation of the velar fricative from the coronal sibilant /s/ is evident in the name of the language in Assamese; some Assamese prefer to write ⟨Oxomiya⟩ or ⟨Ôxômiya⟩ instead of ⟨Asomiya⟩ or ⟨Asamiya⟩ to reflect the sound change.[4] The voiceless velar fricative is absent in the West Goalpariya dialects[5] though it is found in lesser extent in East Goalpariya and Kamrupi,[6] otherwise used extensively further east. The change of /s/ to /h/ and then to /x/; all these have been attributed to Tibeto-Burman influence by Dr. Chatterjee.[7]
Velar nasal[]
Assamese, Odia, and Bengali, in contrast to other Indo-Aryan languages, use the velar nasal (the English ng in sing) extensively. In many languages, while the velar nasal is commonly restricted to preceding velar sounds, in Assamese it can occur intervocalically. This is another feature it shares with other languages of Northeast India, though in Assamese the velar nasal never occurs word-initially.
Vowel inventory[]
Eastern Indic languages like Assamese, Bengali, Sylheti, and Odia do not have a vowel length distinction, but have a wide set of back rounded vowels. In the case of Assamese, there are four back rounded vowels that contrast phonemically, as demonstrated by the minimal set: কলা kôla [kɔla] ('deaf'), ক'লা kola [kola] ('black'), কোলা kûla [kʊla] ('lap'), and কুলা kula [kula] ('winnowing fan'). The near-close back rounded vowel /ʊ/ is unique in this branch of the language family. But in lower Assam, ও is pronounced same as অ' (o') which is also correct. কোলা kola [ko'la] মোৰ mor [mo'r]
Vowel Harmony
Assamese has a phonological process called vowel harmony. In this process the vowels [i] and [u] cause the preceding mid vowels and the High Back vowels to change to [e] and [o] and [u] respectively. Assamese is one of the few languages spoken in India which exhibit a systematic process of vowel harmony
References[]
- ↑ Assamese, Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
- ↑ "Assamese, alone among NIA languages except for Romany, has also lost the characteristic IA dental/retroflex contrast (although it is retained in spelling), reducing the number of articulations, with the loss also of /c/, to three."
- ↑ The word "hare", for example: śaśka (OIA) > χɔhā (hare).
- ↑ Whereas most fricatives become sibilants in Eastern Goalpariya (sukh, santi, asa in Eastern Goalpariya; xukh, xanti, axa in western Kamrupi); some use of the fricative is seen as in the word xi (for both "he" and "she") and xap khar (the snake). The /x/ is completely absent in Western Goalpariya
- ↑ B Datta (1982), Linguistic situation in north-east India, the distinctive h sound of Assamese is absent in the West Goalpariya dialect
- ↑ Goswami, Upendranath (1970), A Study on Kamrupi, p.xiii /x/ does not occur finally in Kamrupi. But in St. Coll. it occurs. In non-initial positions O.I.A sibilants became /kʰ/ and also /h/ whereas in St. Coll. they become /x/.
- ↑ Chatterjee, Suniti Kumar, Kirata Jana Krti, p. 54.