Bhojpuri phonology

Vowels

Bhojpuri vowels

	Front			Central		Back
	unr.	rnd.	nasal	oral	nasal	unr.	rnd.	nasal
Close	i ɪ		ĩ ɪ̃	ɨ	ɨ̃		u ʊ	ũ ʊ̃
Close-mid	e	ø	ẽ	ə	ə̃	ɤ	o	õ
Open-mid	ɛ	œ	ɛ̃	ɞ		ʌ	ɔ	ɔ̃
Open	æ	ɶ	æ̃	ɐ		ɑ	ɒ	ɑ̃

Consonants

Bhojpuri consonants

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	ɱ		n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p		t̪		ʈ	tʃ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b		d̪		ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
	aspirated	pʰ		t̪ʰ		ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	breathy voiced	bʱ		d̪ʱ		ɖʱ	dʒʱ	ɡʱ
Fricative	voiceless	ɸ	f	θ	s	ʂ	ʃ	x	h
	voiced	β	v	ð	z	ʐ	ʒ	ɣ
Rhotic	plain	ⱱ̟	ⱱ		ɾ	ɽ
	aspirated	ⱱ̟ʱ	ⱱʱ		ɾʱ	ɽʱ
Approximant	central	w	ʋ		ɹ	ɻ	j	ɰ
	lateral				l	ɭ	ʎ	ʟ

Sociolinguistics

Bhojpuri is, sociolinguistically, one of the seven Hindi languages (Haryanvi, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Bagheli and Kannauji). Of these seven, Bhojpuri has the most allophonic variations in vowels.

Robert Trammell has published the phonology of Bhojpuri.

Bhojpuri has six vowel phonemes, and ten vocoids. The higher vowels are relatively tense, while lower vowels are relatively lax. The language has 31 consonant phonemes and 34 contoids (6 bilabial, 4 apico-dental, 5 apico-alveolar, 7 retroflex, 6 alveo-palatal, 5 dorso-velar and 1 glottal).

According to Trammell, the syllable system is peak type: every syllable has the vowel phoneme as the highest point of sonority. Codas may consist of one, two or three consonants. Vowels occur as simple peaks or as peak nuclei in diphthongs. The intonation system involves four pitch levels and three terminal contours.

External links

• Bhojpuri language