Marathi Language - Sounds

Sounds

The phoneme inventory of Marathi is similar to that of many other Indo-Aryan languages, especially that of the Konkani language. An IPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Marathi is provided below.

Consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Alveopalatal Velar Glottal
Voiceless
stops		 p
pʰ		 t̪
t̪ʰ		 ts
 ʈ
ʈʰ		 tʃ
tʃʰ		 k
kʰ
Voiced
stops		 b
bʱ		 d̪
d̪ʱ		 dz
dzʱ		 ɖ
ɖʱ		 dʒ
dʒʱ		 ɡ
ɡʱ
Voiceless
fricatives		 s ʃ h
Nasals m
mʱ		 n̪
n̪ʱ		 ɳ
Liquids ʋ
ʋʱ		 l ɾ
lʱ ɾʱ		 ɭ j

Older aspirated *tsʰ, dzʱ have lost their onset, with *tsʰ merging with /s/ and *dzʱ being typically realized as an aspirated fricative, . This /ts, dz, zʱ/ series is not distinguished in writing from /tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, dʒʱ/.

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a

There are two more vowels in Marathi to denote the pronunciations of English words such as of a in act and a in all. These are written as अॅ and ऑ. The IPA signs for these are and, respectively. Marathi retains the original Sanskrit pronunciations of certain alphabets such as the anusvāra (for instance, saṃhar, compared to sanhar in Hindi). Moreover, Marathi preserves certain Sanskrit patterns of pronunciation, as in the words purṇa and rāma compared to purṇ and rām in Hindi.

Read more about this topic:  Marathi Language

Famous quotes containing the word sounds:

    “And forever goodbye! Forever! Oh, Sir, can you imagine how dreadful this cruel word sounds when one loves?”
    —Jean Racine (1639–1699)

    “O to dream, O to awake and wander
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    Through the trance of silence,
    Quiet breath;
    Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
    Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
    Only winds and rivers,
    Life and death.”
    —Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

    “I used to be angry all the time and I’d sit there weaving my anger. Now I’m not angry. I sit there hearing the sounds outside, the sounds in the room, the sounds of the treadles and heddles—a music of my own making.”
    —Bhakti Ziek (b. c. 1946)