Marathi Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

The table below includes all the consonant bases onto which vowel diacritics are placed. The lack of a vowel diacritic can either indicate the lack of a vowel, or the existence of the default, or "inherent", vowel, which in the case of Marathi is the schwa.

Unlike most Indian languages, the Marathi language has multiple pronunciations for certain consonants (च, ज, झ and फ). This generally applies to pronunciations that were imported from Persian or English, but were tied to existing Devanagari alphabet. The letter 'ज' may be pronounced as '/ɟʝə/' (जग, jag meaning world), as well as '/zə/' (जागा, zāgā meaning place). It is not possible to grasp which pronunciation is to be used when from the written word alone, unlike Hindi, where the letter ज़ was added to represent the '/zə/' sound. This pronunciation inconsistency is one of the most prominent difficulties for Marathi learners.

A defining feature of the Marathi language is the frequent substitution of the consonant ल (la) in Sanskrit words with the retroflex lateral approximant ळ (ḷa). For instance, कुळ (kuḷa) for the Sanskrit कुलम् (kulam or clan) and कमळ (kamaḷ) for Sanskrit कमलम् (kamalam or lotus). ळ is possibly an import in Marathi from Dravidian languages.