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Maithili language
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===Consonants=== Maithili has four classes of [[Stop consonant|stops]], one class of [[Affricate consonant|affricate]], which is generally treated as a stop series, related [[Nasal consonant|nasals]], [[Fricative consonant|fricatives]] and [[Approximant consonant|approximant]]. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! colspan="3" | ![[Labial consonant|Labial]] ![[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br />[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] ![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]] ![[Palatal]] ![[Velar consonant|Velar]] ![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]] |- ! colspan="3" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] | {{IPA link|m}} {{grapheme|म}} | {{IPA link|n}} {{grapheme|न}} | {{IPA link|ɳ}} {{grapheme|ण}} | ({{IPA link|ɲ}}) {{grapheme|ञ}} | {{IPA link|ŋ}} {{grapheme|ङ}} | |- ! rowspan="4" | [[Plosive]]/<br/>[[Affricate]] ! rowspan="2" | <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small> ! <small>unaspirated</small> | {{IPA link|p}} {{grapheme|प}} | {{IPA link|t}} {{grapheme|त}} | {{IPA link|ʈ}} {{grapheme|ट}} | {{IPA link|tɕ}} {{grapheme|च}} | {{IPA link|k}} {{grapheme|क}} | |- ! <small>[[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]</small> | {{IPA link|pʰ}} {{grapheme|फ}} | {{IPA link|tʰ}} {{grapheme|थ}} | {{IPA link|ʈʰ}} {{grapheme|ठ}} | {{IPA link|tɕʰ}} {{grapheme|छ}} | {{IPA link|kʰ}} {{grapheme|ख}} | |- ! rowspan="2" | <small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small> ! <small>unaspirated</small> | {{IPA link|b}} {{grapheme|ब}} | {{IPA link|d}} {{grapheme|द}} | {{IPA link|ɖ}} {{grapheme|ड}} | {{IPA link|dʑ}} {{grapheme|ज}} | {{IPA link|ɡ}} {{grapheme|ग}} | |- ! <small>[[voiced aspirated|aspirated]]</small> | {{IPA link|bʱ}} {{grapheme|भ}} | {{IPA link|dʱ}} {{grapheme|ध}} | {{IPA link|ɖʱ}} {{grapheme|ढ}} | {{IPA link|dʑʱ}} {{grapheme|झ}} | {{IPA link|ɡʱ}} {{grapheme|घ}} | |- ! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative]] ! colspan="2" | <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small> | ({{IPA link|ɸ}}~{{IPA link|f}}) {{grapheme|फ़}} | {{IPA link|s}} {{grapheme|स}} | ({{IPA link|ʂ}}) {{grapheme|ष}} | ({{IPA link|ɕ}}) {{grapheme|श}} | ({{IPA link|x}}) {{grapheme|ख़}} | -({{IPA link|h}})* {{grapheme|ः}} |- ! colspan="2" | <small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small> | | ({{IPA link|z}}) {{grapheme|ज़}} | | ({{IPA link|ʑ}}) {{grapheme|झ़}} | | {{IPA link|ɦ}} {{grapheme|ह}} |- ! rowspan="2" | [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]] ! colspan="2" | <small>unaspirated</small> | | {{IPA link|ɾ}}~{{IPA link|r}} {{grapheme|र}} | ({{IPA link|ɽ}}) {{grapheme|ड़}} | | | |- ! colspan="2" | <small>aspirated</small> | | | ({{IPA link|ɽʱ}}) {{grapheme|ढ़}} | | | |- ! colspan="3" | [[Lateral consonant|Lateral]] | | {{IPA link|l}} {{grapheme|ल}} | | | | |- ! colspan="3" | [[Approximant]] | ({{IPA link|ʋ}}~{{IPA link|w}}) {{grapheme|व}} | | | ({{IPA link|j}}) {{grapheme|य}} | | |} * Fricative sounds {{IPA|[ʂ, ɕ]}} only occur marginally, and are typically pronounced as a dental fricative {{IPA|/s/}} in most styles of pronunciation. {{IPA|[h]}} ः is always added after a vowel. ====Stops==== There are four series of stops- [[Bilabial stop|bilabials]], [[Coronal stop|coronals]], [[Retroflex stop|retroflex]] and [[Velar stop|velar]], along with an [[Palatal affricate|affricate]] series. All of them show the four way contrast like most of the modern [[Indo-Aryan languages]]: * [[Tenuis consonant|tenuis]], as {{IPA|/p/}}, which is like ⟨p⟩ in English ''spin'' * [[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]], as {{IPA|/b/}}, which is like ⟨b⟩ in English ''bin'' * [[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]], as {{IPA|/pʰ/}}, which is like ⟨p⟩ in English ''pin'', and * [[Breathy voice|murmured]] or [[aspirated voiced]], as {{IPA|/bʱ/}}. Apart from the retroflex series, all the rest four series show full phonological contrast in all positions. The retroflex tenius {{IPA|/ʈ/}} and {{IPA|/ʈʰ/}} show full contrast in all positions. {{IPA|/ɖ/}} and {{IPA|/ɖʱ/}} show phonological contrast mainly word-initially.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Grierson |first=George Abraham |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoma00grierich |title=An introduction to the Maithili dialect of the Bihari language as spoken in North Bihar |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |year=1909 |edition=2 |location=Calcutta}}</ref> Both are defective phonemes, occurring intervocalically and word finally only if preceded by a nasal consonant. Word finally and postvocalically, {{IPA|/ɖʱ/}} surfaces as {{IPA|[ɽʱ~rʱ]}}.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Yadav |first=Ramawatar |title=A Reference Grammar of Maithili |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter. |year=1996 |chapter=Trends in Linguistics: Documentation, 11. |pages=15–27}}</ref> Non-initially, both are interchangeable with {{IPA|[ɽ~ɾ]}} and {{IPA|[ɽʱ~rʱ]}} respectively.<ref name=":1" /> ====Fricatives==== {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ɦ/}} are most common fricatives. They show full phonological opposition. {{IPA|[ɕ]}}, which is present in [[tatsama]] words, is replaced by {{IPA|/s/}} most of the times, when independent, and prevocalic {{IPA|[ʂ]}} is replaced by {{IPA|/kʰ/}}, {{IPA|[x]}}<ref name=":1" /> or {{IPA|/s/}}. {{IPA|[ɕ]}} occurs before {{IPA|/tɕ/}} and {{IPA|[ʂ]}} before {{IPA|/ʈ/}}. {{IPA|[x]}} and {{IPA|[f]}} occurs in Perso-Arabic loanwords, generally replaced by {{IPA|/kʰ/}} and {{IPA|/pʰ/}} respectively. {{IPA|[x]}} and {{IPA|[ɸ]}} also occurs in Sanskrit words ([[Visarga|jihvamuliya and upadhmaniya]]), which is peculiar to Maithili. ====Sonorants==== {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/n/}} are present in all phonological positions. {{IPA|/ŋ/}} occurs only non-initially and is followed by a homorganic stop, which may be deleted if voiced, which leads to the independent presence of {{IPA|/ŋ/}}. {{IPA|/ɳ/}} occurs non-initially, followed by a homorganic stop, and is independent only in tatsama words, which is often replaced with {{IPA|/n/}}. {{IPA|[ɲ]}} occurs only non-initially and is followed by a homorganic stop always. It is the only nasal which does not occur independently. * In most styles of pronunciation, the retroflex flap {{IPA|[ɽ]}} occurs marginally. It is usually pronounced as an alveolar tap {{IPA|[ɾ]}} sound, and is often interchanged with {{IPA|/r/}}.<ref name=":1" /> * Approximant sounds {{IPA|[ʋ, w, j]}} and fricative sounds {{IPA|[ɸ, f, z, ɕ, ʑ, ʂ, x]}}, mainly occur in words that are borrowed from Sanskrit or in words of Perso-Arabic origin. The conjunct ष्प ([[IAST]] ''ṣp'') is pronounced {{IPA|[ɸp]}} in Maithili e.g. पुष्प {{IPA|[puɸp(ə)]}}. The conjunct ह्य (IAST ''hy'') is pronounced {{IPA|[ɦʑ]}} as in ग्रऻह्य (''grahya'') {{IPA|[graɦʑə]}}.<ref name=":1" /> There are four non-syllabic vowels in Maithili- i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. Most of the times, these are written without nukta.
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