The occurrence of glottal stop in Bhumij was predictable.
It occurred either in the word final position after a vowel or before a
voiceless stop. In contemporary Bhumij, the glottal stop occurs in the
intervocalic position also. There are instances where the word final glottal
stop becomes [g] in the intervocal position as shown below:
čo?
čo-g-en
‘kiss oneself’
ma?
ma-g-en
‘cut oneself’
to?
to-g-en
‘hit oneself
This shows that [?] is the allophone of [g]. In the
contemporary Bhumij, a new environment has been developed due to the
duplication of the vowel occurs after the glottal stop. This new development
has made the glottal stop to occur in the inter vocal position which
ultimately creating a situation to contrast with other velar stops. The
duplication of the stem vowel may be seen here :
da:?
da:?a
‘water’
bu?
bu?u
‘to bark’
hi?
hi?i
‘to come’
Because of this new development, the glottal stop became a
new phoneme in this language.
All the short vowel phonemes get lowered when they occur
between consonants. High vowel [i] became [I]; /e/ becomes [E]; /a/ becomes
[^]; /o/ becomes [];
and /u/ becomes []. This may be seen in
the following illustrations.
i/
l/
la]
aw/
^w/ 
ia/
ilu/
e]
a]
