Since
the affricates and the stops occur in mutually exclusive
environments and share the same distributional characteristics, a
feature found both in the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian family of
languages, phonemically the affricates are treated as stops. The
stops in this language were sub-grouped into three, viz., unvoiced
unaspirated stops, voiced unaspirated stops and unvoiced aspirated
stops. Beginning with the unvoiced unaspirated stops, a description
of the individual consonants follows.
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Unvoiced unaspirated stops :
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p, t, c, k are the four
unvoiced unaspirated stops occurring in this language. In terms of
the place of articulation, these stops are produced respectively at
the bilabial, dental, palatal and velar positions. None of these
stops have any perciptible positional variants. They also do not
have any special limilations in their distribution. Given below are
a few examples of each of these stops.
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| /p/: |
[p] |
[pa.la] |
/pala/ |
‘seer’ |
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[plvk] |
/pik/ |
‘puss’ |
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[plet] |
/plet/ |
‘saucer’ |
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[pa.p d] |
/papd/ |
‘papad’ |
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[kop] |
/kop/ |
‘cup’
etc. |
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| /t/: |
[t] |
[ta.ti] |
/tati/ |
‘there’ |
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[tita] |
/tita/ |
‘bitter’ |
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[trlvs] |
/tris/ |
‘thirty’ |
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[ra.sta] |
/rasta/ |
‘street’ |
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[da.t] |
/dat/ |
‘tooth’
etc. |
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| /c/: |
[c] |
[ca] |
/ca/ |
‘tea’ |
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[clvmta] |
/cimta/ |
‘tongs’ |
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[uca] |
/uca/ |
‘height’ |
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[poncas] |
/poncas/ |
‘fifty’ |
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[ka.c] |
/kac/ |
‘glass’ |
| /k/: |
[k] |
[kele] |
/kele/ |
‘why’ |
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[kriplvn] |
/kripin/ |
‘crooked’ |
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[sa.ki] |
/saki/ |
‘lamp’ |
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[jUlki] |
/julki/ |
‘paper’ |
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[da.k] |
/dak/ |
‘chicken
pox’ |
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Voiced
unaspirated stops :h
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There are
four voiced unaspirated stops in this language. These are b,d,j and g,
which are the voiced counterparts of p, t, c and k, described above.
These stops do not have any positional variants, nor do they have any
special limitations in their occurrences. Given below are a few
examples of each of these stops:
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| /b/: |
[b] |
[ba.duli] |
/baduli/ |
‘bat (bird)’ |
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[bili] |
/bili/ |
‘sun’ |
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[brndikot] |
/brndikot/ |
‘gown’ |
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[hUsbisa.r] |
/husbisar/ |
‘adultery’ |
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[dUbla] |
/dubla/ |
‘lean’ |
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[kita.b] |
/kitab/ |
‘book’ |
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| /d/: |
[d] |
[da.m] |
/dam/ |
‘price’ |
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[drama] |
/drama/ |
‘drama’ |
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[mdu] |
/mdu/ |
‘rice
beer’ |
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[dUd] |
/dud/ |
‘breast of girls’ |
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| /j/: |
[j] |
[ja.ba] |
/jaba/ |
‘to go’ |
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[biji] |
/biji/ |
‘needle’ |
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| /g/: |
[g] |
[gan] |
/gan/ |
‘hymn’ |
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[ga.s] |
/ga.s/ |
‘tree’ |
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[gla.s] |
/glas/ |
‘tumbler’ |
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[niguni] |
/niguni/ |
‘rat’ |
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[jUg] |
/jug/ |
‘before’ |
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Unvoiced aspirated stops :
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There are
four unvoiced aspirated stops in this language; viz., ph
, th, ch , kh
. These are the aspirated counterparts respectively of p, t, c, k
described earlier. While the dental and velar unvoiced aspirated stops
do not have any special limitations in their distribution, the
bilabial and the palatal unvoiced aspirated stops do not occur in the
word-final position, e.g.,
|
| /ph/: |
[ph] |
[phikiri] |
/phikiri/ |
‘sugar candy’ |
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[phela] |
/phela/ |
‘throw away’ |
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[phIvspha,le] |
/phisph ale/ |
‘behind’ |
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[lipha.pha] |
/liphapha/ |
‘envelop’ |
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| /th/: |
[th] |
[thIv
k] |
/thik/ |
‘exactly’ |
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[thika] |
/thika/ |
‘contact’ |
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[tUt Ur] |
/tuthur/ |
‘lip’ |
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[peth] |
/peth/ |
‘hollow’ |
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