pronounced as /notice/Hindustani is the lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan, and through its two standardized registers, Hindi and Urdu, a co-official language of India and co-official and national language of Pakistan respectively. Phonological differences between the two standards are minimal.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| long | short | short | long | |||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
pronounced as //ə// is often realized more open than mid pronounced as /link/, i.e. as near-open pronounced as /link/. It is subject to schwa deletion word-medially in certain contexts.
The open central vowel is transcribed in IPA by either pronounced as /[aː]/ or pronounced as /[ɑː]/.
In Urdu, there is further short pronounced as /[a]/ (spelled Urdu: ہ, as in Urdu: کمرہ kamra in Urdu pronounced as /kəmra/) in word-final position, which contrasts with pronounced as /[aː]/ (spelled Urdu: ا, as in laṛkā in Urdu pronounced as /ləɽkaː/). This contrast is often not realized by Urdu speakers, and always neutralized in Hindi (where both sounds uniformly correspond to pronounced as /[aː]/).
Among the close vowels, what in Sanskrit are thought to have been primarily distinctions of vowel length (that is pronounced as //i, iː// and pronounced as //u, uː//), have become in Hindustani distinctions of quality, or length accompanied by quality (that is, pronounced as //ɪ, iː// and pronounced as //ʊ, uː//). The opposition of length in the close vowels has been neutralized in word-final position, only allowing long close vowels in final position. As a result, Sanskrit loans which originally have a short close vowel are realized with a long close vowel, e.g. (Hindi: शक्ति – Urdu: {{nastaliq|شکتی 'energy') and (Hindi: वस्तु – Urdu: {{nastaliq|وستو 'item') are pronounced as /[ʃəktiː]/ and pronounced as /[ʋəstuː]/, not *pronounced as /[ʃəktɪ]/ and *pronounced as /[ʋəstʊ]/.
The vowel represented graphically as Hindi: ऐ – Urdu: {{nastaliq|اَے (romanized as) has been variously transcribed as pronounced as /[ɛː]/ or pronounced as /[æː]/. Among sources for this article,, pictured to the right, uses pronounced as /[ɛː]/, while and use pronounced as /[æː]/. Furthermore, an eleventh vowel pronounced as //æː// is found in English loanwords, such as pronounced as //bæːʈ// ('bat'). Hereafter, Hindi: ऐ – Urdu: {{nastaliq|اَے (romanized as) will be represented as pronounced as /[ɛː]/ to distinguish it from pronounced as //æː//, the latter.
In addition, pronounced as /[ɛ]/ occurs as a conditioned allophone of pronounced as //ə// (schwa) within the sequence pronounced as //əɦə// (pronounced as //əɦ// before the next syllable or word-finally due to schwa deletion).[1] supports this last view.
The principal vowel phonemes may be organised as follows to demonstrate the orthographic conventions for vowels.
| Vowels | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Hindi | ISO 15919 | Urdu[3] | Approximate English equivalent | |||
| Initial | Combining | Final | Medial | Initial | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | अ | [4] | a | about | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | आ | ा | ā | far | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | इ | ि | i | still | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | ई | ी | ī | fee | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | उ | ु | u | book | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | ऊ | ू | ū | moon | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | ए | े | ē | mate | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | ऐ | ै | ai | fairy | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | ओ | ो | ō | force | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | औ | ौ | au | lot (Received Pronunciation) | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | [5] | h | aspiration of the preceding consonant, as in cake | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | [6] | ँ | m̐ | [7] | heavy nasalisation of the preceding vowel, like can | ||
| [8] | [9] | ं | ṁ | homorganic nasal before the succeeding consonant, like jungle or branch, and light vowel nasalisation | |||
Hindustani has a core set of 28 consonants inherited from earlier Indo-Aryan. Supplementing these are two consonants that are internal developments in specific word-medial contexts, and seven consonants originally found in loan words, whose expression is dependent on factors such as status (class, education, etc.) and cultural register (Modern Standard Hindi vs Urdu).
Most native consonants may occur geminate (doubled in length; exceptions are pronounced as //bʱ, ɽ, ɽʱ, ɦ//). Geminate consonants are always medial and preceded by one of the interior vowels (that is, pronounced as //ə//, pronounced as //ɪ//, or pronounced as //ʊ//). They all occur monomorphemically except pronounced as /[ʃː]/, which occurs only in a few Sanskrit loans where a morpheme boundary could be posited in between, e.g. pronounced as //nɪʃ + ʃiːl// for pronounced as /[nɪˈʃːiːl]/ ('without shame').[10]
Stops in final position are not released, although they continue to maintain the four-way phonation distinction in final position. pronounced as //ʋ// varies freely with pronounced as /[v]/, and can also be pronounced pronounced as /[w]/. pronounced as //r// is usually flapped or trilled.[15] In intervocalic position, it may have a single contact and be described as a flap pronounced as /link/,[16] but it may also be a clear trill, especially in word-initial and syllable-final positions, and geminate pronounced as //rː// is always a trill in Arabic and Persian loanwords, e.g. pronounced as /[zəɾaː]/ (Hindi: ज़रा – Urdu: {{nastaliq|ذرا 'little') versus well-trilled pronounced as /[zəraː]/ (Hindi: ज़र्रा – Urdu: {{nastaliq|ذرّہ 'particle'). The palatal and velar nasals pronounced as /[ɲ, ŋ]/ occur only in consonant clusters, where each nasal is followed by a homorganic stop, as an allophone of a nasal vowel followed by a stop, and in Sanskrit loanwords.[17]
In some Indo-Aryan languages, the plosives pronounced as /[ɖ, ɖʱ]/ and the flaps pronounced as /[ɽ, ɽʱ]/ are allophones in complementary distribution, with the former occurring in initial, geminate and postnasal positions and the latter occurring in intervocalic and final positions. However, in Standard Hindi they contrast in similar positions, as in (Hindi: नीड़ज – Urdu: {{nastaliq|نیڑج 'bird') vs (Hindi: निडर – Urdu: {{nastaliq|نڈر 'fearless').
Hindustani does not distinguish between pronounced as /[v]/ and pronounced as /[w]/, specifically Hindi. These are distinct phonemes in English, but conditional allophones of the phoneme pronounced as //ʋ// in Hindustani (written (Hindi: व) in Hindi or (Urdu: {{nastaliq|و) in Urdu), meaning that contextual rules determine when it is pronounced as pronounced as /[v]/ and when it is pronounced as pronounced as /[w]/. pronounced as //ʋ// is pronounced pronounced as /[w]/ in onglide position, i.e. between an onset consonant and a following vowel, as in (Hindi: पकवान Urdu: {{nastaliq|پکوان, 'food dish'), and pronounced as /[v]/ elsewhere, as in (Hindi: व्रत Urdu: {{nastaliq|ورت, 'vow'). Native Hindi speakers are usually unaware of the allophonic distinctions, though these are apparent to native English speakers.[19]
In most situations, the allophony is non-conditional, i.e. the speaker can choose pronounced as /[v]/, pronounced as /[w]/, or an intermediate sound based on personal habit and preference, and still be perfectly intelligible, as long as the meaning is constant. This includes words such as advait (Hindi: अद्वैत Urdu: {{nastaliq|ادویت) (pronounced [əd̪ˈʋɛːt̪]), which can be pronounced equally correctly as pronounced as /[əd̪ˈwɛːt̪]/ or pronounced as /[əd̪ˈvɛːt̪]/.[19]
Sanskrit borrowing has reintroduced pronounced as //ɳ// and pronounced as //ʂ// into formal Modern Standard Hindi. They occur primarily in Sanskrit loanwords and proper nouns. In casual speech, they are sometimes replaced with pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //ʃ//.[20] [23] Among these, pronounced as //f, z//, also found in English and Portuguese loanwords, are now considered well-established in Hindi; indeed, pronounced as //f// appears to be encroaching upon and replacing pronounced as //pʰ// even in native (non-Persian, non-English, non-Portuguese) Hindi words as well as many other Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi, as happened in Greek with phi.[24] While [z] is a foreign sound, it is also natively found as an allophone of /s/ beside voiced consonants.
The other three Persian loans, pronounced as //q, x, ɣ//, are still considered to fall under the domain of Urdu, and are also used by some Hindi speakers; however, other Hindi speakers may assimilate these sounds to pronounced as //k, kʰ, g// respectively.[11] [20] The sibilant pronounced as //ʃ// is found in loanwords from all sources (Arabic, English, Portuguese, Persian, Sanskrit) and is well-established.[26] [28] In contrast, for native speakers of Urdu, the maintenance of pronounced as //f, z, ʃ// is not commensurate with education and sophistication, but is characteristic of all social levels.[29] lists distinctively Sanskrit/Hindi biconsonantal clusters of initial pronounced as //kr, kʃ, st, sʋ, ʃr, sn, nj// and final pronounced as //tʋ, ʃʋ, nj, lj, rʋ, dʒj, rj//, and distinctively Perso-Arabic/Urdu biconsonantal clusters of final pronounced as //ft, rf, mt, mr, ms, kl, tl, bl, sl, tm, lm, ɦm, ɦr//.
Hindustani has a stress accent, but it is not as important as in English. To predict stress placement, the concept of syllable weight is needed:
Stress is on the heaviest syllable of the word, and in the event of a tie, on the last such syllable. If all syllables are light, the penultimate is stressed. However, the final mora of the word is ignored when making this assignment (Hussein 1997) [or, equivalently, the final syllable is stressed either if it is extra-heavy, and there is no other extra-heavy syllable in the word or if it is heavy, and there is no other heavy or extra-heavy syllable in the word]. For example, with the ignored mora in parentheses:
pronounced as /kaː.ˈriː.ɡə.ri(ː)/
pronounced as /ˈtʃəp.kə.lɪ(ʃ)/
pronounced as /ˈʃoːx.dʒə.baː.ni(ː)/
pronounced as /ˈreːz.ɡaː.ri(ː)/
pronounced as /sə.ˈmɪ.t(ɪ)/
pronounced as /ˈqɪs.mə(t)/
pronounced as /ˈbaː.ɦə(r)/
pronounced as /roː.ˈzaː.na(ː)/
pronounced as /rʊ.ˈkaː.ja(ː)/
pronounced as /ˈroːz.ɡaː(r)/
pronounced as /aːs.ˈmaːn.dʒaː(h)/ ~ pronounced as /ˈaːs.mãː.dʒaː(h)/
pronounced as /kɪ.ˈdʱə(r)/
pronounced as /rʊ.pɪ.ˈa(ː)/
pronounced as /dʒə.ˈnaː(b)/
pronounced as /əs.ˈbaː(b)/
pronounced as /mʊ.səl.ˈmaː(n)/
pronounced as /ɪɴ.qɪ.ˈlaː(b)/
pronounced as /pər.ʋər.dɪ.ˈɡaː(r)/
Content words in Hindustani normally begin on a low pitch, followed by a rise in pitch.[30] [31] Strictly speaking, Hindustani, like most other Indian languages, is rather a syllable-timed language. The schwa pronounced as //ə// has a strong tendency to vanish into nothing (syncopated) if its syllable is unaccented.
Masica
| Hindi/Urdu | Transliteration | Phonemic | Phonetic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| कहना / "to say" | kahnā | pronounced as //kəɦ.nɑː// | pronounced as /[kɛɦ.nɑː]/ | |
| शहर / "city" | śahar | pronounced as //ʃə.ɦəɾ// | pronounced as /[ʃɛ.ɦɛɾ]/ | |
| ठहरना / "to wait" | ṭhaharnā | pronounced as //ʈʰə.ɦəɾ.nɑː// | pronounced as /[ʈʰɛ.ɦɛɾ.nɑː]/ |
However, the fronting of schwa does not occur in words with a schwa only on one side of the pronounced as //ɦ// such as pronounced as //kəɦaːniː// (Hindi: कहानी – Urdu: {{nastaliq|کہانی 'a story') or pronounced as //baːɦər// (Hindi: बाहर – Urdu: {{nastaliq|باہر 'outside').
The vowel pronounced as /[ɔ]/ occurs in proximity to pronounced as //ɦ// if the pronounced as //ɦ// is surrounded on one of the sides by a schwa and on other side by a round vowel (due to Hindustani phonotactics, this generally only occurs in the sequences pronounced as //əɦʊ// or pronounced as //ʊɦə//). It differs from the vowel pronounced as /[ɔː]/ in that it is a short vowel. For example, in pronounced as //bəɦʊt// the pronounced as //ɦ// is surrounded on one side by a schwa and a round vowel on the other side. One or both of the schwas will become pronounced as /[ɔ]/ giving the pronunciation pronounced as /[bɔɦɔt]/.
Some Eastern dialects kept pronounced as //ɛː, ɔː// as diphthongs, pronouncing them as [aɪ~əɪ, aʊ~əʊ].
As in French and Portuguese, there are nasalized vowels in Hindustani. There is disagreement over the issue of the nature of nasalization (barring English-loaned pronounced as //æ// which is never nasalized[1]
For the English speaker, a notable feature of the Hindustani consonants is that there is a four-way distinction of phonation among plosives, rather than the two-way distinction found in English. The phonations are:
The last is commonly called "voiced aspirate", though notes that,
"Evidence from experimental phonetics, however, has demonstrated that the two types of sounds involve two distinct types of voicing and release mechanisms. The series of so-called voice aspirates should now properly be considered to involve the voicing mechanism of murmur, in which the air flow passes through an aperture between the arytenoid cartilages, as opposed to passing between the ligamental vocal bands."The murmured consonants are believed to be a reflex of murmured consonants in Proto-Indo-European, a phonation that is absent in all branches of the Indo-European family except Indo-Aryan and Armenian.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |
| voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Tap/Trill | unaspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
The fricative pronounced as //ɦ// in Hindustani is typically voiced (as pronounced as /[ɦ]/), especially when surrounded by vowels, but there is no phonemic difference between this voiced fricative and its voiceless counterpart pronounced as /[h]/.
Hindustani also has a phonemic difference between the dental plosives and the so-called retroflex plosives. The dental plosives in Hindustani are laminal-denti alveolar as in Spanish, and the tongue-tip must be well in contact with the back of the upper front teeth. The retroflex series is not purely retroflex; it actually has an apico-postalveolar (also described as apico-pre-palatal) articulation, and sometimes in words such as pronounced as //ʈuːʈaː// (Hindi: टूटा – Urdu: {{nastaliq|ٹوٹا 'broken') it even becomes alveolar.[17]
Being the main sources from which Hindustani draws its higher, learned terms– English, Sanskrit, Arabic, and to a lesser extent Persian provide loanwords with a rich array of consonant clusters. The introduction of these clusters into the language contravenes a historical tendency within its native core vocabulary to eliminate clusters through processes such as cluster reduction and epenthesis.