SEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY OF MAITHILI URDU (ALESSER KNOWN LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICTS OF BIHAR)

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The present work is a grammatical description of Mithilanchal Urdu, a dialect of the Indo-Aryan language family, spoken by around twenty percent speakers mainly in the Mithilanchal region of the state of Bihar in India. Besides, it is also spoken by a majority of the Mithilanchal diaspora community. Very rich in literary style, Mithilanchal Urdu has maintained a literary history over many decades. It has contributed in enriching the Hindi and Urdu language and literature very profoundly.

Mithilanchal is the historic name for the large area of Bihar that includes roughly present day Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Udaipur, and Chittaurgarh districts of Rajasthan state of India. Mithilanchal region lies across the Aravalli mountain range to the northwest; Ajmer lies to the north; Wagar region of Rajasthan and Gujarat lies to the south; Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh state lies to the southeast; and the Harauti region of Rajasthan lies to the east. The northern part of Mithilanchal is a gently sloping plain, drained by the Banas river and its tributaries, which empty northwest into the Chambal river, a tributary of the Yamuna river. The southern part of the region is hilly and marks the divide between the Banas and its tributaries and the headwaters of the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers and their tributaries, which drain south into the Gulf of Cambay through Gujarat state.

Mithilanchal has a tropical climate. Rainfall averages 660 millimeter per annumand is generally higher in the southwest and lower in the northeast of the region. Over ninety percent of the rain typically falls between June to September every year, during the southwest monsoon. The region is part of the Kathiawar-Gir dry deciduous forests' eco-region. Protected areas include the Jaisamand Wildlife Sanctuary, the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, the Bassi Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sitamata Game Sanctuary.

The term “Mithilanchal Urdu” literally refers to someone who hails from or is an inhabitant of the Mithilanchal region in Rajasthan. Mithilanchal Urdu people prefer to speak Mithilanchal Urdu dialect of Rajasthani, but nowadays Hindi is gradually replacing Rajasthani as it is the medium of instruction at all levels. Moreover, one will find English speakers in all the major cities and in remote villages too.

Hinduism is the main religion of Mithilanchal region and other significant religious groups in this area are the Jains and the Muslims. There are many local folk heroes and local deities.

Though Mithilanchal Urdu had contributed profoundly to Rajasthani literature in medieval periods, however extensive linguistic research work has not been conducted on it. Some native scholars have done research on its word lists and there is scanty work on phonology. However, the work done by Yadav 2011; Ohala Manjari, 1991; Chomsky and Halle, 1968 are of great importance. In addition, sketches of its morphology and syntax are found in some texts and monographs.

There are ten vowels in Mithilanchal Urdu. Out of these, there are four front vowels, four back vowels, and two central vowels (see Table 1). Lip rounding is not distinctive, but only the back vowels are rounded. Out of these ten vowels, three are short and seven are long. Length, thus, is a distinctive feature in Mithilanchal Urdu, where short and long vowels show full phonological opposition in all positions.

These are all pure vowels, non-nasalized. All vowels in Mithilanchal Urdu can be nasalized. To each vowel, there corresponds a nasalized counterpart (see 1.1.9).

Table 1:
Vowels in Mithilanchal Urdu

1. Front vowels

The phonological contrast between the front vowels /i, ɪ, e, æ/ is shown below at all levels:

Table 2:
Front vowels Initial Medial Final

2. Central vowels

The central vowels /ə, a/ show full phonological contrast at all levels:

3. Back vowels

The back vowels /u, ʊ, o, ɔ/ are rounded and show phonological opposition in all positions:

4. High vowels

The high vowels /i, u/ contrast in all positions:

5. Low-high vowels

The low-high vowels /I, ʊ/ contrast at all positions, but occur rarely at word-final position:

6. Mid vowels

The mid vowels /e, ə, o/ show phonological contrast in all positions:

7. Low vowels

The low vowels /æ, a, ɔ/ show phonological contrasts at all positions:

B. Vowel length

There are three pairs of short and long vowels in Mithilanchal Urdu: /ɪ/ and /i/; /ʊ/ and /u/; and /ə/ and /a/. They show full phonological contrast at all—initial, medial, and final— positions, but short vowels generally occur at less frequently at final position. The following words illustrate the length contrast between short and long vowels at initial and medial positions

1. Initial

2. Medial

3. Final

C. Nasalized vowels

Vowel nasality is distinctive in Mithilanchal Urdu. The contrast between oral and nasalized vowels at initial, medial, and final position is shown below:

1. Initial

2. Medial

3. Final

There are three notions that help distinguish one sound from another in describing the consonant sounds of Mithilanchal Urdu. They are:

(i) place of articulation

(ii) manner of articulation, and

(iii) voicing.

Mithilanchal Urdu consonantal phonemes are described in terms of the following articulatory features: (i) Labial position (ii) Dental position (iii) Palatal position (iv) Velar position (v) Glottal position (vi) Closure (vii) Trill (viii) Frictionless aperture (ix) Lateral opening (x) Retroflexion (xi) Nasality (xii) Voicing, and (xiii) Aspiration. The consonantal phonemes are seen in Table 2.

Table 2
Front vowels Initial Medial Final

A. Description of individual consonantal phonemes with allophonic variations.

There are 28 consonantal phonemes in Mithilanchal Urdu that show four-way contrast between voiceless vs. voiced and unaspirated vs. aspirated at bilabial, dental, retroflex, palatal, velar, and glottal places of articulation. Aspiration is an overriding characteristic of the Mithilanchal Urdu sound system. Description of each consonant phoneme is given below:

1. Stops

B. Nasals

C. Fricatives

D. Laterals

E. Trill

F. Frictionless continuants

All consonants, except /ŋ, ñ, ṇ/, occur at initial, medial and final positions.

The examples of contrast of voiceless versus voiced and aspiration versus un-aspirated are given below and these illustrate phonemic contrasts:

Frictionless continuants /w, y/ show phonological contrast at all positions:

There are two degrees of phonetic length in consonants in Mithilanchal Urdu: (i) simple, and

(ii) geminates. Simple consonants occur in all the positions whereas geminated occur only in the intervocalic position. All the consonants, except /r, y, h/, can occur geminated whichoccur only after short vowels. Geminates behave like consonant clusters in the syllabic structure of the language; the first half goes with the preceding vowel and the latter half with the following one. The following examples illustrate the contrast between simple and geminate consonants:

There are two diphthongs in Mithilanchal Urdu: /əi/ and /əu/. /əi/ is generally pronounced loosely as ə-i, and, /əu/ as ə-u. Mithilanchal Urdu, however, is somewhat tighter in its pronunciation so it depends more or less on the option of the speaker, if s/he contracts /əi/ or/əu/ into a real diphthong or pronounce them separately as two distinct vowels. The process of diphthongization in Mithilanchal Urdu is closely related to vowel clustering. Diphthongs in Mithilanchal Urdu are rising diphthongs, i.e. they end in high vowels /i/ and /u/:

In this study, a brief sketch of segmental phonology of Mithilanchal Urdu has been presented where in vowels and consonants and their phonotactic behavior is described in detail. A brief discussion on suprasegmental features such as, stress, juncture and intonation has been presented as unique features of Mithilanchal Urdu.