Phonetic Description of Nepali Consonants

1.      Consonants

Consonants are one of the major two subdivisions of phonemes of any language. It is distinguished from the other major subdivision 'Vowels'. Unlike vowels, consonant sounds cannot be pronounced without obstruction in airflow. In other words, "consonants are produced by temporarily obstructing or restricting the airstream as it passes through the mouth" (Lyons 75).     

2.      Nepali Consonants

There are 29 consonant phonemes in Nepali language. Called 'Byanjan' in Nepali, the list goes as follows:

SN	Phoneme	Nepali Script	SN	Phoneme	Nepali Script
1	/k/	s\	16	/d/	b\
2	/kH/	v\	17	/dH/	w\
3	/g/	u\	18	/n/	g\
4	/gH/	3\	19	/p/	k\
5	/N/	ª\	20	/pH/	km\
6	/c/	r\	21	/b/	a\
7	/cH/	5\	22	/bH/	e\
8	/j/	h\	23	/m/	d\
9	/jH/	em\	24	/y/	u\
10	/t8/	6\	25	/r/	/\
11	/t8H/	7\	26	/l/	n\
12	/d8/	8\	27	/w/	j\
13	/d8H/	9\	28	/s/	;\
14	/t/	t\	29	/h/	x\
15	/tH/	y\

3.      Bases of Classification

Consonants are classified with various kinds of phonemic features, which differ from language to language. English consonants, for example, have 3 phonemic features: places of articulation, manners of articulation and voicing. Nepali has an additional phonemic feature in comparison to English, which is aspiration. Thus, Nepali consonants are classified on the basis of four phonemic features described below:

A.    Places of Articulation

Places of articulation refer to various organs of human sound production system that act while producing a particular sound. Simply, the place of articulation of a particular sound is "the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place" (Yule 30).

Nepali consonants are classified in the following subsets according to their places of articulation (Sharma 9).

I)                   Bilabial: These sounds are pronounced when the upper and lower lips meet. There are six bilabial sounds in Nepali: /p/, /pH/, /b/, /bH/, /m/ and /w/.

II)                Dental: The sounds produced with the tip of the tongue touching back of the upper teeth are dentals. There are four dental sounds in Nepali: /t/, /tH/, /d/ and /dH/.

III)             Alveolar: When the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge (which is behind the upper teeth, rough and bony), the alveolar sounds are produced. There are twelve alveolar sounds in Nepali: /c/, /cH/, /j/, /jH/, /t8/, /t8H/, /d8/, /d8H/, /n/, /r/, /l/ and /s/.

IV)             Palatal: The sounds produced with involvement of front of the teeth and the hard palate (the hard part as roof of the mouth) are called palatal. There is only one palatal sound in Nepali: /y/.

V)                Velar: When back of the tongue touches the velum (also called "soft palate", a soft area back beyond the palate), velar sounds are produced. There are five velar sounds in Nepali: /k/, /kH/, /g/, /gH/ and /N/.

VI)             Glottal: In production of a glottal sound, the tongue is not involved, but the sound comes from the glottis (the space between the vocal cords in the larynx). The only one glottal sound in Nepali is /h/ .   

B.     Manners of Articulation

Manners of articulation refer to the ways air passes through the vocal organs in production of particular sounds. In simple terms, manner of articulation of a sound is how that sound has been produced by the places of articulation. Nepali consonants fall under seven subsets of different manners of articulation (Sharma 7).

I)                   Stops: The stop sounds are pronounced when airstream is stopped completely (but very briefly) and it is released abruptly. There are sixteen stops in Nepali consonants: /k/, /kH/, /g/, /gH/, /t8/, /t8H/, /d8/, /d8H/, /t/, /tH/, /d/, /dH/, /p/, /pH/, /b/ and /bH/.

II)                Fricatives: In production of fricative sounds, the airflow is obstructed not completely, but in a quite large volume, at the same time the obstruction allows the air pass through narrow openings. Thus, it creates friction. There are two fricatives in Nepali: /s/ and /h/.

III)             Affricates: Affricate combines stop and fricative. The air is stopped briefly, but is not released suddenly like in stop, but with obstruction like in fricative. There are four affricates in Nepali: /c/, /cH/, /j/ and /jH/.

IV)             Nasals: When velum is lowered, the oral cavity is closed; thus the air has to pass through the nasal cavity. As in English, there are three nasals in Nepali too: /N/, /n/ and /m/.

V)                Lateral: In production of lateral sound, the air passes through one or both blades / sides of the tongue. The only lateral sound in Nepali is /l/.

VI)             Trilled: The trilled sound is produced when the tongue trills (vibrates) when a speech organ hits the other one. The only trilled sound in Nepali is /r/.

VII)          Semi-vowels: Semi-vowels begin as vowels but end as consonants. They are pronounced with the tongue in motion. They are also called approximants or glides. The semi-vowels in Nepali are /y/ and /w/.

C.    Voicing

On the basis of voice, a sound can be either voiced or voiceless. Yule distinguishes voiced and voiceless sounds as follows (30):

1. When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless.

2. When the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced.

Simply, in voiceless sounds, vocal cords are wide open, thus no vibration is created in production of sound. In contrast, in voiced sounds, the cords are close together thus creating vibration.

I)                   Voiceless: There are eleven voiceless consonants in Nepali: /k/, /kH/, /c/, /cH/, /t8/, /t8H/, /t/, /tH/, /p/, /pH/ and /s/.

II)                Voiced: There are eighteen voiced consonant sounds in Nepali: /g/, /gH/, /N/, /j/, /jH/, /d8/, /d8H/, /d/, /dH/, /n/, /b/, /bH/, /m/, /y/, /r/, /l/, /w/ and  /h/.  

D.    Aspiration

Aspiration refers to volume of air needed to pronounce any sound. English language doesn't have this feature; thus it requires equal volume of air to produce any sound in English. But, Nepali has this feature.

On the basis of aspiration, Nepali consonants are classified in two subsets:

I)                   Unaspirated: It requires less amount of air for pronunciation. There are seventeen unaspirated consonants in Nepali: /k/, /g/, /N/, /c/, /j/, /t8/, /d8/, /t/, /d/, /n/, /p/, /b/, /m/, /y/, /r/, /l/ and /w/.

II)                Aspirated: If a sound requires more air for pronunciation, that is aspirated sound. There are twelve aspirated sounds in Nepali consonants: /kH/, /gH/, /cH/, /jH/, /t8H/, /d8H/, /tH/, /dH/, /pH/, /bH/, /s/ and /h/.  

4.      Classification Table of Nepali Consonants 

From above discussion, the 29 Nepali consonants can be described as follows:

SN	Phoneme	Place of articulation	Manner of articulation	Voicing	Aspiration
1	/k/	Velar	Stop	Voiceless	Unaspirated
2	/kH/	Velar	Stop	Voiceless	Aspirated
3	/g/	Velar	Stop	Voiced	Unaspirated
4	/gH/	Velar	Stop	Voiced	Aspirated
5	/N/	Velar	Nasal	Voiced	Unaspirated
6	/c/	Alveolar	Affricate	Voiceless	Unaspirated
7	/cH/	Alveolar	Affricate	Voiceless	Aspirated
8	/j/	Alveolar	Affricate	Voiced	Unaspirated
9	/jH/	Alveolar	Affricate	Voiced	Aspirated
10	/t8/	Alveolar	Stop	Voiceless	Unaspirated
11	/t8H/	Alveolar	Stop	Voiceless	Aspirated
12	/d8/	Alveolar	Stop	Voiced	Unaspirated
13	/d8H/	Alveolar	Stop	Voiced	Aspirated
14	/t/	Dental	Stop	Voiceless	Unaspirated
15	/tH/	Dental	Stop	Voiceless	Aspirated
16	/d/	Dental	Stop	Voiced	Unaspirated
17	/dH/	Dental	Stop	Voiced	Aspirated
18	/n/	Alveolar	Nasal	Voiced	Unaspirated
19	/p/	Bilabial	Stop	Voiceless	Unaspirated
20	/pH/	Bilabial	Stop	Voiceless	Aspirated
21	/b/	Bilabial	Stop	Voiced	Unaspirated
22	/bH/	Bilabial	Stop	Voiced	Aspirated
23	/m/	Bilabial	Nasal	Voiced	Unaspirated
24	/y/	Palatal	Semi-vowel	Voiced	Unaspirated
25	/r/	Alveolar	Trilled	Voiced	Unaspirated
26	/l/	Alveolar	Lateral	Voiced	Unaspirated
27	/w/	Bilabial	Semi-vowel	Voiced	Unaspirated
28	/s/	Alveolar	Fricative	Voiceless	Aspirated
29	/h/	Glottal	Fricative	Voiced	Aspirated

Place →

Bilabial

Dental

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Manner↓

Voicing→ Aspiration↓

-V

+V

-V

+V

-V

+V

-V

+V

-V

+V

-V

+V

Stops

Unaspirated

/p/

/b/

/t/

/d/

/t8/

/d8/

/k/

/g/

Aspirated

/pH/

/bH/

/tH/

/dH/

/t8H/

/d8H/

/kH/

/gH/

Fricatives

Aspirated

/s/

/h/

Affricates

Unaspirated

/c/

/j/

Aspirated

/cH/

/jH/

Nasals

Unaspirated

/m/

/n/

/N/

Lateral

Unaspirated

/l/

Trilled

Unaspirated

/r/

Semi-vowels

Unaspirated

/w/

/y/

Works Cited

Lyons, John. Language and Linguistics An Introduction. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Sharma, Mohan Raj. Sabdarachana Ra Barnabinyas Wakyatatwa, Abhibyakti Ra Pathharu. Kathmandu: Nabin Prakashan, 2004.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 3^rd ed. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2006.