Sandhi

2021-06-02T14:03:17Z

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{{Short description|Type of sound changes at morpheme or syllable boundaries}}
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'''Sandhi''' ({{lang-sa|[[wikt:सन्धि#Sanskrit|सन्धि]]}} ''{{IAST|sandhi}}'' {{IPA-sa|sɐndʱi|}}, "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of [[phonology|sound]] changes that occur at [[morpheme]] or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on nearby sounds or the grammatical function of the adjacent words. Sandhi belongs to [[morphophonology]].

Sandhi occurs in many languages, particularly in the phonology of [[Languages of India|Indian languages]] (especially [[Sanskrit]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Hindi]], [[Pali]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Assamese language|Assamese]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]]). Many dialects of [[British English]] show [[linking and intrusive R]].

A subset of sandhi called [[tone sandhi]] more specifically refers to tone changes between words and syllables. This is a common feature of many tonal languages such as [[Mandarin Chinese]].

==Types==

=== Internal and external sandhi ===
Sandhi can be either
* '''internal''', at [[morpheme]] boundaries within words, such as ''syn- + pathy'': ''sympathy'', or
* '''external''', at word boundaries, such as the pronunciation "''tem books''" for ''ten books'' in some dialects of [[English language|English]]. The [[Linking and intrusive R|linking {{IPA|/r/}}]] process of some dialects of English ("''I saw-r-a film''" in [[British English]]) is a kind of external sandhi, as are [[French language|French]] ''[[liaison (French)|liaison]]'' (pronunciation of usually silent final consonants of words before words beginning with vowels) and [[Italian language|Italian]] ''[[syntactic gemination|raddoppiamento fonosintattico]]'' (lengthening of initial consonants of words after certain words ending in vowels).
It may be extremely common in speech, but sandhi (especially external) is typically ignored in spelling, as is the case in English (exceptions: the distinction between ''a'' and ''an''; the prefixes ''syn-'', ''in-'', ''en-'', and ''con-''). Sandhi is, however, reflected in the orthography of [[Sanskrit]], [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Pali]] and some other Indian languages, as with Italian in the case of compound words with [[Lexicalization|lexicalised]] [[syntactic gemination]].

External sandhi effects can sometimes become morphologised (apply only in certain [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] and [[syntax|syntactic]] environments) as in [[Tamil language|Tamil]]<ref>{{cite book|first=Harold F.|last=Schiffman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oqe-QsaZnnQC&q=sandhi&pg=PA20|title=A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1999|page=20|isbn=9780521640749}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gemination of stops in Tamil: implications for the phonology-syntax interface |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hemalatha_Nagarajan/publication/237415274_Gemination_of_stops_in_Tamil_implications_for_the_phonology-syntax_interface/links/567e13d708ae1e63f1e60fb4.pdf |author=Hemalatha Nagarajan |format=PDF }}</ref> and, over time, turn into [[consonant mutation]]s.

=== Tone sandhi ===
Most [[tone (linguistics)|tonal language]]s have [[tone sandhi]] in which the tones of words alter according to certain rules. An example is the behavior of [[Mandarin Chinese]]; in isolation, tone 3 is often pronounced as a falling-rising tone. When a tone 3 occurs before another tone 3, however, it changes into tone 2 (a rising tone), and when it occurs before any of the other tones, it is pronounced as a low falling tone with no rise at the end.

An example occurs in the common greeting {{lang|zh|你好}} ''nǐ hǎo'' (with two words containing underlying tone 3), which is normally pronounced ''ní hǎo''. The first word is pronounced with tone 2, but the second is unaffected.

==Examples==

===French===
The French [[liaison (French)|liaison]], in which a word-final consonant that is normally silent when occurring at the end of a phrase or before another consonant, is pronounced as if part of the next word when followed by a vowel, can be considered a form of external sandhi. For example, ''{{lang|fr|deux frères}}'' (two brothers) is pronounced {{IPA|/dø fʁɛʁ/}} with a silent {{angle brackets|x}}, and ''{{lang|fr|quatre hommes}}'' (four men) is pronounced {{IPA|/katʁ ɔm/}}, but ''{{lang|fr|deux hommes}}'' (two men) is pronounced {{IPA|/døz‿ɔm/}}.

===Japanese===
In [[Japanese phonology]], sandhi is primarily exhibited in [[rendaku]] ([[consonant mutation]] from unvoiced to voiced when not word-initial, in some contexts) and conversion of {{lang|ja|つ}} or {{lang|ja|く}} (''tsu'', ''ku'') to a [[geminate consonant]] (orthographically, the [[sokuon]] {{lang|ja|っ}}), both of which are reflected in spelling – indeed, the {{lang|ja|っ}} symbol for gemination is morphosyntactically derived from {{lang|ja|つ}}, and voicing is indicated by adding two dots as in {{lang|ja|か／が}} ''ka'', ''ga'', making the relation clear. It also occurs much less often in {{Nihongo|''[[renjō]]''|連声}}, where, most commonly, a terminal {{IPA|/n/}} on one morpheme results in an {{IPA|/n/}} (or {{IPA|/m/}}) being added to the start of the next morpheme, as in {{lang|ja|天皇: てん＋おう → てんのう}} (''ten'' + ''ō'' = ''tennō''); that is also shown in the spelling (the kanji do not change, but the kana, which specify pronunciation, change).

== See also ==
* [[Alternation (linguistics)]]
* [[Crasis]]
* [[Elision]]
* [[Liaison (French)]]
* [[Linking and intrusive R]]
* [[Movable nu]]

== References ==
<references/>

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|sandhi}}
* [http://www.sanskritdictionary.com/sandhi/ Sandhi Calculator by Vedic Society]

[[Category:Morphophonology]]
[[Category:Sanskrit words and phrases]]
[[Category:Vyakarana]]
[[Category:Phonaesthetics]]

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Sandhi