UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

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The [[phoneme|phonemic]] inventory of [[Maldivian language|Maldivian]] consists of 29 consonants and 10 vowels. Like other modern [[Indo-Aryan languages]] the Maldivian phonemic inventory shows an opposition of long and short vowels, of dental and retroflex consonants as well as single and geminate consonants.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+Vowels<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Gnanadesikan|first=Amalia E.|title=Dhivehi: The Language of the Maldives|publisher=Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton|year=2017|pages=21–25}}</ref>
!rowspan=2|
!colspan=2| [[Front vowel|Front]]
!colspan=2| [[Central vowel|Central]]
!colspan=2| [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-class=small
!short
!long
!short
!long
!short
!long
|-
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|{{IPA|i}}
|{{IPA|iː}}
|
|
|{{IPA|u}}
|{{IPA|uː}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPA|e}}
|{{IPA|eː}}
|
|
|{{IPA|o}}
|{{IPA|oː}}
|-
![[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="2" |{{IPA|(æː)}}
|{{IPA|a}}
|{{IPA|aː}}
|
|
|}
* {{IPA|[æː]}} is developed as a sound from the diphthong {{IPA|/ai/}}.
* The short open back vowel is phonetically central {{IPAblink|ä}}.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|- style="font-size: 90%;"
|+Consonants<ref name=":0" />
!
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]/ [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
! colspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|m}}
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|n}}
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ɳ}}
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |({{IPAlink|ɲ}})*
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |
| colspan="2" |
|-
! [[Stop consonant|Stop]]/ [[Affricate]]
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|p}}  || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|b}} {{IPA|ᵐb}}
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|t̪|t}}  || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|d̪|d}} {{IPA|ⁿd}}
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ʈ}}  || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ɖ}} {{IPA|ᶯɖ}}
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|tʃ}}  || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|dʒ}}  
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|k}}  || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ɡ}} {{IPA|ᵑɡ}}
| colspan="2" |
|-
! [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|f}}|| style="border-left: 0;" |
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|s}} || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|z̪|z}}
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ʂ}}|| style="border-left: 0;" |
| style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ʃ}}|| style="border-left: 0;" |
| colspan="2" |
| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" |{{IPAlink|h}}|| width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |
|-
![[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ʋ}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|l̪|l}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ɭ}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|j}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|-
! [[Tap and flap consonants|Tap]]
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |{{IPAlink|ɽ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|}
* The status of /ɲ/ as a phoneme is unclear. Except for two words, /ɲamɲam/ 'cynometra caulinora' (a kind of fruit) and /ɲaviyani/ 'Gnaviyani' (alphabet letter), the /ɲ/ only occurs as the result of the fusion of /n/ and /i/: /du:ni/ 'bird', /du:ɲɲek/ 'a bird'.
*{{IPAslink|ʋ}} can occasionally be heard as a fricative {{IPAblink|v}}, it has a {{IPAblink|w}} allophone occurring between vowel sounds {{IPAslink|a}} and {{IPAslink|u}}.

Dental and retroflex stops are contrastive in Maldivian. For example: maḍun means ‘quietly’ madun means ‘seldom’. The segments {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} are articulated just behind the front teeth. The Maldivian segments {{IPA|/ʈ/}}, {{IPA|/ɖ/}}, {{IPA|/ʂ/}}, and {{IPA|/ɭ/}} are not truly retroflex, but [[apical consonant|apical]], produced at the very rear part of the alveolar ridge.

Maldivian has the prenasalized stops {{IPA|/ᵐb/}}, {{IPA|/ⁿd/}}, {{IPA|/ᶯɖ/}}, and {{IPA|/ᵑɡ/}}. These segments occur only intervocalically: {{IPA|/haⁿdu/}} ('moon') {{IPA|/haᶯɖuː/}} ('uncooked rice') and {{IPA|/aᵑɡa/}} ('mouth'). Maldivian and [[Sinhalese language|Sinhalese]] are the only Indo-Aryan languages that have prenasalized stops.

The influence of other languages has played a great role in Maldivian phonology. For example, the phoneme {{IPA|/z/}} comes entirely from foreign influence:{{citation needed|date=August 2007}} {{IPA|/ɡaːziː/}} ('judge') is from [[Persian language|Persian]], {{IPA|/maːziː/}} ('past') is from [[Urdu language|Urdu]].

The phoneme {{IPA|/p/}} also occurs only in borrowed words in Modern Standard Maldivian: {{IPA|/ripoːtu/}} ('report'). At one point, Maldivian did not have the phoneme {{IPA|/f/}}, and {{IPA|/p/}} occurred in the language without contrastive aspiration. Some time in the 17th century, word initial and intervocalic {{IPA|/p/}} changed to {{IPA|/f/}}. Historical documents from the 11th century, for example, show 'five' rendered as {{IPA|/pas/}} whereas today it is pronounced {{IPA|/fas/}}.

In standard Maldivian when the phoneme {{IPA|/s/}} occurs in the final position of a word it changes to {{IPA|[h]}} intervocalically when inflected. For example, {{IPA|/bas/}} ('word' or 'language') becomes {{IPA|/bahek/}} ('a word' or 'a language') and {{IPA|/mas/}} ('fish') becomes {{IPA|/mahek/}} ('a fish'). {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/h/}} still contrastive, though: initially {{IPA|/hiᵑɡaː/}} ('operating') and {{IPA|/siᵑɡaː/}} ('lion') and intervocalically {{IPA|/aharu/}} ('year') and {{IPA|/asaru/}} ('effect').

{{IPA|/ɽ/}}, a voiceless retroflex flap, is peculiar to Maldivian among the Indo-Aryan languages. But some people pronounce it as {{IPA|[ʐ]}} a retroflex grooved fricative.

==Borrowed phonemes==
Modern Standard Maldivian has borrowed many phonemes from [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. These phonemes are used exclusively in loan words from Arabic, for example, the phoneme {{IPA|/x/}} in words such as {{IPA|/xaːdim/}} ('male servant'). The following table shows the phonemes that have been borrowed from Arabic/Persian together with their transliteration into Tāna.

{| class="wikitable"
! [[Thaana|Tāna]]
! [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] / [[Persian alphabet|Persian]]
! [[Standard Alphabet of Mahal Transliteration|SAMT]]
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
|-
| ޙ
| ح
| ḥ
| {{IPA|/ħ/}}
|-
| ޚ
| خ
| x
| {{IPA|/x/}}
|-
| ޜ
| ژ
| ʒ
| {{IPA|/ʒ/}}
|-
| ޢ
| ع
| ‘
| {{IPA|/ʕ/}}
|-
| ޣ
| غ
| ġ
| {{IPA|/ɣ/}}
|-
| ޥ
| و
| w
| {{IPA|/w/}}
|-
| ޛ
| ذ
| ź
| {{IPA|/ð/}}
|-
| ޠ
| ط
| ţ
| {{IPA|/tˤ/}}
|-
| ޡ
| ظ
| ẓ
| {{IPA|/zˤ/}}
|-
| ޘ
| ث
| ṡ
| {{IPA|/θ/}}
|-
| ޤ
| ق
| q
| {{IPA|/q/}}
|-
| ޞ
| ص
| ş
| {{IPA|/sˤ/}}
|-
| ޟ
| ض
| ḑ
| {{IPA|/dˤ/}}
|}

==Phonotactics==
Native Maldivian words do not allow initial consonant clusters; the syllable structure is (C)V(C) (i.e. one vowel with the option of a consonant in the onset and/or coda). This affects the introduction of loanwords, such as {{IPA|/is.kuːl/}} from English ''school''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Language phonologies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldivian Phonology}}
[[Category:Maldivian language]]
[[Category:Indo-Aryan phonologies]]

Maldivian phonology - Revision history

UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

imported>Rfl0216 at 17:52, 21 July 2021