1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 MAGAHI- AN INTRODUCTION

On 1st March, 2011, at 0:00 hours the population of India touched the ominous figure
of 1,201,193,422 which can roughly be put to 1.21 billion. For a country which
supports such a large population and where the media of communication change every
five kilometers the constitution has recognized only twenty- two official languages in
its eighth schedule. There are many languages which do not find any representation
otherwise and have been bracketed as being the dialects of the more prominent
languages. Magahi is one such language. It has been assigned the ISO number 639-3:
2007. It falls under the group of Bihari language (Grierson 1882 a:2) which is a sub
category of the classification of Eastern Zone languages under the category of the
Indo Aryan languages. It is not that Magahi has not been discussed but the extent to
which its description can be found in literature has been preliminary and superficial.

The chapter unfolds with a brief discussion on the origin of Magahi language and
literature which briefly traces the literary history of the language and how Magahi has
managed to get a script. It is essentially a language of Bihar; however, mixed varieties
of language are spoken in the adjoining areas of West Bengal and Orissa. The name
Magahi is a direct derivative of the name Magadhi itself. Magahi is spoken in the
southern parts of Bihar.

A major reason for the choice of the topic “The Stress and Rhythm of Magahi” for the
present thesis is that there is a complete lack of any type of account dealing with the
prosodic properties of the language. This thesis is a humble attempt in this direction.

1.1.1 Geographical Extent of Magahi

According to Grierson, it falls under the group of Bihari languages in the language
family of Indo- Aryan languages. At present there are roughly 20,362, 000 speakers of
this language which is around 1.67 % of the total Indian population as per the 2011
census by the Govt. of India. The speakers of Magahi and other Bihari languages like
Bhojpuri and Maithili have a sense of identity and great deal of cultural affinity with
the larger Hindi group in various ways. Often they identify their native language as
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Hindi because of which the correct number of people speaking the language becomes
difficult to ascertain.

Magahi is spoken in the area which formed the core of the ancient kingdom of
Magadh. The total geographical area covered by Magahi is much larger. In a very
broad sense, the river Ganga may be seen as marking a linguistic boundary making it
the language of South Bihar and North Jharkhand. In the west it extends to the eastern
parts of the district of Palamu, in east to the portions of the districts of Monghyr and
Bhagalpur, in the south to Singhbhum, and in the southeast to Dhanbad (Jharkhand).
Magahi does, however extend beyond Bihar, even though marginally, into Bengal in
the district of Purulia and into Orissa in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Bamra. Infact,
there is another region in Bengal, Malda in its northern part, where Magahi coexists
with Bangla (Sheela Verma, 1985). Magahi now uses the Devanagri script borrowed
directly from Hindi in place of the Kaithi script used earlier.

1.1.2 Magahi Script and Literary History- an Outline

In reconstructing the development of Indo- Aryan, scholars hypothetically posit a

common parent language from which the modern Magadhan languages are said to
have sprung. The unattested parent of the Magadhan languages is designated as
Eastern or Magadhi Apabhramsa (Chatterji, 1926) and is assigned to Middle Indo-

Aryan. Apart from the eastern languages, other modern representatives of the
Magadhan subfamily are Magahi, Maithili and Bhojpuri (Comrie 2001).

Let us first begin with a discussion on its script and its literary tradition as found in
the literature. The traditional script for Magahi has been Kaithi 1 which is still used in
communication at a personal level. Kaithi alphabets have been tabulated with
Devanagari 2 equivalents and transliterations. (Grierson 1903) 3 There has been some
effort on the part of scholars in the Magahi belt to explore and identify any type of
literary tradition for this language. If one goes back to the eighth century then its
1
The Kaithi script gets its name from the word ‘Kaayath’ < ‘Kaayastha’, the caste of writers in
Northern India, and has been current until recently in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. (Cardona, G. &
Jain, Dhanesh. 2003. The Indo- Aryan Language. New York: Routledge.
2
Devanagri is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of India, Nepal, Tibet and South- East Asia. The
fundamental principle of this script is that each letter represents a consonant which carries an inherent
schwa vowel ([]) with it. This script was earlier used as a script for Gujrati before being adopted for
Magahi.
3. Grierson, G.A. 1903. Linguistic Survey of India. (Vol. V, Part 2)
3
Grierson, G.A. 1903. Linguistic Survey of India. (Vol. V, Part 2)
 3

literary tradition can be found to exist to the same extent as Hindi (e.g. Aryani 1976:
28-31, Pandeya 1982, Singh 1982). It starts from the time of the Siddha saints who
existed as early as 800 A.D. Many linguists have tried to describe this language and
the first commendable effort was undertaken during the first linguistic survey of
India. Because of the use of the Devanagri for scholarly approaches to Magahi, most
language related discussions on Magahi routinely posit the same phonemic inventory
as the Devanagri alphabet implies. According to the existing literature the phonemic
inventory of Magahi can best be viewed as a somewhat reduced version of the core of
the New Indo- Aryan inventory in a systematic manner (Sheela Verma, 2003) 4. It will
be unfair towards any language to dismiss it as being the reduced version of a more
popular language without investing adequate effort in describing its features. Every
language has some uniqueness in its characteristics. The present chapter is an effort
aimed at describing the sound system of the language and to investigate if it has any
unique feature with respect to its sounds (consonants and vowels).

1.2 MOTIVATION

Being the native speaker of one such lesser known languages Magahi, the first thing
that comes to my mind is to provide a phonological description of this language to the
best of my capabilities so that its linguistic features can be brought to the forefront. As
already mentioned the main attempt of this research would be to provide a
phonological description of this language, that is, to be exact, to provide the
description of the prosodic system of Magahi. This would require a study of the
consonant and vowel sounds, the syllable structure, the rules governing the placement
of stress, pitch and accent, the word stress, the sentence stress and tones, the rhythmic
foot types, the phonological phrase, the intonational phrase and the intonation system.

The objective of this research is to describe the word stress and rhythm pattern of
Magahi. Starting with the description of vowel and consonant sounds of Magahi the
thesis would proceed further explaining the other aspects of prosody of the language.
This will take into account its syllable structure, the rules governing the placement of
stress, pitch and accent, the word stress, the sentence stress, the rhythmic foot types
and the phonological phrase.

4
Magahi has been discussed as one of the NIA languages along with Gujrati, Bhojpuri, Maithili and
Awadhi. (Masica 1993).
 4

Not many linguists have worked exclusively on this language, the closest being
Verma (1985) who has described the sounds of the language (consonants and vowels
together) with some phonetic and phonological features. However, a number of works
like Balasubramaniam (1974), Hayes (1991), Jun (1993) have been done on the
phonological features that will be researched in the present study. The research will
include the description of language starting from the sounds drawing references from
the existing literature as well as the collection of data from the field. This research
will prove to be a novel attempt in this field as nobody till date has worked on the
prosody of Magahi throwing light on the syntax-phonology-morphology interface.

According to the Rhythm Class Hypothesis (Pike, 1945; Abercrombie, 1967) in

phonology the world’s language have been divided into two: the syllable- timed and
the stress- timed on the basis of the rhythm pattern that they follow. In the first one all
syllables have the same length and are thereby isochronous, whereas in stress- timed
languages, the intervals between stressed syllables are isochronous. Several
reformulations of the rhythm class hypothesis have been attempted in light of the
untenable isochrony condition.

Several of these base the rhythmic distinction of languages mainly on syllable

complexity, as well as occurrence of vowel reduction. According to this explanatory
approach, stress- timed languages are those that allow reduced vowels and complex
syllables, syllable- timed languages permit neither. This idea has recently been
developed into an acoustic account of linguistic rhythm (Ramus, Nespor, Mehler
1999) which classifies languages based on statistical measures of duration which
correlate with these two rhythm class.

Languages of different rhythm types show different proportions of vocalic and

consonantal intervals. However, a close study of the prosody of some of the Indian
languages will lead to a third intermediate classification where the rhythm pattern
shows the dual features of being stress- timed as well as syllable- timed. This research
will try to bring out the similar prosodic features for Magahi.

Phonologists have tried to account for stress and the various parameters determining
the placement of stress in a language. Segmental effects of stress are the result of the
development of duration and magnitude of gesture as correlates of stress (Bybee et al.
1998). Accent has to be realized very distinctively in stress – timing languages, i.e.
 5

there must be a phonetically strong emphasis. The phonetic correlates of stress are:
pitch, intensity and duration. And the segmental effects of stress are dependent on
vowel reduction, vowel lengthening and consonant changes.

The stronger stress is realized phonetically, the more segmental effects of stress are to
be expected. Segmental effects of stress render stress placement less predictable (loss
of syllables) and enhance the development of morphological conditioning (Bybee et
al. 1998). Stress placement is fixed, weight- sensitive and is morphologically or
lexically conditioned. Geigerich when working on the stress rules of German (1985)
has provided with a good framework for to find out the same for other languages as
well. The Main Stress Rule of German according to him is:

Syllable → syllable / ─ [(light syllable) light syllable]

The rightmost terminal node may be followed by one or more light syllables. As per
the preliminary investigation of the Magahi language it was found that when the stress
is on the penultimate syllable, the vowel in the antipenultimate syllable gets
attenuated. When the stress is on the final (or the ‘ult’) syllable, the vowel in the
penult gets attenuated. With the shift in stress, the feature of vowel shortening also
gets shifted. Let us look at the data illustrated in Fig. 1(a).

Fig. 1(a)1. /:/ //

(to loot) (dacoity)

2. /p:/ //

(to bunk) (bunking)

3. // //

(shop) (shop-keeper)

A look at preliminary data as in Fig 1a(1-3) reveals that the main stress in Magahi
words seem to fall on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy; it seems to fall on the ult
 6

syllable if the penultimate syllable is light. The foot appears to be left- headed and the
movement of the stress is towards the right edge of the word. The syllable weight
appears to determine the stress system of Magahi. So, the inclination is to say that
Magahi is a quantity- sensitive language in this regard. However, without an in depth
investigation of a large bodies of data the authenticity of the claims stand
questionable. As the work progresses, the upcoming chapters will try to establish this
claim.

While talking about the stress pattern of Magahi, it is beneficial to consider studies in
similar areas specially those that have been done in languages which have similar
properties. Hindi and Maithili are two such languages and both have moraic trochees
as the basic foot type (Hayes 1995). Now the question is whether Magahi also has the
same kind of foot type or is the case different here? Let us deal with this as we
proceed. There are many phonological phenomena which are governed by the way
stresses are placed within the words. Let us have a look at the following data:

Fig.1 (b) 1. // (shop) / / (shopkeeper)

2. // (morning) // (in the morning)

There are instances of vowel shortening and vowel loss. Many phonological
phenomena occur at phonology- morphology interface level. The placement of stress
within a word is very much then dependent on the kind of vowel that the syllable
possesses. As a result we can find out stress rules at the morphophonemic levels. The
stress pattern in a sentence is rhythm. Stress gives us much information in the form of
focus. This is not conveyed through syntax. Whatever information appears in the
sentence it gets focused and stressed. The illustration in Fig. 1(c) will give us a hint of
what type of study will be undertaken in this research. The preliminary data analysis
in this chapter will pave way for the analysis of a larger body of data and it will the
readers receptive prepared for such kind of data analysis and interpretation.

Let us see the following two examples from Magahi as illustrated in Fig. 1(c).

Fig. 1 (c)1. / həm rəmes ke hiy eliye həl/

I Ramesh GEN. here go.1P aux.PT

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I went to Ramesh’s place. (gloss)

2. /həm rəmes ke hiy eliye həl lekin u kəhĭn  el hələi/

I Ramesh GEN. here go.1P aux.PT but he somewhere else go.3P aux.part

I went to Ramesh’s place but he had gone somewherelse. (gloss)

We see that in the first sentence /el/ is stressed. In the second sentence /el/ appears

at two places, the first with an affix and the second as free word. The first one is
unstressed while the second one is stressed because the first information is not new
information. When we analyze the information acoustically we do find the correlates
which are responsible for this marked distinction between these words. Pitch,
intensity, and duration were used as parameters to find an explanation for this. When
the word occurred once in the sentence the respective values were:

Fig. 1 (d) Pitch - 223.97 Hz

Intensity - 70.24 dB

Duration - 0.108 sec

However, in the second sentence where we have two samples we do find a difference
in the values of the acoustic features. They are as follows:

Fig. 1 (e) Initial final

Pitch 234.15 Hz 217.56 Hz

Intensity 68.76 dB 70.15 dB

Duration 0.128 sec 0.114 sec

When we compare the two sets of values we see a decline in the value of the pitch but
there is a marked increase in the value of the intensity of the verb occurring for the
second time. Also, the duration taken to articulate the second sample is lesser than
that of the first one. This information can be used to carry out further research in this
area. If not syntax then acoustic correlates definitely tell us as to why certain
information get focused others do not. Let us have a look at the following
spectrograms.
 8

GRAPH 1/1

/ həm rəmes ke hiyã eliye həl/

The highlighted portion shows /el/ when it occurs solely (in the first sentence)

Pitch - 223.97 Hz

Intensity - 70.24 dB

Duration - 0.108 sec

 9

GRAPH 1/2 /həm rəmes ke hiyã geliye həl lekin u kəhĭn  el

hələi/

The highlighted portion shows /el/ when it occurs in the unstressed initial position in

the second sentence.

Pitch 234.15 Hz
Intensity 68.76 dB
Duration 0.128 sec

GRAPH 1/3

/həm rəmes ke hiy eliye həl lekin u kəhĭn  el hələi/

 10

The highlighted portion shows /gel/ when it occurs in the stressed final position in the
sentence.

Pitch 217.56 Hz

Intensity 70.15 dB

Duration 0.114 sec

HYPOTHESES FORMULATED

1. My hypothesis for the Main Stress Rule for Magahi is:

Syllable → syllable/ — [(light syllable)]

According to my preliminary research I also hypothesise that Magahi is a quantity-

sensitive language. This has been dealt with in greater detail in Chapter 4.

2. When two same words occur in a sentence then one is focused by the speaker and
the other is not. Focus can be determined acoustically with respect to pitch, intensity
and duration. However, there is no apparent change in the pitch of the words and in
certain cases the focused word can have declining pitch in comparison to its non-
focussed counterpart. Same is the case when it comes to the durations of the two
words.

1.3 IN WHAT WAY IS THIS RESEARCH DIFFERENT

No significant work in the field of prosodic analysis has been done for Magahi. This
research accounts for the complete prosodic analysis of the language starting with a
brief description of the existing sounds moving on to the levels of prosody viz. stress,
rhythm and intonation. For the present research the rhythm and intonation of wh-
questions have been taken into account. Although it is possible to take up the prosodic
study of the different types of sentences but for a detailed study it is better to take up
one type of sentence that has also been the general practice in the academic circle.
Declarative sentences tend to have a lot of varieties so the general practice of
 11

confining the work to the rhythm and intonation patterns of Magahi wh- questions has
been followed. There is another advantage to it as this work can be compared to
similar researches in languages like Korean (Ishihara 2003), English (Grabe,
Kochanski& Coleman 2005), Dutch (Haan 2001), and Tamil (Savio 1991). This thesis
creates a wide scope for future research in this area and the researchers can use the
findings and the data for future reference.

After doing so, there is an account for phonology morphology interaction as well.
Phonological rules not only determine word structure but they also affect syntactic
constructions equally.

This research has been taken further to the level as there is an account of the
interaction between phonology and syntax. A comparison of phonological constraints
with the syntactic constraints and find a relationship between the two has also been
discussed. All the findings are well supported by quantitative as well as qualitative
analyses. What is the frequency of the occurrence of a certain type of prosodic feature
or which one appears the least number of times, all such information have been
represented through graphs. The use of software at every possible step of my work
has provided with a greater degree of authenticity and acceptability in the wider
circles.

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this research it was attempted to frame a basic pattern of methodology and tools
that would be used at various levels of analysis. Since the work pertains to the
prosody of the Magahi language, so, to begin with, data collection was needed. The
data has been collected from the native speakers of the language. The number of
subjects is twelve ranging between the age group of 20 yrs and 70 yrs.

A. DATA COLLECTION

The data comes from two sources.

1. primary source

This is basically the first hand data collection. This is to be done by going to the
targeted field. Under this I have followed the following steps:
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a) silent observation

A careful observation and recording of the useful information has been done.

b) Participation and observation

The collection of data has not just been by listening to the speakers but the
observer also actively participated so that more relevant data was elicited.

c) Questionnaire method

The subjects were asked various questions related to the basic word structure and
sentence constructions of the language. The interaction was framed in such a
manner that the data collected consisted of a lot of interrogative sentences elicited
from the informants. Also, they were asked to provide the Magahi equivalents of
around 500 words comprising the basic word list. [Abbi, A. (2001) ‘A Manual of
Linguistic Field work and Structures of Indian Languages ’; Lincom Europa]

2. secondary source

Many information regarding this research has also been obtained from various
books on similar topic. Some works also have Magahi inventories which have
been used at various levels of analysis.

B. SAMPLING

Since the size of the population was immense (by ‘population’ here, I mean the
collection of entities or the objects of investigation) it was really worthwhile to go
for some kind of sampling. For this research I have used stratified random
sampling. It was cumbersome to evaluate and analyze the data obtained from all
the sixty subjects at one go. Therefore, a kind of sub sample has been obtained
from each of the four categories. A combination of the sub samples has yielded
the desired sample for further analysis.

C. ANALYSIS

The sample thus obtained has been put to analysis so that useful inferences have
been drawn. The main focus of my research is to find out:
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a) the stress rules within words

b) the rhythmic pattern of the language

c) the intonation system of the language and

d) to comment on the phonology-syntax interaction .

The analysis comprises of two approaches:

1) quantitative and

2) qualitative

A combination of these two approaches has given a more authentic base to the
findings.

1) Quantitative approach

Correlation can be used when analyzing the various stress related phenomena within
words. Correlation is that area of statistics which is concerned with the study of
systematic relationships between two variables. It can be used in studying the
relationship between

a) stress and vowel lengthening

b) stress and vowel shortening

c) stress and deletion

d) Cluster simplification, stress and syllable position in a word.

This approach facilitated the second part of analysis.

2) Qualitative approach

A careful application of existing phonological theories has then been done. Also, the
recorded data has been analysed acoustically with the help of various softwares like
Wavesurfer 18 and PRAAT. The acoustic analysis has been done with the help of
 14

Tones and Break Indices (ToBI). With the help of these softwares the existing
rhythmic patterns of the language has easily been deciphered.

1.5 CHAPTERS IN BRIEF

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF STUDIES

This chapter discusses the existing literature in the relevant field of study. The chapter
tries to highlight the important studies and theoretical frameworks that have been used
in the analysis of data for the present thesis.

CHAPTER 3

THE SOUND SYSTEM

This chapter investigates the sound system of Magahi. With the help of the data
obtained from the varied sources an effort has been put in describing the vowel and
consonant sounds of the language. The chapter deals with the description of the
vowels, nasalized vowels, diphthongs, consonants and the probable consonant
clusters. The phonetic and the phonemic charts support the same. But the main focus
of the chapter is the description of the syllable structure of this language. Statistical
analyses reveal the most frequent syllable of the language. There are certain
phonological constraints which operate in determining the choice of consonants for
the onset and coda positions in a syllable. The chapter throws light on this area as
well.

CHAPTER 4

WORD STRESS

Various phonological features like vowel deletion, vowel shortening, gemination etc.
determine word stress. These have been discussed here. The discussion also
comprises of the stress pattern and the main stress rule for the language. Acoustically,
stress is dependent on pitch, intensity and duration. With the help of the softwares an
 15

attempt has been made to ascertain as to what extent these factors play a role in
determining stress as well as focus in a phrase.

CHAPTER 5

RHYTHM AND PHRASING PATTERNS

This chapter deals with the rhythm patterns in the language. Similar kind of acoustic
analysis continued here however this time the unit of analysis has been longer than the
previous one. This chapter has helped in finding out the basic foot type of the
language. I have also tried to explain the various types of phonological phrases and
how they are different from the syntactic phrases.

CHAPTER 6

THE PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERFACE

The various levels of linguistics cannot be compartmentalized. Keeping this in mind

this chapter tries to throw light on how phonology, morphology and syntax are
interrelated. There are instances where minor change in one brings significant change
in the other. The chapter discusses all such factors which have such effects.

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

In the concluding chapter I have basically summarized all my findings. This chapter
gives a short sketch of how I proceeded in my work at the outset and what kind of
changes I had to incorporate in the due course of time. The last part of this chapter
clearly states as to how far I was successful in describing the rhythm and stress of the
language and what could be the possible areas where more work can be carried out in
future.
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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF STUDIES
This chapter is an attempt to bring to light those researches which are relevant to the
present thesis. Keeping this in mind the chapter is divided into two sections. The first
section deals with the review of the existing literature in this field and the second
section deals with the theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of the data. In the
second section the discussion is centered on the discussion of prosodic phonology and
optimality theory.

2.1 EXISTING RESEARCH IN THIS AREA

It must be mentioned at the outset that there is a complete lack of any significant work
in the proposed area of research. Literatures dealing with Magahi phonology are
scarce and very superficial. The stress pattern of Magahi has not been previously
analyzed in the metrical literature. Stress is the linguistic manifestation of rhythmic
structure, a claim that has been part of metrical theory since Liberman (1975) and
Liberman & Prince (1977). A body of careful experimental work has established that
no one physical correlate can serve as a direct reflection of linguistic stress levels
(Lehiste 1970; Lea 1977; Ladd 1980; Beckman 1986).

Till now we have discussed the various researches which have been undertaken in
similar fields. Apart from the discussion of the various approaches the section has also
dealt with the major theories that have been propounded during the course of such
studies and researches. In continuation with this kind of discussion the following
paragraphs discuss the literature dealing with the phenomena like word stress (which
has been dealt with in detail in Chpater 4 of this thesis) and rhythm and phrasing
pattern of the wh- questions of Magahi (Chapter 5).

The absence of any clear definition of stress means that any theory of stress is in an
indirect relation with the facts that support it. In most areas of phonology, it is not too
difficult to ascertain when the observed facts confirm or falsify a hypothesis. This is
 17

because of the distinctive features 5 which form the core of phonological

representation, have relatively clear acoustic or articulatory correlates. (Hayes 1995)

Stress serves multiple purposes: it creates phonemic contrasts, marks morphological

and syntactic structure, signals the distribution of focus and so on. The multiple
phonetic cues for stress are particularly interesting when one considers that languages
use duration and pitch in their phonological systems for entirely different purposes.
Duration is the phonetic cue for vowel length, which is phonemic in many languages
(not in the case of Magahi though). Duration is also widely used to mark phonological
phrasing (see Chapter 5): the right edges of major phrases typically receive extra
duration.

Further, pitch is the phonetic cue for tone, in languages with phonemic tone systems
(Magahi is a non- tonal language), and also in the phonetic basis of intonation (see
Chapter 5). The basic point is this that stress is parasitic, in the sense that it invokes
phonetic resources that serve other phonological ends. (Hayes 1995)

From a structural point of view, stress is a property of the rightmost or leftmost

syllable of a prosodic constituent, the foot. The prototypical foot is a sequence of two
syllables one of which is strong (s) and the other one weak (w). Stress is a property of
syllables. When the word is spoken in isolation, the stressed syllable is provided with
an intonational pitch accent, a tone or tone complex like H* (high) or L*H (low-
high). Stressed syllables thus serve as the location for the tones that make up the
intonation contour. Shifting of stress is related to the difference in the location of the
f0 (fundamental frequency) fall is clearly visible. Quantity and weight are expressed
in moras. It splits off the onset consonants (s) which are prosodically inactive, from
the segments in the rhyme. The rhyme includes a mora structure: a vocalic rhyme
with a single mora- light and two moras- heavy. (Gussenhoven 2004)

Keeping these arguments into consideration it becomes essential to see Magahi stress
system in the same light. Chapter 4 commences with the description of the syllable
and the foot structure of the language. The chapter is divided into four sections. The
first section of the chapter includes the introduction and the analysis of Magahi
syllable structure. The second section investigates its syllable based processes. The

5
The classification of Magahi segmental sounds on the basis of distinctive features has been provided
in the charts 3/5 and 3/6 for consonants and vowels respectively.
 18

analysis of syllable structure discusses the patterns of syllabic units in Magahi, the
nature of syllabic peak and the phonotactic constraints. The section dedicated for the
discussion on the syllable based includes the discussion on syllable duration, syllable
weight and processes like epenthesis and vowel shortening.

The third section of the chapter deals with the analysis of the foot structure and the
foot based processes. The foot based processes includes a discussion on the process of
cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening. This section of the chapter also tries
to analyze Magahi prosodic templates. This section of the chapter will focus mainly
on the discussion of the prosodic template of Magahi plurals. The chapter closes with
a brief summary of the important findings of the chapter.

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of the syllables.
This prominence is a function of loudness, pitch or duration and it is often the change
in pitch along with other factors that is most important. The prominence of syllables is
referred to as stress. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the process of the placement
of word stress in Magahi. Therefore it becomes important to study the syllable and the
foot structure prior to the analysis of the stress placement in Magahi.

The analysis of word stress commences with a detailed description of the syllable and
the foot structure based on the data collected through the observation and the
interview methods 6. The discussion includes a comprehensive analysis of the syllable
and the foot structure of Magahi. The first half of this chapter includes the analysis of
Magahi syllable structure (the patterns of syllabic peak and phonotactic constraints)
and the examination of its syllable based processes. Syllable based processes relate to
the syllable duration and the syllable peak. Epenthesis and vowel shortening too occur
very frequently in the language and so they also have been discussed under the
syllable based processes.

Bruce P. Hayes (1982) discussed the metrical theory of stress in English with respect
to the concept of extrametricality. He applied it to large segments of the vocabulary.
Extrametricality helps in capturing insights about the English stress system and also in
the treatment of word-final syllables in other languages where stress is sensitive to

6
The Observation Method requires fairly good advance knowledge of the language under
consideration. While adopting this method, it is assumed that the basic grammar is already known to
the fieldworker. In the Interview Method the field investigator can interview informants with or
without the help of the questionnaire/s.
 19

syllable quantity. It also helps in the construction of a universal theory of possible

foot shapes.

Erik Fudge (1984) worked on the word stress system of English which would be of
immense help to me in my research. The concepts of nuclear syllable and nuclear
stress have been discussed explicitly. The nuclear syllable ‘seen’ is not necessarily
much louder than the rest, but it carries a very noticeable pitch movement, and is
longer than any two-syllable stretch in the utterance. Also, the placements of primary
and secondary stresses of English have been discussed. However, for this language,
the place of word-stress within the word remains constant.

The basic function of stress is the so-called culmination (crest-forming) function

which consists of the fact that the accents signalize the number of independent words
within the given speech flow. Modern phonologists, he says, accept the following two
statements:

(1) Prosodic features are relational elements which possess either a

culminative function or a function of word differentiation.
(2) Prosodic features are acoustic features.
Several discrepancies arise because of this and to avoid that the concept of prosodic
feature is split into two corresponding concepts: the concept of prosodic feature as a
construct which he calls “prosodeme” and the concept of the substratum of prosodic
features which he calls “prosodemoid”. In correspondence with the demarcation of the
two abstraction levels, the level of abstraction and the level of constructs, phonology
should distinguish two types of prosodic features as well; prosodemoids at the former
level, and prosodemes as the latter. Prosodemes are in relation of embodiment to
prosodemoids; in other words, prosodemoids embody prosodemes while prosodemes
are embodied in prosodemoids.

A statistical method has been applied to express isochrony in quantitative terms, and
an attempt has been made to find isochrony in the acoustic speech signal in Gibbon
and Richter edited “Intonation, Accent and Rhythm: Studies in Discourse Phonology”
(1984). It was assumed that if isochrony was at all detectable in the speech wave, it
should affect the duration of the phones which constitute rhythm units.
 20

Any work of phonology would not be complete without the mention of Goldsmith’s
autosegmental phonology (1990). John Goldsmith in his book discussed a system of
multi-linear phonological analysis in which different features may be placed on
separate tiers, and in which the various tiers are organized by “association lines” and a
“well-formedness” condition. Autosegmental representation provides to generative
phonology one way to incorporate some more traditional and phonetically based
notions. On the other hand, it allows for revealing analysis of “suprasegmental”
elements using basic techniques of generative phonology.

Sun-Ah Jun worked on a similar topic. The topic for her PhD dissertation was “The
Phonetics and Phonology of Korean prosody” (1993, Ohio State University). She used
the theoretical framework developed by Pierrehumbert, Liberman (1980) and
Pierrehumbert, Beckman (1988) & Pierrehumbert and Pierrehumbert and Beckman
(1988). The framework assumes that the intonational contour consists of a sequence
of discrete tonal entities. There are only two tonal levels High and Low. There are six
types of pitch accents in English H*, L*, L*+H, L+H*, H+L* and H*+L. Choosing
different pitch accent does not change the lexical meaning of the word but only the
pragmatic meaning of an utterance. It is also proposed that two types of tonal entities
make up intonational contour of every Intonational Phrase. They are:

1) pitch accent
1) phrase tones. Phrase tones are further subdivided into phrase accents and
boundary tones.
The minimal intonational contour of an IP consists of a pitch accent, a phrase accent
and a final boundary tone. Sun-Ah Jun talks about Accentual Phrase which is defined
by the surface tonal pattern whose domain is determined by the syntactic/non-
syntactic factors that influence intonational units.

The seminar paper by Ramus, Nespor and Mehler (1999) gave evidence that simple
statistics of the speech signal could discriminate between different rhythmic classes.
They segmented utterances of various languages into vocalic and consonantal (i.e.
intervocatic) intervals. The results show that the consonantal clusters are not
homogeneous in their influence on duration measures of speech rhythm. Rather,
language distinctions seem to be strongly influenced by phonotactic factors even in
rhythmic analysis. This provided a phonetic basis for the conjecture that languages are
 21

divided into different classes according to rhythmic properties (Pike 1945,

Abercrombie 1967). The linear law as proposed by M. Cassandro, P.Collet, D.Duarte,
A.Galves and J.Garcia ( ) strongly supports the classical linguistic picture of two
types of phonemes. Their notion of high sonority regions do not coincide exactly with
the notions of vowel and consonant, but it is consistent with it.

The central claim of Rhythm Class Hypothesis (Pike 1945, Abercrombie 1967) is that
there are two rhythmic types:

1)syllable timed languages

2)stress timed languages.

In the first one all syllables have the same length and are thereby isochronous,
whereas in stress-timed languages, the intervals between stressed-timed languages are
isochronous. Several reformulations of the rhythm class hypothesis have been
attempted in light of the untenable isochrony condition. Several of these base the
rhythmic distinction of languages mainly on syllable complexity, as well as occurance
of vowel reduction. According to this explanatory approach, stress-timed languages
are those that allow reduced vowels and complex syllables, syllable-timed languages
permit neither. This idea has recently been developed into an acoustic account of
linguistic rhythm (Ramus, Nespor and Mehler 1999), which classifies languages
based on statistical measures of duration which correlate with these two rhythm class
parameters.

The following six parameters have been considered to be reliable in etymologizing

linguistic rhythm:

• phonetic correlates of stress

• segmental effects of stress
• syllable structure
• length of contrasts
• tone
• vowel harmony

Gibbon (1984) applied a statistical method to express isochrony in quantitative terms,

and an attempt has been made to find isochrony in the acoustic speech signal. It was
 22

assumed that if isochrony was at all detectable in the speech wave, it should affect the
duration of the phones which constitute rhythm units. In case of rhythm model with
two variables,

Let d = duration of any rhythm unit

n = size/ number of constituent phonemes

p = duration of each of the constituent phonemes.

So, d = np

And the two extreme cases can be

(a) no isochrony: p = k = d/n and

(b) strict isochrony: d = k = np.

Elisabeth Selkirk (2003) came up with a landmark work on sentence phonology.

According to the Prosodic Structure Hypothesis discussed in the paper, prosodic
structure organizes sentence phonology and phonetics just as it does word phonology
and phonetics. The constituents of the prosodic hierarchy most directly relevant to
sentence phonology are:-

1. the syllable
2. the foot
3. the prosodic word
4. the phonological phrase
5. the intonational phrase
6. The utterance.
She also discusses about the constraints of the prosodic structure, the chief ones
being, firstly, the strict layering of prosodic structure in an unmarked case and
secondly, the alignment of edges of prosodic phrases and prosodic phrase
prominences.
In “Phonology of Tone and Intonation” (2004), Carlos Gussenhoven uses Optimality
Theory (OT) to describe the system of intonation. OT comprises a component GEN
(ERATOR) which freely generates a large set of candidate output forms by
improvising on the input form. The set of possible output forms generated by GEN is
vetted by the constraints in a process known as EVAL (UATOR). The set of universal
 23

constraints, referred to as CON (STRAINTS), is ranked for the language in question,

and it is this ranking that constitutes the language’s grammar.

Phonological adjustments occur as a result of the interaction of faithfulness

constraints, which strive to reproduce the underlying forms in the surface
representation and markedness constraints, which strive to banish phonologically
marked forms from the surface representation. Deletion or insertion of a tone or a
change in tone’s identity will occur whenever a markedness constraint outranks a
conflicting faithfulness constraint.

In “Intonational Phonology” (2008) D. Robert Ladd talks about the fundamental

concepts of autosegmantal-metrical phonology. This theory adopts the phonological
goal of being able to characterize contours adequately in terms of a string of
categorically distinct elements, and the phonetic goal of providing a mapping from
phonological elements to continuous acoustic parameters.

Marina Nespor and Irene Vogel in “ Prosodic Phonology” ( Mouton, 2008)

have worked on the phonological and intonational phrases English, Italian,
Turkish and Japanese. The phonological phrase (Ø) is the most crucial constituent
for the interface between syntax and phonology in that it is proposed to reflect
the relative order of heads and complements and thus also of most subordinate
clauses with respect to main clauses (Greenberg 1963 and Hawkins 1983).
Both the (Ø) domain and the location of main prominence within it change
according to whether in a language complements follow their head, as in
English or Italian or precede it, as in Turkish or Japanese. As established in
this book, the PP extends from the left edge of a phrase to the right edge of
its head in head complement languages, and from the left edge of a head to
the right edge of its minimal phrase in complement head languages. In the
book the authors propose that the intonational phrase offers cues to the
constituency of phrases within sentences, rather than, as in the case for the
PP, to the relative order of words within phrases. Main IP prominence
universally falls on the rightmost PP in broad focus sentences, otherwise on
the constituent that is interpreted as bearing narrow focus.
 24

In various recent studies like the one done by Elizabeth Selkirk (2002) on Japanese
and English, researchers have tried to work on how phonology interacts with syntax in
determining various syntactic structures.

Many times phonological constraints determine syntactic constraints as well. We can

see such an instance when the structure of a phonological phrase is found to be similar
to a syntactic phrase or the parsing after such phrases is same as the pause that we put
after the completion of such syntactic constructions. Selkirk has tried to account for
this with the help of evidences derived through “domain convergence” and “domain
layering”. In English declarative sentence, the right edge of a major phrase (MaP) in
prosodic structure is marked by the presence of a low tone.

In Bengali sentence phonology (Hayes and Lahiri, 1991) MaP is marked at its right
edge by a High tone (H). The left edge bears other phenomena. The leftmost word of
the phrase is the head of the phrase and a low pitch accent, L*, is located on the initial
syllable of the stressed word. In fact, the process of assimilation takes place within a
phrase but is stopped at phrase boundaries. Also, the edge of a clause in the syntax
typically coincides with edge of the intonational phrase (IP). In English, a final rising
tonal contour on the last syllable of a word, sometimes, referred to as the continuation
rise, is taken to indicate the presence of the right edge of IP (Beckman and
Pierrehumbert, 1986) indicated with curly braces.

Selkirk’s work on syntax-phonology interface (1986, 1995) is also very noteworthy. It

discusses the dependence of intonational phrasing on the phrasal structural properties
of the interface syntactic representation. She assumes a grammatical architecture in
which syntax mediates between phonology and semantics.

In his Ph.D thesis “Intonation and Interface conditions” (2003) Ishihara discusses the
Japanese intonation system mainly with respect to Wh- questions. He tries to explore
the Focus Intonation Pattern (FIP) of the language in order to comment on the
phonology- syntax interface in relation to the Q- phrases of Japanese. An FIP is
obtained when a phrase in a sentence is semantically focalized. There is more than
one way to express “focus” even within a single language. In Japanese (a) one way to
express focus is to change word order, (b) to use cleft construction and (c) to use
focus- specific intonation pattern. The two elements of FIP are:
 25

(a) P (Prosodic)- focalization in which the F0 peak of an element bearing FOCUS is

raised.

(b) Post- FOCUS reduction (PFR) in which the F0 peaks of the material after the
element bearing FOCUS are lowered. Wh- phrases are always P- focalized.
Accordingly, post Wh- material displays PFR. The PFR does not always continue
until the end of the sentence. He also proposes a model that accounts for the
mechanism of FIP formulation. The phonological rules proposed derive the effects of
P- focalization and PFR by first assigning prominence to the focus phrase and then
suppressing the prominence of the post- FOCUS material.

Apart from these literary works discussing the various phonological theories and the
possible aspects related to them, I found Joseph E. Grimes’s work “Phonological
Analysis” (1969) also to be of use to my research. According to him, the study of
language can be divided into:

(1) systematic phonology

(2) the nonphonological remainder of the transformational relation
(3) predicates and their combinations
(4) Reference.
Systematic phonology again comprises of three stages. The first and the second stage
can be referred to as analysis. They involve breaking down the utterances one hears to
arrive at units and patterns of combining units. The third stage is synthetic in the sense
that it involves building up a model of the systematic phonology of a language. With
respect to data gathered, he says that new material must be viewed in three general
ways:

(1) as illustrative material that confirms conclusion one has

already made,
(2) As working data that can be tested in the current plan of data
testing and
(3) As residue that cannot be handled yet.
The notion of structure, in its most common linguistic usage, refers to the
organization of a sentence or other unit of language in terms of the relationships
between its parts. However, the structure of a linguistic unit cannot be stated merely
by listing its constituent parts but must also include a description of the relationships
 26

of these parts. The kinds of relationships that are assumed to be involved here vary
from theory to theory. But in Chapter 5, more attention has been paid to phonological
structures in more recent theories, especially in non- linear models, with a concern for
the nature of phonological representations. In these models, a more elaborate, multi-
dimensional form is assumed for utterances, manifested either as a hierarchical
organization, as in metrical phonology (Liberman and Prince 1977) and a number of
other models, or as a set of parallel and interacting tiers, as in autosegmental
phonology (Ladd 1978).

These prosodic structures are constructed as a result of the interaction of several

phonological rules which are manifested as being composed of output conditions or
surface phonetic constraints on the rules of the grammar, constraining the rules to
produce the desired outcome (Shibatani 1973). A more recent trend in this regard,
Optimality Theory or OT (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993) is
based on similar principles. OT assumes a set of constraints which take the place of
rules; unlike other approaches, however which attempt to establish exceptionless
constraints, it regards these constraints as violable, and therefore not absolute. They
are ranked in such a way that some may take precedence over others. The constraints
are universal but the ranking is language- specific.

All these models can apply only when the structural nature of prosody is established.
Prosodic features rest on fundamental aspects of the speech process itself which may
include the smallest of units such as syllable, which it has been claimed (Fry 1964,
1968), is a basic unit of neurological programming in speech. All of this entail
recognition of prosodic structure not as a mere device for the linguistic description but
as the fundamental basis for the production of speech.

2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS USED FOR ANALYSIS

This section is a discussion of two major theoretical frameworks which have been
primarily used in the thesis. They are (a) Prosodic Phonology and (b) Optimality
Theory. These two frameworks have already been discussed in general previously in
this chapter without any major focus. But in this section they have been discussed
individually and in greater detail since they form the basis of the main analysis of my
thesis.
 27

2.2.1 Prosodic Phonology

The following paragraphs trace the development of prosodic phonology as it is

studied at present. In 1977, Liberman and Prince proposed that, in addition to the
hierarchical structures embodied in syntactic surface structure trees, an adequate
characterization of sentences required a description in terms of a separate
phonological hierarchy whose constituents were not everywhere identical to those of
the surface syntax.

Liberman and Prince focused on the usefulness of a hierarchy of phonological

constituents for describing prominence relations among the words and syllables of a
sentence. They argued that the differences between syntactic and phonological trees
were confined to the word and lower structures; above the level of the word, the
branching of the two trees was the same. Other investigators took up the concept of a
hierarchy of phonological constituents separate from (although related to) the
syntactic hierarchy and proposed differences between the two hierarchies above the
word level as well.

It was argued that the new constituents made it easier to state the phonological rules
of a language that govern interactions between sound segments or phonemes (e.g., in
English, /t/ flapping is blocked in certain prosodic contexts), as well as the
phonological rules that govern intonational, rhythmic, and pausing patterns that had
proven difficult to state in terms of syntactic structure (e.g., pauses, pre-boundary
lengthening, and boundary tones do not always occur at the boundaries of major
syntactic constituents in English).

The research program suggested by the concept of a phonological as well as a

syntactic hierarchy of constituents, i.e., the proposal of various hierarchies of
constituents and notations for expressing them and the search for phonological
evidence to support them, has occupied a number of investigators in the intervening
decade and a half, among them Liberman and Prince (1977), Selkirk (1980; 1984),
Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), Nespor and Vogel (1983), and Ladd (1986; Ladd
and Campbell, 1991). The term “prosodic constituents” is now generally accepted for
describing the structures that characterize each proposed level, but consensus on what
the appropriate constituents are has proved difficult to achieve. In the following, we
will briefly summarize some of the hierarchical structures that have been proposed by
 28

these linguistic theorists, before turning to a description of the hierarchy used in the
present study.

Many recent phonological theories have either been inspired by, or proposed in
reaction to, the work of Chomsky and Halle (1968). Attempting to develop a general
accounting of English sound structure, they proposed a transformational approach to
grammar in which an abstract representation of a sentence's meaning, the “deep
structure,” is transformed into a “surface structure.” The surface structure contains a
complete syntactic bracketing of the sentence, and a variety of phonological rules
were proposed to describe the process by which the surface structure is transformed
into the phonetic representation, which actually describes the sounds to be produced.

Chomsky had observed earlier that syntactic phrases did not always correspond to the
perceived phrasing in speech. Consequently, in the Sound Patterns of English,
“readjustment” rules that may differ from the phrasing in the syntactic bracketing
were introduced. These rules may also modify or delete boundaries between distinct
lexical items. As a result, the perceived phrasing of a spoken sentence is not
necessarily the same as the syntactic structure, or bracketing, of the surface structure,
although the two are certainly related.

As noted above, Liberman and Prince (1977) formalized the idea of a phonological
hierarchy by proposing a phonological tree that, in its branching below the level of
words (which they refer to as “moras”), accounted for some of the prominence
relationships between syllables in a sentence. Selkirk, trying to describe more general
prosodic relationships, rejected Liberman and Prince's claim that the branching of the
prosodic tree above the word level was isomorphic to that of the syntactic tree and
presented a phonological tree that contains intonational phrase, phonological phrase,
prosodic word, foot, and syllable (Selkirk, 1980). In later work, however, Selkirk has
argued that use of a metrical grid obviates the need for separately defined prosodic
constituents between the intonational phrase and the foot (Selkirk, 1984). The idea of
a hierarchy containing intonational phrase, intermediate phrase, and word levels has
also been advanced by Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986) who suggest the
possibility of an accentual phrase level between the intermediate phrase and word
levels. Similarly, Nespor and Vogel (1983) have proposed a hierarchy containing
intonational phrase, phonological phrase, and phonological word levels. While the
 29

hierarchies put forward in these proposals are quite distinct, there appears to be
general agreement on the need for levels corresponding to the intonational phrase and
the prosodic (or phonological) word, and possibly an intervening level.

Although the notion of a prosodic word is generally accepted, there is some debate
over the relationship between prosodic words and elements of the lexicon. Kurath
(1964), for example, pointed out that some rules governing the sequencing of
phonemes applied only within a lexical word. Chomsky and Halle also found that
some rules applied only within words and others applied across word boundaries.
Consequently, some of Chomsky and Halle's “words” can, through the action of the
readjustment rules, contain more than one lexical item. This view is compatible with
that of Booij (1983) who observes that a “phonological word” may correspond to
more than one lexical word in some cases, and less than one in other cases. In
contrast, Nespor and Vogel (1986) argue that, while the phonological word may be
smaller than the morphological constituent, it is not larger. Liberman and Prince
(1977) define “mots” as the unit that defines the domain of word-internal
phonological rules. This is essentially the same way that Selkirk (1980) defined the
phonological word in her earlier work. The relationship between prosodic words and
elements of the lexicon is decidedly nontrivial: as Kaisse (1985) has pointed out, there
seem to be several different mechanisms that can cause distinct lexical items to be
perceived as a single unit, and these must be carefully distinguished.

The other prosodic constituent that appears to be widely accepted is the intonational
phrase. The intonational phrase is a group of words in an utterance, which is delimited
in some way as a larger unit of phrasing. Most phonologists posit some sort of
intonational phrase, although there are differences in precisely how they define it.
Ladd (1986) traces the origins of the intonational phrase back over a half century, and
he identifies three properties common to all of the various proposals: intonational
phrases are the largest phonological entity with phonetically definable boundaries into
which utterances can be divided, they have a particular intonational structure, and
they are assumed to relate in some way to syntactic or discourse-level structure.

Although this broad definition is helpful in unifying the works of several researchers,
we need a more specific definition for this study. Consequently, we will adopt the
definition proposed by Pierrehumbert (1980), which says that an intonational phrase is
 30

delimited by high or low boundary tones. Pierrehumbert proposed two types of

boundary tones: a low tone such as occurs at the end of a declarative sentence, and a
high tone such as at the end of a yes/no question. This definition (as part of a much
larger phonology of intonation proposed by Pierrehumbert), has been quite influential,
and her definition of intonational phrase has been adopted by a number of other
researchers (e.g., Selkirk, 1984; Nespor and Vogel, 1986). While Pierrehumbert's
definition of an intonational phrase differs from, for example, Lieberman's (1967)
``breath group,'' its boundaries seem to coincide with those of Halliday's (1967) ``tone
group.''

Although most researchers agree on at least two levels of a prosodic hierarchy

(prosodic words and intonational phrases), other constituents have been proposed and
are of interest in this study. Consequently, we now consider proposed constituents
both above and below the level of the intonational phrase.

Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986) argue that there is at least one, and possibly two
levels of phrasing between the prosodic word and the intonational phrase. Their
“intermediate phrase” groups words into phrases having at least one accented syllable.
That is, each intermediate phrase contains at least one “pitch accent,” a pitch marker
that makes a syllable more prominent perceptually. Intonational phrases are made up
by grouping together one or more intermediate phrases and marking the end of the
final one with a boundary tone. This intermediate phrase is similar to the unit Nespor
and Vogel (1986) refer to as a phonological phrase.

The other possible level of phrasing between the prosodic word and the intermediate
phrase, which has been explored by Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), is the
“accentual phrase.” Here, they find the evidence inconclusive: in Japanese they find
clear evidence for an accentual phrase as a simple grouping of words, but in English
they find the evidence for justifying it much less compelling, although it is clearly
possible to define such a unit.

As for levels of phrasing above the intonational phrase, Liberman and Pierrehumbert
(1984) have identified phonetic effects that appear to have a domain larger than a
single intonational phrase. Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), however, argue that
these effects are related to discourse structure and do not provide evidence of a
higher-level phonological unit.
 31

In contrast to the relatively sparse hierarchies advocated in the works discussed

above, Ladd (1986) proposes allowing a recursive prosodic structure and sees no
principled reason to restrict the number of levels in the hierarchy. Ladd argues that the
single level of intonational phrasing is inadequate to capture both the boundary
phenomena (i.e., the boundary tones) and the relationship between the phonological
and syntactic units. Recently, Ladd and Campbell (1991) have begun to look for
acoustic evidence supporting this hypothesis and have shown that four levels of
phrasing above the word level account for more of the observed variation in
boundary-related lengthening phenomena than the two-level intermediate/intonational
phrase labeling.

Prosodic Hierarchy
Phonological utterance U

Intonational phrases IP

Phonological phrases Φ

Phonological words ω

( )U
( )( )IP
( )( )( )Φ
( )( )( ) ( )( )( )( )( )ω

No language is produced in a smooth, unvarying stream. Rather, the speech has

perceptible breaks and clumps. For example, we can perceive an utterance as
composed of words, and these words can be perceived as composed of syllables,
which are composed of individual sounds. At a higher level, some words seem to be
more closely grouped with adjacent words: we call these groups phrases. These
phrases can be grouped together to form larger phrases, which may be grouped to
form sentences, paragraphs, and complete discourses. These observations raise the
questions of how many such constituents there are and how they are best defined.
 32

The domain of linguistic theory most appropriate to address these questions is

phonology, traditionally defined as the study of sound units and their structural inter-
relationships in spoken language. Work in this field has been reported for seven
centuries [c.f. Jones' History of English Phonology (Jones, 1989)]. However, only in
the last half century have researchers begun to substantially address the relationships
between intonational, rhythmic, and pausing patterns. Pike (1945) described a
hierarchy of rhythmic units, separate from syntactic structure, and examined their
interaction with intonation and pausing.

With the development of syntactic surface structure trees, the phonological

information was thought to be contained within, or derived from, the single structure
(Chomsky and Halle, 1968). More recently, phonologists have again begun to develop
theoretical frameworks that include a separate hierarchy of prosodic constituents. The
next subsection reviews several of the prosodic hierarchies that have been proposed.
Although the proposals differ in many respects, we try to illuminate the many areas in
which they overlap. In particular, we note that one can extract a superset of
constituent types, which takes account of almost all of the proposals. The relationship
between this superset and the perceptual labeling used in this study is then explored in
the following subsection.

A fairly “mainstream” version of prosodic hierarchy (see, e.g., Selkirk 1978, 1986;
Nespor Vogel 1986; Beckman & Pierrehumbert 1986; Pierrehumbert & Beckman
1988) has been tabulated as under.

U (Utt) Utterance not too thoroughly studied as a prosodic category

IP intonational most evidence is intonational (boundary tones)
• important in syntax/phonology interface
phrase
PhP phonological intonational and segmental evidence
• domain of phrasal stress, phrasal boundary tones
(MaP, phrase
• important in syntax/phonology interface
MiP) Sometimes two levels are recognized:
major ▸ vs. minor phrase (Selkirk & Tateishi 1988)
▸ intermediate vs. accentual phrase (B&P ‘86; P&B
(iP, AP)
‘88)
PrWd prosodic word intonational and segmental evidence
• domain of word stress
• important in prosodic morphology
 33

Also known as phonological word

Related idea: clitic group (Hayes 1989b, Nespor &
Vogel 1986)
Foot (F) Foot intonational/stress and segmental evidence
• domain of (secondary) stress, bounded stress
• important in prosodic morphology
Syllable Syllable evidence from phonotactics, stress assignment
What is a syllable? “I know it when I see it...”
▸ local sonority peak?
▸ a “syndrome”? best defined phonologically?
Mora Mora tonal and segmental/phonotactic evidence
• unit of syllable weight and/or segment length

2.2.2 Optimality Theory

The basic idea that has been explored is that Universal Grammar consists largely of a
set of constraints on representational well-formedness, out of which individual
grammars are constructed. The representational system that has been employed, using
ideas introduced into generative phonology in the 1970s and 1980s will be rich
enough to support two fundamental classes of constraints: those that assess output
configurations per se and those responsible for maintaining the faithful preservation
of underlying structures in the output. Departing from the usual view, we do not
assume that the constraints in a grammar are mutually consistent, each true of the
observable surface or of some level of representation. On the contrary: we assert that
the constraints operating in a particular language are highly conflicting and make
sharply contrary claims about the well-formedness of most representations. The
grammar consists of the constraints together with a general means of resolving their
conflicts. We argue further that this conception is an essential prerequisite for a
substantive theory of UG.

It follows that many of the conditions which define a particular grammar are, of
necessity, frequently violated in the actual forms of the language. The licit analyses
are those which satisfy the conflicting constraint set as well as possible; they
constitute the optimal analyses of underlying forms. This, then, is a theory of
optimality with respect to a grammatical system rather than of well- formedness with
respect to isolated individual constraints.
 34

Structure of Optimality-theoretic grammar

a. Gen (Ink) {Out1, Out2,. }

b. H-eval( Out i , 1<i< infinity) Out real

The grammar must define a pairing of underlying and surface forms, (input i , output j ).
Each input is associated with a candidate set of possible analyses by the function Gen
(short for .generator.), a fixed part of Universal Grammar. In the rich representational
system employed below, an output form retains its input as a subrepresentation, so
that departures from faithfulness may be detected by scrutiny of output forms alone. A
candidate is an input-output pair. Gen contains information about the representational
primitives and their universally irrevocable relations: for example, that the node F
may dominate a node Onset or a node: (implementing some theory of syllable
structure), but never vice versa. Gen will also determine such matters as whether
every segment must be syllabified . we assume not, below, following McCarthy (1979
et seq. .) and whether every node of syllable structure must dominate segmental
material.

The function H-eval determines the relative Harmony of the candidates, imposing an
order on the entire set. An optimal output is at the top of the harmonic order on the
candidate set; by definition, it best satisfies the constraint system. Though Gen has a
role to play, the burden of explanation falls principally on the function H-eval, a
construction built from well-formedness constraints, and the account of interlinguistic
differences is entirely tied to the different ways the constraint-system H-eval can be
put together, given UG. H-eval must be constructible in a general way if the theory is
to be worth pursuing.

There are really two notions of generality involved here: general with respect to UG,
and therefore crosslinguistically; and general with respect to the language at hand, and
therefore across constructions, categories, descriptive generalizations, etc. These are
logically independent, and success along either dimension of generality would count
as an argument in favor of the optimality approach. But the strongest argument, the
one that is most consonant with the work in the area, and the one that will be pursued
here, broaches the distinction, seeking a formulation of H-eval that is built from
maximally universal constraints which apply with maximal breadth over an entire
 35

language. Optimality Theory, in common with much recent work, shifts the burden
from the theory of operations (Gen) to the theory of well-formedness (H-eval). To the
degree that the theory of well- formedness can be put generally, the theory will fulfill
the basic goals of generative grammar. To the extent that operation-based theories
cannot be so put, they must be rejected. Optimality Theory abandons two key
presuppositions of earlier work. First, that it is possible for a grammar to narrowly and
parochially specify the Structural Description and Structural Change of rules. In place
of this is Gen, which generates for any given input a large space of candidate analyses
by freely exercising the basic structural resources of the representational theory.

The idea is that the desired output lies somewhere in this space, and the constraint
system of the grammar is strong enough to single it out. Second, Optimality Theory
abandons the widely held view that constraints are language-particular statements of
phonotactic truth. In its place is the assertion that constraints are essentially universal
and of very general formulation, with great potential for disagreement over the well-
formedness of analyses; an individual grammar consists of a ranking of these
constraints, which resolves any conflict in favor of the higher-ranked constraint. The
constraints provided by Universal Grammar are simple and general; interlinguistic
differences arise from the permutations of constraint-ranking; typology is the study of
the range of systems that re-ranking permits. Because they are ranked, constraints are
regularly violated in the grammatical forms of a language. Violability has significant
consequences not only for the mechanics of description, but also for the process of
theory construction: a new class of predicates becomes usable in the formal theory,
with a concomitant shift in what is thought the actual generalizations are.
 36

CHAPTER 3

THE SOUND SYSTEM

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The analysis of any kind of phonetic and phonological phenomenon in a language

must begin with the description of the sound system of that language. The task
becomes even more important when the language has failed to get any type of major
linguistic lime light with regards to the examination of the phenomena pertaining to
its sound system.

The main aim of this chapter is to describe the sound system of Magahi. This includes
the description of the consonants and the vowels of the language. The description of
consonants will be followed by the description of the vowels which will include the
description of both the oral as well as the nasal vowels. Magahi has a lot of
diphthongs which will also be discussed in the same section. The last part of the
chapter will summarize all the important findings of the chapter.

3.2 SEGMENTAL SOUND DESCRIPTION

The chapter includes the description of the Magahi consonants, oral and nasal vowels,
diphthongs and permissible consonant clusters at the onset and the coda positions of
the syllable.

The data for this analysis have been obtained through silent participation and
observation methods. Major part of the data has been obtained using the Basic Word
Lists (Abbi, 2001). The list includes those words which occur in the day to day life of
a person on a very frequent basis. The data have been listed in the appendices (1, 2
and 3). Let us now begin with the description of the consonants in Magahi.

3.2.1 Phonemes

3.2.1.1 Consonants

A consonantal sound is produced when there is any type of partial or complete closure
of the vocal tract during articulation. The consonants make the second pillar on which
the building of any language is built. The first are the vowels which will be discussed
 37

in the later sections. The multitude of the vowels leads to the creation of various
words in the language. Just as every language has a certain set of vowels which is
used in its use in the same manner every language has certain consonants which it
uses in its lexicon. The existence of all the possible consonants that can be articulated
by a human vocal tract has not been found in any language.

Let us see as to which consonants occur in Magahi. The minimal pairs for similar
consonants will be provided which will help to establish if the sounds are phonemic or
not. For better comprehension the sounds will be presented on a chart in keeping with
the IPA 7. As in the case with Magahi vowels which have not been discussed much in
the previous literature, consonants too have found little space under the roof of
linguistics. Magahi has a total of 31 phonemic consonants.

a. The Phonemic chart of Magahi consonants

Bilabial Dental Alveloar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Plosive        

       

Fricative  

Affricate  

 

Nasals  

Trill 

Lateral 

Approximant  J

Magahi Consonants (CHART 3/1)

7
In the IPA the consonant sounds are classified on the basis of the place and the manner of articulation
with respect to the human vocal tract.
 38

b. Minimal Pairs

The phonemic nature of two sound segments can be established only when the
language has minimal pairs for the pair of segments. An attempt has been made to
provide minimal pairs for similar sound segments in all the three word positions, that
is, initially, medially and finally.

Initial Medial Final

i. /  // (bridge) /:/ (slapped) // (sob N )

// (flower) /:/ (misdeed) // (starch)

// and // exhibit phonemic properties with respect to all the three word positions.

They are well distributed word initially, word medially and word finally. However,
study of data has provided with a very interesting observation. The sound segment
[] never occurs succeeding a nasalized vowel in a word. There is a complete

absence of any such word in the language. However, its unaspirated counterpart
occurs very frequently in the language. It seems that [] acts as the allophone of

//when preceded by a nasalized vowel 8. This will be discussed further in the

section 2.2.2 of the chapter which deals with allophonic nature of the Magahi sound
segments.

ii. /  /:/ (sand) /:/ (Babur dim.) /:/ (pressure)

/:/ (bear) /:/ (a type of dish) /:/ (lime)

// and // exhibit phonemic properties with respect to word initial position. They

are well distributed word medially and word finally and here, as it can be seen, an
attempt has been made to provide minimal pairs for word medial as well as word final
positions. But due to less frequency of the occurrence of // it is difficult to obtain

any clear minimal pair. Also, it is very interesting to note that similar to the case with
[] and [] with respect to nasal vowels [] too seems to occur as the allophone of

// when preceded by a nasalized vowel 9. (Any generalization for the word final

8
// (shroud) but // (shiver N); // (clean) but /:/ (snake)
9
/:/ (long) but // (sleepy)
 39

position seems very hard to make at this stage as the frequency of occurrence of //

word finally is very scarce in the language. The data provided here for word final
position is a sub- minimal pair and not a minimal pair).

iii. /  // (to study) // (Mahatma Gandhi) /:/ (curse)

// (to grow) // (father) /:/ (alcohol)

// and // are separate phonemes in all the three word positions.

iv. /  // (to swell)

// (to forget)

These two are separate phonemes word initially but since the frequency of occurrence
of both the segments word medially and word finally is less, it is hard to account for
their behavior at these positions.

v. /  /::/ (taunt) /::/ (mother) /:/ (seven)

/::/ (police station) /::/ (head) /:/ (together)

vi. / /:/ (alms) /:/(a type of vegetable)// (euphoria)

/(rice husk) /:/ (shoulder) // (honey)

vii. /  /::/ (taunt) /::/ (mother) // (do not)

/::/ (grain) /::/ (female) // (euphoria)

viii. /  /:/ (cloth reel) /::/ (head) // (to mix)

/:/ (rice husk) /::/ (half) // (honey)

ix. /  // (dazed) // (nonsense) // (hair lock)

// (scornful laugh) //(laziness)// (big stick)

x. /  /:/ (tree branch) // (latch) /:/ (fence)

/:/ (shield) // (curry) /:/(flood)

These two consonants do not occur word medially and word finally. These two
positions are taken by their respective allophones [] and []. The allophonic nature

of these consonants has been discussed in the section 2.2.2 further in the chapter.

xi. /  // (group) // (pea) // (fat)

// (palanquin) // (murder) // (turn)

xii. /  /:/ (hand carriage) // (pulp) /:/ (sixty)

 40

/:/ (stone) // (staircase) /:/ (bull)

xiii. /  /:/ (ear) /:/ (house) // (grief)

/:/ (mine N ) /::/ (a type of dry fruit) // (pampered)

These two consonant segments are phonetic in nature and the evidentiary support of
the minimal pairs establishes the same but in instance where a nasal vowel precedes
the segment // does not occur at all and in such case [] acts as its allophone 10.

xiv. / // (to count) /:/ (mug dim.) /:/ (garden)

// (to detest) /:/ (Magh 11 dim.) /:/ (tiger)

xv. / /:/ (art) //(quadrilateral) // (stop N )

/:/ (neck) // 12 (babysit) // (sickness)

xvi. / // (to open) /::/(to uproot)

//(to dissolve) /::/(to uncover)

// does not seem to occur frequently in the word final position in the language.

Therefore, it is quite difficult to provide minimal pairs for these two sound segments
at this position.

xvii. / /:/ (move N ) /:/ (save caus.)

/:/ (net) /:/ (playing musical instrument caus.)

The minimal pairs have not been provided for the word final position. It is very
interesting to note that for this position // is in free variation with // however, the

case is not true vice versa. Also, the voiced consonant // does not occur in any

word where it has to succeed a nasal vowel. In such case only the voiceless //

occurs. This will be discussed further in the section 2.2.2 of the chapter.

xviii. /  /:/ (a type of curry)// (being spread) // (spread V )

  
/ :/ (carry bag) / / (being rotten) 13 / / (rot V )

10
The following examples have been given to establish the claim that the allophonic nature is seen at
the word final and the word medial positions.
// (doubt) // (conch) ; // (metalled) // (fan)
11
It is the name of a month according to the Lunar calendar. It is transcribed as //.
12
Sub- minimal pairs have been provided for the word medial position for / segments.
13
This term is used only in the case of rotten grains and seeds.
 41

xix. /  // (braided hair) // (in between) // (sprain)

//(young fem.) / /(scorpion) // (moustache)

xx. /  /:/ (awake) /:/ (to play) 14 // (play)

/:/ (lather) /:/ (to engage) // (engage)

xxi. /  /:/ (kick) /:/ (red)

/:/ (night) /:/ (saliva)

Obtaining minimal pairs for word medial position in case of these two consonants has
been difficult because at this position [] exists in free variation with []. Any word

consisting of // in the word medial position continues to retain the same lexical

meaning even when [] is replaces with []. However, vice versa does not hold

ground in the language.

xxii. /  /:/ (medicine)

/:/ (mercy)

These two consonant segments occur only at the word medial position 15.

xxiii. /  /::/ (garland) // (sky) /:/ (price)

/::/ (big drain) // (bathe) /:/ (donate)

All the consonants mentioned above exist in the language in the phonemic form. As
can be seen in Chart 2/1 there are twenty eight phonemic consonants in the language.
The phonemic nature of each of the consonant has been adequately supported by the
existence of the minimal and the sub minimal pairs for every similar pair of
consonants in the three word positions. The minimal and the sub minimal pairs have
been extracted from the Basic Word Lists (Appendices 1, 2, 3 and 4).

A close look at the data reveals some more facts about Magahi consonants. Apart
from the +/- binary distinction with regards to voicing we can also see binary
distinction with regards to aspiration for bilabial, dental, retroflex, affricate and velar
consonants. Actually all the stop consonants of Magahi have this binary division.

14
The root /-/ is used when referring to the action of playing any musical instrument.
15
Apart from the minimal pairs provided here, their establishment as separate phonemes also lies in the
fact that suffix / -/ is added in the formation of masculine diminutives and the suffix / -/ is added
in the formation of feminine diminutives.
 42

c. Let us now proceed by discussing the distribution of the consonantal sound

segments with respect to the three word positions.

Consonants initial medial final

1. // // (stomach) /:/ (cloth) /:/ (snake)

/:/ (claw) // (up) /:/ (curse)

2. // // (blow) // (breathlessness) // (ice)

// (flower) /:/ (to pant)

3. // // (elder) /:/ (ear ring) /:/ (bad)


// (child) / / (all) /:/ (book)
   
4. / / / / (full) / : / (sister-in-law) /:/ (to chew)

/:/ (heavy) /:/ (key)

5. // // (lake) // (child) // (many)

// (sharp) /:/ (dog) /:/ (night)

6. // // (tired V ) /::/ (head) /:/ (hand)

// (spit) /:/ (elephant) /:/(alongwith)

7. // // (day) // (cloud) // (dig)

// (far) // (sea) /:/(fertilizer)

  
8. / / / / (dust) / :/ (used up) // (honey)

/:/ (smoke)

9. // /:/(tomato) /:/ (fat) // (stomach)

// (horse carriage) /:/ (small/young) /:/ (cut V)

10. // /:/ (knee) // (room) // (lie)

// (alright) // (bag) // (sit)

11. // // (fear) // (bone)

// (palanquin) /:/ (flag)

 
12. / / / / (a musical instrument)

// (lid)

13. // /:/ (cut) // (catch) // (blow)

/:/ (black) /:/ (push) // (heart)

14. // /:/ (bad) // (wing) // (write)

// (blood) // (housefly) // (see)


15. // // (count) / :/ (fight) /:/ (fire)

// (round) // (one) /:/ (run V )

16. // // (grass) // (comb) // (horn)

 
/ / (enter) / / (smell) // (to smell)

17. // /:/ (breath) /::/ (fog) /:/ (breath)

// (dry V ) // (another) // (grass)

18. // // (hand) // (float) // (mouth)

 43

/:/ (here) /:/ (flow) /:/ (arm)

19. // /:/ (four) // (tail) // (five)

/:/ (moon) /:/ (loft) // (pull)

20. // / :/ (bark) // (fish) // (some)

/:/ (small/ young) // (tail) //

21. // /:/ (cold) /:/ (liver) // (sharp)

// (floor) /:/ (enjoyment) /:/ (wash)

 
22. // / :/ (fight) / :/ (middle) /:/(infertile female)

// (lie) /:/ (third) /:/ (evening)

23. // // (die) // (floor) // (freeze)

/:/ (dirty) // (salt) // (I)

24. // /:/ (name) /:/ (float) // (blood)

/:/ (new) // (few) // (count)

25. // /:/ (night) /:/ (bad) /:/ (black)


// (rub) / / (filled) // (to die)

26. // // (to write) /:/ (dirty) /:/ (bark)

/:/ (red) // (fish) // (flower)

27. // // (goddess)

// (medicine)

28. // /:/ (here)

/:/ (new)

After a close study of the available data it can be inferred that some of the consonantal
sound segments do not occur at the word initial position. They are // and //. Some

consonants do not occur at the word- medial position. They are // and //. Some

consonants do not occur at the word final position. They are //, //, // and //.

Apart from these exceptions all the other consonantal segments occur at all the three
word positions. The complementary nature of these segmental sounds will be
discussed in detail in the section 3.2.2 which deals with allophones. All these
consonantal sounds have been represented underneath on the phonemic chart.

d. Distributional and Phonotactic Constraints

• All the consonants are quite well distributed in the language with respect to
the three word positions except the continuants // and //.

• // and // do not occur after nasal vowels. The spot is invariably occupied

by their unaspirated or (- spread glottis) counterparts [] and [].

 44

• The phonemes // and // do not occur at word medial positions and word

final positions. The place is occupied by their allophones [] and []

respectively.
• The [ + high, +back, + cont.] consonants // and // do not occur at all in the

word initial and the word final positions.

e. Phonotactic Generalizations

Based on the phonotactic constraints mentioned in the previous sub section it is

easy to make generalizations.

• The consonant // never immediately follows another consonant. There is

always the presence of the vowel // in between the two participant

consonants. Eg.
/:/ (onion)

/:/ (attention)

/:/ (marriage)

It is also worthwhile to mention here that the conjugation of // with // is not

restricted to the presence of a preceding consonant but in case of word initial position
also similar pairing is evident. Eg. /:/ (memory)

/:/ (friend)

• In case of word final positions, for syllables with nasal vowels as the
nucleus, the coda position is occupied by the plosive, bilabials (- spread
glottis) // and // only and not by (+spread glottis) // and //. The

language does not have any phonological construction which permits the
construction of a word having nasal vowel as its nucleus and // and //

as the consonant in the coda position.

• The segments // and // do not occur in the word initial position. Those

places are taken up by // and //.

 45

• It is also interesting to note that the [+spread glottis] consonants do not

occupy the coda position as much as they occupy the onset position. Let
us look at the following graph for a better understanding of this statement.

100 20 34
50 80 66 Coda

0 Onset
Voiced Consonant Voiceless
Consonant

Distribution of voiced and voiceless (+/- spread glottis) consonants at the onset and coda positions
(Graph 3/1)

A close to 500 words has been considered for this generalization. In the graph the blue
area represents the percentage of words in which the onset positions have been taken
up by the [+ spread gottis] consonants and the red area represents the percentage for
their [- spread glottis] counterparts. It is also interesting to observe here that of all the
[+ spread gottis] consonants which occur at the onset, [+ voiced] consonants have
greater frequency of occurrence at this position than at the coda position of the
syllable.

f. Gemination in Magahi

The process of gemination in Magahi can be best explained at the phonology – syntax
interface. Many words which originally do not have geminate constructions undertake
the process of gemination when undergoing a syntactic transformation. Two clear
instances of gemination can be provided here in support of this claim.

(i) when a reflexive pronoun transforms into its genitive form, eg.
1.[:] (1P REFL. Sing.) → [] (1P GEN. Sing.)

2.[:] (3P REFL. Sing.) → [] (3P GEN. Sing.) 16

16
This kind of construction is not evident for [] (2P REFL. Sing). One reason for this can be
implicit in the nature of the consonant participating in the process. // which is [+ cont., +spread
glottis) does not seem to undergo gemination.
 46

(ii) when verb class word transforms into an adjectival class word by the
addition of the suffix /-/.

Verb Adjective
1. [:] (to ripe) → [] (ripe)

2. [:] (to wake up) → [] (awake)

3. [:] (to write) → [] (written)

4. [:] (to sleep) → [] (sleeping)

5. [:] (to cut) → [] (cut)

6. [:] (to freeze) → [] (frozen)

7. [:] (to decorate) → [] (decorated)

8. [:] (to press) → [] (pressed)

9. [:] (to fill) → [] (filled)

10. [:] (to get entangled) → [] (entangled)

g. Degemination in Magahi

Degemination is a very frequent phonological process in Magahi. Let us first have a

look at the following words which have same consonants making the consonant
clusters.

Magahi Gloss
1. // (sugar)

2. // (behind)

3. // (salt)

4. // (sea)

5. // (rice husk)

6. // (bone)

7. /:/ (dog)

8. // (worm)

9. /:/ (leaf)

10. // (spoon)

 47

11. // (rope)

12. // (housefly)

The clusters are broken or in other words degemination occurs in these words when
these words take the diminutive forms. For eg.

(i) [] + -: → [:] ; (ii) [] + - : → [:]

(iii) [] + -: → [:] ;(iv) [] + -: → [r:]

(v) [:] + -: → [:; (vi) [] + -: → [:]

(vii) [:] + -: → [:] ;(viii) [] + - : → [:]

(ix) [:] + - : → [:] ;(x) [] + -: → [:]

(xi) [] + - : → [:] ; (xii) [] + -  : → [:]

3.2.1.2 Vowels

In Phonetics, a vowel is a sound spoken in language with an open vocal tract so that
there is no build- up air pressure at any point above the glottis. Depending on certain
types of articulatory features the vowel quality changes and the overall sound
becomes entirely different. The basic reference for articulatory features in the
description and tabulation of the Magahi vowels is the IPA. 17 The articulatory features
have been used as references in differentiating one vowel from the other. The
description of the vowel sounds is patterned on the description and tabulation of
cardinal vowels 18. The vowels have been classified into two:

a. The oral vowels

The oral vowels, as the name suggests, are vowel sounds produced without the
participation of the nasal chamber. This category can further be subcategorized as
monophthongs and diphthongs.

(i) Monophthongs

17
International Phonetic Alphabet was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a
standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.
18
Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common
features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundness (lip position).
These three parameters are used in the IPA vowel charts for the description of vowel sounds of any
language generally. (Jones, Daniel.1982. Cardinal Vowels, Vol.1. Linguaphone Institution.
 48

The existing literature holds that Magahi has lost the phonemic contrast of length
in the high vowels, both front // and back //. (Verma 2003) The question of
phonemic length in the vowels arises only in the case of high vowels anyway.
However, this kind of contrast does not seem to be consistent with the data. Vowel
length does not seem to be phonemic in Magahi. Therefore, there are a total of six
phonemic oral monophthongs in the language. The following table lists the vowels
along with the articulatory features of each of them but before going through the
table let us first study the distribution of these vocalic sounds with respect to the
word positions viz. initially, medially and finally.

Monophthongs initial medial final

// /(light) /:/ (write) // (comb)

/::/ (gesture) // (alright) /:/ (cough N )

// // (one) // (stomach) // (all)

/:/ (favour) // (plum) /:/ (meaning)

// /:/ (egg) // (big)

// (sky) // (die)

// /:/ (white) // (child) // (worm)

// (up) // (dry) /:/ (alcohol)

// // (in that) // (dig) // (one)

/:/ (there) /:/ (fat) // (boat)

// /:/ (man) /:/ (ash) /::/ (head)

/:/ (mango) /:/ (bark) /:/ (dog)

Monophthongs (Oral) Three- term labels

// High, front, unrounded

// Higher mid, front, unrounded

 49

// Mean mid, central, unrounded

// High, back, rounded

// Higher mid, back, rounded

/:/ Low, back, rounded (long)

Three – term labels for Oral Monophthongs (Chart 3/2)

Vowels are the backbone of any language. The table above lists all the oral
monophthongs of Magahi. It is clear from the table that there are a total of six
phonemic oral vowels. Also, it can be seen that the mean mid, central, unrounded
vowel // does not occur word- finally. The claim here is well- supported by the

presence of minimal and sub-minimal pairs in the data collected during the study (see
Appendices 1, 2 & 3) for each of the vocalic sounds. In phonology, minimal pairs are
pairs of words which differ only in one phonological element and have distinct
meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two different
phonemes in the language. Keeping this in mind let us now have a look at the minimal
pairs obtained for the purpose of establishing the vocalic phones as phonemes. In a
few cases sub- minimal 19 pairs have been used to establish the claim.

Phone pairs initial medial final

/i/, /u/ /ime/ (in this) // (in frenzy)

// (in that) // (beginning)

/: /, // /::/ (stethoscope) /::/ (lock)

/:/ (hail) /:/ (measuring unit for wight)
//, // /:/ (mine)
// (blood)
//, // /:/ (lazy) /:/ (jam)
// (a type of pulse) // (to freeze)
//, // // (tobacco)
// (round)
//, // // (burrow) /:/ (friend)
// (a type of fruit) //(alongwith)
//, // // (to grow)
// (to exchange)

19
Sub- minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ in only two phonological elements and have
distinct meanings. In the absence of minimal pairs the occurrence of sub-minimal pairs also establishes
the fact that two phones are phonemic in nature.
 50

(ii) Diphthongs

Diphthong refers to two vocalic sounds occurring one after the other within the same
syllable. A diphthong is also labeled as a ‘gliding vowel’. In a more comprehensible
term the tongue moves during the utterance of the two vowel sounds. Diphthongs are
formed when two vowel sounds are run in rapid speech during the utterance.
Languages I general do have a quite a number of diphthongs. Magahi too has a lot of
vowel combinations which act as diphthongs.

After a close look of the list the following oral diphthongs have be sorted out which
have been tabulated as under:

Oral Diphthongs Initial medial final

// // (mirror) // (how) // (carpenter)

// // (knee)

// // (pond)

// // (woman) // (sister-in-law)

// // (and) // (rice)

b. Nasal Vowels
(i) Monophthongs

The nasal vowels, as the name suggests, are the vocalic sounds produced with
the help of the partial or impartial participation of the nasal chamber. In such
cases, the air stream being released outside finds outlet through the oral
chamber as well as the nasal chamber. The existing literature is devoid of any
discussion on the nasal vowels of Magahi. Before proceeding further in the
chapter let us first look at the distribution of these nasal sounds with respect to
word positions initially, medially and finally.

Nasal vowel initial medial final

// /:/ (here) /:/ (water)

// // (camel) // (blow) // (mouth)

// // (scratch)

 51

// // (intestine) // (laugh)

// /:/ (eye) /:/ (breath) /:/ (yes)

// /:/ (to throw)

After going through the distribution of nasal vowels as discussed above let us now
proceed to the discussion on their minimal pairs. It is noteworthy that the nasalization
of oral vowels is not always allophonic in nature. The data collected as part of the
present study gives the evidence for the existence of minimal pairs which establishes
the claim that the nasal vowels are as much phonemic in nature as the oral vowels. Let
us look at the following data as an evidence of the claim made above.

Phone pairs Magahi Magahi

• /i/, /i/ - /pi/ (drink) /pi/ (blowing horn)

• /u/, /u/ - /du:/ (prayer) /du:/ (smoke)

• /o/, /o/ - /ko/ (coach) /ko/ (stuffed)

• // , // - /s:s/ (mother-in-law) /s:s/ (breath)

• // , // - /hns/ (swan) /hs/ (laugh)

All the six oral vowels and the six nasal vowels have been presented in the following
chart. The chart gives the relative position of each of the vocalic sound in relation to
each other with respect to the position of the tongue.

Front Central Back

Close    

Close-mid    

Mean- mid  

Open- mid
Open : :

The Oral and the Nasal monophthongs of Magahi (chart 3/3)

 52

(ii) Diphthongs

The frequency of the occurrence of nasal diphthongs is very less in the language. The

study of data has revealed the occurrence of only the following nasal diphthongs.

Nasal Diphthongs Initial medial final

1. // // (bird)

2. // /:/ (floor)

3. // /:/ (there)

There are only three nasal diphthongs. The distribution of the diphthongs is very
restricted.

c. Distributional and Phonotactic constraints

The following observations can be made after analyzing the distribution of the
monophthongs.

• [-low, +back] vowels, that is, //, // and // do not occur word finally.
• Minimal pairs for // with any other monophthongs has not been provided
for word medial position because only the // vowel is used in the
reduplication construction with all the other vowels.
• The monophthongs pairs // & // and // & // occur in free variation in
the word initial position.
• Only one oral diphthong // occurs on at all the three word positions.

• None of the nasal diphthongs seem to occur at the word initial position.
• The phones [] and [] occur in complementary distribution so it will not
be wrong to claim that they are allophones.
• The distribution of nasal vowels is very restricted with respect to the word
positions. //, // and // do not occur word- initially.

• //, // and // do not occur word- finally.

• The only nasal vowel which occurs at all the three positions is /:/.

3.2.2 Allophones

Magahi is very rich as far as allophones are concerned. These allophones play crucial
role in governing the syllable structure of the language and as a result influence the
 53

prosody of the language. The following phonetic chart lists all the consonantal sounds
of Magahi including phonemes and allophones.

Bilabial Dental Alveloar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal

Stops
       

       

Fricative  

Affricate
 

 

Nasals  

Trill
 



Lateral


Approximant  

The Phonetic Chart of Magahi Consonants (chart 3/4)

3.2.2.1 The Allophonic Processes

Quite a few phonological rules can be framed to explain the various types of
phonological processes taking place in the language. Vowel nasalization too seems to
affect allophony in many interesting ways. As a result, the segmental sounds behave
strangely when accompanied with nasal vowels. Let us now deal with each case
individually to get to know in detail as to what exactly happens.

(i) Labial Plosives and nasalization

In the word medial and the word final position // and // do not occur following a

nasal vowel. That place is taken up by // and // respectively. These two sounds

seem to act as the allophones of their [+spread glottis] counterparts. (section 3.2.1.1)
Let us look at the following examples:
 54

// (white) but /:/ (snake charmer)

/:/ (half) but /:/ (breathlessness)

The following phonological rule can be used to explain this:

[+labial +spread glottis] → [+labial –spread glottis] / vowel [+nasal]______

(ii) Retroflex consonants and word medial and word final positions

The consonants // and // do not occur word medially and word finally. At these

places the allophones // and // occupy the positions respectively. It should also be

noted here that the segmental sound // too occurs in free variation with // for the

word medial and word final positions where it can be substituted in place of //

without any change in the lexical meaning. However, vice versa does not hold true.
The allophones of // for word medial and word final position can be represented as:

// []

[]

Eg. [] (road) [] (road)

[:] (horse) [:] (horse)

[:] (rice water) [:] (rice water) 20

The phonological rule for this can be:

[+ stop +retroflex] → [+tap +retroflex] / C or V ____

20
This allophonic construction is ambiguous in nature as // also means ‘to beat’. Therefore,
syntactic construction becomes important for the determination of the correct lexical meaning.
 55

(iii) [], [] free variation word medially

[] occurs in free variation with [] for word medial position. That is, to say that, []

can be substituted for [] in the word medial position without affecting the lexical

meaning in any way.

Eg. // (ointment) and // (ointment)

/:/ (liver) and /:/ (liver)

/:/ (thin) and /:/ (thin)

/:/(to dissolve) and /:/ (to dissolve)

// (fish) and // (fish)

(iv) Vowel free variation

Two significant free variations can be noticed in the case of oral monophthongs.
They are [] & [] free variation and [] & [] free variation. But the phonotactic
constraint limits them to the word initial positions only.

(v) Nasal spreading as an allophonic process.

The phonemic nature of the nasal monophthongs has already been established earlier.
But, in certain cases where the vowel is succeeded or preceded by a nasal consonant it
also acquired nasal features known as spreading. The spreading can be forward as
well as backward. The following examples are of help in understanding this.

/:/ (nose); /:/ (respect); /:/ (moon); // (wing); /:/ (queen)

and /:/ (gold) etc.

3.2.3 Loan Phonology of English, Arabic, Hindi and Magahi.

This can be understood in a better way if similar cases are clubbed together and
considered one by one. For example,

a. Consonant substitution
 56

Magahi does not use fricative sounds //, // and //. However, these sounds are

replaced with //, // and // 21 respectively in case of borrowings from English

and Hindi/Urdu languages especially at word initial and word medial positions.

The following examples support the statement made above.

// → // (English borrowing)

(name of an adhesive)
// → // (Urdu borrowing)

(journey)
// → // (English borrowing)

(motor van)
// → // (Urdu borrowing)

(fragrance)
/::/ (bravo) →/::/ (Hindi, Urdu borrowing)

Another interesting substitution is that of velar // in place of uvular // mainly in

words borrowed from Arabic. The following data supports this claim (see Appendix
Some More Words).

// → //

(promise)
// →//

(variety)
// →//

(fault)
There are several other words of Persian and Sanskrit origin which undergo
substitution (Verma 2003).

21
A comparative study of the phonetic inventories of seven dialects of Hindi was carried out. It was
found that almost all the dialects (which includes Haryanvi, Awadhi, Bagheli, Bundeli, Bhojpuri and
Kanauji), with the exception of Khari Boli do not distinguish consistently between the alveolar fricative
// and the palatal //, the former being the preferred form. (Mishra, Bali 2011).
 57

b. Consonant Cluster
Magahi does not allow for any kind of consonant clustering especially at the syllable
onset position. However, at the syllable coda position specific clustering can be
viewed. The absence of any such syllable having consonant cluster in the initial
position in any of the words of the Basic Word Lists (see appendices) supports the
claim. Let us now look at the data for clustering at the coda position.
Magahi Gloss
• // (paint)
• // (wing)
• /:/ (moon)
• // (sweet potato)

First, the data for consonant clustering is very scarce and second, the data shows
clustering only in the case of alveolar nasal and velar consonants as being the first
constituent of the clustering at the coda position. It has already been mentioned earlier
that // and // are allophonic in nature.

3.2.4 Classification of Magahi Segmental Sounds on the basis of Distinctive Features

A complete account of Magahi phonemes in terms of distinctive features 22 (irrelevant
features and feature values have been omitted from this matrix in order to retain
marginal legibility)” has been provided as under:

Consonantal features:
[con] [son] [cont] [voice] [spr.glt] [lat] [nas] [strid] [distr] [high] [low] [bck] [rnd] [ant] [cor]

 + - - - - - - +

 + - - - + - - +

 + - - + - - - +

 + - - + + - - +

 + - - - - - - + +
 + - - - + - - + +

 + - - + - - - + +
 + - - + + - - + +

 + - - - - - - -
 + - - - + - - -

 + - - + - - - -
 + - - + + - - -

 + - - - - - - + +

 + - - - + - - + +

22
Gussenhoven and Jacobs (1998); Chomsky and Halle’s universal set of phonetic features (1968)
 58

 + - - + - - - + +

 + - - + + - - + +

 + - + - - - - +

 + - + + + - - -

 + - - - - - - + +

 + - - - + - - + +

 + - - + - - - + +

 + - - + + - - + +

 + + - + - - + -

 + + - + - - + -

 + + + + - - - -

 + - - + - - - -

 + - - + + - - - +

 + + + + - + - -

 + + + + + + - -

 + + + + - - - - + - + +

 + + + + - - - - +

Classification of consonants based on Distinctive Features (chart 3/5)

Vowel Features:

[cons [son [cont [vcd [asp [glot [lat [nas [strd [high [low [bck [rnd
] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]
 - + + + - - -
 - + + - - - -
 - + + - - + -
 - + + + - + +
 - + + - - + +
 - + + - + + -
Classification of oral vowels based on Distinctive Features (chart3/6)

3.3 SUMMARY

The chapter has dealt with Magahi sound system with special focus on the vowels and
the consonants. Magahi has oral as well as nasal vowels. There are a total of six oral
vowels and six nasal vowels. The oral vowel // and the nasal vowel // occur in

complementary distribution. Magahi has a lot of diphthongs. The data analysis has
revealed the existence of as many as eight diphthongs both oral and nasal. Out of the
eight diphthongs three have nasal vowels in the diphthongal combination. The oral
vowel // is the most frequent choice for the formation of a diphthong. The diphthong

// occurs in all the three word positions.

 59

There are twenty eight phonemic consonants in Magahi. Just like other Indo- Aryan
languages, aspiration is phonemic in this language. The alveolar nasal consonant //

displays allophony when followed by a velar consonant. The analysis of words

containing aspirated consonants reveals that the frequency of the occurrence of voiced
consonants at the onset position is far greater than at the coda position. For easy
understanding and to have a clear picture of the allophonic processes occurring in the
language the phonemic as well as the phonetic charts have been provided in the
chapter both for consonants and vowels.

Magahi is rich in allophones and allophonic processes. Segmental sounds exhibit

allophony depending on their position of occurrence in the word. Allophonic nature is
also exhibited by certain segments depending on the environment in which they
occur. This has been the case with labial plosives where aspirated consonants use their
unaspirated counterparts as allophones when they are preceded by a nasal vowel.

Fricative sounds //, // and // are not present in Magahi phonetic inventory and

they are substituted with //, // and // respectively. Similarly, the uvular // is

substituted with the velar //. Magahi has no scope for consonant clusters. And the

only type of clustering that one comes across in the language is in the form of
gemination. Gemination in Magahi is as a result of ablauting where high vowels like
// and // get lowered to // and // respectively. The gemination occurs in order to

preserve word stress at specific syllables as per language prosodic rules.

This chapter has been an attempt to describe the sound segments of Magahi. Any type
of study on language prosody cannot be possible without developing a basic
understanding of the sound system of the language. The distinctive feature charts
illustrated for consonants and the vowels in the chapter will be of help in grouping the
sound segments depending on the various types of phonological processes with
similar features. The next chapter will deal with the syllable structure of the language
and it will also account for the various syllable- based and foot- based processes of
the language.
 60

CHAPTER 4

WORD STRESS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the system of word stress in Magahi. The stress pattern of
Magahi has not been previously analyzed in the metrical literature. Stress is the
linguistic manifestation of rhythmic structure, a claim that has been part of metrical
theory since Liberman (1975) and Liberman & Prince (1977). A body of careful
experimental work has established that no one physical correlate can serve as a direct
reflection of linguistic stress levels (Lehiste 1970; Lea 1977; Berinstein 1979; Ladd
1980; Beckman 1986).

The absence of any clear definition of stress means that any theory of stress is in an
indirect relation with the facts that support it. In most areas of phonology, it is not too
difficult to ascertain when the observed facts confirm or falsify a hypothesis. This is
because of the distinctive features 23 which form the core of phonological
representation, have relatively clear acoustic or articulatory correlates. (Hayes 1995)

Stress serves multiple purposes: it creates phonemic contrasts, marks morphological

and syntactic structure, signals the distribution of focus and so on. The multiple
phonetic cues for stress are particularly interesting when one considers that languages
use duration and pitch in their phonological systems for entirely different purposes.
Duration is the phonetic cue for vowel length, which is phonemic in many languages
(not in the case of Magahi though). Duration is also widely used to mark phonological
phrasing (see Chapter 4): the right edges of major phrases typically receive extra
duration (Klatt 1975; Wightman et al. 1992). Further, pitch is the phonetic cue for
tone, in languages with phonemic tone systems (Magahi is a non- tonal language), and
also in the phonetic basis of intonation (see Chapter 4). The basic point is this that
stress is parasitic, in the sense that it invokes phonetic resources that serve other
phonological ends. (Hayes 1995)

23
. The classification of Magahi segmental sounds on the basis of distinctive features has been provided
in the charts 2/5 and 2/6 for consonants and vowels respectively.
 61

From a structural point of view, stress is a property of the rightmost or leftmost

syllable of a prosodic constituent, the foot. The prototypical foot is a sequence of two
syllables one of which is strong (s) and the other one weak (w). Stress is a property of
syllables. When the word is spoken in isolation, the stressed syllable is provided with
an intonational pitch accent, a tone or tone complex like H* (high) or L*H (low-
high). Stressed syllables thus serve as the location for the tones that make up the
intonation contour. Shifting of stress is related to the difference in the location of the
f0 (fundamental frequency) fall is clearly visible. Quantity and weight are expressed
in moras. It splits off the onset consonants (s) which are prosodically inactive, from
the segments in the rhyme. The rhyme includes a mora structure: a vocalic rhyme
with a single mora- light and two moras- heavy. (Gussenhoven 2004)

Keeping these arguments into consideration it becomes essential to see Magahi stress
system in the same light. This chapter commences with the description of the syllable
and the foot structure of the language. The chapter is divided into four sections. The
first section of the chapter includes the introduction and the analysis of Magahi
syllable structure. The second section investigates its syllable based processes. The
analysis of syllable structure discusses the patterns of syllabic units in Magahi, the
nature of syllabic peak and the phonotactic constraints. The section dedicated for the
discussion on the syllable based includes the discussion on syllable duration, syllable
weight and processes like epenthesis and vowel shortening.

The third section of the chapter deals with the analysis of the foot structure and the
foot based processes. The foot based processes includes a discussion on the process of
cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening. This section of the chapter also tries
to analyze Magahi prosodic templates. This section of the chapter will focus mainly
on the discussion of the prosodic template of Magahi plurals. The chapter closes with
a brief summary of the important findings of the chapter.

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of the syllables.
This prominence is a function of loudness, pitch or duration and it is often the change
in pitch along with other factors that is most important. The prominence of syllables is
referred to as stress. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the process of the placement
of word stress in Magahi. Therefore it becomes important to study the syllable and the
foot structure prior to the analysis of the stress placement in Magahi. The analysis of
 62

word stress commences with a detailed description of the syllable and the foot
structure based on the data collected through the observation and the interview
methods 24. The discussion includes a comprehensive analysis of the syllable and the
foot structure of Magahi. The first half of this chapter includes the analysis of Magahi
syllable structure (the patterns of syllabic peak and phonotactic constraints) and the
examination of its syllable based processes. Syllable based processes relate to the
syllable duration and the syllable peak. Epenthesis and vowel shortening too occur
very frequently in the language and so they also have been discussed under the
syllable based processes.

In the second half, the discussion proceeds to the foot structure and the foot based
processes. Here Cluster Reduction and Compensatory Lengthening have been
discussed as being types of the foot based processes evident in Magahi. Every
language has its preferred template structure and its determination occurs at the word
level. The template for Magahi plurals has been analyzed in the following section. Let
us now begin with the analysis of the nature of Magahi syllable and its structure.

4.2 THE SYLLABLE

Syllables are units of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. They are often
considered as the phonological building blocks of words. Attempts have been made to
provide physiological, acoustic and auditory explanations and definitions of syllable.
According to the ‘prominence theory’ 25 the number of syllables in a word is
determined by the number of peaks of prominence. Another approach is presented by
the ‘sonority theory’ 26 (Giegerich, 1992:132). A syllable can, thus, be defined as a
unit of speech which appears to the hearer as “one sound beat” or “as a segment of
speech that is heard as one unit of sonority.”

A syllable can be divided into an onset and a rime (Roach, 2000 & Ladefoged, 2001).
A rime can further be classified as a nucleus and a coda. Generally, the nucleus occurs

24
The Observation Method requires fairly good advance knowledge of the language under
consideration. While adopting this method, it is assumed that the basic grammar is already known to
the fieldworker. In the Interview Method the field investigator can interview informants with or
without the help of the questionnaire/s.
25
Crystal, D. (Ed.). (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. USA: Blackwell Publishing.
This theory, however, does not help much in the discussion of syllable division.
26
According to this theory the pulses of pulmonic air stream in speech corresponds to ‘peaks in
sonority’.
 63

at the centre of the syllable. Every syllable requires of a peak and the minimal syllable
consists of only a nucleus. The syllabic nucleus is usually a vowel but sometimes a
syllabic consonant can also act as a peak. The sound segments (consonants) preceding
and following the nucleus are termed as margins: onset and coda respectively. After
going through the definition and the concept of a syllable let us now proceed with the
discussion on syllable structure.

4.2.1.The Syllable Structure

In Magahi, a syllable is a vocalic unit or a combination of consonants preceding or

following the vocalic unit. Some of the examples have been taken out from the list of
data on the basis of random sampling 27 which have been illustrated underneath (see
appendices)

Magahi(marked with syllable division) Syllable pattern 28

. (all) CVC.CV

≅:. (and) V.V

:. (animal) CVC.CVC

: (ash) CVC

.: (bad) CV.CVC

 (fly) VC

.:.: (fog) CV.CV.CV

:.: (art) CV.CV

.:. (blouse) CV.CV.VC

.: (book) CV.CVC

:. (blind) V.CVC

.:. (brave) CV.CV.CVC

27
Examples have been picked from the Basic Word Lists A,B,C (see appendices) randomly in order to
get the knowledge of Magahi syllables as being only vocalic as well as a combination of consonants
and vowels (consonants occurring at either onset position, coda position or both).
28
The syllable division has been done on the basis of the Sonority Theory in which a syllable is a unit
heard by hearer as ‘one sound beat’. (Giegerich, 1992).
 64

Let us have a look at the patterns of syllable units and the permissible combinations

for onset and coda positions.

4.2.1.1The Patterns of Syllabic Units

If ‘V’ represents a syllable peak including the nasalized vowel form and ‘C’

represents the syllable margins then following are the monosyllabic patterns of

Magahi. (‘##’ stands for the syllable boundary).

## V## /i/ (this)

##VC## :(eye)
##CV##: (yes)
##CVC##(fruit)
##CVCC##(feather)

Analysis of the syllable structure of Magahi leads to the following observation:

• The above mentioned syllabic patterns can exist freely as independent words

or they can exist as constituent syllables of di/tri or polysyllabic words.

4.2.1.2The Nature of Syllabic Peak

The nucleus of the syllable comprises both oral and nasal vowels. There are six oral
vowels in Magahi and all the oral vowels take the syllable peak position 29.

The data provided in the basic word lists (see appendix) yielded the minimal pairs
(Chapter 3) which helped to account for the occurrence of the following vowels in the
syllabic peak position.

Monophthongs Magahi Gloss

/i/ / (louse)

// // (flower)

29
Magahi shows the distinction of long and short oral vowels /ι; /Ι and υ; Υ The minimal and sub-
minimal pairs give evidence for it. However, in case of diminutive forms, the long vowels get
converted to short vowels because of the addition of the diminutive markers to the stem (pp 17).
 65

/ (fair)

 (open)

/ / (art)

 (garland)

The number of nasal vowels as observed in the data in the basic word lists (see
appendix) is six. The nasal vowels were found to take the syllable peak position in
the following cases:

Nasal Vowels Magahi Gloss

(sound of horn)

/ (smoke)

// (stuffed)

// (breath)

/  (laugh)

4.2.2.Syllable Based Processes

4.2.2.1 Syllable weight

The functional equivalence of CVV and CVC syllables, as opposed to CV syllables, is

a time- honored observation holding true for numerous languages over a variety of
phonological and morphological phenomena including stress- assignment (cf.
Newman 1972 for a review). Traditionally the opposition between the two types of
syllables has been informally described by reference to syllable weight: CVV and
CVC syllables are heavy, CV syllables are light (e.g. La Grasserie 1909: 31- 32). It
has also been observed, however, that in languages sensitive to the CV/ CVV,
distinction CVC syllables do not necessarily pattern with CVV syllables, but may
instead pattern with CV syllables, thus counting as light rather than heavy (Hyman
1985: 5- 6; Mc Carthy & Prince 1986: 32- 34; Hayes 1989: 255- 256). The concept of
syllable weight can be best understood with the help of Moraic Theory (Hayes
 66

1989) 30. The theory does not recognize either the onset or the rhyme (rime)
constituents. Onset elements are directly dominated by ‘σ’ node and are not assigned
a mora (weight unit, represented by ‘μ’) while the nucleus and the coda are assigned
morae because they contribute to syllable weight.

σ σ σ

μ μ μ μ μ

[  : ] [ : ] [ :  ]

As per the data collected for the purpose of this study it can be concluded that six
different types of syllable structures occur in this language. They are: V, CV, VC,
CVC and CVCC and CV:C.

4.2.2.2 Epenthesis and Vowel Shortening

In a disyllabic word the initial syllable has to be heavier compared to the final syllable
so that it can bear stress. The language undertakes those phonological phenomena
which facilitate such phonological processes. This is clear through the following
illustrations:

In order to indicate a specific or a particular person, animal or object the suffix -:-

:is added (diminutive forms) 31 depending on the type of vowel in the final

syllable. If the vowel in the final syllable is back (+/- rounded) then the suffix -:

follows. The suffix -: occurs in the elsewhere condition. This process of suffixation

results in the formation of specifiers in the language.

Let us see the following examples:

1. a) ::→:→:

30
The Moraic theory captures the functional equivalence of CVV and CVC syllables through
bimoraicity (instead of the disjoint notions of branching nucleus and branching rhyme, while the cases
where CV and CVC syllables belong together (as opposed to CVV syllables) fall under monomoraicity.
31
(Kachru 2006). Hindi. John Benjamins Publishing Co. It is possible to derive a gender- different
noun forms based on the diminutives. At times the diminutive forms express affectionate or pejorative
meanings as in /βετι+ /-α→ /βετια (hindi)
(daughter) (diminutive form)
 67

(Garland) (the garland)

b) ::→:→:

(umbrella) (the umbrella)

c) ::→:→:

(fodder) (the fodder)

d) :→ : → :

(gram) (the gram)

e) : → : → :

(money) (the money)

f) u: 32 → :

(bridegroom) (the bridegroom)

After paying a close look at the examples above it is clear that two processes are
occurring here. Firstly, there is vowel shortening in the final syllable and secondly,
the shortened vowel gets deleted. As a result, the initial syllable retains its heaviness
and the stress. In (f) however, it can be seen that the addition of suffix is preceded by
epenthesis. There can be another explanation for this. Preceding to the addition of the
diminutive suffixes the last vowel segment in the root word is dropped so the
corresponding stems become /-,,-,-,-

&-/ a) to f) respectively. Let us examine the following data:

2. a)  → i → pi:

(feather) (the feather)

b) i → i → i:

32
The original lexical item for ‘bridegroom’ in Magahi is /α/ but the formation of a diminutive
form presumes an epenthesis which can be represented as: /α/ → /α/. The aspirated lateral
consonant // is broken down in such a way that a disyllabic word transforms into a trisyllabic word.
The same happens with similar other words like /α/ (stove).
 68

(fish) (the fish)

c) : → i → i:

(book) (the book)

d)  → i→ i:

(bride) (the bride)

From (2 a- d) it can be seen that all the stems have vocalic ending with the exception
of 2cand 2d. The morphological process of addition of suffix /-:/ is accompanied

by a series of phonological processes. From 2a to 2d it can be seen that the suffix is

preceded by a stem extender /-i/. Also, in 2b the process of suffixation is preceded by
the process of epenthesis. So, the underlying form for the diminutive forms in Magahi
does have a vocalic ending in the stems for both /-:and /-:forms.

Therefore, the first explanation seems to be the most efficient and optimal in
explaining both the cases. 33

Vowel shortening in Magahi operates on the morphophonemic level as well. Magahi

has a derivative suffix in stressed // which derives intransitive passive verb stems

and denominatives. This is against the general rule where in a disyllabic word the
stress is on the penultimate. As in,

3. a) /::/ ( let’s go) /::/(made to go)

b) /:/ (see) /:/ (made to see)

c) /:/ (write) /:/ (made to write)

33
The explanation for this can be derived from the Optimality Theory (Kager, 1999) which says that
given two sets of candidates A and B; A is a better candidate on a constraint if it incurs fewer violations
than B. A is optimal in its candidate set if it is better on the constraint hierarchy than all the other
candidates.
 69

The stressed penultimate vowel of disyllabic word will retain the stress when it
becomes the antepenult vowel of a trisyllabic word through suffixation, but will
become attenuated even when stressed 34. As in,

d) /:/ (see) /:/ (you saw)

e) /:/ (write) /:/ (you wrote)

The words become disyllabic in fast speech with the predictable stress on the penult
but on an antepenult vowel, provided the syllabic structure is CVC- CV. We can say
that this syllabic structure becomes a general phonological condition for the
occurrence of an attenuated vowel and stress for words ending in such a syllabic
structure.

4.3 THE FOOT

The unit is composed of syllables, the number of which is limited, with a few
variations, by the sound pattern the foot represents. 35 The foot is a purely metrical
unit; there is no inherent relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning or syntax.
The feet are classified first by the number of syllables in the foot (disyllabic have two,
trisyllabic have three and tetrasyllabic four) and secondarily by the pattern of vowel
lengths or syllable stresses; ‘long’ becomes ‘stressed’ (accented) and ‘short’ becomes
‘unstressed’ (unaccented).(Nespor and Vogel 2007).

4.3.1The Foot Structure

Out of the six possible monosyllabic patterns the V and the CV structures can be
considered as light syllables owing to the absence of any element at the coda position.
VV too does not have any element at the coda position but the occurrence of two
vowels at the nucleus position makes this syllable heavy. VC and CVC syllables are
also heavy. CVCC as well as CV:C syllable structure can be labeled as being super
heavy because of its heavy rime. Therefore, with respect to syllable weight three types

34
Many times the attenuation becomes so severe that the vowel sounds are completely deleted as in
/α/ (you saw) and // (you wrote).
35
The structure of a foot can be characterized as consisting of a string of one relatively strong and any
number of relatively weak syllables dominated by a single node (Liberman and Prince 1977; Kiparsky
1979).
 70

of syllables have been observed in Magahi. they are: light (l), heavy (h) and super
heavy syllable. A light syllable is either of /CV/ or /V/ type where ‘V’ is any vowel
other than /:/. A heavy syllable (h) is either of the type /CVC/ or /CV:/ where ‘V’ is
only /:/. A super- heavy syllable is a combination of heavy and light syllables (h+l).
In this case it will be of the type /: C/ where ‘C’ can be any consonant. It can also be

deduced from the data that /:/ results in a heavy syllable when occurs word internally
but results in a light syllable when occurs word- finally.

Syllable weight also determines the placement of stress in a word. It is fixed, weight-
sensitive and is morphologically or lexically conditioned. The study of Magahi data
shows that when the stress is on the penultimate syllable, the vowel in the
antepenultimate gets attenuated. When the stress is on the final (ult) syllable, the
vowel in the penult gets attenuated. With the shift in the stress, the feature of vowel
shortening also gets shifted. Let us have a look at the following data (extracted from
the Basic Word List A, B and C/ appendix).

4. a) /:: (to loot)(dacoity)

b) /:/ (tobunk) // (bunking) 

c) /:(shop) :(shopkeeper)

Instances of vowel loss dependent on the placement of stress can also be witnessed in
the language. One such example is as follows:

d) :(morning) (in the morning)

The main stress in Magahi words fall on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy; it falls
on the ultimate syllable if the penultimate syllable is light.

Such phonological phenomena occur at phonology- morphology interface level. The

placement of stress within a word is very much then dependent on the kind of vowel
that the syllable possesses. The foot in this case is left-headed and the movement of
the stress is towards the right edge of the word. The syllable weight appears to
determine the stress system of Magahi. Therefore, Magahi seems to be a quantity-
 71

sensitive language. In comparison with Hindi and Maithili (Hayes, 1994) 36 which
have moraic trochees as the basic foot type Magahi too appears to have the same as its
basic foot type.

In Magahi feet are left- headed (=trochees); namely, the leftmost syllable in a foot is

the strongest. E.g.

Magahi

(elder)

: .  (animal)

4.3.2 Stress Placement and Extrametricality

It has already been established that the possible syllable structures in Magahi are V,
CV, VC, CVC, CV:C and CVCC (see 3.2.2.1) of which VC, CVC are considered to
be heavy syllables and CVCC 37 and CV:C are considered to be super heavy syllables.
CV acts as heavy syllable when it gets an additional weight due to the lengthening of
the constituent vowel (CV :). The moraic trochee captures the idea that a single heavy
syllable is quantitatively and metrically equivalent to two light syllables (Allen 1973;
Halle & Vergnaud 1978; McCarthy 1979a; Prince 1983). Magahi avoids consonant
clusters at the onset and the coda position. This renders CVC as the most preferred of
all the syllable structure types.

After establishing the syllable structure the next step is to see as to how stress is
placed on the syllables. A set of words have been taken to investigate the
phenomenon of stress placement in the language. The feet have been marked as being
heavy (h) or light (l). The words are represented on the metrical grid where the foot
stress is marked with an asterisk (*). Metrical grid has been included to see if the
language permits any kind of stress clash. The metrical grid consists of a base line
and a stress line. In the baseline, all and only the segments that qualify to bear stress

36
Hayes, P. (1994), Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies, Chicago: University of
Chicago. In his account of metrical stress theory, Bruce Hayes builds on the notion that stress
constitutes linguistic rhythm- that stress patterns are rhythmically organized, and that formal structures
proposed for rhythm can provide a suitable account of stress.
37
Consonant cluster in the coda position lends an additional mora to the syllable thus making it heavy.
However, such clusters are very limited in the language.
 72

are marked with an asterisk. Those are normally the syllable heads. The brackets are
due to Hayes (1995).

4.3.2.1 Analysis

The placement of main stress in Magahi can be summarized as follows.

5. a) . <> (cobbler)

b) . <> (unroot)

c) .. <> (lineage)

The argument for the extrametricality in (5/ a- c) can be drawn from Pandey (1989)
and more recently in Vijaykrishnan (2007). The final syllables //, // and //

respectively are light syllables in themselves thus becoming extrametrical.

6. d). .<> (art)

e). .<> (fat)

f). .<> (deny)

In cases like (6/ d- f) the rightmost heavy syllable becomes extrametrical thus
resulting in degenerate foot (A degenerate foot is simply a foot that would consist of a
single light/ monomoraic syllable). The primary stress falls on the leftmost light
syllable.

7. g). ∩..<> (family)

h). ∩..<> (landlord)

i). ∩..<> (business)

The extrametricality shown in (7/ vii- ix) draws its argument from Pandey (1989) and
more recently in Vijaykrishnan (2007). The final syllables in such cases are light
syllables in themselves and thus become extrametrical.

8. j). .(). <> (brain diminutive)

 73

k). .  () <> (lineage diminutive)

l). .  (). <:> (glass diminutive)

9. m)...<> (ablution)

n)...<> (woman)

o). . ().<> (niece)

10. p). ∩...<> (land lordship)

q). ∩...<> (family diminutive)

11. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

  #  

The point is that the primary stress or the main stress of Magahi falls on the
penultimate syllable in unmarked conditions which includes a heavy syllable structure
at this position and a comparatively light syllable word finally. Another point that can
be made here is that a final syllable can attract stress just in case it is not preceded by
a heavy syllable as in (6) resulting in degenerate foot. Suppose the syllables are
organized from right to left into moraic trochees then the relevant examples will be
footed as in (11).

12. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

(x) (x.) .) (x)

…….  # …….  #

To pick out the right /x/ for the main stress, it is sufficient to mark the final foot as
extrametrical when it is preceded by a heavy syllable.

13. Penultimate Stress Vs Final Stress

x) x)
(x) <(x)> .) (x)
 74

 #   #

Extrametricality in Clash must be restricted to cases where the clashing stress is

constituted by a long -voweled syllable. Thus, the rules of Magahi can be stated as in
(14).

14. a) Foot Construction Form moraic trochees from right to left.

x

b) Extrametricality in Clash Foot → <Foot > / V: ___ ] word

c) Word Layer Construction End Rule (Right)

In this analysis, rule (14a) sets up metrical feet, end rules (14b) and (14c) select a foot
for the main stress.

In (15) to (18) are further metrical structures generated by the rules of (14). The
following structures suggest that Magahi has both primary as well as secondary stress.

15. Final Heavy, No Extrametricality: Final Stress

a) (x)
(x)
(x)

:

16. Word Ending in / /: Extrametricality, Penultimate Stress

a) (x) b) ( x) c) ( x)
(x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)
(x) <(x)> (x) (x) <(x)> (x) (x) (x) <(x)>

        

  . <:> . :. <:> . . : <>

17. Word Ending in / /: Penultimate Stress

a) ( x)
(. x)
(. (x) (x)
 75

  

. :. 

18. Word Ending in / /: Extrametricality, Penultimate Stress

a) (x) b) ( x) c) ( )

(x) (. x) (x) (x) (x)

(x) <(x)> (. (x) <(x)> (x) (x) (x) (x)

        

. : . . : ∩. . .

<>

19. Word Ending in / /: Final Stress, Final Syllable extrametricality

a) ( x) b) ( x)
(x) (x) (. x)
(x) (x) (. x)

   

. <> . :<>

In the rules so far it has been assumed that both CVV and CVC syllables are heavy
and the /:C/ syllables are super heavy and the presence of a super heavy syllable

triggers peripheral Extrametricality. Vowel shortening appears to be a prevalent

feature in morphological processes like affixation. But contrary to Maithili (Hayes
1995) in Magahi the syllable undergoing vowel shortening bears the primary stress as
long as it continues to be heavy and at the penultimate position. Three examples have
been given underneath in which the penultimate syllable experiences vowel
shortening in the formation of the respective diminutives.

20. a) (x ) (x )
(x ) (x )
(x) <(x)> (x <(x)>
_ _ _ _

: <:> (paternal grandfather SING.)  .<:>

 76

b) ( x) (. x)
( x) (. x)
(x) (x) <(x)> (. x) <(x)>

    

. :<> (brain) . . <:>

c) ( x) ( x)
(x ) (x) ( x)
(x) (x) (x) (x ) ( x) <(x)>

      

. . <> . .  .<:>

4.3.2.2 Discussion

The analysis bears on a number of theoretical issues.

(A) EXTRAMETRICALITY IN CLASH: The analysis provides support for this

type of rule. A final foot of the form CV: attracts stress only if it does not
clash with a preceding stress on another CV: syllable. The same holds for a
final foot of the form CVC. The analysis also shows that the clash results in
Extrametricality as well as de- stressing which occurs in a disyllabic word of
the type (hh) or a polysyllabic word consisting of adjacent heavy and super-
heavy syllables.

What is interesting about this analysis is that both CV: and CVC induce this
clash governed Extrametricality. And it also appears that CVC is considered to
be heavier than CV: syllable. This is in contradiction to the popular
typological observations where CV: is considered to be the heavier of the two.
However, there are still no concrete suggestions as to why this should be taken
in a rigid manner (Hayes 1995). Magahi seems to fall out of this notion.

(B) VOWEL SHORTENING: a further question to be considered is why a rule of

vowel shortening/ reduction should occur in a trochaic language, given the
 77

prediction of the Iambic/ Trochaic Law 38 that segmental phonology should

preserve the even timing of the foot (Hayes 1995). The previous analysis
shows that vowel reduction does not govern stress assignment in Magahi so
long as the primary stress falls on the penultimate syllable.

21. a) ( x) ( x)
( x) ( x)
(. x)<(x)> (. x) <(x)>

    

 . ≅:<> . . <:>

b) ( x) ( x)
( x) ( x)
(x) (x) (x) (x) <(x)>

    

. :<n> . . <:>

The most clearly documented evidence of a more objective character is that because
vowel reduction does not govern stress assignment, its role has been delimited in
Magahi phonology. This type of phenomena is however purely morpho- phonemic
where the addition of the suffix /-:/ word finally leads to the shortening of the

vowel in the preceding syllable. The shifting of stress in such cases could be a
consequence of this morph phonemic process and not vice versa. Vowel Reduction is
blocked in initial syllables. It can be supposed that reduction is blocked here because
it would ordinarily create an unsyllabified consonant cluster. 39 The evidence for the
avoidance of consonant cluster has just been seen for Magahi.

(C) AVOIDANCE OF STRESS CLASH:

Magahi avoids any kind of stress clash. A stress clash refers to a sequence of adjacent
stressed syllable. Avoiding clash is assumed to be one of the driving forces behind the
38
The Iambic/ Trochaic Law forms the basis of the foot inventory and it forms part of the theory of the
rhythm, not of language popular. It determines the set of possible feet, as well as motivating large
number of segmental rules that adjust metrical structure. (Hayes 1995:33)
39
Avoidance of consonant cluster is a factor in Maithili phonology as well. (Hayes 1995)
 78

placement of stresses (e.g. Prince 1983), in recent work in particular (Kager 2001,
2005 a, 2005 b; Gordon 2002; McCarthy 2003; Alber 2005; Buckley 2009). One way
in which this is made possible is by the avoidance of consonant cluster at the coda
position of a foot 40 which is preceded by another heavy foot.

A final foot of the form CVC or CV: attracts stress only if it does not clash with a
preceding stress on another CVC or CV: syllable. Magahi has numerous words having
the prosodic shape CVC.CV. Apart from the avoidance of consonant clustering, the
language also has phonological phenomenon of epenthesis due to which a
monosyllable with a consonant cluster at coda position following a heavy syllable
acquires a vowel thus creating one more syllable.

22. (a) *

 (feather)

(H)

* (b) * *

. 

(H) (H)

(c) *
* * *

. . <> (Peacock feather)

(H) (H) L

Words like (22b) do not occur in the language because they lead to stress clash which
is completely avoided in the language. Words like (22c) abide by the metrical rule of
the language. So there is a hierarchy of prominence among syllables in words and
among words in compounds and phrases. This prominence hierarchy is grounded in

40
Magahi does not have cluster at the coda position except for such clusters in which a nasal consonant
is the preceding constituent.
 79

rhythm. Moraic trochees are constructed over two light syllables or one heavy
syllable. The last foot on the left is assigned main stress (End Rule). 41

4.3.3 The Prosodic Template in Magahi

A template can be thought as the fixed prescribed shape that a word or paradigm must
have to be well-formed. In other words, a template stipulates a prosodic unit, e.g. a
foot or syllable or a combination of prosodic units, e.g. a foot and two syllables,
which constrain the shape of stems or words. The template used in a particular
paradigm is assumed specifically for that paradigm and does not necessarily dictate
the shape of all words and paradigms.

Magahi Plurals

Pluralisation in Magahi occurs by the addition of the suffix /-/ or /-/ to the

stem indicating masculinity or feminity of the object respectively. When the word

final ending is consonantal like

23. a)  →  . <>

(H) H H

(tree) (trees)

b) :. →  .  . <>

(H ) (H) L (H) ( H)

(paper) (papers)

The suffix /- / is added. In case where the root word has a vowel ending then the

stem undergoes modifications to facilitate such suffixation.

c) k. →  + - → .<>

41
The foot templates are based on the Iambic/ Trochaic law, which in turn is related to phonological
duration and therefore, to mora count. This is what sets up the crucial empirical prediction of this
approach; namely that stress rules that refer to prominence are limited to the mechanisms of the theory
other than footing, namely the End Rule. In cases of Hindi, Maithili and Awadhi also a heavy penult
always receives the main stress (Hayes 1994).
 80

(H) L (H) (H)

(dog) (dogs)
d) .<:> →  + - → .<>

(H) H (H) (H)

(child) (children)
e) .→ →  + - → ..

(H) L L (H) (H)

(spoon) (spoons)

In the examples (22c) and (22d) it is clear that the final syllable is dropped and then
suffixation occurs. In (21e) degemination occurs which creates the environment for
suffixation.

When the word final ending is vocalic then /- / gets affixed.

f)  → .<>

(H) (H) (H)

(cow) (cows)
g) :.<i> → .. <>

(H) <L> L (L) <H>

(paternal aunt) (paternal aunts)

The data presented so far clearly states that Magahi permits H, LL, LH and HL type
of feet avoiding stress clash. Let us have a look at some more data below to
understand Magahi feet type in a better way.

• H type feet occur in two types of cases:

24. a) in case of disyllabic words like:
(i):. <:> (garland)

(ii):. <:> (lock)

Where both the syllables are of heavy type but since there is final syllable
extrametricality in Magahi, the rightmost syllable gets extrametrical and thus, the
 81

primary stress falls on the leftmost or the word- initial syllable. So, the surface foot
structure for such words appear to be of HH type but the underlying structure is of H
type.

b) in case of polysyllabic words like

(i) . . : (lad)

(ii) . . : (land lord)

In (b) above the heavy syllable in the middle is followed by a super heavy final
syllable. The primary stress falls on the right most super heavy syllable. The middle
syllable is also of the heavy type but the stress does not fall on the middle syllable
because of stress clash resolution. Therefore, the secondary stress shifts to the word
initial or the left- most syllables.

• LL type feet occur in disyllabic words like

25. (i) .  (fat female)

(ii) .  (husband)

Where both the syllables are light and the left most syllable bears the primary stress.

• LH type feet too occur in disyllabic words like

26. (i) . <:> (art)

(ii) . <:> (deny)

Where the right most heavy syllable becomes extrametrical due to Final syllable
extrametricality and so the stress falls on the left most light syllable resulting in a
degenerate foot.

• HL type feet occur in words like

27. (i) :.  (water)

(ii) :.  <> (massage)

 82

LOAN PHONOLOGY : THE ROLE OF PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS

Phonotactic rules determine which sounds are allowed or disallowed in each part of
the syllable. Magahi phonology is determined in such a manner that phonetically the
realization of consonant clustering is completely avoided in the syllable initial
position. 42 As for the borrowed words especially from Hindi and English consonant
clustering in the syllable initial position is avoided by means of phonological
phenomena like epenthesis

A separate word list was prepared in order to get data for the borrowed words of
Hindi and English origin (See appendix). There are sufficient examples which can
illustrate the existence of the above mentioned phonological phenomenon. Some of
those examples have been illustrated as under:

28. Hindi Magahi

a) /(love)

English Magahi

b) /(cream)

Or deletion

Hindi Magahi

c) /(Lord Krishna)

Or metathesis

e.g.

d) Hindi Magahi

e) /(proper noun)

42
As opposed to Hindi which is a major linguistic influence in Bihar none of the Bihari languages
(Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpiri) show any consonant clustering in the onset position.
The data obtained in the Basic Word Lists A, B and C (see appendix) also do not show the occurrence
of consonant clustering in the syllable initial position.
 83

English Magahi Gloss

f) cricket
43

However, consonant clustering is noticed in the coda position of the syllable. But it
seems that the choice of the first consonant in the cluster is restricted to nasal
consonants. 44 The phonetic feature of the nasal consonant is determined by the type of
consonant following it. Alveolar nasal consonant is preceded by alveolar consonants
and velar nasal consonant is preceded by velar consonants. 45 The existence of other
types of consonant clustering is absent as per the collected data (see appendices).

4.5 SUMMARY

The chapter outlines the syllable structure of Magahi as well as accounts for the foot
structure and the placement of stress at the level of words. The analysis of the data has
resulted in the inference that there are six monosyllabic patterns in Magahi. They are
/V/, /VC/, /CV/, /CVC/ /CV:/ and /CVCC/ of which the /CVC/ pattern is the most
preferred form for the formation of monosyllabic words. These syllabic patterns can
exist freely as well as independent words or they can exist as constituent syllables of
di/ tri or polysyllabic words.

Orals as well as nasal vowels, both, occupy the syllabic peak position. The language
seems to completely avoid consonant clustering in the syllable initial position. In the
syllable end position also the choice of consonants for the initial position of clustering
is limited to alveolar nasal only. As for the borrowed words, the language has several
underlying phonological rules which reduce the possibility of the occurrence of
consonant clusters. However, the phonological processes are not always the same for
the borrowed words of Hindi and English origin.

The basic foot structure for Magahi is Quantity- sensitive unbounded moraic trochee
and it is left- headed. Magahi stress pattern shows Final syllable extrametricality. The

43
The borrowed words /κριΣν(Lord Krishna) and /κριµ/ cream) have the same consonants in the onset
position but there is deletion in the former and epenthesis in the latter. The language may have different
phonological rules for the borrowed words of different languages.
44
A similar discussion on the phonological constraints can be found in: Hulst, Harry van der & Ritter,
Nancy, A (1999), The Syllable- Views and Facts, The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
45
// (wing), /α/ (moon), // (smell) and /α/ (tie) (Appendix 1,2,3; The Basic
Word Lists)
 84

language obeys the END RULE for stress placement. The primary stress occurs on the
penultimate syllable in unmarked condition and the final syllable does not participate
in stress assignment thus becoming extrametrical. The language avoids stress clash
with the help of other phonological processes like avoidance of consonant clusters
the use of epenthesis as well as de stressing.

Processes which are foot- based like cluster reduction and compensatory lengthening
are evident but only in the cases of borrowed words. An examination of Magahi
plurals has yielded in the template structure for them. The templates for disyllabic
words are H, LL, LH and HL types. The next chapter will take the analysis to the
level of utterance. Rhythm and phrasing patterns will be the main focus of the next
chapter. The chapter will try to account for the uniqueness of Magahi intonation with
respect to wh- questions.
 85

CHAPTER 5

RHYTHM AND PHRASING PATTERN

5.1 INTRODUCTION: PROSODIC STRUCTURE

The preceding chapters have provided us with the basic understanding of the
phonological and the phonetic sound systems of Magahi as well as the rules that
govern the patterning of stress assignment in the language. So, far the domains of our
analyses have been the syllable (chapter 3) and the phonological word (chapter 4). But
in this chapter we will take into consideration larger domains than the ones discussed
earlier: the phonological phrases.

As the title of the chapter suggests, this chapter will be an attempt to discuss the
phrasing patterns operative in the language which is also referred to as the “rhythm”.
The previous chapters have shown us that the analysis and the discussion of prosodic
features in isolation is impossible because of their interdependence. They have high
degrees of interactions and also have many things in common. These features often
share their phonetic foundation but what unites these features more than any
phonological interaction or common phonetic basis is the way they fit together, they
share a common organization, a common structure which they collectively create and
on which they all depend (Fox 2000).

5.2 PROSODIC STRUCTURE

5.2.1 Domains

The idea of ‘prosody’ can be said to apply to, or be properties of, larger stretches of
speech than the individual segment (Fox 2000). These stretches of speech to which we
assign a particular feature are called their domain. Different features may share
domains; both the syllable and the foot are domains for a number of prosodic features.
Some of them being stress assignment, accenting and so on. The facts that such
domains are shared by various phonological features, we can assume the presence of
smaller prosodic units. The existence of such prosodic units, and their importance as
domains for more than one feature, suggest that the systemization of prosodic
 86

structure depends to a large extent on the systemization of these units and the
relationship between them.

Selkirk (1978) proposes that rules of phrase- level phonology are sensitive to a
prosodic hierarchy composed of several levels: words, phonological phrase,
intonational phrase and utterance. In later works, Selkirk (1986), following Chen
(1985), proposes that prosodic phrasing is constructed by referring solely to the ends
of well- defined X’ representations. Languages may select the right or left edge of a
level on the X’ hierarchy to delimit a prosodic phrase. Prosodic domains are defined
as the span between these ends (Rice 1987).

5.2.2 The intonational phrase and the prosodic hierarchy

As we now know that the simplest conception of a hierarchical phonological structure

is as a set of units of different sizes or scopes with the smaller progressively nested
within the larger. The basic prosodic unit, probably recognizable in all language is
syllable. The syllable is the domain of several prosodic features such as tone, and it is
generally the unit which can be regarded as ‘accented’ (Fox 2000).

We must consider, however, the possibility of other units in the hierarchy. Many
scholars recognize the mora (𝜇𝜇) as a legitimate unit, though its relationship to the
syllable is somewhat uncertain. The mora has often been included in the hierarchy as
a unit below syllable. (McCarthy and Prince 1995) For the present discussion on
Magahi phonological phrasing we must consider the significance of mora since it has
already been established that the basic foot type of this language is moraic trochee
(see 3.2.2.1). Considering this, a parallel ‘Quantity Tier’ can be postulated at the foot
level as in 4.2.2 (a) - (b).

(1) a. PrWd (prosodic word) (b) F ----- Q tier

F (foot) σ ----- 𝜇𝜇 tier

σ (syllable)

𝜇𝜇 (mora)

However, some linguists have argued in favor of a typological distinction here.

Trubetzkoy (1939) distinguishes syllable languages from mora languages, and
 87

syllable- counting languages from mora- counting languages. Japanese is a mora

language, since for this language the mora can be regarded as the unit of timing (Fox
2000, Pierrehumbert and Beckman 1988)), and the syllable has a subordinate role. As
for Magahi it is a weight- sensitive language and the stress assignment is directly
governed by syllable weight (see 3.3.2). The relevant syllable types in Magahi are
light (/CV, V/), heavy (/CVC, VC/) and super heavy (/CVCC and CVV/). The
syllables attract stress depending on the moraic weight attached to them.

In the previous chapters (Chapter 3 and 4) we have already discussed the syllable and
the foot structure of Magahi. Therefore, the present chapter will focus primarily on
the rhythm, that is, the phrase structure of the language. Talking of rhythm we have to
consider the structure of intonational phrase (IP) chiefly. Selkirk (1984, 1986)
suggests that the level of IP is determined semantically rather than from syntactic
structure. There is general agreement that certain types of syntactic constituents
obligatorily define IPs. At times, the boundaries of clauses and the break between
subject and verb phrase tend to attract IP boundaries (Hayes 1984). However, these
latter boundaries can be overridden by both phonological factors and semantic factors
(Rice 1987).

Coming to the analysis of rhythm of wh- questions let us first look into their syntactic
structures. The simplest declarative sentence of Magahi consists of a noun phrase
(NP) and a verb phrase (VP) as in

• [] NP [ ] VP

3P. Sing Ram AUX.

Let us now make an interrogative sentence of this declarative sentence.

• [] NP [] Q [] VP

3P. Sing who AUX.

It can be seen that the Q- word is getting inserted between the NP and the VP. Here, it
will not be wrong to say that the Q- word in itself gets inserted between the NP and
the VP as an independent phrase and does not align either with the NP or VP
syntactically. This is possible because of the freedom of movement of phrases within
 88

an utterance in the language. The following orderings too exist in the language which
further establishes the claim that the Q- word behaves like an independent phrase.

• [] NP [] Q [] VP (the most unmarked case)

• [] NP [] VP [] Q
• [] VP [] Q [] NP
• [] VP [] NP [] Q
• [] Q [] VP [] NP
• [] Q [] NP [] VP

Thus, it can be established that in the formation of an interrogative sentence in the

most unmarked case in Magahi, the Q- word gets inserted between the NP and the VP
and behave like an independent phrase. So, syntactically the phrase structure of an
interrogative sentence of Magahi is:

[NP] [Q] [VP].

Let us now examine the same with respect to the six wh- questions that are to be
analyzed for the present thesis:

(2) 1. [ ] NP [ ] Q [] VP

2P. Sing. GEN. name what AUX.

(What is your name? )

1. [ ] NP [ ] Q [ ] VP

2P. Sing. Where stay AUX.

(Where do you stay? )

2. [ ] NP [ ] Q [] VP

2P. Sing. How AUX.

(How are you? )

3. [ ] NP [ ] Q [-    ] VP

2P. Sing. when Home – to go stay AUX.

 89

(When are you going home? )

4. [] NP [  ] Q [   

] VP

2P. Sing. why Delhi go stay AUX.

(Why are you going to Delhi? )

5. [ ] NP [ ] Q [] VP

2P. Sing. Brother who AUX.

(Who is your brother? )

As is clear from the analysis of these six questions above, these wh- questions are also
structured on the same pattern, that is, [NP] [Q] [VP]. The next task now is to
investigate the presence of alignment between the syntactic phrase (XP) and the
phonological phrase (Ο) of these question sentences. But before proceeding to the
level of phonological phrases it is important to analyze each of these six questions
based on prosodic hierarchy.

5.3 PROSODIC FEATURES

5.3.1 Accent

In Metrical Phonology, stress is reduced to a binary relational feature which is derived

from metrical stress, or equivalent grids, with syllable designated as weak or strong.
This in effect interprets accent as a class of syllable. Thus, accent is not a phonetic
property but a matter of structure, and this is reinforced by its role in the rhythmical
organization of the utterance. In several languages, Level 2 accents designate the
nuclear foot of the intonation unit.

It is because of this structural role that the place of accent in prosodic structure is
more basic than that of other features justifying Beckman’s claim (1986) than it is
‘organizational’, in the sense that it is not merely a property associated with specific
prosodic units but it is rather a defining characteristics of the structure itself. Let us
now take the case of the six wh- questions which have been used for various types of
prosodic analysis in the chapter. The illustrations of the wh- sentences consist of the
 90

stressed syllables being marked with  and the syllable bearing the accent being

highlighted.

(3) 1. /   /

2. /   i/

3. /  i/

4. /  :  /

5. /  i:   /

6. / i  /

The Q- words in all the six cases illustrated above get the strongest accent in
comparison to the neighboring words. One basic feature of pitch accent is that when a
pitch accent occurs on a word containing more than one syllable, the accent occurs on
the lexically stressed syllable of the word (Ladd 2008).

5.3.2 Nuclear Contours

The basic contour type for Magahi interrogative sentences is LHL. The utterances
start with a low tone (L i ) as in Fig.4.4.1- Fig.4.4.6. The nuclear contour is at the Q-
word in all the six cases and it consists of a high pitch accent (H*). Towards the right
boundary of the utterance the tone becomes low, hence represented by the low
boundary tone L%. the following figures 4.4.1- 4.4.6 illustrate the contour pattern of
the intonation of the wh- questions of Magahi. { } have been used to mark an IP

Fig. 5.4.1

{   }

Li → H*L- → L%
 91

Fig. 5.4.2

{    }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.3

{   }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.4

{     }

Li → H*L- → L%

Fig. 5.4.5

{     }

Li → H*L- → L%
 92

Fig. 5.4.6

{   }

Li → H*L- → L%

5.3.3 Rhythm and Intonation

Prosodic phrases () are supposed to be set off by audible boundaries: if  boundaries
were not audible, then much of the point of the chunking function would be lost. At
the same time they are frequently assumed to have an internal prosodic structure of
some sort, an intonational tune etc 46. (Ladd 2008) The details of the supposed internal
structure vary from analysis to analysis. The most important and the most complex
conflict of criteria arises from the twin assumptions that (a) the division of sentence
into prosodic phrases in some way reflects syntactic, semantic, or discourse
constituency, but that (b) prosodic structure is somehow fundamentally simpler than
syntactic structure. (Ladd 2008)

What determines the division of utterances into prosodic phrases is best explained by
Optimality Theory/ OT (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004). There are three
governing factors (a) prosodic constituents tend to have their right or left edges
coincide with the corresponding edges of specific morpho- syntactic constituents; (b)
many languages require the left or right edge of the focus information, to coincide
with some prosodic constituent; (c) the length of prosodic constituents tends to be less
variable than that of morpho- syntactic constituents which is due to size constraints on
prosodic phrases. These factors are captured in OT by interacting prosodic structure
constraints. (Gussenhoven 2004)

46
An essential feature of an intonational tune is that it consists of a nuclear accent and a phrase accent.
The phrase accent is also referred to as the post- nuclear accent. Both prenuclear and the post- nuclear
accents are secondary relatives of the primary nucleus and therefore they are obligatory: prenuclear
accents can be completely absent, but the post- nuclear phrase accent is always manifested
phonetically, either as a post- nuclear accent or a boundary tone. (Ladd 2008)
 93

This section (see 5.3.3) presents a phonological description of  in Magahi, an

intonation only language. The  and to a lower extent the prosodic word determines
the distribution of pitch accents, which arise from the interplay between clash
resolution and the desire to mark boundaries of s and prosodic words with pitch
accents.

Generally no variation is found in the distribution of pitch accent with respect to

variety or style of speech. The nuclear contour for Magahi interrogative sentences
(wh- question type) is LHL (see section 4.3.2) with a complex boundary tone LL i
similar to Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991a).

This kind of intonation system in the language is a complex interplay of pitch accents
and phrase accents and every  consists of at least one accented syllable. Fig 5.5.1 –
5.5.6 illustrate the phrasing pattern in the wh- questions of the language. The
intonation contour has a low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase may consist of
an L* or a an H* depending on the focus of the utterance. In all the six utterances
discussed earlier the pitch accent occurs at the Q- word only.

An interesting observation can be made at this point. The Q- word is the nucleus
attracting the maximum pitch and then as the utterance proceeds there is a sharp
decline in the pitch in all the six cases observed so far. This entails that there is a
nucleus in the utterance and then there is post- nuclear reduction (PNR) and
invariably it is the VP which is subjected to the phenomenon of PNR. The NP which
precedes the nucleus does not seem to get affected by the presence of the nucleus in
the succeeding position. This observation here can lead to the assumption that unlike
three XPs in a Magahi wh- question (see section 4.2.2) there are only two
phonological phrases. The question phrase [Q] seems to get aligned with the VP
leading to the formation of a single phonological phrase. Thus, a wh- question of
Magahi seems to have two phonological phrases where the first phonological phrase
aligns with the NP/ Subject and the second phonological phrase is the combination of
[Q] and [VP] and as already discussed earlier [Q] acts as the nucleus subjection the
VP to undergo PNR. The boundary tone for this phonological phrase is low (L%).
 94

5.3.4 The Prosodic branching

Now we can produce a detailed account of the branching of these interrogative

sentences based on the prosodic hierarchical model. The syllable is represented here
as (σ), the mora is represented as (𝜇𝜇), the foot as (F), the prosodic word as ( w ) and
the phonological phrase as (Ο).

(a) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ

    

Utt

(b) IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ

     
 95

Utt

(c) IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w

F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ

   

(d) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w w w w

F F F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

          

 96

(e) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

W w w w w w

F F F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

          

(f) ) Utt

IP

Ο Ο Ο

w w w w

F F F F

𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇 𝜇𝜇

σ σ σ σ σ

    

 97

5.3.5 The Metrical Grid Structure

The prosodic features discussed in the previous subsections of this chapter have
provided us with the foundation on which the structure of the metrical grid of the wh-
questions can be accounted for. This subsection is dedicated chiefly to this purpose.
Let us consider each of the six questions one by one and see as to how they are
manifested on the metrical grid.

(a) * IP
* * * Ο
* * * * Wd
   

(b) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * * Wd

   

(c) * IP

* * * Ο

* * * Wd

  

(d) * IP

* * * * Ο

* * * * * * wd

     

 98

(e) * IP
* * * * Ο

* * * * * * wd

     

(f) * IP
* * * Ο

* * * * wd

   

5.4 SUMMARY

This chapter has been an attempt to describe the rhythm or the phrasing pattern of the
wh- questions of Magahi. It has been established in this chapter that in the formation
of an interrogative sentence in the most unmarked case in Magahi, the Q- word gets
inserted between the NP and the VP and behave like an independent phrase. So,
syntactically the phrase structure of an interrogative sentence of Magahi is:

[NP] [Q] [VP].

It has also been established that the Q- words in all the six cases (the six wh-
questions) illustrated above get the strongest accent in comparison to the neighboring
words. The intonation contour has a low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase may
consist of an L* or a an H* depending on the focus of the utterance. In all the six
utterances discussed earlier the pitch accent occurs at the Q- word only.

An interesting observation has also been made in this chapter. The Q- word is the
nucleus attracting the maximum pitch and then as the utterance proceeds there is a
sharp decline in the pitch in all the six cases observed so far. This entails that there is
a nucleus in the utterance and then there is post- nuclear reduction (PNR) and
invariably it is the VP which is subjected to the phenomenon of PNR. The NP which
precedes the nucleus does not seem to get affected by the presence of the nucleus in
the succeeding position. This observation here can lead to the assumption that unlike
 99

three XPs in a Magahi wh- question (see section 5.2.2) there are only two
phonological phrases. The question phrase [Q] seems to get aligned with the VP
leading to the formation of a single phonological phrase. Thus, a wh- question of
Magahi seems to have two phonological phrases where the first phonological phrase
aligns with the NP/ Subject and the second phonological phrase is the combination of
[Q] and [VP] and as already discussed earlier [Q] acts as the nucleus subjection the
VP to undergo PNR. The boundary tone for this phonological phrase is low (L%).
Finally in the last section of the chapter (see section 5.3.4) the metrical grid structure
for the six wh- questions have been produced.
 100

CHAPTER 6

PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERFACE

6.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous chapters have dealt with the prosodic features of Magahi in relation to
wh- questions. Chapter 5 has established the structure of  as well as its
correspondence with XP (see 5.3.3). At this stage it becomes imperative to find out if
there is any kind of influence that one exercises on the other or the correspondence is
only on the surface level. As the name suggests, this chapter will deal with the
phenomena operating at the interface level.

This chapter is an effort to throw light on some of the morphophonemic as well as

phonosyntactic phenomena of the language. However, the major focus of the chapter
will be phonology- syntax interface in Magahi because of the absence of any previous
study in this area. The chapter also aims to provide data which may be used in the
study of prosodic typology. Because Magahi to date is poorly understood, it is hoped
that the data provided in the thesis will pave way for future work on prosodic theory
and the syntax- phonology interface.

Studies related to interface conditions have become the latest trend in the academic
circles. Not only interdisciplinary interface studies are attracting scholars but also the
intradisciplinary interface studies have caught the fancies of the researchers. The
researchers have taken distinguishing language features and examined the extent to
which they affect other levels of organization in the language. At the
morphophonemic level the segmental effects of stress render stress placement less
predictable (loss of syllables) and enhance the development of morphological
conditioning (Bybee et al. 1998).

The acoustic correlates of stress are one or a combination of the following features-
pitch, intensity and duration (Bybee et al. 1998). Studies on Greek compounding
based on stress placement (Nespor and Ralli, 1994) and new insights into
understanding the placement typology of infixes have necessitated a more constrained
view of the Phonology- Morphology interface (Yu, 2007).
 101

Similarly, Phonology- Syntax interface studies are also coming up with new and
insightful points of view. The pronunciation of a sentence is the function of the
surface phonological representation of the sentence and not merely the stringing of
individual words (Selkirk, 2003) 47. Studies have also been directed to specific
utterance types. Exploration of the Focus Intonation Pattern of Japanese reveals
interface conditions in relation to Q- phrases of the language. (Ishihara, 2003) this
chapter is divided into four sections. The first section has already been discussed
earlier and its main purpose was to introduce us to the basic concepts related to the
interface studies. Let us now proceed to the other sections.

6.2 PHONOLOGY- MORPHOLOGY INTERPLAY

The nature of interaction between phonology and morphology has gained renewed
interest in the phonological literature in recent years. The advent of Optimality
Theory (OT) 48 in particular has driven many researchers to rethink earlier
assumptions about the nature of Phonology- Morphology interface. For example, the
rejection of harmonic serialism 49 and strict adherence to only two levels of
representations (e.g., Hermans and vans Oostendorp 1999; Mc Carthy 1999); OT’s
emphasis on output well- formedness raises questions on the need for underlying
representations itself (e.g., Burzio 2005; Flemming 2005). Optimality theory adopts a
view of the prosody- morphology interface that is radically different from its rule-
based ancestors.

According to this view prosodic well- formedness requirements directly interact with
morphological requirements. Interaction takes the form of constraint domination , the
setting of priorities among conflicting constraints, which make general requirements
about output forms. This new idea of prosody- morphology interface is embedded in a
theory of language as a whole. This section of the chapter focuses on one such area of
debate, namely, the extent of influence that a phonological component may have on

47
The Prosodic Structure Hypothesis which draws evidence from domain convergence and domain
layering says that the right edge of a Major phrase (in Prosodic Heirarchy) coincides with a syntactic
phrase and the dge of a clause in the syntax typically coincides with the edge of an Intonation Phrase.
48
Mc Carthy, John J. (Ed.) (2004) Optimality Theory in Phonology: A reader.UK : Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
49
Prince and Smolensky entertain a serial architecture for OT known as harmonic serialism. The idea is
that Gen Eval iterates sending the output of Eval back to Gen as the new input. This loop continues till
the derivation converges. In the implementation of Harmonic Serialism that Prince and Smolensky
consider, each iteration of Gen is limited to making a single change in the input (Mc Carthy; 2000).
 102

morphology and vice versa with respect to word formation processes and wh-
questions in Magahi. But before proceeding with this it is imperative that we discuss
some works in this area in brief.

It has been studied that the shape of bound morphemes is prosodically determined
(Kaisse; 2005). Morphological phenomena like infixation have been heralded as the
poster child of the intense interaction between phonology and morphology, as
conceptualized in OT- Prosodic Morphology. However, the typological evidence does
not support this 50 (Yu; 2007). The understanding of the placement typology of infixes
necessitates a more constrained view of the Phonology- Morphology interface.
Synchronically, morphological objects may target phonological entities in
subcategorization. Phonological factors may determine the selection of allomorphs
but may never influence the satisfaction of their respective subcategorization
restriction directly.

Some linguists have termed the relation between phonology and morphology as
“complex” (Kaisse; 2005:25). 51 Morphology, infact, appears to be ranked higher than
phonology because in cases of English and Dutch affixation patterns the outputs of
the morphological processes are less optimal than the phonological processes (Booij;
2003). In the succeeding paragraphs (see 5.2.1 and 5.2.2) we will examine word
formation process, namely, compounding (both derivational and inflectional) to see as
to what kind of relationship exists between phonological processes and morphological
processes. Word formation is a universal language feature. Therefore, phonology-
morphology interplay can best be explained by using some of the processes of word
formation. Stress assignment plays a major role in determining the interface
conditions between phonology and morphology. Similar kind of work has been done
to explain Greek compounding in relation to stress placement (Nespor & Ralli; 1996).
52

50
The evidences have been drawn from the analyses of the languages of Muskogean family (Haas;
1977 & Martin and Munro; 2005) as well as Lepcha of Sino- Tibetan Language family (Blevins and
Garrett; 1998, 2005).
51
The basic claim by Kaisse is that “the morphological make-up of a word has considerable influence
on its pronunciation”.
52
It has been claimed that two types of compounds are distinguished on the basis of the stressing
procedure a) [stem+ stem] compounds, submitted to the application of antepenultimate stress rule and
b) [stem+word] and [word+ word] compounds governed by stress preservation.
 103

6.2.1 Compounding

Morphologically, a compound word in Magahi is formed according to one of the

following processes:

a) [word + word] compounding,

b) [stem + word]/ [word + stem] compounding and
c) [stem + stem] compounding.
Let us now look at the following data illustrated in Fig. 5.1 (a)- (c) to know the
examples of each type. The syllables bearing the primary stress have been
marked ( ) .

5.1 a) i) // < // //

(headache) (head) (pain)

ii) // < // //

(Seat of Goddess Durga) (Goddess Durga) (place)

iii) // < // //

(nonvegetarian food) (mutton) (fish)

iv) / / < // //

(family) (hair) (child)

v) // < // //

(first- aid) (ointment) (bandage)

. 5.1 b) vi) // < // //

(festival of Sun in the month of Caitra) (Chaitra month) (festival of

Sun)
vii) // < // //

(grand son-in-law maternal) (granddaughter maternal) (son- in-law)

viii) // < // //

(ablution) (water) (to touch)

 104

ix) // < // //

(incense stick) (smoke) (lamp)

x) // < // //

(offerings to elders during (leg) (to

worship)
religious rituals)

5.1 c) xi) // < // //

(worship of Banyan tree) (Banyan tree) (to

worship)
xii ) // < // //

(stingy) (skin) (to lick)

xiii) // < // //

(pickpocket) (knot) (to cut)

xiv) // < // //

(marriage ritual) (soil) (to dig)

xv) // < //

//

(marriage ritual) (ghee) (to

pour)

6.2.2 Discussion

The main motivation to distinguish [stem + stem] compounds from [stem + word] or
[word + stem ] compounds comes from inflection. The inflectional endings of items
belonging to the [stem + stem] compounds do not generally have the same ending
when occurring in isolation.

The Fig. 5.1 (a) (i to v) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [word +
word] combination. The primary stresses ( ) have already been marked at their

respective place of occurrence for each word. Let us try to find out if there is any
overlapping pattern between the morphological structuring and the placement of stress
 105

in the compounds. We can see that the primary stresses occurring in the constituent
words have been retained in the compound. As in (a) i) the primary stress for the
constituent words // and // fall on the first syllables respectively and

they are retained on the same syllables in the compound //. Similarly,

in ii) the primary stress is located on the first syllable of the first constituent / /

and on the second syllable of the second constituent //. The stress positions

are retained in the resultant compound //. Likewise the stress

placement for //, // and // (iii to v) follow

similar pattern. In fact, it can be assumed that the location of stress follows from the
principle of stress preservation. (Burzio, 1994)

The Fig. 5.1(b) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [stem + word]
combination (vi to ix) and [word + stem] combination (x). the case is slightly different
here. In (i) it can be seen that the stem / / and the word // have primary

stresses in their respective initial syllables but in the resultant compound

// the stress on the stem is dropped. Similarly, in vii) the primary stress

lies on the first syllable of the stem // and last syllable in the word //. In

the compound // the primary stress of the stem is dropped while that of

the word is retained. Likewise, /the compounding processes for // and

// can be understood. But for // this explanation does not

suffice. Here, the primary stress on // is dropped despite it being a word and the

primary stress for // is retained even though it is a stem. The explanation for this

cannot be limited to the level of word and stem combinations. We will deal with this a
little later in the chapter.

The Fig. 5.1 (c) gives us the examples for compounds formed due to [stem + stem]
combination (xi to xv). Let us look at the example (xi). The compound // is

a combination of two stems // and // where both have primary stresses in

isolation. However, in // the primary stress on the first stem is dropped and

that on the second stem is retained. Similarly, in the case of // the primary
 106

stress occurs only on the second stem // while that of the first stem / / is

dropped. Likewise, the stress placement for //, // and

// (xiii to xv) follow similar pattern.

This entire analysis can also be viewed in a different light altogether. Fig. 5.1(a)
consists of the compounds whose constituent words belong to the noun class and they
retain their primary stresses in the resulting compounds. Fig. 5.1(b) consists of
compounds whose constituent stems /-/, /-/, /-/, /-/ and //

are adjectival in nature 53 and the constituent words belong to the noun class (vi to x).
The primary stresses of the adjectival stems are dropped while those on the nouns are
retained. This explains as to why in // the primary stress on // is

dropped in the compound even when it is a word in itself while primary stress is
retained in the stem /p/.

Fig. 5.1(c) consists of compounds whose both constituents are stems. But the initial
stems of all the compounds (xi to xv) //, //, //,

// and // are adjectival in nature while the succeeding constituents

belong to the verb class. The primary stress on the adjectival stem is dropped and that
on the verb stem is retained in this type of compounding.

Therefore, it will not be incorrect to infer that the order of preference for the retention
of primary stress in compounding is noun > verb > adjective. In a compound
formation consisting of the combination of these, the primary stress of preceding one
is chosen over the ones succeeding it.

6.3 PHONOLOGY- SYNTAX INTERPLAY

It has always been a matter of great debate as to which of the two: phonology or
syntax acquire a more basic role in the structuring of discourse in a language.
Language is a summation of various domains. The main aim of this section of the
chapter is to look into phonology- syntax interplay with respect to Magahi and to also

53
The root words for these are: /-/ < // (the month of Chaitra according to the indu
calendar); /-/ < // (maternal granddaughter); /-/ < /α/ (water); /-/ < /α/
(smoke) and /-/ < // (leg). These root words belong to the noun class.
 107

see if prosody and syntax have any kind of complementary roles with regards to each
other 54.

6.3.1 Prosodic Structure Formation

One of the most read theories in the area of prosodic structuring and syntactic
alignment is Match Theory (Selkirk 2009b, 2011). It is a prosodic constituency that
proposes that prosodic constituency relates to syntactic constituency under pressure
from violable syntax- prosody correspondence constraints. These constraints call for a
one- to- one correspondence between syntactic and phonological constituents in the
grammar.

Correspondence in Match Theory is proposed as an extension of Correspondence

Theory as developed for the OT framework by McCarthy and Prince (1995, 1999),
where it is used to established relations between linguistic objects. Match Theory is a
particular proposal for how syntactic and prosodic constituencies are related to one
another, namely, that a correspondence relation exists between constituency in the
syntactic component and the prosodic constituency in the phonological component.
Syntax- prosody match constraints may be summarized as in Fig 5.2(a).

Fig. 5.2 (a) Syntax- prosody Match Constraints

Match-Clause: Syntactic clause → Intonational phrase (IP)

Match-Phrase: Syntactic phrase → Phonological phrase ()

Match-Word: Syntactic word → Prosodic Word

Like the edge- based theory proposed in Selkirk (1986, 1995), Match Theory appeals
to the idea that the edges of syntactic and prosodic constituents must be aligned. The
previous chapters (see 3.3.2 and 4.3.3) have already established the validity of the
match Theory in Magahi. The phonological phrases are derived from a right- edge
based parameter setting an alignment analysis (see 4.3.3) of which has already been
provided. This analysis is consistent with the distribution of pitch accents and a right-
edged phrase accent, both indicators of the right edge of a prosodic word, as reported

54
The structural alignment of  and XP have already been established in the section 4.3.3 and the rules
have also been arrived at for this correspondence. The right edge of every iP of an IP aligns with the
right edge of an XP.
 108

in Kissenberth (2005). Each IP of a wh- question utterance ends with a low boundary
tone marking its right edge which corresponds to the right edge of the clause. The
Syntax- prosody mapping for Magahi (wh- questions) can be presented as:

Fig. 5.2 (b) XP  xp

x YP x  yp

y z y z

In the syntactic structure, the syntactic node XP exhaustively dominates the set
terminal nodes {x, y and z} and YP exhaustively dominates {y and z}. Similarly, the
prosodic node  dominates the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and  yp exhaustively
dominates the set terminal nodes {y and z}. In other words, there is a perfect match
between the sets of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by syntactic nodes in the
syntactic representation, on the one hand, and the sets of the exponents of these
terminal nodes dominated by  in the phonological representation, on the other. 55
After establishing this kind of correspondence the next question that arises in mind is
whether this kind of perfect alignment can be flouted in any case. This will be
answered by discussing the information structure cues of a language.

6.3.2 Prosody and Information Structuring

Prosody is an integral component of any language and production depends critically

on the information- structuring cues provided by it. The role of prosody in
comprehension and production becomes important especially for languages involving
relatively free word- order such as Hindi, German and also Magahi. The flexibility of
word- order increases the number of options available for expressing information
structure significantly complicating the means by which the incoming signal is
decoded. Any extra- syntactic cue, such as prosody, would a priori be expected to
provide an important cue for facilitating comprehension. (Fery 2007)

55
Similar work has been done in Elfner (2012) in which the syntax- prosody mapping has been done
for Irish declarative sentences.
 109

European languages such as English and German (Gussenhoven 2008, Ladd 1996,
Selkirk 2007, Truckenbrodt 1995) have received a great deal of attention concerning
the prosodic marking of information structure. However, not much is known about the
Indian languages especially the lesser known languages like Magahi.

6.3.2.1 Focus and Prosodic Phrasing

European languages such as English and German (eg. Gussenhoven 2008, Ladd 1996,
Selkirk 2007, Truckenbrodt 1995) have received a great deal of attention concerning
the prosodic marking of information structure. However, not much is known about the
lesser known languages like Magahi in this respect. In an attempt to fill this gap, this
section discusses the syntax- phonology interface.

Chapter 5 (see 5.3.3) has established that an IP in a wh- sentence consists of an iP and
the right edge of the iP coincides with the right edge of the focalized constituent
which is preverbal. In this respect, Magahi and Hindi appear to be similar. In Hindi, a
focused constituent typically occupies the immediately preverbal position, and wh-
markers also tend to occur preverbally. (Kidwai 2000)

So, “focus” in Magahi is not morphologically marked. Rather, those constituents are
“focused” which are informationally more important than other backgrounded facts of
the same sentence. This “focus” determines the prosodic phrasing (p- phrasing) of the
utterance as clear from the section 4.3.3.

It will not be wrong to state here that Magahi has two prosodic levels below the IP:
the foot (see 4.3.2) and a higher prosodic level the iP (see 4.3.3). This latter level of
phrasing separates a focused element from the rest of the phrase. Thus, focus has a
phrasing effect. The same effect of focus has also been observed in the closely related
languages like Hindi (Moore 1953, 68, 75) and Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991).
Also, an IP contains at least one iP and furthermore, each iP contains at least one foot
indicated by a rising pitch accent. The Graphs 5/1- 5/6 show the pitch analysis of the
wh- questions (see Appendix 6). These graphs illustrate the high f0 (pitch) value for
the focused constituent and the reduced f0 value for the constituents following it.
(This is similar to PFR reported in Ishihara 2000). Focus has been studied as being the
direct perceptual correlate of pitch accent which in itself can be calculated
experimentally by calculating prominence or the relative duration of utterance.
 110

Several studies have been done in this area. One basic feature of pitch accents that has
been investigated is that when a pitch accent occurs on a word containing more than
one syllable, the accent occurs on the lexically stressed syllable of the word. (Ladd
2008) However, sentence stress cannot always be explained so straightforwardly.
Narrow Focus is on a single word and Broad Focus is on a larger constituent.
Bolinger (1972) argued that words- any word in any utterance- can be focused or
highlighted to signal newness, contrast, or some other special informativeness, and
that focused words are marked by pitch accents. The link between focus and sentence
stress is ultimately mediated by a hierarchical prosodic structure. Ladd (2008) says
that it is not pitch accent per se, but relative metrical strength that is essential signal of
focus. Also, sentence stress involves a syntagmatic relation between two constituents.

The main point is that some sort of metrical structure is at the heart of sentence
prosody, and that pitch accents are essentially only one manifestation of the structure.
Further justification for a metrical account of sentence stress comes from deaccenting.
(Ladd 2006, Jun 2006) Deaccenting is fundamentally a matter of metrical structure,
and only secondarily of pitch accent. Deaccenting is reversal of relative strength in
metrical tree. When one word is deaccented for pragmatic reasons, another word must
be accented because of the inherently relational or syntagmatic nature of prominence.

Prominence and focus go hand in hand. If one gets to know as to where the
prominence is being marked in a language the knowledge about focus becomes clear.
A contemporary approach regarding the calculation of prominence has been provided
by Ishihara(2000) which is called as Focus- Intonation Pattern (FIP).

The two basic features that underline this phenomenon are:

• There is an f0 (fundamental frequency) 56 rising of the constituent bearing the

focus
• The constituents immediately following the focused element gets reduced in f0
value.

The former condition can be referred to as (Prosodic) focalization and the latter one
can be referred to as the post-focus reduction (PFR). Similar studies have been done

56
It is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In case of human speech, f0 is the
fundamental frequency at which human vocal cords vibrate during the production of speech sounds.
 111

for Hindi and specifically for Hindi declarative sentences it has been found that the
focused constituents show greater pitch excursion and longer duration and that post –
focal material undergoes prosodic compression (Moore 1965, Harnsberger 1994,
Harnsberger and Judge 1996).

Focused words have expanded pitch range, post focus words have lowered/
compressed pitch range (similar to FIP; Ishihara 2000) and the pre-focus and the final
focus have neutral pitch range.

Here, all the six questions will be analyzed. All the six questions will henceforth be
referred to as U1- 6. All the six respective spectrograms will be followed by the
tabulation (Table 4/5) of the values of P- focalized element and the elements
undergoing PFR.

GRAPH 6/1 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U1)

a) /(o )   /recorded data\informant 2

2P. Sg.GEN wh- name AUX.

What is your name? (gloss)

In the above graph the f0 peaks can be observed at four places corresponding to
/o/, //, // and //. The highest peak can be observed at // which is

the focus and the subsequent auxiliary constituent /h/ has reduced f0 value

corresponding to the post- focus reduction.

 112

GRAPH 6/2 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U2)

(b) /()   i/recorded data\informant 4

2P. Sg Wh stay AUX.
Where do you stay? (gloss)

In this graph there are four f0 peaks. These four peaks correspond to //, /k/,
// and /i/ respectively. The unit bearing the maximum pitch as well as focus is /
k/, and the following constituent /i/ has lower pitch or f0 value.

GRAPH 6/3 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U3)

(c) /()  i/recorded data\informant 2

2P. Sg Wh AUX.
How are you? (gloss)

The graph shows three f0 peaks corresponding to //, // and //. There the

contour for the second element // is the highest followed by the contour for

// which undergoes PFR.

 113

GRAPH 6/4 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U4)

(d) /()     i/recorded

data\informant 4
2P. Sg. Wh Home go stay AUX.
When are you going home? (gloss)

In Graph 6/4 the maximum pitch is realized at // which has the highest pitch

contour as can be seen in the spectrogram. The following elements see a decline in the
f0 value as can be seen in the downward slope of the pitch contour as the utterance
culminates.

GRAPH 6/5 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U5)

(e) / ii    i/recorded

data\informant 4
2P. Sg Delhi Wh go stay AUX.
Why are you going to Delhi? (gloss)
 114

The maximum pitch and therefore the f0 value is borne by the constituent //

which, as a result, gets focalized. The subsequent constituents get lowered in pitch
value showing faithfulness to the concept of PFR.

GRAPH 6/6 (Pitch contour of the constituent elements of U6)

(f) /o i  /recorded data\informant 6

2P. Sg.GEN brother Wh AUX.
Who is your brother?

In Graph 6/6 the pitch contour is the highest at the end for //. As there are no

more constituents that follow so any instance of PFR is absent.

6.3.2.2 Discussion

The graphs (Graph 5/1- 5/6) have been analyzed keeping in mind the concept of p-
focalization and PFR. All the utterances (U1- 6) abide by the theory of FIP. The
maximum or the highest pitch contour is present on the q- word then the pitch
declines for the following elements. The interesting thing to be noted here is that
unlike most other languages the wh- questions of Magahi do not end with a rising
intonation. The questions show a pitch contour that slopes downward towards the end.
Therefore, the presence of PFR in every utterance becomes obligatory. The following
table lists the elements that undergo p- focalization and PFR in the utterances (U1- 6).
 115

TABLE 6/1 (The elements undergoing p- focalization and PFR)

Utterance (U) Number Q- word p- focalized element PFR

1   

2   

3   

4    

5    

6   

It can be seen in the table that the q word is focused (except in the cases of U3 and
U6) and the other succeeding elements experience a reduction in the pitch or
f0. It can well be inferred here that the unmarked prosodic condition for
Magahi wh- questions is that they have a falling intonation pattern. This
makes the existence of PFR obligatory. The q- word itself gets focalized and
the final element undergoes PFR thus abiding by the unmarked condition for
intonation.

6.3.2.3 Relative Prominence and “focus” in Magahi wh- questions: Duration

Analysis

Focus is marked by relative prominence. (Selkirk 2002, Rump & Collier 1996) It
depends on pitch movement, duration and loudness. With an increase in the
prominence of focus there is a decrease in the prominence of the post- focal material.
Post- focal pitch movements can be reduced rather than being completely as
prominence gradient is fundamentally flattened. All syllables which do not bear a
pitch accent are not equally weak. Some syllables can be prominent comparing to
neighboring weaker syllables, but still less prominent than a syllable bearing a pitch
accent. Also, not all pitch accented syllables are equally prominent either. The
acoustic correlates that mark prominences and groupings (phrasings) are:

• f0 pattern (related to the perceived pitch pattern) and

• Relative duration.

The analysis of “focus” in relation to pitch has already been done earlier (see 6.3.2.1).
In this sub- section let us analyze focus on the basis of relative prominence
 116

considering relative duration as the fundamental acoustic cue. The following tables
provide the duration of each of the constituents (word level) of all the six wh-
questions. The data from five native speakers (henceforth referred to as I, II, III, IV
&V) have been used. The five speakers consist of four males and one female. The
informants for this section have selected on the basis of sampling and special attention
has been given to include informants of the same age- group. Difference in age can
result in variations in the duration of utterance which may affect the findings
adversely.

Since the primary focus here is to find out relative prominence of constituents within
an utterance it becomes important to include those informants whose data are
conducive to this aspect of the research. The investigation of relative prominence is
based on the calculation of relative duration of each of the uttered constituent. The
time consumed while uttering every single constituent word of the utterance has been
recorded. This then leads to the calculation of the mean duration for each of the
individual constituent words of the utterances. The utterances have been labeled (U1-
6) for each of the interrogative questions respectively.

a) Utterance 1 (U1)= [/o   /]

Each of the four constituents of (U1) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the ease
of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence
in case of the first utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the
utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented
underneath in a matrix of 4*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)
taken to complete U1 by each of the five informants respectively and let ‘σ’ be the
mean duration 57 of the utterance of each word of U1.

TABLE 6/2 (Mean duration ‘σ’ of each word of U1 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

o(1) 0.157 0.214 0.212 0.176 0.167 0.185

 (3) 0.234 0.246 0.243 0.249 0.212 0.237

57
Mean duration (σ) has been calculated by summing up the durations of one word when uttered by all
the speakers under consideration and then dividing the result by 5 as five speakers are being considered
here.
 117

 (2) 0.205 0.284 0.216 0.212 0.192 0.221

 (4) 0.142 0.205 0.148 0.191 0.184 0.174

Total 0.739 0.949 0.819 0.828 0.755

GRAPH 6/7 (Mean duration of each word of U1 for native speakers I to V)

Mean Durations of (1-4) of U1

0.237
0.25 0.221
0.185 0.174
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1 2 3 4

The table (6/2) and the graph (6/7) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (3) of U1 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical
representation is for individual words across five speakers. At this stage we know
that all the five speakers have taken maximum duration in the utterance of the third
constituent. Now we need to know the duration of each of the four constituents in
relation to each other within a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/1 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U1)

Relative duration for U1

1
0.174 0.185 2
0.247 0.221 3
4

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /o/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for //

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for // and

4 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd4) for //.

 118

The quarter representing rd3 has the largest area which confirms the relative
prominence of the third constituent over the others. Let us now proceed with the
analysis of the relative prominence of the second interrogative question.

b) Utterance 2 (U2) = /   i/

Each of the four constituents of (U2) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the
ease of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative
prominence in case of the second utterance includes the calculation of the duration
taken for the utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has
been presented underneath in a matrix of 4*5.

Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms) taken to complete the utterance
by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/3 (Mean duration of each word of U2 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

 (1) 0.064 0.058 0.062 0.141 0.118 0.088

(2) 0.280 0.424 0.382 0.349 0.193 0.325

 (3) 0.264 0.315 0.253 0.278 0.242 0.274

 (4) 0.145 0.197 0.115 0.165 0.118 0.148

Total 0.753 0.994 0.812 0.933 0.671

GRAPH 6/8 (Mean duration of each word of U2 for native speakers I to V)

0.35 0.325
0.3 0.274
0.25
0.2
0.148
0.15
0.088
0.1
0.05
0
1 2 3 4
 119

The table (6/3) and the graph (6/8) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (2) of U2 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need
to know the duration of each of the four constituents in relation to each other within a
sentence. The following chart explains this: CHART 6/2 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U2)

Relative duration of U2
0.088
1
0.148
2

0.274 0.325 3
4

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /u/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for //

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for // and

4 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd4) for /i/.

The quarter representing rd2 has the largest which confirms the relative prominence
of the second constituent over the others.

c) Utterance (U3) = /  i/

Let us now proceed with the analysis of the third interrogative sentence.

Each of the three constituents of (U3) has been labeled 1 to 3 respectively for the ease
of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence
in case of the third utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the
utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented
underneath in a matrix of 3*5.

Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms) taken to complete the utterance
by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/4 (Mean duration of each word of U3 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

 (1) 0.099 0.159 0.068 0.079 0.087 0.098
 120

(2) 0.303 0.492 0.535 0.443 0.327 0.420

 (3) 0.257 0.349 0.181 0.189 0.207 0.236

Total 0.753 0.994 0.812 0.933 0.671

GRAPH 6/9 (Mean duration of each word of U3 for native speakers I to V)

0.5
0.42
0.4

0.3 0.236
0.2
0.098
0.1

0
1 2 3

The table (6/4) and the graph (6/9) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (2) of U3 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need
to know the duration of each of the three constituents in relation to each other within
a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/3 (Relative duration of 1-3 of U3)

Relative duration of U3

0.098
0.236 1
2
3
0.42

Where, 1 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd1) for /u/

2 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd2) for // and

3 is the quarter for the relative duration (rd3) for /i/.

 121

The quarter representing rd2 has the largest area which confirms the relative
prominence of the second constituent over the others. The same calculations will be
done for the fourth interrogative sentence. The fourth wh- question is

d) Utterance 4 (U4) = /     i/

Each of the six constituents of (U4) has been labeled 1 to 6 respectively for the ease
of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence
in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the
utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented
underneath in a matrix of 6*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)
taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/5 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

 (1) 0.092 0.970 0.128 0.140 0.148 0.295

(3) 0.231 0.487 0.351 0.359 0.386 0.362

 (2) 0.219 0.294 0.243 0.304 0.243 0.260

 (4) 0.104 0.188 0.185 0.220 0.130 0.165

(5) 0.208 0.323 0.228 0.284 0.238 0.256

 (6) 0.129 0.308 0.162 0.240 0.222 0.212

Total 0.983 2.570 1.297 1.547 1.367

GRAPH 6/10 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for native speakers I to V)

0.4 0.362
0.35 0.295
0.3 0.26 0.251
0.25 0.212
0.2 0.165
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1 2 3 4 5 6

The table (6/5) and the graph (6/10) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (3) of U4 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. Now we need
 122

to know the duration of each of the six constituents in relation to each other within a
sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/4 (Relative duration of 1-6 of U4)

Relative duration of U4

1
0.212 0.295 2
3
0.256
0.26 4
5
0.165 0.362
6

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent. The same calculations
will be done for the fifth interrogative sentence. The fifth wh- question is

e) Utterance 5 (U5) = / ii    i/

Each of the six constituents of (U5) has been labeled 1 to 6 respectively for the ease
of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence
in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the
utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented
underneath in a matrix of 6*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)
taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 5/6 (Mean duration of each word of U5 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

 (1) 0.084 0.090 0.066 0.110 0.090 0.088

(3) 0.326 0.535 0.421 0.456 0.471 0.441

 (2) 0.188 0.279 0.324 0.338 0.291 0.284

 (4) 0.163 0.193 0.166 0.201 0.120 0.168

(5) 0.247 0.313 0.270 0.284 0.301 0.283

 (6) 0.107 0.236 0.162 0.201 0.301 0.194

Total 1.115 1.646 1.409 1.590 1.537

 123

GRAPH 6/11 (Mean duration of each word of U4 for native speakers I to V)

0.5 0.441
0.4
0.284 0.283
0.3
0.168 0.194
0.2
0.088
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6

The table (6/6) and the graph (6/11) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (3) of U5 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical
representation is for individual words across five speakers. At this stage we know
that all the five speakers have taken maximum duration in the utterance of the third
constituent. Now we need to know the duration of each of the four constituents in
relation to each other within a sentence. The following chart explains this:

CHART 6/5 (Relative duration of 1-6 of U5)

Relative duration of U5

0.088
0.194
1
0.284 2

0.283 3
4
5
0.168 0.441 6

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent. The same calculations
will be done for the sixth interrogative sentence. The sixth wh- question is
 124

f) Utterance 6 (U6) = /o i  /

Each of the four constituents of (U6) has been labeled 1 to 4 respectively for the ease
of tabular and graphical representations. The investigation of the relative prominence
in case of the fourth utterance includes the calculation of the duration taken for the
utterance of each of the constituent for the five informants which has been presented
underneath in a matrix of 4*5. Let dI, dII, dIII, dIV and dV be the durations (in ms)
taken to complete the utterance by each of the five informants respectively.

TABLE 6/7 (Mean duration of each word of U6 for five native speakers I to V)

dI dII dIII dIV dV (σ) in ms

 (1) 0.157 0.207 0.151 0.207 0.270 0.198

 (2) 0.193 0.241 0.243 0.318 0.291 0.257

 (3) 0.224 0.361 0.259 0.580 0.339 0.352

 (4) 0.147 0.265 0.151 0.290 0.212 0.213

Total 0.721 1.074 0.804 1.395 1.112

GRAPH 6/12 (Mean duration of each word of U6 for native speakers I to V)

0.4 0.352
0.35
0.3 0.257
0.25 0.198 0.213
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1 2 3 4

The table (6/7) and the graph (6/12) show that the mean duration of the constituent
number (3) of U6 is the maximum compared to all other constituents. This graphical
representation is for individual words across five speakers. Let us now know the
duration of each of the four constituents in relation to each other within a sentence.
The following chart explains this:
 125

CHART 6/6 (Relative duration of 1-4 of U6)

Relative Duration of U6

0.198 1
0.213
2

0.257 3
0.352
4

Here, (rd3) occupies the maximum area.

This confirms the relative prominence of the third constituent.

6.3.2.4 Discussion

Relative prominence of a constituent compared to other constituents in the utterance

clearly indicates that it has been “focused” in the utterance. The analysis in 5.3.2.3
tries to find out these “focused” constituents. This has been done by the calculation of
the relative durations and the mean durations of each of the constituents of all the six
wh- questions. It can be seen that the mean durations of the constituent words
immediately following the q- word is the maximum (Table 5/2 – 5/7 & Graph 5/7 to
5/12). Similarly, the relative duration of the same constituents, that is, the ones that
immediately follow the q- word is the maximum compared to the neighbouring
constituents taken syntagmatically. These findings are in consonance with the
findings of the sub- section 5.3.2.1. At this stage we now know that in Magahi wh-
questions, the most “focused” constituent is the one that immediately follows the q-
word and the rest of the constituents following the “focused” constituent undergo PFR
or reduction in pitch.

6.4 CONCLUSION
Interface studies have always been very intriguing. This chapter has been an attempt
in explaining some language phenomena that occur at the morphophonemic and the
phonosyntactic levels with reference to Magahi. This kind of study is a humble
attempt in reestablishing claims that language structuring is a game of complex
interplay of its various domains: phonological, morphological, syntactic and so on.
 126

Section 6.2 deals with phonology- morphology interface studies focusing on

compounding as a word- formation process (see 6.2.1). When two lexical words come
together in forming a compound, the size of the prosodic word changes which is the
domain of stress assignment. This results in the reassignment of stress on the
constituents of the compound thus making it different compared to its constituent
words when they occur in isolation (see 6.2.2).

As for phonology- syntax interface (see 6.3), the chapter is an attempt in finding a
correspondence between a syntactic phrase and a phonological phrase using the
Match Theory (Selkirk 2009b, 2011). After the establishment of this correspondence
relation (Fig. 5.1- 5.2) the chapter attempts to establish a relation between the various
information cues of the language between focus and pitch and between focus and
relative prominence. The focused constituent has the highest f0 (pitch) (see 6.3.2.1)
and is the most prominent of all the constituents in the entire utterance owing to the
maximum relative duration (6.3.2.3).

Thus, there is not just a relation between the syntactic and the phonological phrasing
patterns but there is also a relation in the syntactic and the phonological ways in
which a language conveys information.
 127

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

As an aid to the reader, this final chapter of the thesis restates the research problem
and reviews the findings of the study. The major sections of this chapter summarize
the results and discuss their implications. In Chapter 1 we were introduced to the brief
history of Magahi- a language spoken essentially in Bihar. According to the 2011
census conducted by the Govt. of India around 1.67% of the total population was
found to speak Magahi. This figure might seem small but in a country like India with
a population of more than 1 billion this percentage translated to roughly 20,362,000
speakers.

The literary history of the language might date back to the eighth century A.D.
(Aryani 1976, Pandeya 1982, Singh 1982) but the language appeared to be lagging
behind a great deal when it came to its linguistic description. The situation seemed to
become even grimmer when its speakers failed to identify themselves as its native
speakers. This seemed to happen because of the great deal of cultural affinity with the
larger Hindi group in various ways. In such a case they identified their native
language as Hindi because of which the correct number of people speaking the
language became difficult to ascertain.

The main aim of this research was to provide a phonological description of the
language, that is, to provide the description of the prosodic system of this language.
This required the study of the segmental sounds of the language and account for its
various allophonic processes. The study also necessitated the classification of the
segmental sounds on the basis the distinctive features (Gussenhoven and Jacobs
1998).

The next part of the phonological description included an account of word stress in
Magahi which included the analysis of the various types of underlying phonological
phenomena that determine stress assignment in the language. In fulfillment of the aim
of the thesis, the study was taken further to the level of phrasing patter in the
language. This included an account of the rhythm and intonation of the language with
special reference to the wh- questions. This extent of description with respect to
segmental sounds, syllable structure, stress assignment pattern and the patterns of
 128

phonological phrasing and intonation completely sufficed the main aim of the
research that was undertaken but stopping at this juncture would have left us groping
for answers for some other questions which relate to the interface studies. Also, the
examination of some of the processes at the interface of phonology and morphology
as well as phonology and syntax brought a sense of completeness to the research.

As explained in Chapter 1 the research here was the description of Magahi prosody
with special emphasis on stress and rhythm. As a phonological study, this research
primarily used a synthesis of qualitative as well as quantitative perspectives. The
research relied chiefly on the data obtained from twelve native speakers of varying
age groups and it included both males and females in order to have an inclusive study.
The data was collected through questionnaire method as well as the observation
method participating silently in the conversations.

For the description of segmental sounds and word stress the need was to have words
as part of the data. The informants were provided the Basic Word Lists (Abbi 2001)
and the Magahi equivalents were noted for further analyses. The informants were
asked various questions related to the basic word structure and sentence construction
of the language. The interaction was framed in such a manner that the data collected
consisted of a lot of interrogative sentences. This constituted the primary source of
data for my research. The secondary sources for my research consisted of the readings
from various books on related topics.

For a systematic research, the data obtained through the primary and the secondary
sources needed to be sorted out through sampling. Because of the immense size of the
population (by ‘population’ here, I mean the collection of entities or the objects of
investigation) it proved useful to go for some kind of sampling. For this reason I used
stratified random sampling which provided me with sub-samples for various types of
analyses.

The analysis of the samples resulted in useful inferences which were used to account
for: (a) the segmental sounds (consonantal and vocalic both); (b) the patterns of stress
assignment; (c) the phonological phrasing patters operative in the language and (d) the
processes occurring at the interface level especially between phonology- morphology
and phonology- syntax interface.
 129

As already stated earlier, my research comprised of qualitative as well as quantitative

approach. The recorded data was analyzed acoustically with the help of various
softwares like Wavesurfer 18 and PRAAT. Tones and Break Indices or ToBI (Jun
2006, Ladd 2008) were used to describe phonological patterning in the wh- questions.
These tools have immensely helped to decipher the existing rhythmic patterns of the
language. Various types of graphs, charts and tables were used throughout the study
to make the presentation organized, scientific and easily comprehensible.

Throughout the entire period of the research the focus was on the phonological
properties which could be used in the description of the prosody of the language. In
Chapter 3 we saw that the analysis of the segmental sounds of Magahi was presented.
The description of phonemes (see 3.2.1) included the descriptions of consonants as
well as vowels. As for the consonants we noted that eight phonemic consonants were
found to exist in the language (see Chart 3/1). The phonemic nature of the consonants
was adequately supported by the existence of the minimal and the sub- minimal pairs
for every similar pair of consonants word-medially, word-initially and word-finally.
We also observed that apart from the +/- binary distinction with regards to voicing,
binary distinction with regards to aspiration for bilabial, dental, retroflex, affricate and
velar consonants existed as well.

The analysis of the consonantal sound segments with respect to the three word
positions revealed that the consonants were not equally distributed in this respect. //

and // did not seem to occur word-initially. We also saw that // and // did not

occur word-medially and //, //, // and // did not occur word-finally. On the basis

of these observations we arrived at some inferences regarding the phonotactic

generalizations of these sounds. The consonant // never seemed to follow another

consonant immediately. The vowel // always existed between two consonants. We

also noted that the language does not have any phonological construction which
permitted the construction of a word having a nasal vowel as its nucleus and // and

// as the consonant in the coda position. // and // did not seem to occur word-

initially and these places were taken up by // and //.

 130

We also observed the process of gemination in Magahi especially in two instances: (a)
when a reflexive pronoun transformed into its genitive form and (b) when words of
verb class transformed into an adjectival class word by the addition of the suffix /-
/. Contrarily, degemination was also found to exist in the language in instances

where the consonant clusters were broken during the formation of diminutive forms of
the noun class verbs.

In section 3.2.1.2 we read the discussion on the vowels of Magahi. It was noted that
Magahi has lost the phonemic contrast of length in the high vowels, both front and //

and // (Verma 2003). The analysis of data also confirmed that vowel length did not

seem to be phonemic in Magahi. We saw that in total there were eleven oral vowels of
which six were monophthongs and five were diphthongs. Also, we saw that there
were nine nasal vowels: six monophthongs and three diphthongs.

The analysis of data helped us to arrive at certain phonotactic generalizations related

to the distribution of vowels. The [-low, +back] vowels //, // and // did not seem

to occur word-finally. Minimal pairs for // with any other monophthongs were not

provided for word-medial position, because it was found that this vowel was being
used in the reduplication construction with all the other vowels. We also noted that
the pairs // & // and // & // occur in free variation word-initially. Only one oral

diphthong // occurred at all the three word positions. Also, the phones // and //

occurred in complementary distribution exhibiting allophonic properties. Next, the

distribution of nasal vowels appeared to be very restricted with respect to the word
positions; //, // and // did not occur word-initially. The only nasal vowel which

seemed to occur at all the three positions was /α/.

The study on segmental sounds revealed the richness of the language in allophones
(see 3.2.2). Some phonological rules were framed which seemed to affect allophony
in the language. The rules were:

(a) [+labial +spread glottis] → [+labial –spread glottis] / vowel [+nasal] _____
(b) [+stop +retroflex] → [+tap +retroflex] / C or V ____
 131

We also saw that // and // exhibited free variation word-medially. // occurred in

free variation with // for word-medial position. We also inferred that // could be

substituted for // in the word-medial position without affecting the lexical meaning

in any way. In case of vowels we noted that nasal spreading contributed to allophonic
process in the vowels. In certain cases where the vowel was succeeded or preceded by
a nasal consonant it also acquired nasal features due to spreading. Spreading could be
both backward and forward. It seemed that the vowel pairs // & // and // & //

occurred in free variation but the phonotactic constraint limited them to the word-
initial positions only. We also saw that Magahi did not allow for any kind of
consonant clustering especially at the syllable onset position; however, at the syllable
coda position specific clustering could be viewed that also only in the case of alveolar
nasal and velar consonants as being the first constituent of the clustering at the coda
position. Finally, we reached to a stage when the segmental sounds were classified on
the basis of distinctive features (see 3.2.4, Chart 3/5).

Chapter 4 focused on the system of word stress in Magahi. The chapter started with a
discussion on the syllable structure of the language. A Magahi syllable was found to
be a vocalic unit or a combination of consonants preceding or following the vocalic
unit. Five types of monosyllabic patterns were deduced from the observation of data.
They were V, CV, VC, CVC and CVCC. We saw that both oral and nasal vowels
could act as syllabic peak. The establishment of the syllabic structure led us to
analyze the foot structure of the language. Out of the five possible monosyllabic
patterns the V and the CV structures could be considered as light syllables owing to
the absence of any element at the coda position. VV too did not have any element at
the coda position but the occurrence of two vowels at the nucleus position made this
syllable heavy. VC and CVC syllables also seemed to be heavy. CVCC syllable
structure could be labeled as being super heavy because of its heavy rime. Syllable
weight determined the placement of stress in a word. The analysis showed that stress
in Magahi was fixed, weight-sensitive and was morphologically or lexically
conditioned. The study of data showed that when the stress was on the penultimate
syllable, the vowel in the antepenultimate got attenuated. When the stress was on the
final (ult) syllable, the vowel in the penult got attenuated. The main stress in Magahi
 132

words was found to fall on the penultimate syllable if it was heavy; it fell on the ult
syllable if the penultimate syllable was light.

We saw that the possible syllable structures in Magahi were V, CV, VC, CVC and
CVCC (see 3.2.2.1) of which VC, CVC and CVCC were considered to be heavy
syllables. CV seemed to act as heavy syllable when it got an additional weight due to
the lengthening of the constituent vowel (CV :). The moraic trochee captured the idea
that a single heavy syllable was quantitatively and metrically equivalent to two light
syllables (Allen 1973; Halle & Vergnaud 1978; McCarthy 1979a; Prince 1983).
Magahi seemed to avoid consonant clusters at the onset and the coda position. This
rendered CVC as the most preferred of all the syllable structure types.

The analysis of data revealed a number of observations regarding the placement of

main stress in Magahi. If a word consisted of a long vowel (V :) in the penult, it
received penultimate stress. If a word had CVC syllable structure in the penult, it
received penultimate stress. We also noted that the stress assigned to words with a
word final CVC syllable depended on what preceded it. If it was preceded by a CV or
a V syllable then the ult syllable got the ultimate primary stress. If a word was
disyllabic with a CVC.CVC structure then the stress seemed to fall on the penultimate
syllable. But if the disyllabic structure was CVC.CV: C then the stress was on the
final syllable.

Next, we observed that the word got penult stress when it had CV: structure at the
penultimate position despite being followed by a CVC syllable in disyllabic as well as
trisyllabic words. So, the point that was being made was that the primary stress or the
main stress of Magahi seemed to fall on the penultimate syllable in unmarked
conditions which included a heavy syllable structure at this position and a
comparatively light syllable word finally. Another point that was made here was that a
final syllable seemed to attract stress just in case it was not preceded by a heavy
syllable. All these observations led to the formulation of word stress rules of Magahi
which were summarized as under:

c) Foot Construction Form moraic trochees from right to left.

x

d) Extrametricality in Clash Foot → <Foot > / V: ___ ] word

 133

e) Word Layer Construction End Rule Right

The formulation of these rules bore on a number of theoretical issues. They were:

EXTRAMETRICALITY IN CLASH: The analysis provided support for this type of rule.
A final foot of the form CV: seemed to attract stress only if it did not clash with a
preceding stress on another CV: syllable. The same was for a final foot of the form
CVC. The analysis also showed that the clash results in Extrametricality rather than
distressing.

What is interesting about this analysis as we saw was that both CV: and CVC could
induce this clash governed Extrametricality. And it also appeared that CVC was
considered to be heavier than CV: syllable. This was in contradiction to the popular
typological observations where CV: was considered to be the heavier of the two.

VOWEL SHORTENING: A further question to be considered was why a rule of

vowel shortening/ reduction should occur in a trochaic language, given the prediction
of the Iambic/ Trochaic Law 58 that segmental phonology should preserve the even
timing of the foot (Hayes 1995). The previous analysis showed that vowel reduction
did not govern stress assignment in Magahi so long as the primary stress fell on the
penultimate syllable.

The most clearly documented evidence of a more objective character was that because
vowel reduction did not govern stress assignment, its role has been delimited in
Magahi phonology. Vowel Reduction was blocked in initial syllables. It could be
supposed that reduction was blocked because it would ordinarily create an
unsyllabified consonant cluster. 59

AVOIDANCE OF STRESS CLASH: Magahi seemed to avoid any kind of stress clash.
A stress clash refers to a sequence of adjacent stressed syllable. Avoiding clash was
assumed to be one of the driving forces behind the placement of stresses (e.g. Prince
1983), in recent work in particular (Kager 2001, 2005 a, 2005 b; Gordon 2002;
McCarthy 2003; Alber 2005; Buckley 2009). One way in which this was made

58
The Iambic/ Trochaic Law forms the basis of the foot inventory and it forms part of the theory of the
rhythm, not of language popular. It determines the set of possible feet, as well as motivating large
number of segmental rules that adjust metrical structure. (Hayes 1995:33)
59
Avoidance of consonant cluster is a factor in Maithili phonology as well. (Hayes 1995)
 134

possible was by the avoidance of consonant cluster at the coda position of a foot 60
which was preceded by another heavy foot.

Thus, we observed that the basic foot structure for Magahi was Quantity- insensitive
unbounded moraic trochee and it was left- headed. Extrametricality occurred in the
language. The language obeyed the END RULE for stress placement. We also
observed that processes which are foot- based like cluster reduction and compensatory
lengthening were evident but only in the cases of borrowed words. An examination of
Magahi plurals yielded in the template structure for them. The template for a
disyllabic plural formation was found to be HH and of the trisyllabic plural formation
LHH (see 4.3.3).

In Chapter 5 we discussed the phonological phrasing pattern and the intonation

pattern of the language. This kind of discussion included a systematic study of the
prosodic structure of the language. The prosodic features discussed above are not
completely independent of one another. The discussion of each of these features
involved the cross- references to other features which were relevant to its
systemization. The discussion on syllable structure, for example required reference to
segmental sounds for determining the syllable types of the language while the
systemization of foot and stress assignment involved mora (a unit of syllable weight)
and syllable structure. There are thus considerable mutual dependencies and
interactions among the prosodic features.

As we observed one property of prosodic structure that has repeatedly emerged in the
previous discussion (see 4.1) was its hierarchical nature. More recent non- liner
theories, especially Metrical Phonology (Liberman and Prince 1977, Hogg and
McCully 1987, Goldsmith 1990) attempted to redress the balance and had not only
accepted the independent structure of prosodic structure but had also frequently
employed hierarchical tree structures. One approach which explicitly recognized and
advocated the use of such a hierarchy was Prosodic Phonology. (Nespor and Vogel
1982, 1983, 1986)

For the discussion on Magahi phonological phrasing we thus considered the

significance of mora since it was already established that the basic foot type of this

60
Magahi does not have cluster at the coda position except for such clusters in which a nasal consonant
is the preceding constituent.
 135

language was moraic trochee (see 4.2.2.1). Considering this, a parallel ‘Quantity Tier’
can was postulated at the foot level as in Fig 4.1(a) and 4.1(b). Therefore, there is
nevertheless an argument for a typological distinction after considering the arguments
presented here.

We also observed that the representation for feet in Fig. 4.2.1 (b) in Magahi was very
different from that of English as we could see that the assignment of feet was not
dependent on the number of syllables. Rather, it was dependent on syllable weight or
mora (see 4.3.2). The stress analysis (see 3.3.2) revealed that Magahi seemed to
follow END RULE RIGHT (see 3.3.2) for stress placement and also avoids stress
clash. These two observations leave 4.2.1 (b) in contradiction to the already
established rules. Also, the language does not have provision for the occurrence of an
extrametrical constituent at the END INITIAL position. This also adds to the
contradictory nature of 4.2.1 (b). Six wh- questions of Magahi were considered at this
stage in the same light as 4.2.1 being represented through Fig. 4.2.1 – Fig. 4.2.6.

The language employed a series of phonological phenomena that helped the language
constraints to be maintained. / . /, for example, had two syllables. The second

syllable did not seem to bear any accent. Therefore, while foot assignment and
phrasing, // was dropped thus making the disyllabic // into monosyllabic

//. Thus, the representation of three levels got revised as //  .  /  /

 //.

We also observed that for the wh- types of interrogative sentences that were used for
the study the language employed various underlying phonological phenomena.
Firstly, the optional pronominal was deleted. This was then followed by the deletion
of // at all the unaccented weak positions as in /el/ which became // and

in // which became //.

The discussion in this chapter then progressed to account for the prosodic features in
the language. One basic feature of pitch accents was found to be that when a pitch
accent occurred on a word containing more than one syllable, the accent occurred on
the lexically stressed syllable of the word (Ladd 2008): as could be seen 5.3.1 (a) to
(f) in which the lexically stressed syllables had been accented.
 136

The discussion so far led us to infer that the basic contour type for Magahi
interrogative sentences was LHL. The utterances started with a low tone (L i ) as in
Fig.5.4.1- Fig.5.4.6. The nuclear contour seemed to be at the constituent preceded by
the auxiliary verb. The nuclear contour consisted of a high pitch accent (H*) with a
low phrase accent (L-) together represented as (H*L-). Towards the right boundary of
the utterance, the tone appeared to become low, hence, represented by the low
boundary tone L%.

All these conclusions and inferences brought us to the focus of the thesis and that was
to the second focus of the thesis which was rhythm and phrasing pattern, the first
being the description of word stress as discussed earlier. The  and to a lower extent
the prosodic word seemed to determine the distribution of pitch accents, which arose
from the interplay between clash resolution and the desire to mark boundaries of s
and prosodic words with pitch accents. Pitch accents were found to be relatively
frequent and there appeared to be usually more than one pitch accent in a . Phrase
boundaries had been marked with [ ].

Generally no variation was found in the distribution of pitch accent with respect to
variety or style of speech. The nuclear contour for Magahi interrogative sentences
(wh- question type) was LHL (see section 5.3.2) with a complex boundary tone LL i
similar to Bengali (Hayes and Lahiri 1991a). This kind of intonation system in the
language seemed to be a complex interplay of pitch accents and phrase accents and
every  consists of at least one accented syllable. Fig 4.5.1 – 4.5.6 illustrated the
phrasing pattern in the wh- questions of the language. The intonation contour had a
low boundary tone L%. The prosodic phrase might consist of an L* or an H*
depending on the focus of the utterance. We observed that in case of Fig. 4.5.3 and
fig. 4.5.6, the q- word bore H* unlike the other cases where the q- word bore the L*.
In the latter case the H* was borne by the constituent immediately following the q-
word and it also bore the focus.

We also observed that pitch accent distribution in Magahi was determined by prosodic
word and . As for , it could be equated with XP (syntactic phrase). Thus, the rules

for the alignment of an XP and  appeared to be:

 137

ALIGN (, H*, Left): Align the right edge of every  with a pitch accent

ALIGN (, L*, Right): Align the left edge of every  with a pitch accent

NO CLASH: Pitch accents are not adjacent.

ALIGN (XP, ): ALIGN (XP, Rt, , Rt), or align the right edge of every XP

with the right edge of .

ALIGN (S, i) ALIGN (S, Rt, i, Rt), or align the right edge of every S with the right
edge of i.

The pitch variation (f0 variation) helped to mark the pitch accents and phrase tones
and confirmed that every IP was made up of one or more iPs which corresponded to
XPs.

As we saw that the discussion then progressed to Chapter 6 which was an effort to
throw light on some of the morphophonemic as well as phonosyntactic phenomena of
the language. However, the major focus of the chapter was phonology- syntax
interface in Magahi because of the absence of any previous study in this area. The
chapter also aimed to provide data which might be used in the study of prosodic
typology. Because Magahi to date is poorly understood, it was hoped that the data
provided in the thesis would pave way for future work on prosodic theory and the
syntax- phonology interface.

The review of the existing literature helped us to get acquainted with the concepts
related to interface studies. We learnt that phonology- syntax interface studies were
coming up with new and insightful points of view. We observed that the
pronunciation of a sentence was the function of the surface phonological
representation of the sentence and not merely the stringing of individual words
(Selkirk, 2003) 61. Studies seemed to be directed to specific utterance types.
Exploration of the Focus Intonation Pattern of Japanese revealed interface conditions
in relation to Q- phrases of the language. (Ishihara, 2003)

61
The Prosodic Structure Hypothesis which draws evidence from domain convergence and domain
layering says that the right edge of a Major phrase (in Prosodic Heirarchy) coincides with a syntactic
phrase and the dge of a clause in the syntax typically coincides with the edge of an Intonation Phrase.
 138

Some points were made regarding the interface between phonology and morphology.
The study focused specially on the word formation process with special reference to
compounding. This kind of choice was made only because this process seemed to be
universal for all known languages. Morphologically, a compound word in Magahi
was formed according to one of the following processes:

[word + word] compounding,

[stem + word]/ [word + stem] compounding and

[stem + stem] compounding.

The main motivation to distinguish [stem + stem] compounds from [stem + word] or
[word + stem ] compounds came from inflection. The inflectional endings of items
that belonged to the [stem + stem] compounds did not generally seemed to have the
same ending when occurring in isolation. Apart from considering the placement of
stresses being the phenomenon of the domain of morphemes this entire analysis could
also be viewed in a different light altogether. As we saw fig. 5.1(a) consisted of the
compounds whose constituent words belonged to the noun class and they retained
their primary stresses in the resulting compounds. Fig. 5.1(b) consisted of compounds
whose constituent stems /-/, /-/, /-/, /-/ and // were

adjectival in nature 62 and the constituent words belonged to the noun class (vi to x).
The primary stresses of the adjectival stems were dropped while those on the nouns
were retained. This explained as to why in // the primary stress on //

was being dropped in the compound even when it was a word in itself while primary
stress was being retained in the stem /p/.

We also saw that fig. 5.1(c) consisted of compounds whose both constituents were
stems. But the initial stems of all the compounds (xi to xv) //, //,

//, // and // were adjectival in nature while the

succeeding constituents belonged to the verb class. The primary stress on the

62
The root words for these are: /-/ < // (the month of Chaitra according to the indu
calendar); /-/ < // (maternal granddaughter); /-/ < /α/ (water); /-/ < /α/
(smoke) and /-/ < // (leg). These root words belong to the noun class.
 139

adjectival stem was being dropped and that on the verb stem was being retained in
this type of compounding.

Therefore, as we noted, it would not be incorrect to infer that the order of preference
for the retention of primary stress in compounding is noun > verb > adjective. In a
compound formation consisting of the combination of these, the primary stress of
preceding one was chosen over the ones succeeding it. After this the discussion
progressed to the phonology- syntax interface study for Magahi.

In Chapter 5 correspondence in Match Theory was proposed as an extension of

Correspondence Theory as developed for the OT framework by McCarthy and Prince
(1995, 1999), where it was used to established relations between linguistic objects.
Match Theory was a particular proposal for how syntactic and prosodic constituencies
were related to one another, namely, that a correspondence relation existed between
constituency in the syntactic component and the prosodic constituency in the
phonological component. As we saw, the syntax- prosody match constraints were
summarized as in Fig 5.2(a) which was:

Match-Clause: Syntactic clause → Intonational phrase (IP)

Match-Phrase: Syntactic phrase → Phonological phrase ()

Match-Word: Syntactic word → Prosodic Word.

We also learnt that like the edge- based theory proposed in Selkirk (1986, 1995),
Match Theory too appealed to the idea that the edges of syntactic and prosodic
constituents must be aligned.

Next, we saw that the phonological phrases were derived from a right- edge based
parameter setting an alignment analysis (see 4.3.3) of which had already been
provided. The analysis was consistent with the distribution of pitch accents and a
right- edged phrase accent, both indicators of the right edge of a prosodic word, as
reported in Kissenberth (2005). Each IP of a wh- question utterance ended with a low
boundary tone marking its right edge which corresponded to the right edge of the
clause. The Syntax- prosody mapping for Magahi (wh- questions) was presented as:
 140

XP  xp

x YP x  yp

y z y z

As we had noted earlier, in the syntactic structure, the syntactic node XP exhaustively
dominated the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and YP exhaustively dominated {y and
z}. Similarly, the prosodic node  dominated the set terminal nodes {x, y and z} and

 yp exhaustively dominated the set terminal nodes {y and z}. In other words, there
was a perfect match between the sets of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by
syntactic nodes in the syntactic representation, one the one hand, and the sets of the
exponents of these terminal nodes dominated by  in the phonological representation,
on the other. 63 After establishing this kind of correspondence the next question that
was attempted to be answered was whether this kind of perfect alignment could be
flouted in any case. This was answered by discussing the information structure cues of
a language. The relationships between focus and prosodic phrasing as well as relative
prominence and prosodic phrasing were explored.

At this stage, it would not be wrong to state that Magahi seemed to have two prosodic
levels below the IP: the foot (see 4.3.2) and a higher prosodic level the iP (see 5.3.3).
This latter level of phrasing separates a focused element from the rest of the phrase.
Thus, focus seemed to have a phrasing effect. The same effect of focus had also been
observed in the closely related languages like Hindi (Moore 1953, 68, 75) and Bengali
(Hayes and Lahiri 1991). Also, an IP contained at least one iP and furthermore, each
iP contained at least one foot indicated by a rising pitch accent. The Graphs 6/1- 6/6
showed us the pitch analysis of the wh- questions (see Appendix 6). These graphs
illustrate the high f0 (pitch) value for the focused constituent and the reduced f0 value
for the constituents following it. Focus had been studied as being the direct perceptual
correlate of pitch accent which in itself could be calculated experimentally by
calculating prominence or the relative duration of utterance.

63
Similar work has been done in Elfner (2012) in which the syntax- prosody mapping has been done
for Irish declarative sentences.
 141

We observed that “focus” in Magahi was not morphologically marked. Rather, those
constituents were “focused” which were informationally more important than other
background facts of the same sentence. This “focus” determined the prosodic phrasing
(p- phrasing) of the utterance as clear from the section 6.3.3. This part of the
discussion was based on the experimental observation that prominence and focus
went hand in hand. If one got to know as to where the prominence was being marked
in a language the knowledge about focus became clear. A contemporary approach
regarding the calculation of prominence was provided by Ishihara (2000) which was
called as Focus- Intonation Pattern (FIP).

Focused words seemed to have expanded pitch range, post focus words seemed to
have lowered/ compressed pitch range (similar to FIP; Ishihara 2000) and the pre-
focus and the final focus the neutral pitch range. We saw that the graphs (Graph 6/1-
6/6) had been analyzed keeping in mind the concept of p- focalization and PFR. All
the utterances (U1- 6) abided by the theory of FIP. The maximum or the highest pitch
contour was present on the constituent element that immediately followed the q- word
and then the pitch declined for the following elements. The interesting thing that we
noted in this relation was that unlike most other languages the wh- questions of
Magahi did not end with a rising intonation. The questions showed a pitch contour
that sloped downward towards the end. Therefore, the presence of PFR in every
utterance seemed to be obligatory.

In the later section of the chapter we observed that the relative prominence of a
constituent compared to other constituents in the utterance clearly indicated that it had
been “focused” in the utterance. The analysis in 6.3.2.3 tried to find out these
“focused” constituents. That was done by the calculation of the relative durations and
the mean durations of each of the constituents of all the six wh- questions. We saw
that the mean durations of the constituent words immediately following the q- word
was the maximum (Table 6/2 – 6/7 & Graph 6/7 to 6/12). Similarly, the relative
duration of the same constituents, that is, the ones that immediately follow the q-
word was the maximum compared to the neighbouring constituents taken
syntagmatically. These findings were in consonance with the findings of the sub-
section 6.3.2.1. So, we got to know that in Magahi wh- questions, the most “focused”
constituent was the one that immediately followed the q- word and the rest of the
constituents following the “focused” constituent underwent PFR or reduction in pitch.
 142

Thus, we inferred that there was not just a relation between the syntactic and the
phonological phrasing patterns but there was also a relation in the syntactic and the
phonological ways in which a language conveyed information.

The hidden aim of my study was to provide a phonological description of a language

which never received the limelight of scholarly discussions. The unavailability of any
type of authentic research in this area prompted me to take up this topic for research
and discussions. I believe that the findings of this research will prove beneficial for
future researches in similar areas. The implications of the findings are not confined to
Magahi alone. Other languages belonging to the same language family may have
similar prosodic properties as the ones that have been discussed in the previous
chapters of the thesis. Also, for languages that belong to different language families
my findings of my study will provide fuel for several types of comparative and
contrastive studies.

The data provided in the appendices will prove to be useful for various other types of
language oriented researches as well. Since the prosodic analysis was restricted to the
wh- questions only, there is immense possibility to carry out similar researches for
declarative sentences and other types of sentence forms. The novelty of attempt and
the complexity of research restricted me to wh- questions only. I made an attempt to
make the methodology for this research exhaustive and efficient; however, there is
still scope for improvements for future researchers. The data can be collected in a
more exhaustive manner and the inclusion of a few more informants will only add
credibility to the findings. I sincerely hope that my research will benefit future
researchers motivating them to take up less explored languages for study. Human
speech would have been as monotonous as robotic speech if prosody would have been
missing from it. It is due to prosody and its various features that make human speech
so interesting, intriguing and ever explorable.
 143

APPENDIX 1

THE BASIC WORD LIST [A]

1. All 

2. And 

3. Animal δΖ

4. Ashes 

5. Back 

6. Bad 

7. Bark 

8. Because 

9. Belly 

10. Big 

11. Bird τΣ

12. Bite 

13. Black 

14. Blood 

15. Blow 

16. Bone 

17. Breast 

18. Breathe 

19. Burn δΖ

20. Child 

21. Claw 

22. Cloud 

23. Cold 

24. Come 

25. Count 

 144

26. Cut 

27. Day 

28. Die 

29. Dig / 

30. Dirty 

31. Dog 

32. Drink 

33. Dry 

34. Dust 

35. Ear 

36. Earth / 

37. Egg 

38. Eye 

39. Fall 

40. Far 

41. Fat 

42. Father 

43. Fear 

44. Feather 

45. Few 

46. Fight 

47. Fire 

48. Fish 

49. Five 

50. Float 

51. Flow 

52. Flower 

53. Fly 

54. Fog 

55. Foot 

 145

56. Four 

57. Freeze 

58. Fruit 

59. Full 

60. Give 

61. Good 

62. Grass 

63. Green 

64. Guts 

65. Hair 

66. Hand 

67. He 

68. Head 

69. Hear 

70. Heart 

71. Heavy 

72. Here 

73. Hit 

74. Hold 

75. Horn 

76. How 

77. Hunt 

78. Husband 

79. I 

80. Ice 

81. If
82. In 

83. Kill 

84. Knee 

85. Lake 

 146

86. Laugh 

87. Know 

88. Leaf 

89. Leftside 

90. Leg 

91. Lie 

92. Live 

93. Liver 

94. Long 

95. Louse 

96. Man 

97. Many 

98. Meat 

99. Moon 

100. Mother 

101. Mountain 

102. Mouth 

103. Name 

104. Narrow 

105. Near 

106. New 

107. Night 

108. Nose 

109. Not 

110. Old 

111. One 

112. Other 

113. Person 

114. Play 

115. Pull 

 147

116. Push 

117. Rain  

118. Red 

119. Right 

120. Right 

121. River 

122. Road 

123. Root 

124. Rope 

125. Rotten 

126. Round 

127. Rub 

128. Salt 

129. Sand 

130. Say 

131. Scratch 

132. Sea 

133. See 

134. Seed 

135. Sew 

136. Sharp 

137. Short 

138. Sing 

139. Sit 

140. Skin 

141. Sky 

142. Sleep 

143. Small 

144. Smell 

145. Smoke 

 148

146. Smooth 

147. Snake 

148. Snow 

149. Some 

150. Spit 

151. Split 

152. Squeeze 

153. Stab/ pierce / 

154. Stand 

155. Star / 

156. Stick 

157. Stone 

158. Straight 

159. Suck 

160. Sun 

161. Swell 

162. Swim 

163. Tail 

164. That 

165. There 

166. They 

167. Thick 

168. Thin 

169. Think 

170. This 

171. Thou 

172. Three / 

173. Throw 

174. Tie 

175. Tongue 

 149

176. Tooth 

177. Tree 

178. Turn 

179. Two / 

180. Vomit 

181. Walk 

182. Warm / 

183. Wash 

184. Water 

185. We 

186. Wet 

187. What 

188. When 

189. Where 

190. White 

191. Who 

192. Wide 

193. Wife 

194. Wind 

195. Wing 

196. Wipe 

197. With 

198. Woman 

199. Woods 

200. Worm 

201. Yes 

202. Year 

203. Brother 

204. Clothing 

205. Cook 

 150

206. Dance 

207. Eight / 

208. Hundred / 

209. Seven / 

210. Sister 

211. Spear 

212. Twenty / 

213. Work m

 151

APPENDIX 2

THE BASIC WORD LIST [B]

• *Refers to the typical North Indian concepts

1. *Bindi 

2. *Flour (kneaded) 

3. *Jura 

4. *Roti / 

5. Banana 

6. Bangles 

7. Blouse 

8. Book 

9. Brother, elder 

10. Brother’s wife (elder) , 

11. Cat 

12. Chilli 

13. Cold 

14. Comb 

15. Copper m

16. Cough 

17. Cow 

18. Crow 

19. Cry 

20. Dog 

21. Door / 

22. Down 

23. Drizzle
24. Ear ring 
 152

25. Elephant 

26. Eye brow 

27. Fever 

28. Finger 

29. Fish 

30. Flour (dry) 

31. Food 

32. Forest 

33. Garlic 

34. God / 

35. Goddess 

36. Gold 

37. Grandfather (Father’s father) 

38. Grandfather (Mother’s father) 

39. Grandmother (Father’s mother) 

40. Grandmother (Mother’s mother) 

41. Green vegetable  

42. Hot 

43. House 

44. Housefly 

45. Itch 

46. Language 

47. Lion 

48. Lips 

49. Liquor 

50. Mango 

51. Medicine 

52. Milk //

53. Mirror //

54. Money //

 153

55. Mosquito //

56. Mouse //

57. Nails //

58. Necklace //

59. Nose-pin //

60. Oil //

61. Onion //

62. Pain //

63. Peacock //

64. Plait //

65. Pond //

66. Potato //

67. Rice (cooked) //

68. Rice (raw) //

69. Road //

70. Round //

71. Run //

72. Saree //

73. Shawl //

74. Shirt //

75. Sister, elder //

76. Sister’s husband //

77. Small //

78. Snake //

79. Spectacles //

80. Spices //

81. Spoon //

82. Sugar //

83. Tasty
84. Tea //
 154

85. Thumb //

86. Turmeric //

87. Up //

88. Village //

89. Aunt (paternal) //



 
 155

APPENDIX 3

The Basic Word List [C]

• * Refers to the typical North Indian concepts

1. *Belan

2. *Chakla 

3. *Charpoy 

4. *Dal

5. *Karahi

6. *Neem 

7. *Tawa 

8. Abuse 

9. Air 

10. Ant 

11. Aroma 

12. Bald 

13. Bazaar 

14. Begin 

15. Behind 

16. Blind 

17. Brass 

18. Brave 

19. Bull 

20. Butterfly 

21. Buy 

22. Cheap 

23. Coconut 

24. Corpse 

 156

25. Costly 

26. Cry of lion 

27. Cry of dog 

28. Curse 

29. Daily 

30. Danger 

31. Deaf 

32. Donkey 

33. Double 

34. Draught 

35. Earn 

36. End 

37. Enemy 

38. Farmer 

39. Feed 

40. Flood 

41. Front of 

42. Gold 

43. Goldsmith 

44. Halves 

45. Hard

46. Heels 

47. Her 

48. High 

49. His 

50. Honey 

51. Horn 

 157

52. Hunger 

53. Ill 

54. Ironsmith 

55. King 

56. Land lord 

57. Lazy 

58. Letter 

59. Lonely 

60. Love 

61. Mad 

62. Maize 

63. Memory 

64. Mine 

65. Monkey 

66. Paint 

67. Pig 

68. Price 

69. Priest 

70. Read 

71. Remember 

72. Rice (crushed) 

73. Rice (husk) 

74. Rice (paddy) 

75. Rice (puffed) 

76. Sell 

77. Sheep 

78. Sometimes 

 158

79. Sparrow ci

80. Sugarcane 

81. Sweet potato 

82. Tailor 

83. Teach 

84. Teacher 

85. Thirst 

86. Tongs 

87. Train 

88. Upside down 

89. War 

90. Weave 

91. Weaver 

92. Well 

93. Wheat 

94. Worship 

95. Write 

 159

APPENDIX 4

Informant Details

INFORMANT DETAILS (1)

• NAME : Ravi Ranjan Kumar

• AGE : 23
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A (Hons)
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, Spanish
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ : Hindi, English, Spanish

2) WRITE : Hindi, English, Spanish

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English,

Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Bhojpuri and
Magahi

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 Years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (2)

• NAME : Awnish Kumar

• AGE : 23 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. (Hons.)
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English and Korean
 160

• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ: Hindi, English and Korean

2) WRITE: Hindi, English and Korean

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English, Korean

& Magahi.

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (3)

• NAME : Ritesh Raman

• AGE : 19 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. Hons.IIIrd yr.
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ : Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

2) WRITE: Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English, Spanish, Portugese

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 19 yrs ( Nalanda)

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

 161

INFORMANT DETAILS (4)

• NAME : Ved Prakash

• AGE : 23 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : BHM
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English, bangla
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Bank Manager

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 21 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : 2 yrs.

INFORMANT DETAILS (5)

• NAME : Raju
• AGE : 18 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. II yr
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

 162

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 18 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (6)

• NAME : Rajiv Ranjan

• AGE : 30 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : M.Phil
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, Bangla,

magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Astt. Professor

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 30 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

 163

INFORMANT DETAILS (7)

• NAME : Sanjeev Nayan

• AGE : 19 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. IInd yr
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English,
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi and English

2) WRITE Hindi and English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, English, magahi,

Bhojpuri, Maithili

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 19 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (8)

• NAME : Bimla Devi

• AGE : 74 yrs
• SEX : Female
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : Higher Secondary
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi

2) WRITE Hindi

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, magahi,

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

 164

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Housewife

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 74 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (9)

• NAME : Anup Kumar Sinha

• AGE : 54 yrs
• SEX : Male
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.E.
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ Hindi, English

2) WRITE Hindi, English

3) UNDERSTAND Hindi, Magahi, Maithili,

Bhojpuri

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Businessman

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 54 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

 165

INFORMANT DETAILS (10)

• NAME : Kajal
• AGE : 23 yrs
• SEX : Female
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A. (Hons.)
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi, English
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ: Hindi, English

2) WRITE: Hindi, English

3) UNDERSTAND: Hindi, English &

Magahi.

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 23 yrs

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? : No.

INFORMANT DETAILS (11)

• NAME : Sweta Sinha

• AGE : 27 years
• SEX : Female
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : Research Scholar
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi & English
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ :Hindi & English

2) WRITE:Hindi & English

3) UNDERSTAND: Magahi, Hindi, English

& Bangla
 166

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : English

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Student

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 21 years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? In 2005 for pursuing higher studies.

INFORMANT DETAILS (12)

• NAME : Annapurna Sinha

• AGE : 50 years
• SEX : Female
• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : B.A.
• MOTHER TONGUE : Magahi
• OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN : Hindi
• LANGUAGES KNOWN TO YOU 1) READ :Hindi & English

2) WRITE:Hindi & English

3) UNDERSTAND: Magahi, Hindi &

English

• MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION AT THE : Hindi

PRIMARY LEVEL

• PROFESSION, IF ANY : Housewife

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU STAYED IN : 50 years

THIS PLACE?

• IF MIGRATED, WHEN AND WHY? No

 167

APPENDIX 5

List of questions

1. /  α /

2P. Sing. Food eat. PAST.Sing.

(Did you have food? )
2. / α /

2P. Sing. HON. Market go.FUT.Sing.

(will you go to the market? )
3. / α α /

2P. Sing. GEN. what name AUX.

(What is your name?)
4. /   /

2P. Sing. Where stay AUX.

(Where do you stay?)
5. /  /

2P. Sing. How AUX.

(How are you? )
6. / -  α α  /

2P. Sing. Home – to when go stay

AUX.
(When are you going home? )
7. /  αα α  /

2P. Sing. Delhi why go stay AUX.

(Why are you going to Delhi? )
8. / α  /

2P. Sing. Brother who AUX.

(Who is your brother? )
 168

APPENDIX 6

8
7
7

4 Male
Female
3
2
2
1 1 1
1

0
(15- 30)yrs (30- 55)yrs (55 & above)yrs

Figure 1

The distribution of informants on the basis of age.

 169

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