Archive:Kurukh phonology

Kurukh language

The phonology of Kurukh (also spelled as Kurukh or Oraon) consists of a simple five-vowel system with short and long pairs, along with a consonant inventory that separates dental and retroflex sounds. A clear identifying feature of the language within the North Dravidian branch is the sound change that created the voiceless velar fricative Template:IPA. This phonetic breakdown is based on the historical work of Martin Pfeiffer (1972), alongside early data from Pinnow (1964) and Grignard (1924).

Vowels

Kurukh uses five basic vowel sounds, and each sound can be either short or long. This length difference usually disappears at the very end of words or right before a glottal stop (Template:IPA).

VowelsTemplate:Sfn

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Open			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

The mid-central vowel or schwa (Template:IPA) is phonemic, or distinct from, the regular open vowel Template:IPA. This is proven by specific words like əənka ('said') and bəəl ('ear of corn') where the difference changes the meaning.Template:Sfn Nasalization is also common for most vowels (like Template:IPA or Template:IPA), but historically it does not happen with the schwa.

Consonants

The native consonant sounds match standard Dravidian family lines, though some liquid sounds like laterals have merged over time.

ConsonantsTemplate:Sfn

	Bilabial		Dental/Alveolar		Retroflex		Postalveolar / Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		(Template:IPAlink)		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Stop / Affricate	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative									Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn-ua		Template:IPAlink
Sibilant			Template:IPAlink
Trill / Flap				Template:IPAlink		(Template:IPAlink)Template:Efn-ua
Approximant		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn-ua				Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn-ua

The velar fricative Template:IPA comes from the original Proto-Dravidian stop /*k-/ under certain sound environments. In daily speech, this sound naturally changes to a uvular fricative Template:IPA whenever it is pronounced next to back vowels like /u/ or /o/.Template:Sfn

The retroflex nasal Template:IPA is not a separate independent sound; it is an allophone that only appears when placed right before other retroflex stops. Also, while aspirated sounds are common in the vocabulary, they only appear in words borrowed from Indo-Aryan languages and are not part of the original core Dravidian roots.

Phonotactics

Native Kurukh roots only allow double (geminate) consonants right after short vowels, like in the word palla ('tooth'). Roots that have a long vowel are normally followed by single consonants.

Extra vowels are often added to break up difficult consonant clusters at the end of a root word, which creates forms like xeexᵉl ('earth'). These extra helper vowels naturally drop out whenever a suffix starting with a vowel is added, which can be seen in the accusative form xeexl-an.Template:Sfn

Source

• Pfeiffer, Martin (1972). Elements of Kurux Historical Phonology. 3. Leiden: Brill. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ErwUAAAAIAAJ. 

Further reading

• Hahn, Ferdinand (1903). Kurukh (Oraon)–English Dictionary. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press. DLI: 2015.211105. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.211105.