Anusvara
Encyclopedia
Anusvara also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: ) is the diacritic used to mark a type of nasalization
Nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
used in a number of Indic languages. Depending on the location of the anusvara in the word and the language within which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary greatly.
Devanagari script
In the Devanagari script, anusvara is represented with a dotDot (diacritic)
When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the Interpunct , or to the glyphs 'combining dot above' and 'combining dot below'...
(bindu) above the letter (मं). In IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...
, the corresponding symbol is (m with an underdot). Some transcriptions render notation of phonetic variants used in some Vedic shakha
Shakha
A shakha , is a Hindu theological school that specializes in learning certain Vedic texts, or else the traditional texts followed by such a school. An individual follower of a particular school or recension is called a ...
s with variant transcription .
Sanskrit
In Vedic SanskritVedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
, the (lit. "after-sound") is a sound that occurs as an allophone of /m/ – at a morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
boundary, or /n/ – morpheme-internally, if they are preceded by a vowel and followed by a fricative . Descriptions of this sound in the different ancient phonetic treatises
Pratisakhya
Pratisakhyas, collectively constituting four treatises, are works dealing with the phonetic aspects of the Sanskrit language used in Vedas. These works mainly pertain to euphonic permutation and combination of letters and special characteristics of their pronunciation as they prevailed in various...
might suggest either a type of nasalization (different from the ) and lengthening of the preceding vowel, or a consonantal segment, such as a nasal fricative homorganic (i.e. sharing the same place of articulation) to the following consonant. The discrepancies have been attributed either to differences of analysis of the same pronunciation, or to differences due to dialectal or diachronic variation. In the later language the began to be used before /r/ under certain conditions, and in Classical Sanskrit its use had extended before /l/ and /y/, replacing earlier [l̃] and [ỹ]. It further began to be used instead of the homorganic nasal before a stop: gave such an optional use in sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
word-finally, while later treatises prescribed it also at morpheme junctions and in intra-morphemic position.
Hindi
In Standard Hindi, the is traditionally defined as representing a nasal consonant homorganic to a following stopStop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
, in contrast to the , which indicates vowel nasalization
Nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
. In practice, however, the two are often used interchangeably. The precise phonetic value of the phoneme, whether represented by or , is dependent on the phonological environment. Word-finally it is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel (e.g. [kʊ̃ãː], "a well"). It results in vowel nasalization also medially between a short vowel and a non-obstruent
Obstruent
An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
( [kʊ̃ʋər] "a youth", [ɡə̃ɽaːsaː] "a long-handled axe"), and, in native words, between a long vowel and a voiceless stop ( [dãːt] "tooth", [sãːp] "a snake", [pũːtʃʰ] "tail"). It is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, with the preceding vowel becoming nasalized allophonically
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
, in the following cases: between a long vowel and a voiced stop ( [taːmbaː] "copper", [tʃaːndiː] "silver"), between a long vowel and a voiceless stop in loanwords ( [daːnt] "repressed", [bæːŋk] "a bank", [kʰəzaːɲtʃiː]), and also between a short vowel and an obstruent ( [səmbʱaːl] "to support", [sənduːk] "a chest"). The last rule has two sets of exceptions where the effects only a nasalization of the preceding short vowel. Words from the first set are morphologically derived from words with a long nasalized vowel ( [bə̃ʈ], "to be divided" from [bãʈ], "to divide"; [sɪ̃tʃai], "irrigation" from [sĩːtʃ], "to irrigate"). In suchs cases the vowel is sometimes denasalized ([bəʈ], [sɪtʃai] instead of [bə̃ʈ-], [sɪ̃tʃai]). The second set is composed of a few words like ( [pahʊ̃tʃ], "to arrive" and [hə̃s], "to laugh"). lists five more such words: "to sink", "to be stuck", "a necklace", "a sickle" and "laughter".
Nepali
In NepaliNepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
, chandrabindu and anusvara have the same pronunciation similarly to Hindi. However, as Nepali spelling usage is largely unstandardised, there is a great deal of variation regarding which occurs in any given position. So many words containing anusvara have alternative spellings with chandrabindu
Chandrabindu
Chandrabindu is a diacritic sign having the form of a dot inside the lower half of a circle. It is used in the Devanagari , Bengali , Gujarati , Oriya and Telugu scripts.It usually means that the previous vowel is nasalized...
instead of anusvara and vice versa.
Other Indic script languages
Anusvara is used in other languages using Indic scripts as well, usually to represent suprasegmental phones (such as phonationPhonation
Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
type or nasalization), or for other nasal sounds.
Bengali
In the Bengali scriptBengali script
The Bengali alphabet is the writing system for the Bengali language. The script with variations is used for Assamese and is basis for Meitei, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Kokborok, Garo and Mundari alphabets. All these languages are spoken in the eastern region of South Asia. Historically, the script has...
, the anusvara diacritic (অনুস্বার onushshar in Bengali) is written as a circle above a slanted line (ং), and represents ŋ. It is used in the name of the Bengali language বাংলা [baŋla]. It has merged in pronunciation with the letter ঙ ungô in Bengali. Although the anusvara is a consonant in Bengali phonology
Bengali phonology
Bengali phonology is the study of the inventory and patterns of the consonants, vowels, and prosody of the Bengali language.-Consonants and vowels:The phonemic inventory of Bangla consists of 29 consonants and 14 vowels, including the seven nasalized vowels...
, it is nevertheless treated in the written system as a diacritic in that it is always directly adjacent to the preceding consonant, even when spacing consonants apart in titles or banners (e.g. বাং-লা-দে-শ bang-la-de-sh, not বা-ং-লা-দে-শ ba-ng-la-de-sh for বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
), it is never pronounced with the inherent vowel "ô", and it cannot take a vowel sign (instead, the consonant ঙ ungô is used pre-vocalically).
Burmese
In the Burmese script, the anusvara ( auk myit auʔ mjɪʔ) is represented as a dot underneath a nasalised final to indicate a creaky tone (with a shortened vowel). Burmese also uses a dot above to indicate the /-ɴ/ nasalized ending (called "Myanmar Sign Anusvara" in Unicode), called thay thay tin (θé ðé tɪ̀ɴ)Sinhala
In the Sinhala script, the anusvara is not a diacritic but an independent grapheme. It has circular shape (ං), which is why it is called binduva in Sinhala, which means ´dot´. The anusvara represents ŋ at the end of a syllable. It is used in the name of the Sinhala language සිංහල. It has merged in pronunciation with the letter ඞ ṅa in Sinhala.Telugu
The Telugu scriptTelugu script
Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write the Telugu language, a language found in the South-Central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. The Telugu script is derived from the Bhattiprolu script...
has full-Zero(anusvāra) ం , half-zero (arthanusvāra) and Visarga to convey various shades of nasal sounds. Anusvara is represented as clircle shape after a letter.
Ex: క - Ka and కం - Kam
Anunasika
Anunasika () is a form of vowel nasalization, often represented by an anusvara. It is a form of open mouthed nasalization akin to the nasalization of vowels followed by "n" or "m" in Parisian FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. When "n" or "m" follow a vowel, the "n" or "m" becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasal
Nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
(i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part or all of the air to leave through the nostrils). Anunasika is sometimes called a subdot because of its IAST representation.
In Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
and related orthographies it is represented by the chandrabindu
Chandrabindu
Chandrabindu is a diacritic sign having the form of a dot inside the lower half of a circle. It is used in the Devanagari , Bengali , Gujarati , Oriya and Telugu scripts.It usually means that the previous vowel is nasalized...
diacritic (example: मँ ).
In Burmese
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
, the anunasika, called (θé ðé tɪ̀ɴ) and represented as creates the /-ɴ/ nasalized ending, when attached as a dot above a letter. The anunasika represents the -m final in Pali.
Unicode
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