Hindi-Urdu Phonology - Suprasegmental Features

Suprasegmental Features

Hindustani has a stress accent, but it is not so important as in English. To predict stress placement, the concept of syllable weight is needed:

• A light syllable (one mora) ends in short vowel /ə, ɪ, ʊ/: V
• A heavy syllable (two moras) ends in a long vowel /aː, iː, uː, eː, ɛː, oː, ɔː/ or in a short vowel and a consonant: VV, VC
• An extra-heavy syllable (three moras) ends in a long vowel and a consonant, or a short vowel and two consonants: VVC, VCC

Stress is on the heaviest syllable of the word, and in the event of a tie, on the last such syllable. However, the final mora of the word is ignored when making this assignment (Hussein 1997) . For example, with the ignored mora in parentheses (Hayes 1995:276ff):

kaː.ˈriː.ɡə.ri(ː)

ˈtʃəp.kə.lɪ(ʃ)

ˈʃoːx.dʒə.baː.ni(ː)

ˈreːz.ɡaː.ri(ː)

sə.ˈmɪ.t(ɪ)

ˈqɪs.mə(t)

ˈbaː.ɦə(r)

roː.ˈzaː.na(ː)

rʊ.ˈkaː.ja(ː)

ˈroːz.ɡaː(r)

aːs.ˈmaːn.dʒaː(h) ~ ˈaːs.mãː.dʒaː(h)

kɪ.ˈdʱə(r)

rʊ.pɪ.ˈa(ː)

dʒə.ˈnaː(b)

aːs.ˈbaː(b)

mʊ.səl.ˈmaː(n)

ɪɴ.qɪ.ˈlaː(b)

pər.ʋər.də.ˈɡaː(r)

Content words in Hindustani normally begin on a low pitch, followed by a rise in pitch. Strictly speaking, Hindustani, like most other Indian languages, is rather a syllable-timed language. The schwa /ə/ has a strong tendency to vanish into nothing (syncopated) if its syllable is unaccented.