PHONOLOGY Kannada, like most other Dravidian languages, has a phonological system that contains a number of significant contrasts not found in other languages. The most striking differences are the existence of retroflex (sometimes referred to as domal or cerebral) consonants, and the contrast between long and short vowels. In addition, Kannada also exhibits consonantal contrasts borrowed from Sanskrit or Indo- Aryan, especially the aspirated series, both voiced and voiceless; it also has borrowed from Indo-Aryan both retroflex and apico-palatal sibi- lants. SK tends to eliminate the aspirated consonants and the sibilant contrasts to some extent; but in many dialects it exhibits consonants such as f and z, and vowels such as_« [2x] and 2 (primarily in Urdu or English loan words such as fiizu ‘fees’, hrenku ‘bank’, and ova ‘law- yer), Uneducated speakers tend to substitute other native Kannada sounds for these borrowed sounds.! For example, henhu (bank) is often spelled and pronounced [byaiyk] , even by educated people. 1.1. Vowel sounds. The basic Kannada vowel system consists of five long and five short vowel phonemes. Dipthongs ai and ax also occur, but they may be considered to consist of aty and a/v respec- tively. In addition, « and 9 may occur in foreign loan words (see 1.0).4 PHONOLOGY The vowels of SK, along with their equivalents in Kannada script, except for ae and > (sce 1.1.3), are as follows: Front Gentral Back Short a vow High Long ie Poa) Short fa oo Mid Long eae 00 be > Short ae Low Long. a & The Kannada alphabetic ordering of vowels is: a, aa, fi, u, uu, ¢, ee, 6, 00, Note that the Kannada letters used for the borrowed sounds ae and 9 are those of ec and aa respectively, with the exception that bor: rowed words with « are often written with yaa, as noted above. LLL. High vowels. ‘The high vowels of Kannada are short and u, and long #f and un, The front vowels i and ii are preceded by a trace of a y glide, and the back vowels » and uu by av glide, in initial position following a pause. is a short high front unrounded vowel that occurs initially, medi- ally, and finally. As with many of the other short vowels, it is lower and ‘more lax in initial and medial than in final position, and even more lax before a geminate consonant. In final position i is higher and more tense, but not quite cardinal, ide [Yloe] “itis biDi [bIdi7] “leave? ila [Y Ula} ‘no, not” ii is a long high front unrounded vowel, and occurs in initial and medial position. In final position it is rare, resulting usually from morphophonemic leveling out of some other vocalie sequence. fi [is] this" iiga [Yizga} ‘now? niiow [nizwu] ‘you’ fit (¥ Addi] ‘you (sing.) are’ (< LK idditye)NOLOGY u is a short back rounded vowel that is low-high in initial and me- dial position, and high in final position. uppu [wUppu] ‘salt’ kuDi (kUdi™] ‘drink? Some grammarians describe final u as slightly unrounded (Rajapurohit 1975: 92), but many speakers stigmatize this pronunciation. The amount of unrounding may vary depending on whether it is preceded by a rounded or unrounded vowel. uu is a long high back rounded vowel, and occurs in initial and medial positions. In final position it is rare, except as the conjunctive particle -ws, and then it usually is accompanied by a rising or emphatic intonation. unTa [wu:ta] “food muure [mu:ru] ‘three avanuw [9Bonu:] “he, too? 1.1.2, Mid vowels. The mid vowels of Kannada are front vowels € and ee, and back vowels 0 and 00. In initial position following a pause, all words beginning with ¢ and ce in Kannada have an automatic y slide before them; and initial 0 and 00 are preceded by a v glide, phonetically [w} or {B]- In some dialects, the quality of mid vowels is affected by the fol- lowing vowel; they may be slightly lower if the following vowel is a low vowel, or slightly higher if the following vowel is a mid or high vowel (Rajapurohit 1975b:91-92). e is a short unrounded vowel that occurs in initial, medial, and final position. In nonfinal position it is generally (2], similar to the ‘c* in English ‘bed’; finally it is phonetically high-mid central. ell [yelli”] ‘wher naaLe {na:1E] ‘tomorrow’ bele [belE] ‘price’ ce is a long mid-high front unrounded vowel that occurs in ini and medial, but rarely in final position except with “expressive” length- ening of the emphatic particle -ce, with a difference in intonation aswell, cenu [yeu] ‘what’ beekw [be:ku} ilee [¥ Wle:] ‘right here? © is a short back rounded vowel that is phonetically low-mid in initial and medial positions, and mid in final position.