Editing Indo-Aryan languages (section)

=== Consonants ===

==== Stop positions ====
The normative system of New Indo-Aryan stops consists of five [[places of articulation]]: [[Labial consonant|labial]], [[Dental consonant|dental]], "[[Retroflex consonant|retroflex]]", [[palatal consonant|palatal]], and [[velar consonant|velar]], which is the same as that of Sanskrit. The "retroflex" position may involve retroflexion, or curling the tongue to make the contact with the underside of the tip, or merely retraction. The point of contact may be [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] or [[postalveolar]], and the distinctive quality may arise more from the shaping than from the position of the tongue. Palatal stops have [[affricate consonant|affricate]]d release and are traditionally included as involving a distinctive tongue position (blade in contact with hard palate). Widely transcribed as {{IPA|[tʃ]}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|p=94}} claims {{IPA|[cʃ]}} to be a more accurate rendering.

Moving away from the normative system, some languages and dialects have alveolar affricates {{IPA|[ts]}} instead of palatal, though some among them retain {{IPA|[tʃ]}} in certain positions: before [[front vowel]]s (esp. {{IPA|/i/}}), before {{IPA|/j/}}, or when [[geminate]]d. Alveolar as an ''additional'' point of articulation occurs in [[Marathi language|Marathi]] and [[Konkani people|Konkani]] where dialect mixture and others factors upset the aforementioned complementation to produce minimal environments, in some West Pahari dialects through internal developments ({{IPA|*t̪ɾ}}, {{IPA|t̪}} > {{IPA|/tʃ/}}), and in [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]]. The addition of a [[Voiceless retroflex affricate|retroflex affricate]] to this in some [[Dardic languages]] maxes out the number of stop positions at seven (barring borrowed {{IPA|/q/}}), while a reduction to the inventory involves *ts > {{IPA|/s/}}, which has happened in [[Assamese language|Assamese]], [[Chittagonian language|Chittagonian]], [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] (though there have been other sources of a secondary {{IPA|/ts/}}), and Southern Mewari.

Further reductions in the number of stop articulations are in Assamese and [[Romani language|Romani]], which have lost the characteristic dental/retroflex contrast, and in Chittagonian, which may lose its labial and velar articulations through [[spirantisation]] in many positions (> {{IPA|[f, x]}}).
<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|pp=94–95}}</ref> /q x ɣ f/ are restricted to Perso-Arabic loanwords in most IA languages but they occur natively in Khowar.{{sfnp|Cardona|Jain|2003|p=932}} According to Masica (1991) some dialects of Pashayi have a /θ/ which is unusual for IA languages. Domari which is spoken in the Middle East and had high contact with Middle Eastern languages has /q ħ ʕ ʔ/ and emphatic consonants from loanwords.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan=8 | Stops
! rowspan=2 | Languages
|-
! {{IPAslink|p}} !! {{IPAslink|t̪}} !! {{IPAslink|ʈ}} ~ {{IPAslink|t}} !! {{IPAslink|ʈ͡ʂ}} !! {{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}} ~ {{IPAslink|t͡ɕ}} !! {{IPAslink|t͡s}} !! {{IPAslink|k}} !! {{IPAslink|q}}
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || <small>Khowar, Shina, Bashkarik, Kalasha</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Gawarbati, Phalura, Shumashti, Kanyawali, Pashai</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Marathi, Konkani, certain W. Pahari dialects (Bhadrawahi, Bhalesi, Mandeali, Padari, Simla, Satlej, maybe Kulu), Kashmiri, E. and N. dialects of Bengali (parts of Dhaka, Mymensingh, Rajshahi)</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Hindustani, Punjabi, Dogri, Sindhi, Gujarati, Sinhala, Odia, Standard Bengali, dialects of Rajasthani (except Lamani, NW. Marwari, S. Mewari), Sanskrit,<ref>In Sanskrit, probably /cɕ/ is a more correct representation. Sometimes, only for representation, /c/ is also used.</ref> Prakrit, Pali, Maithili, Magahi, Bhojpuri</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Romani, Domari, Kholosi</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Nepali, dialects of Rajasthani (Lamani and NW. Marwari), Northern Lahnda's Kagani, Kumauni, many West Pahari dialects (not Chamba Mandeali, Jaunsari, or Sirmauri)</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Rajasthani's S. Mewari</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || <small>Assamese</small>
|-
| {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Chittagonian</small>
|-
| {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || <small>Sylheti</small>
|}

==== Nasals ====
Sanskrit was noted as having five [[nasal stop|nasal-stop]] articulations corresponding to its oral stops, and among modern languages and dialects Dogri, Kacchi, Kalasha, Rudhari, Shina, Saurashtri, and Sindhi have been analysed as having this full complement of phonemic nasals {{IPAslink|m}} {{IPAslink|n}} {{IPAslink|ɳ}} {{IPAslink|ɲ}} {{IPAslink|ŋ}}, with the last two generally as the result of the loss of the stop from a [[homorganic]] nasal + stop cluster ({{IPA|[ɲj]}} > {{IPA|[ɲ]}} and {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}} > {{IPA|[ŋ]}}), though there are other sources as well.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|pp=95–96}}</ref>

In languages that lack phonemic nasals at some places of articulation, they can still occur allophonically from place assimilation in a nasal + stop culture, e.g. Hindi {{IPA|/nɡ/}} > {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}}.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan=5 | Nasals
! rowspan=2 | Languages
|-
! {{IPAslink|m}} !! {{IPAslink|n}} !! {{IPAslink|ɳ}} !! {{IPAslink|ɲ}} !! {{IPAslink|ŋ}}
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || <small>Dogri, Kacchi, Kalasha, Rudhari, Shina, Saurashtri, Sindhi, Saraiki</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || <small>Sinhala</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || <small>Hindi, Kalami, Odia, Dhundhari, Pashayi, Marwari</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || <small>Dhivehi{{efn|Unclear status of /ɲ/}}</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || <small>Gujarati, Kashmiri, Marathi, Punjabi, Rajasthani (Marwari)</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{ya}} || <small>Urdu, Nepali, Sylheti, Assamese, Bengali</small>
|-
| {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || {{na}} || <small>Romani, Domari</small>
|}

==== Aspiration and breathy-voice ====
Most Indo-Aryan languages have contrastive [[Aspirated consonant|aspiration]] ({{IPA|/ʈ/ ~ /ʈʰ/}}), and some retain historical [[breathy voice]] on voiced consonants ({{IPA|/ɖ/ ~ /ɖʱ/}}). Sometimes both phenomena are analysed as a single aspiration contrast. The places and manners of articulation which allow contrastive aspiration vary by language; e.g. Sindhi permits phonemic {{IPA|/mʱ/}}, but the phonemic status of this sound in Hindi is uncertain, and many "Dardic" languages lack aspirated retroflex sibilants despite having unaspirated equivalents.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|pp=101–102}}</ref>

In languages that have lost breathy-voice, the contrast has often been replaced with tone.

==== Regional developments ====
Some of these are mentioned in {{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|pp=104–105}}.

* '''[[Implosive consonant|Implosives]]''': Languages in the [[Sindhi languages|Sindhic]] subfamily, as well as [[Saraiki language|Saraiki]], western [[Marwari language|Marwari]] dialects, and some dialects of Gujarati have developed implosive consonants from historical intervocalic geminates and word-initial stops. Sindhi has a full implosive series except for the dental implosive: {{IPA|/ɠ ʄ ᶑ ɓ/}}. It has been claimed that [[Wadiyari Koli]] has the dental implosive too. Other languages have less complete implosive series, e.g. Kacchi has just {{IPA|/ᶑ ɓ/}}.
* '''[[Prenasalized stops]]''': Sinhala and Maldivian (Dhivehi) have a series of prenasalised stops covering all places except for palatal: {{IPA|/ᵐb ⁿd ᶯɖ ᵑɡ/}}.
* '''[[Palatalization (phonetics)|Palatalization]]''': Kashmiri (natively) and some Romani dialects (from contact with Slavic languages) have contrastive palatalisation.
* '''[[ɬ|Voiceless lateral]]''' In Gawarbati, some Pashai dialects, partly Bashkarik and some Shina dialects have /ɬ/ from clusters of tr kr or sometimes pr; dr gr and br merged with /l/ in these languages.
* '''[[Lateral affricate]]s''': [[Bhadarwahi language|Bhadarwahi]] has an unusual series of lateral retroflex affricates ({{IPA|/ʈ͡ꞎ ɖ͡ɭ ɖ͡ɭʱ/}} derived from historical {{IPA|/Cɾ/}} clusters.