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Anusvara |
Anusvara (/ˌænʊˈsvɑːrə/AN-uu-SVAR-ə;Sanskrit:अनुस्वार,IAST:anusvāra,IPA:[ɐn̪usʋaːrɐ]), also known asBindu (/ˈbɪndu/BIN-doo;Hindi:बिन्दु[bɪn̪d̪uː]), is a symbol used in manyIndic scripts to mark a type ofnasal sound, typically transliterated⟨ṃ⟩ or⟨ṁ⟩ in standards likeISO 15919 andIAST. Depending onits location in a word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the context of ancientSanskrit,anusvara is the name of the particular nasal sound itself, regardless of written representation.
InVedic Sanskrit, the anusvāra (lit. 'after-sound' or 'subordinate sound')[1] was anallophonic (derived) nasal sound.
The exact nature of the sound has been subject to debate. The material in the variousancient phonetic treatises points towards different phonetic interpretations, and these discrepancies have historically been attributed to either differences in the description of the same pronunciation[2] or to dialectal or diachronic variation.[3][4] In a 2013 reappraisal of the evidence, Cardona concludes that these reflect real dialectal differences.[5]
The environments in which the anusvara could arise, however, were well defined. In the earliestVedic Sanskrit, it was an allophone of /m/ at amorpheme boundary, or of /n/ within morphemes, when it was preceded by a vowel and followed by africative (/ś/, /ṣ/, /s/, /h/).[1] In later Sanskrit its use expanded to other contexts, first before /r/ under certain conditions, then, inClassical Sanskrit, before/v/ and/y/.[1]
Later still,Pāṇini gave anusvara as an alternative pronunciation as word-finalsandhi, and later treatises also prescribed it at morpheme junctions and within morphemes.[6] In the later written language, the diacritic used to represent anusvara was optionally used to indicate anasal stop having the sameplace of articulation as a followingplosive, which was written in some evolved scripts (e.g. in Bengali-Assamese) as an additional sandhi letter (no longer as a diacritic) for Vedic transcriptions of Sanskrit, to distinguish it with the anusvara diacritic that was used to transcribe other phonemes.
In theDevanagari script, anusvāra is represented with adot (bindu) above the letter (e.g.मं). In theInternational Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), the corresponding symbol is ṃ (m with anunderdot). Some transcriptions render notation of phonetic variants used in some Vedicshakhas with variant transcription (ṁ).
In writing Sanskrit, the anusvara is often used as an alternative representation of the nasal stop with the same place of articulation as the following plosive. For example,[əŋɡə] 'limb (of the body)' may be written with either a conjunct, अङ्गaṅga, or with an anusvara, अंगaṃga. A variant of the anusvara, theanunāsika or 'chandrabindu', was used more explicitly for nasalized vowels, as in अँशaṃśa for[ə̃ɕə] 'portion'.[7]
InStandard Hindi, the anusvāra is traditionally defined as representing a nasal consonanthomorganic to a followingplosive, in contrast to thecandrabindu (anunāsika), which indicatesvowel nasalization. In practice, however, the two are often used interchangeably.
The precise phonetic value of the phoneme, whether it is represented byanusvāra orcandrabindu, is dependent on the phonological environment.[8]
Word-finally, it is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel:kuāṃ[kʊ̃ãː], "a well". It results in vowel nasalization also medially between a short vowel and a non-obstruent (kuṃvar[kʊ̃ʋər] "a youth",gaṃṛāsā[ɡə̃ɽaːsaː] "a long-handled axe") and, in native words, between a long vowel and a voiceless plosive (dāṃt[dãːt] "tooth",sāṃp[sãːp] "a snake",pūṃch[pũːtʃʰ] "tail").
It is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, with the preceding vowel becoming nasalizedallophonically, in the following cases: between a long vowel and a voiced plosive (tāṃbā[taːmbaː] "copper",cāṃdī[tʃaːndiː] "silver"), between a long vowel and a voiceless plosive in loanwords (dāṃt[daːnt] "repressed",baiṃk[bæːŋk] "a bank",khazāṃcī[kʰəzaːɲtʃiː] "cashier"), and between a short vowel and an obstruent (saṃbhāl-[səmbʱaːl] "to support",saṃdūk[sənduːk] "a chest").
The last rule has two sets of exceptions in which theanusvāra results only in the nasalization of the preceding short vowel. Words from the first set are morphologically derived from words with a long nasalized vowel (baṃṭ-[bə̃ʈ], "to be divided" frombāṃṭ-[bãʈ], "to divide";siṃcāī[sɪ̃tʃai], "irrigation" fromsīṃc-[sĩːtʃ], "to irrigate"). In such cases, the vowel is sometimes denasalized ([bəʈ],[sɪtʃai] instead of[bə̃ʈ-],[sɪ̃tʃai]). The second set is composed of a few words like(pahuṃc-[pahʊ̃tʃ], "to arrive" andhaṃs-[hə̃s], "to laugh").[note 1]
InMarathi, the anusvāra is pronounced as anasal that ishomorganic to the following consonant (with the sameplace of articulation). For example, it is pronounced as thedental nasal न् beforedental consonants, as thebilabial nasal म् beforebilabial consonants, etc[citation needed]. Unlike in other Indic languages, the same dot designating the anusvāra in Marathi is also used to mark a retension of the inherent vowel (it is inconsistently placed over a consonant after which the short central vowel is to be pronounced and not elided).
InNepali, the candrabindu indicates vowel nasalization. Therefore, there is a great deal of variation regarding which occurs in any given position. Many words containing anusvara thus have alternative spellings with achandrabindu instead of the anusvāra and vice versa. Anusvara is used when there is too little space for thechandrabindu. The anusvāra can represent a nasal vowel, a homoorganic nasal, or both.
Anusvara is used in other languages usingIndic scripts as well, usually to represent suprasegmental phones (such asphonation type or nasalization) or other nasal sounds.
In theBengali script, the anusvara diacritic (Bengali:অনুস্বার,romanized: ônuśśar) is written as a circle above a slanted line (ং), and represents /অঙ্/. It is used in the name of theBengali languageবাংলা[baŋla] and has merged in pronunciation with the letterঙunga in Bengali.
Although the anusvara is a consonant inBengali phonology, it is treated in the written system as a diacritic in that it is always directly adjacent to the preceding consonant, even when consonants are spaced apart in titles or banners:বাং-লা-দে-শbaṅ-la-de-ś, notবা-ং-লা-দে-শba-ṅ-la-de-ś forবাংলাদেশBangladesh. It is never pronounced with the inherent vowel 'ô' (/ɔ/ or/o/), and it cannot take a vowel sign (instead, the consonantঙuṅô is used before vowels).
In theBurmese script, the anusvara (အောက်မြစ်auk myit (့)IPA:[aʊʔmjɪʔ]) is represented as a dot under a nasalised final to indicate acreaky tone (with a shortened vowel).
Burmese also uses a dot above a letter to indicate the/-ɴ/ nasalized ending (called "Myanmar Sign Anusvara" in Unicode), calledသေးသေးတင်thay thay tin (IPA:[θéðétɪ̀ɰ̃]) (ံ)
In theSinhala script, the anusvara is not a nonspacing combining mark but a spacing combining mark. It has a circular shape and follows its base letter ( ං).[9] It is calledbinduva inSinhala, which means "dot". The anusvara represents/ŋ/ at the end of a syllable. It is used in the name of theSinhala language සිංහල[ˈsiŋɦələ]. It has merged in pronunciation with the letter ඞ ṅa in Sinhala.
TheTelugu script has full-zero (sunna) ం , half-zero (arasunna) andvisarga to convey various shades of nasal sounds. Anusvara is represented as a circle shape after a letter:[10] క - ka and కం - kam.
The equivalent of the anusvara in theThai alphabet is thenikkhahit (◌ํ). Used in rendering Sanskrit andPali texts, it is written as an open circle above the consonant (for exampleอํ). Its pronunciation depends on the following sound: if it is a consonant, the nikkhahit is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, and if it is at the end of a word, it is pronounced as avoiced velar nasal/ŋ/.[citation needed]
Anunasika (anunāsika) is a form ofvowel 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 ParisianFrench. When "n" or "m" follows a vowel, the "n" or "m" becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasal (it is pronounced with the soft palate extended downward to allow part or all of the air to leave through the nostrils). Anunasika is sometimes called asubdot because of itsIAST representation.
InDevanagari and related scripts, the anunasika is represented by thechandrabindu diacritic (example: माँ).
InBurmese, the anunasika, calledသေးသေးတင် (IPA:[θéðétɪ̀ɰ̃]) and represented as⟨ံ⟩, creates the/-ɰ̃/ nasalized ending when it is attached as a dot above a letter. The anunasika represents the -m final in Pali.
Unicode encodes anusvara and anusvara-like characters for a variety of scripts:
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