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Thephoneme inventory of theMarathi language is similar to that of many otherIndo-Aryan languages. AnIPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Marathi is provided below.

Vowels in native words are:

There is almost no phonemic length distinction, even though it is indicated in the script. Some educated speakers try to maintain a length distinction in learned borrowings (tatsamas) from Sanskrit.^[1]

UnlikeKonkani orHindustani, there are no phonemic nasal vowels in Marathi.^[2]

Marathi only has four phonemic diphthongs:/əi,əu,ai,au/.

There are two more vowel signs used when writing Marathi to denote the pronunciations of English words such as of/æ/ inact and/ɔ/ inall. These are written as⟨अ‍ॅ⟩ and⟨ऑ⟩.

Furthermore,ɤ andʌ occur as allophones ofə, with words such asकळ (kaḷa) being pronounced as[kɤː𝼈 ] rather than[kə𝼈] and others such asमहाराज (mahārāja) being pronounced as[mʌɦa.raːd͡z].^[3]

Marathi retains several features of Sanskrit that have been lost in other Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi and Bengali, especially in terms of pronunciation of vowels and consonants. For instance, Marathi retains the original diphthong qualities of⟨ऐ⟩[əi], and⟨औ⟩[əu] which became monophthongs in Hindi. However, similar to speakers of Western Indo-Aryan languages and Dravidian languages, Marathi speakers tend to pronounce syllabic consonant ऋṛ as[ru], unlike Northern Indo-Aryan languages which changed it to[ri] (e.g. the original Sanskrit pronunciation of the language's name-rootsaṃskṛta was[sɐ̃skr̩t̪ɐ], while in day-to-day Marathi it is[səw̃.skrut̪]; in the aforementioned Northern Indo-Aryan languages, it is[sən.skrɪt̪]). While Marathi has also undegoneschwa deletion like other Indo-Aryan languages in word-final positions, it has conserved the schwas after consonant clusters in words likeशब्द (śabda, word) and also reintroduced it for certain words.

Notes

• Marathi used to have a/t͡sʰ/ but it merged with/s/.^[4]
• Some speakers pronounce/d͡z,d͡zʱ/ as fricatives but the aspiration is maintained in/zʱ/.^[4]
• Spoken Marathi in Marathwada-Vidarbha regions frequently simplifies the retroflexes /ɳ/, and /ʂ/ to /n/ and /s/; for example,आणि (āṇi, 'and') will be pronounced as[aːn] instead of[aːɳi].^[8]
• Unlike inHindustani, Marathi does not contrast /ɖ/ and /ɽ/ or /ɖʱ/ and /ɽʱ/. Instead, the pairs are conditional allophones, being realized as stops in word-initial or post-nasal positions and as flaps in all other positions.^[7]

In Marathi, the Indo-Aryan/l/ split into aretroflex lateral flapḷ when singular and alveolarl when doubled. It shares this feature withOdia,Punjabi,Gujarati, and other Western Indo-Aryan languages. For example, Sanskritkulam, 'clan' becomeskuḷa and Sanskritkamalam, 'lotus' becomeskamaḷa, Sanskrittila, velli, cullī, bhalla, lulla, Marathitīḷ, vel, ċūl, bhalā, lulā. Another source is from sporadicḍ, e.g. Sanskritdāḍima, ṣṓḍaśa, 'pomegranate', '16', Marathiḍāḷimba, soḷā.^[4] Marathi may have gottenḷ due to the areal influence of the neighbouring Dravidian languages; there are someḷ words loaned from Kannada likeṭhaḷak fromtaḷaku but most of the words are native.Vedic Sanskrit also had/𝼈,𝼈ʱ/, but they merged with/ɖ,ɖʱ/ by the time of classical Sanskrit, these are unrelated to modern IAḷ.

Palatalization is phonemic for some consonants, but it has not been well studied.^[9] Furthermore, palatalization is only denoted forर (r) in writing through the usage of theeyelash reph/raphar, further complicating analysis. The following table gives two minimal pairs (in Standard Marathi) as examples:^[10]

Additionally, ananusvara may be pronounced as a nasalized approximant in certain locations. When precedingश (ś),ष (ṣ),स (s),ह (h), orर (r), it is rendered asw̃. For example, the wordsसंशय (saṁśaya, 'doubt') andसंरक्षण (saṁrakṣaṇa, 'protection') are pronounced as[səw̃.ɕəj] and[səw̃rəkʂəɳ] respectively. Beforeय (y), the anusvara is rendered asj̃: for example,संयुक्त (saṁyukta, 'joint') is pronounced as[səj̃jukt̪ə].^[11]

Some dialects tend to simplify consonant clusters that are otherwise plentiful in standard Marathi. This might be an adaptation to a faster speaking pace. For example, "त्यांच्यासाठी" is often pronounced as "त्यांसनी", eliminating the "chya" cluster.^[12]

• Ghatage, A.M (1970).Marathi Of Kasargod. Mumbai.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sardesai, V.N.Some Problems in the Nasalization of Marathi, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• Ghatage, M.M.Pronunciation Problems of the Marathi Speakers, Language in India.

• Marathi language sounds

• Marathi language
• Indo-Aryan phonologies

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