The retroflex lateral flap may be more concisely transcribed with the non-IPA symbol, though this may not display properly in some browsers.
A fourth nasal phoneme is postulated for the phones and the nasalization of a preceding vowel. Before velar and palatal stops, there is variation between these; e.g. ~, ~.
Stops occurring at first members of clusters followed by consonants other than are unreleased; they are optionally unreleased in final position. The absence of release entails deaspiration of voiceless stops.
and with murmuring of vowels, the voiced aspirated stops have voiced spirant allophones. Spirantization of non-palatal voiceless aspirates has been reported as well, including being usually realized as in the standard dialect.
The voiced retroflex stops and the nasal have flapped allophones. Intervocalically all three are flapped. is unflapped before retroflex stops, and in final position varies freely between flapped and unflapped. The stops are unflapped initially, geminated, and postnasally; and flapped intervocalically, finally, and before or after other consonants.
has and as allophones.
The distribution of sibilants varies over dialects and registers.
* Some dialects only have, others prefer, while another system has them non-contrasting, with occurring contiguous to palatal segments. Retroflex still appears in clusters in which it precedes another retroflex: .
* Some speakers maintain as well for Persian and English borrowings. Persian's 's have by and large been transposed to and : and . The same cannot be so easily said for English: .
* Lastly, a colloquial register has, or both and, replaced by voiceless. For educated speakers speaking this register, this replacement does not extend to Sanskrit borrowings.
Phonotactical constraints include:
and do not occur word-initially.
Clusters occur initially, medially, and finally. Geminates occur only medially.
Biconsonantal initial clusters beginning with stops have,,, and as second members. In addition to these, in loans from Sanskrit the clusters and may occur. The occurrence of as a second member in consonantal clusters is one of Gujarati's conservative features as a modern Indo-Aryan language. For example, languages used in Asokan inscriptions display contemporary regional variations, with words found in Gujarat's Girnar inscriptions containing clusters with as the second member not having in their occurrence in inscriptions elsewhere. This is maintained even to today, with Gujarati corresponding to Hindi and.
Initially, s clusters biconsonantally with, and non-palatal voiceless stops.
Triconsonantal initial clusters include - most of which occur in borrowings.
Geminates were previously treated as long consonants, but they are better analyzed as clusters of two identical segments. Two proofs for this:
* The u in geminated uccār "pronunciation" sounds more like the one in clusteredudgār than the one in shorteneducāṭ.
* Geminates behave towards -deletion like clusters do.
Gemination can serve as intensification. In some adjectives and adverbs, a singular consonant before the agreement vowel can be doubled for intensification. #VCũ → #VCCũ.
Stress is on the first syllable except when it doesn't have and the second syllable does.
Stress is barely perceptible.
Stress typically falls on the penultimate syllable of a word, however, if the penultimate vowel in a word with more than two syllables is schwa, stress falls on the preceding syllable.
ə-deletion
Schwa-deletion, along with a-reduction and -insertion, is a phonological process at work in the combination of morphemes. It is a common feature among Indo-Aryan languages, referring to the deletion of a stem's final syllable's before a suffix starting with a vowel. This does not apply for monosyllabic stems and consonant clusters. So, better put, #VCəC + V# → #VCCV#. It also doesn't apply when the addition is an oplural marker or e as an ergative case marker.
ɑ-reduction
A stem's final syllable's will reduce to before a suffix starting with. #ɑC + ɑ# → #eCɑ#. This can be seen in the derivation of nouns from adjective stems, and in the formation of passive and causative forms of verb stems.
-insertion
Between a stem ending in a vowel and its suffix starting with a vowel, a is inserted. #V + V# → #VʋV#. This can be seen in the formation of passive and causative forms of verb stems. The second example shows an ɑ-reduction as well.
ə-insertion
ə finds itself inserted between the emphatic particle and consonant-terminating words it postpositions.
one
one
that
that
Murmur
serves as a source for murmur, of which there are three rules: The table below compares declensions of the verbs and . The former follows the regular pattern of the stable root serving as a point for characteristic suffixations. The latter, on the other hand, is deviant and irregular in this respect.
Infinitive
Perfective
Imperative
1sg. Future
The situation can be explained through murmur. If to a formal or historical root of these rules are considered then predicted, explained, and made regular is the irregularity that is . Thus below are the declensions of -possessing, murmur-eliciting root, this time with the application of the murmur rules on the root shown, also to which a preceding rule must be taken into account:
Rule
Infinitive
Perfective
Imperative
1sg. Future
0
2
3
→
However, in the end not all instances of become murmured and not all murmur comes from instances of. One other predictable source for murmur is voiced aspirated stops. A clear vowel followed by a voiced aspirated stop can vary with a pair gaining murmur and losing aspiration:.
