Back to Matrix [ɡʱ] → [g] Edit this Data

[g]→[ɡʱ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 2/5

Voiced velar plosive to Voiced aspirated velar plosive

The voiced aspirated velar stop [gʱ] (breathy-voiced or murmured stop) exists as a separate phoneme in South Asian languages. Unlike voiceless aspirated stops in Germanic languages (which are allophones), voiced aspirated stops in Hindi, Sindhi, and related languages are independent phonemes contrasting minimally with their unaspirated counterparts. This represents phonemic contrast, not allophony.

Phonetic Effects

Aspiration, Phonemic Contrast

Language Examples

Hindi Indo-Aryan

/g/ (gāl गाल cheek)→/gʱ/ (ghār घर house)— Hindi maintains a four-way voicing contrast for velars: /k kʰ g gʱ/. The voiced aspirate /gʱ/ is a distinct phoneme, not an allophone of /g/.

Sindhi Indo-Aryan

/g/→/gʱ/— Sindhi preserves the full Indo-Aryan voiced aspirate series; /gʱ/ is phonemically contrastive with /g/.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Indo-Aryan Shifts

[ai] → [e] — Monophthongization [kʰ] → [tʃ] — Palatalization [ai] → [ɛ] — Monophthongization [bʱ] → [b] — Deaspiration [bʱ] → [∅] — Lenition

Sources & References

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