Vol. VI, No. 5.1 Some Remarks on Mundari Phonoloav. 251 



[N.S.] ' ' 



over them. For instance, in pronouncing labials, the lips have 

 first to be closed. This being done, I can pronounce a p, or b, 

 or ph, or bh, as I like. Now the semi- consonants in Mundari 

 consist only of the sound produced by the first part of the process 

 described, and from the description of them in Screfsrud's Santali 

 Grammar, pp. 10 and 11, I conclude that the same is the case in 

 Santali. They, therefore, naturally cannot be hard, but must be 

 neutral. A neutral sound, however, stands, I think, nearer to 

 a soft than to a hard sound. In Mundari, at least, e.g., ub' 

 (Santali up'), has not a pronunciation similar to p as in 

 English "hoop ", but rather to b as in German " hub "; and 

 kented' in its pronunciation does not resemble that ot Ger- 

 man " kentert ", but rather that of " kenternd. " With some 

 speakers who, in putting into position the respective organs, 

 do not close their throat fully, naturally some air is escaping 

 through the nose before they have relaxed their organs, and 

 therefore a slight nasal sound is heard from them after the 

 semi-consonant, which sometimes has been marked, e.g., ub m , 

 med n . 



When in Santali the semi-consonants are described as hard 

 sounds, and I myself had ample opportunity to notice their 

 somewhat different pronunciation among the Santals of 

 Dhalbhum and Morbhanj, this must have other reasons. Per- 

 haps it is due to the pointed, jerklike pronunciation of the 

 vowel preceding the semi-consonant, which before d' and b' in 

 Mundari is pronounced quite in the ordinary way. Besides 

 this, the Rev. Screfsrud in the description of these sounds in 

 his Santali Grammar, pp. 8 to 11, speaks of a " sharp inhala- 

 tion of the breath M preceding or accompanying the closing of 

 the organs. Nothing of this kind can be observed in connec- 

 tion with the pronunciation of Mundari b' and dV nor could 

 I observe it among the Santals in Dhalbhum. Like in Santali, 



b 5 and d' before the passive voice suffix o' (Santali ok') are 

 changed into the resp. soft consonants in Mundari, e.g.. jutidoa 

 of jutid'. The predicative suffixes jad\ tad', ad' and akad' 

 drop d\ the suffixes ked' and led' even ed' before the pro- 

 nominal infixes of the first and third person singular, in and i, 

 viz., neljaiaing, metainse, emakaiai, kajikinai nelliai instead 

 of" neljadiaing, metadinai, emakadiai, kajikedinai nellediai, 

 but the full forms are heard in many places too. Around 

 Ranchi occasionally instead of the suffix ked -a form ker is 

 heard, probably due to Kurukh influence, in which language 

 kerais frequently added to the past tense, e.g., bonga kera- 

 ( Hindi bhag gaya). Father De Smet mentioned this form too. 

 (His Grammar^ p. 2). So also Dr. Nottrott, p. 7, of his Gram- 

 mar. In the Ho dialect, the Mundari dental consonants, and 

 likewise the dental semi-consonants, are generally pronounced as 

 cerebrals, especially in the just mentioned predicative suffixes. 

 In forms like nelkeded' (Mundari nelked'te) the position of the 



• 



