Dhimal distinguishes five primary vowel qualities. The phonological properties of the vowel may be said to consist of a phonemic bundle of features, the two primary parameters of which are length and nasality, resulting in a three-way opposition. The Dhimal vowel phonemes are listed below in Diagram 2.
oral nasal
i / i: u / u: ĩ ũ
e / e: ə o / o: ẽ õ
a / a: ã
Diagram 2 Vowel phonemes
There are six diphthongs, all of which end in either a high front vowel /i/ or a high back vowel /u/. While certain diphthongs are more frequent than others (/iu/ occurs in only a few words), all are restricted to open syllables. Nasalised diphthongs are rare, occurring
primarily in loans. The Dhimal diphthongs are listed below in Diagram 3. iu ui eu oi au ai Diagram 3 Diphthongs
2.2.1Phonetic description of Dhimal vowel phonemes
The following table provides a phonetic description of the Dhimal vowel phonemes and prominent allophones.
/i/ short unrounded front high vowel [i]
in a closed syllable: unrounded
front mid-high vowel [ɪ]
/ĩ/ short unrounded front high nasal vowel [ĩ]
/i:/ tense long unrounded front high vowel [iː]
/e/ unrounded half-long mid-high front vowel [e]
in a closed syllable:
unrounded short mid-low front vowel [ɛ]
/ẽ/ unrounded half-long mid-high front nasal vowel [ẽ] /e:/ tense long unrounded mid-high front vowel [eː]
/a/ rounded half-long low back vowel [a]
/ã/ rounded half-long low back nasal vowel [ã]
/o/ rounded half-long mid-high back vowel [o] in a closed syllable: rounded short
mid-high back vowel [ɔ]
/õ/ rounded half-long mid-high back nasal vowel [õ]
/o:/ tense rounded long mid-high back vowel [oː]
/u/ rounded short back high vowel [u]
in a syllable closed by a nasal: rounded
short mid-high back vowel [ʊ]
/ũ/ rounded short back high nasal vowel [ũ]
/u:/ tense rounded long back high vowel [uː]
/ə/ short unrounded mid vowel [ə]
/iu/ diphthong [iu]
/eu/ diphthong [eu]
/ai/ diphthong [ai]
/au/ diphthong [au]
/oi/ diphthong [oi]
/ui/ diphthong [ui]
2.2.2Distinctiveness of vowel phonemes
Vowel length is largely distinctive only in open stem verbs and derived nominals. Hence, this opposition, which could also be cast as an opposition between lax and tense or clear and laryngealised
vowels, is highly constrained. The following minimal pairs establish the phonetic status of the short and long vowels:
/a/ - /a:/
cali to eat ca:li to take
/e/ - /e:/
seli to bear fruit se:li to be rough
/i/ - /i:/
Thili to fear thi:li to brush off
/o/ - /o:/
oli to steam o:li to peel
/u/ - /u:/
culi to sting cu:li to suck
Nasalised vowels occur primarily with open syllables of polysyllabic nominals. These nominals are mostly made up of animal names:cẽja ‘woodpecker’, sẽsu ‘insect sp.’, pãya ‘tick’, pũya ‘snake’, nhõyha
‘monkey’,õya‘horse’,bãya‘bee’,khuwãhã‘tiger’,jahã ‘mosquito’,
juhã‘rat’,jihã‘bird’ andsihã‘seed’. The few exceptions include the directionals like dihẽ ‘west’, a few intransitive verbs such as jihĩka
‘aligned’ andjahãka‘snowy white’, onomotopoeiadẽduɁ‘sound of a frog’ andkũɁkũɁ‘sound of a rat’, and the first person future, which is marked by nasalisation of the future morpheme.
Nasalised vowels in virtually all cases take lexical stress, but note
kinĩkinĩpa[ˈkɪnĩˈkɪnĩpa] ‘dizzy’ anddihẽ[ˈdiɦẽ] ‘west’. Acoustically, nasal vowels are characterised by less energy in F0 and often
increased duration. Syllables ending in a nasal consonant may result in nasalisation of the preceding vowel, while nasals in unstressed syllables may be realised solely as nasalisation in rapid speech: buŋ [bʊŋ ~ bũ] ‘also’ and <-teŋ> [tɛŋ ~ tẽ] ‘SEQ’. So, while nasalised vowels derive historically from the loss of final nasals and synchronically some nasal finals may alternate with nasalised vowels,
the latter are clearly distinct and should not be analysed as allophones of the former. The following minimal pairs illustrate the contrast between nasal vowels and clear vowels followed by a nasal consonant.
/ã/ - /aŋ/
cã I’ll eat caŋ he will eat
/ẽ/ - /eŋ/
dihẽ west waheŋ 3s +DAT
/ĩ/ - /iŋ/
kinĩkinĩpa dizzily khiniŋ only
/õ/ - /oŋ/
õya horse oŋgalaiti firefly
/ũ/ - /uŋ/
pũya snake phuŋga hole
Many diphthongs clearly derive from the loss of syllable-final consonants, based on pronunciations of the derived forms of certain root morphemes and the cognate forms of the same root etyma in other Tibeto-Burman languages, specifically those closed by laterals or velar nasals. Compare the following alternations between closed syllables and diphthongs: hulme
‘wife’s younger sister’ and huluŋga ‘wife’s elder brother’ vs.
huigo ‘wife’s younger brother’, and thalpuli ‘throw away’ vs.
thaigilli‘throw around’:atuŋka~atuika‘small’ andmhaŋgelai ~
mhaigelai ‘evil spirit’. While most cases involve the complete loss of the original nasality, sometimes it is maintained as inaŋ ~
aũ ‘okay?’.2The following pairs establish the distinctiveness of the diphthongs.
2
Only in the case of the diphthong /au/ does there appear to be descent from the putatively reconstructed proto-language: sau ‘fat’ PTB *sau and anau ‘younger sibling’ PTB *nau.
/oi/ - /ui/
toi piece, bit tui egg
/oi/ - /ai/
boi aunt, uncle bai elder sister
/oi/ - /eu/
doipa hanging deupa drooping
/ai/ - /au/
sai cow hump sau fat
/iu/ - /eu/
ciuli to bathe ceuli to tingle