International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 SJIF (2019): 7.583 Volume 9 Issue 10, October 2020 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Morphophonology of Magahi Saloni Priya Jawaharlal Nehru University, SLL & CS, New Delhi, India Salonipriya17[at]gmail.com Abstract: Every languages has different types of word formation processes and each and every segment of morphology has a sound. The following paper is concerned with the sound changes or phonemic changes that occur during the word formation process in Magahi. Magahi is an Indo- Aryan Language spoken in eastern parts of Bihar and also in some parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The term Morphophonology refers to the interaction of word formation with the sound systems of a language. The paper finds out the phonetic rules interacting with the morphology of lexicons of Magahi. The observations shows that he most frequent morphophonological process are Sandhi, assimilation, Metathesis and Epenthesis. Whereas, the process of Dissimilation, Lenition and Fortition are very Uncommon in nature. Keywords: Morphology, Phonology, Sound Changes, Word formation process, Magahi, Words, Vowels, Consonants 1. Introduction Morphophonology refers to the interaction between morphological and phonological or its phonetic processes. The aim of this paper is to give a detailed account on the sound changes that take place in morphemes, when they combine to form new words in the language. 2. Historical and Geographical View of Magahi Magahi is derived from „Magadhi‟ and to reach its present name it had to go through a long process which may mentioned as in, मागधी>मागहि>मगिी. In the oldest Buddhist literature Pali awas referred again and again as Magadhi, the language of Buddha. The historical and cultural evidence also reveals that Magadha contributed a lot in formation of Pali. Magahi is also closely related to Bhojpuri and Maithili, and these languages are sometime referred to as sister languages as it belongs to Indo-aryan Languages. Though, the number of speaker in Magahi is large, it has not been recognized by the constitution of India. It was legally absorbed under the subordinate label of Hindi in the 1961 census. The number of speakers has not really gone down but has simply been swallowed up by the census figures for Hindi speakers and this could be some sociolinguistic factors and attitudes of speakers involved in it (Verma,1985).The number of speakers on the basis of latest census report available in 2001 is 13,978,565 and in 2011 is approximately 20,700,000 which also includes the Khortha speakers. Magahi is mainly spoken in Patna, Gaya, Nawada, Jahanabad, Nalanda and some other districts of Bihar, Jharkhand and west Bengal. 3. Linguistic Characteristics of Magahi Magahi has ten vowels but only twenty nine consonants, which is lesser than Hindi. All Vowels can be nasalized and nasalization is phonemic. Its syllable contains a vowels as nucleus, followed or preceded by a consonant. Words usually have two or three syllable. Magahi is represented in Kaithi Script and sometimes in Devnagri too. 3.1 The Sources of Magahi Glossary Magahi has three kind of vocabulary sources; i) In the first category, it has those lexemes which has been processed or influenced by Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apbhransh, ect. Like, धमम > धम> धरम, सम > स> सा ii) In the second category, it has those words which are basically found in Vedas, but could not been developed in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhransh or Hindi etc. iii) The third category has common words, which we cannot connect it with Vedas. These are plenty in numbers. This category includes words which comes under tadbhav, tatsam, desaj,etc. For example these word categories has some obvious changes like; भात>भा, ित> िाथ> िथा, बासुरी> बंसुली, चुटी>चुी 4. Morpho-phonemic Alternations in Magahi 4.1 Assimilation Assimilation has a very precise meaning when its comes to study of languages. It‟s phonological process which is quite common in the languages where phonetic speech of a segment become more like another segment in a word. In other words, it‟s when a letter (sound) is influenced by the sound before or after it, so that it changes its sound. A common example of assimilation is “don‟t be an idiot” were the /n/ and /t/ are assimilated to /m/ by the following /b/, in many accents the natural sound is “dombe an idiot”. Assimilation can be synchronic being an active phonological process in a language at a given point in time or diachronic being a historical sound change. There are four configurations found : the increase in phonetic similarities may be between segments separated by one or more intervening segments; the changes could be In reference to a preceding segment or following one. Even when all four occur, it changes in regard to a following adjacent segment account for virtually all assimilatory changes. Assimilation to an adjacent segment are vastly more frequent then assimilation to a non adjacent one. Paper ID: SR201026030150 DOI: 10.21275/SR201026030150 1539