Hindustani phonology

Hindustani is the lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan, and through its two standardized registers, Hindi and Urdu, a co-official language of India and co-official and national language of Pakistan respectively. Phonological differences between the two standards are minimal. Hindustani natively possesses a symmetrical ten-vowel system. The vowels [ə], [ɪ], [ʊ] are always short in length, while the vowels [aː], [iː], [uː], [eː], [oː], [ɛː], [ɔː] are usually considered long, in addition to an eleventh vowel /æː/ which is found in English loanwords. The distinction between short and long vowels is often described as tenseness, with short vowels being lax, and long vowels being tense. Vowels are somewhat longer before voiced stops than before voiceless stops. /ə/ is often realized more open than mid ə, i.e. as near-open ɐ. The open central vowel is transcribed in IPA by either [aː] or [ɑː]. In Urdu, there is further short [a] (spelled ہ, as in کمرہ kamra kəmra) in word-final position, which contrasts with [aː] (spelled ا, as in لڑکا laṛkā ləɽkaː). This contrast is often not realized by Urdu speakers, and always neutralized in Hindi (where both sounds uniformly correspond to [aː]). Among the close vowels, what in Sanskrit are thought to have been primarily distinctions of vowel length (that is /i, iː/ and /u, uː/), have become in Hindustani distinctions of quality, or length accompanied by quality (that is, /ɪ, iː/ and /ʊ, uː/). The opposition of length in the close vowels has been neutralized in word-final position, only allowing long close vowels in final position. As a result, Sanskrit loans which originally have a short close vowel are realized with a long close vowel, e.g. (शक्ति – 'energy') and (वस्तु – 'item') are [ʃəktiː] and [ʋəstuː], not *[ʃəktɪ] and *[ʋəstʊ]. The vowel represented graphically as ऐ – (romanized as ) has been variously transcribed as [ɛː] or [æː]. Among sources for this article, , pictured to the right, uses [ɛː], while and use [æː]. Furthermore, an eleventh vowel /æː/ is found in English loanwords, such as /bæːʈ/ ('bat').