Sandhi

Examples

Celtic languages

In Celtic languages, the consonant mutation sees the initial consonant of a word change according to its morphological or syntactic environment. Following are some examples from Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh:

Portuguese

When two words belonging to the same phrase are pronounced together, or two morphemes are joined in a word, the last sound in the first may be affected by the first sound of the next (sandhi), either coalescing with it, or becoming shorter (a semivowel), or being deleted. This affects especially the sibilant consonants , and the unstressed final vowels .

Consonant sandhi

The dialects of Portuguese can be divided into two groups, according to whether syllable-final sibilants are pronounced as postalveolar consonants or as alveolar . At the end of words, the default pronunciation for a sibilant is voiceless, , but in connected speech the sibilant is treated as though it were within a word (assimilation):

• If the next word begins with a voiceless consonant, the final sibilant remains voiceless ; bons tempos ('good times').
• If the next word begins with a voiced consonant, the final sibilant becomes voiced as well /z, ʒ/; bons dias ('good days').
• If the next word begins with a vowel, the final sibilant is treated as intervocalic, and pronounced [z]; bons amigos ('good friends').

When two identical sibilants appear in sequence within a word, they reduce to a single consonant. For example, nascer, desço, excesso, exsudar are pronounced with [s] by speakers who use alveolar sibilants at the end of syllables, and disjuntor is pronounced with by speakers who use postalveolars. But if the two sibilants are different they may be pronounced separately, depending on the dialect. Thus, the former speakers will pronounce the last example with , whereas the latter speakers will pronounce the first examples with [s] if they are from Brazil or if from Portugal (although in relaxed pronunciation, one of the siblants may be dropped). This applies also to words that are pronounced together in connected speech:

• sibilant + /s/, e.g., as sopas: either [s] (most of Brazil); [ʃs] (Portugal, standard)
• sibilant + /z/, e.g., as zonas: either [z] (mostly in Brazil); [ʒz] (Portugal, standard)
• sibilant + /ʃ/, e.g., as chaves: always [ʃ];
• sibilant + /ʒ/, e.g., os genes: always [ʒ].

Vowel sandhi

Normally, only the three vowels /ɐ/, /i/ (in BP) or /ɨ/ (in EP), and /u/ occur in unstressed final position. If the next word begins with a similar vowel, they merge with it in connected speech, producing a single vowel, possibly long (crasis). Here, "similar" means that nasalization can be disregarded, and that the two central vowels /a, ɐ/ can be identified with each other. Thus,

• /aa, aɐ, ɐa, ɐɐ/ → [a(ː)] (henceforth transcribed [a (a)]); toda a noite or ('all night'), nessa altura or ('at that point').
• /aɐ̃, ɐɐ̃/ → [ã(ː)]) (henceforth transcribed [ã (ã)]); a antiga ('the ancient one') and à antiga ('in the ancient way'), both pronounced or . The open nasalized [ã] appears only in this environment.
• /ii, iĩ/ → [i(ː), ĩ(ː)] (henceforth transcribed [i (i), ĩ (ĩ)]); de idade ('aged').
• /ɨɨ/ → [ɨ]; fila de espera ('waiting line') (EP only).
• /uu, uũ/ → [u(ː), ũ(ː)] (henceforth transcribed [u (u), ũ (ũ)]); todo o dia ('all day').

If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then /i/ and /u/ become approximants in Brazilian Portuguese (synaeresis):

• /i/ + V → [jV]; durante o curso ('during the course'), mais que um ('more than one').
• /u/ + V → [wV]; todo este tempo ('all this time') do objeto ('of the object').

In careful speech and in with certain function words, or in some phrase stress conditions (see Mateus and d'Andrade, for details), European Portuguese has a similar process:

• ; se a vires ('if you see her'), mais que um ('more than one').
• ; todo este tempo ('all this time'), do objeto ('of the object').

But in other prosodic conditions, and in relaxed pronunciation, EP simply drops final unstressed and /u/ (elision), though this is subject to significant dialectal variation:

• durante o curso ('during the course'), este inquilino ('this tenant').
• todo este tempo ('all this time'), disto há muito ('there's a lot of this').

Aside from historical set contractions formed by prepositions plus determiners or pronouns, like à/dà, ao/do, nesse, dele, etc., on one hand and combined clitic pronouns such as mo/ma/mos/mas (it/him/her/them to/for me), and so on, on the other, Portuguese spelling does not reflect vowel sandhi. In poetry, however, an apostrophe may be used to show elision such as in d'água.

German dialects

In various German dialects or the spoken Standard German, one can find phonological processes that can be analysed as sandhi. For example some varieties of Central Hessian show a vowel length alternation where, if the same long vowel were else to repeat in two consecutive syllables, the vowel is shortened/reduced in the first, but maintained in the second. Examples are [hɪɡiː] for HG hingehen ("go towards") (hin corresponds to [hiː] in Hessian) or [kən aːnʒ̊ə] for HG kein einziger ("no single [thing]").

English

In English phonology, rhotic sandhi can be seen in non-rhotic dialects, when a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel as well, a [ɹ] (voiced alveolar approximant) sound will be inserted between the words. For example, in Standard Southern British English, "law and order" is pronounced as [ˌˈlɔːɹən(d)ˌɔːdə], and "America and China" os pronounced as [əˌmɛɹəkəɹənˈʧɑjnə] (see linking and intrusive R)

French

French liaison and enchaînement can be considered forms of external sandhi.

In enchaînement, a word-final consonant, when followed by a word that starts with a vowel, is articulated as though it is part of the following word. For example, sens ('direction') is pronounced and unique ('unique') is pronounced ; sens unique ('one-way', as a street) is pronounced .

Liaison is a similar phenomenon, applicable to words ending in a consonant that was historically pronounced but that, in Modern French, is normally silent when occurring at the end of a phrase or before another consonant. In some circumstances, when the following word starts with a vowel, the consonant may be pronounced, and in that case is articulated as if part of the next word. For example, deux frères ('two brothers') is pronounced with a silent ⟨x⟩, and quatre hommes ('four men') is pronounced , but deux hommes ('two men') is pronounced .

Basque

In Basque, sandhi (lotura [linking]) are always pronounced, but never denoted in writing, when a verb beginning by z- (/s/), d- (/d/) or g- (/g/) goes after the negative adverb ez, meaning "no", "not". They are also frequent, but do not necessarily occur in all the dialects, when a verb beginning by l- (/l/) or n- (/n/) follows.

For example:

• Eman du "(He / She / It) has given it" /e'man 'du/ > Ez du eman (He / She / It) has not given it /'es'tu e'man/
• Eman zuen "(He / She / It) Gave it" /e'man tsu'en/ > Ez zuen eman (He / She / It) Did not give it /'etsu'en e'man/
• Etxean ginen "(We) were at home" /e't͡ʃe'an gi'nen/ or /e't͡ʃe'an gi'ɳen/ > Ez ginen etxean (We) were not at home /'es ki'nen e't͡ʃe'an/ or /'es ki'ɳen e't͡ʃe'an/

The same kinds of sandhi are also common when a verb beginning with z- follows a word ending in -l, -n or -r:

• Hemen zen "(He / She / It) was here" > /he'men'tsen/ or /e'men'tsen/
• Hor zen "(He / She / It) was there" > /'hor'tsen/ or /'or'tsen/
• Gal zedin "(So that he / she / it) got lost" > /'gal tse'δin/

An exception in the spelling happens with the intensive suffix -xe (/ʃe/), which changes to the affricate sound -txe (/t͡ʃe/) after -n or -r. Compare:

• hemen > hementxe ("here" > "right here", "exactly here")
• hor > hortxe ("there" > "right there", "exactly there")
• orain > oraintxe ("now" > "right now", "in this very moment")

But:

• hau > hauxe ("this ..." / "this one" > "exactly this ..." / "exactly this one")
• gora > gorago > goraxeago ("up, high" / "higher" / "a little bit higher")

Japanese

In Japanese phonology, sandhi is primarily exhibited in rendaku (consonant mutation from unvoiced to voiced when not word-initial, in some contexts) and conversion of つ or く (tsu, ku) to a geminate consonant (orthographically, the sokuon っ), both of which are reflected in spelling – indeed, the っ symbol for gemination is morphosyntactically derived from つ, and voicing is indicated by adding two dots as in か／が ka, ga, making the relation clear. It also occurs much less often in renjō (連声), where, most commonly, a terminal on one morpheme results in an (or ) being added to the start of the next morpheme, as in 天皇: てん ＋ おう → てんのう (ten + ō = tennō), meaning "emperor"; that is also shown in the spelling (the kanji do not change, but the kana, which specify pronunciation, change).

Korean

Korean has sandhi which occurs in the final consonant or consonant cluster, such that a morpheme can have two pronunciations depending on whether or not it is followed by a vowel. For example, the root 읽 , meaning ‘read’, is pronounced before a consonant, as in 읽다 , but is pronounced like before vowels, as in 읽으세요 , meaning ‘please read’. Some roots can also aspirate following consonants, denoted by the letter ㅎ (hieut) in the final consonant. This causes 다 to become in 않다 , ‘to not be’.

Tamil

Tamil 'punarchi' (புனர்ச்சி) or sandhi has been rigorously and exhaustively documented in Tamil grammar texts since the early centuries AD. As modern Tamil is strongly characterised by diglossia: there are two separate registers varying by speech context, a high register and a low one. This in turn presents two corresponding domains for forming Sandhi. Tamil employs Sandhi for certain morphological and syntactic structures.

Vowel position

The vowel sandhi occurs when words or morphemes ending in certain vowels are followed by morphemes beginning with certain vowels. Consonant glides (Tamil: ய், romanized: Y and Tamil: வ், romanized: V) are then inserted between the vowels in order to 'smooth the transition' from one vowel to another.

"The choice of whether the glide inserted will be (ய், Y and வ், V) in Tamil is determined by whether the vowel preceding the glide is a front vowel such as Tamil: இ, ஈ, எ, ஏ or ஐ, romanized: i, ī, e, ē or ai or a back vowel, such as Tamil: உ, ஊ, ஒ, ஓ, அ or ஆ, romanized: u, ū, o, ō, a or ā."

Examples in Spoken Tamil

Sandhi following front vowels

Sandhi following back vowels

In rapid speech, especially in polysyllabic words: Tamil: இந்த்யாவுலேருந்து, romanized: Intyāvulēruntu, lit. 'From India' may become — இந்த்யாலெருந்து, Intyāleruntu, which may then be further simplified to இந்த்யாலெந்து, Intyālentu.

Consonant sandhi

In lateral-stop clusters, the lateral assimilates to the stop's manner of articulation, before c, ṇ too becomes ṭ, eg. nal-mai, kal-kaḷ, vaṟaḷ-ci, kāṇ-ci, eḷ-ney > naṉmai, kaṟkaḷ, vaṟaṭci, kāṭci, eṇṇey (ṟ was historically a plosive).

Elision

In Spoken Tamil the final laterals, nasals or other sonorants may lose the final position. The final retroflex laterals for pronouns and their PNG markers for example Tamil: ள், romanized: ḷ of (female gender marker) are deleted: (To indicate the omitted stop-consonant is covered in parantheses): Tamil: அவ(ள்) போறா(ள்), romanized: Ava(ḷ) pōṟā(ḷ), lit. 'She goes'.

Noun cases

In some nouns, sandhi is triggered by the addition of a case ending to the stem.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit has formalized and systematized sandhi changes; like in all Indian languages, the sandhi changes are also recorded in the written language. There are two categories of sandhi in Sanskrit: internal and external sandhi. Internal sandhi takes place within words, at the junctures of morphemes. External sandhi occurs at word boundaries and between members of compounds.

The basic rule is to make it easier to pronounce words and sentences. Therefore, clashing consecutive sounds are avoided as much as possible. In the case of internal and external vowel sandhi, this means, generally speaking, that two vowels should not come into direct contact. This is avoided by the combination of the two consecutive vowels into a single sound. That can happen in three different ways: by coalescence of the two vowels, by changing the first vowel to a consonant, or by dropping one of the vowels. Similarly to vowels, clashing consonants are avoided by assimilation of either one or both of the juxtaposed sounds.

The number of sandhi changes in Sanskrit is extensive, these are described in various books on Sanskrit grammar and most notably, in the Aṣṭādhyāyī grammar by Pāṇini. A couple of examples are given in the following sections to illustrate the kind of changes which occur.

Examples of external vowel sandhi

In compounding, if the first word ends with /i, u/ and the second word starts with a vowel, the i, u become glides y, v, e.g. su-āgata > svāgata. If a word ends with and the second word begins with /i, u/ they become , eg. mahā-utsava > mahotsava; if the latter vowel is , it becomes /ai, au/, eg. tathā-ēva > tathaiva.

Examples of external consonant sandhi

The visarga ('ः' ) becomes a /r/ before voiced phones, eg. duḥ-labha > durlabha. Anusvara + plosive makes it a homorganic nasal, before a fricative or /r/ it nasalizes the previous vowel and before it nasalizes the .

In some compounds follows the RUKI rule, eg. vi-sama > viṣama, pitr-svaseya > pitrṣvaseya.