Himalayan Linguistics

The place of articulation for the Assamese fricative consonant represented by the consonant letters শ, ষ, and স has been a subject of debate for a long time. Linguists from the last and the present centuries have expressed varying attitudes regarding the nature of this fricative sound. Although the prevailing stance among linguists of today aligns with the perspectives of the pioneering linguists of the Assamese language, a small contingent of linguists holds an alternative standpoint; and no consensus has been established thus far. The controversial nature of this particular phoneme is likewise reflected within the Kamrupi dialect as well. Aligned with Standard Assamese, many linguists opine that in the Kamrupi dialect also this fricative phoneme has a velar place of articulation. This paper, however, argues that this phoneme in Southern Kamrupi Assamese is pre-pharyngeal as far as its place of articulation is concerned. Additionally, Southern Kamrupi features the velar fricative [x] as well, which occurs as an allophone of /ħ/. Furthermore, the phoneme /kʰ/ in Southern Kamrupi is realized as [x] in some environments. Since both /ħ/ and /kʰ/ are realized as [x] in certain contexts, therefore, it can be argued that this situation in Southern Kamrupi exemplifies the linguistic phenomenon known as phonological neutralization. This phenomenon is observed in the other two varieties of the Kamrupi Dialect as well, i.e. Nalbaria and Barpetia, and this study takes it into account to offer a broader perspective on its occurrence.