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Schwa deletion, or schwa syncope, is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs in Assamese, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Gujarati, and several other Indo-Aryan languages with schwas that are implicit in their written scripts. Languages like Marathi and Maithili with increased influence from other languages through coming into contact with them—also show a similar phenomenon. Some schwas are obligatorily deleted in pronunciation even if the script suggests otherwise.[1][2] Here, schwa refers to an inherent vowel in the respective abugida scripts, not necessarily pronounced as schwa (mid central vowel).
Schwa deletion is important for intelligibility and unaccented speech. It also presents a challenge to non-native speakers and speech synthesis software because the scripts, including Devanagari, do not indicate when schwas should be deleted.[3]
For example, the Sanskrit word "Rāma" (IPA: [raːmɐ], राम) is pronounced "Rām" (IPA: [raːm], राम्) in Hindi. The schwa (ə) sound at the end of the word is deleted in Hindi.[4] However, in both cases, the word is written राम.
The schwa is not deleted in ancient languages such as Sanskrit. The schwa is also retained in all the modern registers of the Dravidian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam as well as the Indo-Aryan languages Odia and Sinhala. According to Masica (1993), there has been not "any attempt to deal with it [schwa deletion] (and medial vowel loss in general) in systematic fashion either descriptively or historically across all NIA [New Indo-Aryan] languages."[5]
| Languages | Mid schwa deletion | Final schwa deletion |
|---|---|---|
| Assamese | Retains | Both |
| Bengali | Both | Both |
| Gujarati | Both | Deletes |
| Hindi | Both | Deletes |
| Kannada | Retains | Retains |
| Malayalam | Retains | Retains |
| Marathi | Both | Both |
| Odia | Retains | Retains |
| Punjabi | Both | Deletes |
| Sanskrit | Retains | Retains |
| Tamil | Retains | Retains |
| Telugu | Retains | Retains |
| Urdu | Deletes | Deletes |
- ^ Larry M. Hyman; Victoria Fromkin; Charles N. Li (1988), Language, speech, and mind (Volume 1988, Part 2), Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-415-00311-3,
...The implicit /a/ is not read when the symbol appears in word-final position or in certain other contexts where it is obligatorily deleted (via the so-called schwa-deletion rule which plays a crucial role in Hindi word phonology)...
- ^ Indian linguistics, Volume 37, Linguistic Society of India, 1976, 1976,
...the history of the schwa deletion rule in Gujarati has been examined. The historical perspective brings out the fact that schwa deletion is not an isolated phenomenon; the loss of final -a has preceded the loss of medial -a-;...
- ^ Tej K. Bhatia (1987), A history of the Hindi grammatical tradition: Hindi-Hindustani grammar, grammarians, history and problems, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-07924-6,
...Hindi literature fails as a reliable indicator of the actual pronunciation because it is written in the Devanagari script... the schwa syncope rule which operates in Hindi....
- ^ Ann K. Farmer; Richard A. Demers (2010). A Linguistics Workbook: Companion to Linguistics (Sixth ed.). MIT Press. p. 78. ISBN 9780262514828.
- ^ Masica 1993, p. 189.