Hindi: 'क्ह' vs 'ख'

[El Ganador]

I was wondering whether these two sounds are the same or not (I have never seen the first one used though).

I wonder is similar statements could be made about 'ग्ह and घ', 'च्ह and छ', and the rest of the sounds in this manner.

 

[Arbish Ali]

I was wondering whether these two sounds are the same or not (I have never seen the first one used though).

I wonder is similar statements could be made about 'ग्ह and घ', 'च्ह and छ', and the rest of the sounds in this manner.

The second one is an aspirated /k/ sound. The first one is two consonants /k/ and /h/ together. In the second one, you say /k/ and aspirate at the same time. In the first one, you first say /k/ and then /h/.

 

[RustyHindi]

I was wondering whether these two sounds are the same or not (I have never seen the first one used though).

I wonder is similar statements could be made about 'ग्ह and घ', 'च्ह and छ', and the rest of the sounds in this manner.

In ग्ह the g and ha are separate sounds, there’s just no vowel in between.

Think of लम्हा. The mha is not an aspirated m, you are just pronouncing ‘lam’ and ‘ha’ with no vowel in between.

As a result, ग्ह, च्ह and म्ह take longer to pronounce than घ, छ, and a hypothetical aspirated म.

 

[El Ganador]

Thanks to everyone that answered!

Think of लम्हा. The mha is not an aspirated m, you are just pronouncing ‘lam’ and ‘ha’ with no vowel in between.

'तुम्हारा' and its variants relating to it are great examples too, considering their frequency. I also wondered whether they included aspirated nasals. Now I got my answer!

 

[Alexu]

In fact, some linguists believe that in Hindi ( unlike Sanskrit ) there are also aspirated [mh] , [nh] , [lh] and (even) [rh] ( in writing, respectively म्ह, न्ह, ल्ह and र्ह ). The reason why ligatures are used here is obvious - in Devanagari there is no separate designation for such sounds.
And here the next question arises - do the combinations 'consonant ( plosive / sonorant ) + h' exist in Hindi at all, or do all such combinations turn into aspirates?
Eg. तुम + ही = तुम्हीं and अब + ही = अभी .

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

Related thread:
All Indo-Iranian Languages: aspirated consonants mʱ nʱ lʱ [*rʱ *yʱ *ʋʱ *ɳʱ]?

 

[RustyHindi]

And here the next question arises - do the combinations 'consonant ( plosive / sonorant ) + h' exist in Hindi at all, or do all such combinations turn into aspirates?

This may depend on the dialect, but at least I have never heard any aspirates other than the ones that have a devanagari character.

Unless such combinations happen in such a place where there is no preceeding sound, I pronounce them seperately. And I can't think of any situation of the top of my head where they would appear as the first sound (not just in the word, but like when it's the first sound you prononce on opening your mouth).

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

This may depend on the dialect, but at least I have never heard any aspirates other than the ones that have a devanagari character.

Unless such combinations happen in such a place where there is no preceeding sound, I pronounce them seperately. And I can't think of any situation of the top of my head where they would appear as the first sound (not just in the word, but like when it's the first sound you prononce on opening your mouth).

What about the ordinals from 11th to 17th? gyarh-vaN, etc. when people pronounce them as 2 syllables?

 

[RustyHindi]

What about the ordinals from 11th to 17th? gyarh-vaN, etc. when people pronounce them as 2 syllables?

Personally, the most common pronunciation for 11th I’ve heard is gyaarva. For 11-17th in general, I think usually the ‘a’ in ‘rah’ is not dropped and instead the ‘h’ becomes an exhalation.

So, baarahvaa, terahvaa, chaudahva, pandrahvaa, solahvaa with the ‘h’ as an exhalation.

It’s similar to how कह is sometimes pronounced as ‘keh’ with the ‘h’ being an exhalation.