Sandhi

Key takeaways

Sandhi belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sandhi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sandhi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sandhi ( san-DEE; Sanskrit: सन्धि, lit. 'joining', pronounced [sɐnˈdʱi]) is any of a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on nearby sounds or the grammatical function of the adjacent words. Sandhi belongs to morphophonology. Sandhi occurs in many languages, e.g. in the phonology of Indian languages (especially Sanskrit, Tamil, Sinhala, Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, Pali, Kannada, Odia, Bengali, Assamese and Malayalam). Many dialects of British English show linking and intrusive R. Tone sandhi in particular defines tone changes affecting adjacent words and syllables. This is a common feature of many tonal languages such as Burmese and Chinese.

Types

Internal and external sandhi Sandhi can be either:

internal, at morpheme boundaries within words, such as syn- + pathy: sympathy, or external, at word boundaries, such as the pronunciation "tem books" for ten books in some dialects of English. The linking /r/ process of some dialects of English ("I saw-r-a film" in British English) is a kind of external sandhi, as are French liaison (pronunciation of usually silent final consonants of words before words beginning with vowels) and Italian raddoppiamento fonosintattico (lengthening of initial consonants of words after certain words ending in vowels). It may be extremely common in speech, but sandhi (especially external) is typically ignored in spelling, as is the case in English (exceptions: the distinction between a and an; the prefixes con-, en-, in- and syn-, whose n assimilates to m before p, m or b). Sandhi is, however, reflected in the orthography of Sanskrit, Sinhala, Telugu, Marathi, Pali and some other Indian languages, as with Italian in the case of compound words with lexicalised syntactic gemination. External sandhi effects can sometimes become morphologised (apply only in certain morphological and syntactic environments) as in Tamil and, over time, turn into consonant mutations.

Tone sandhi Most tonal languages have tone sandhi in which the tones of words alter according to certain rules. An example is the behavior of Mandarin Chinese; in isolation, tone 3 is often pronounced as a falling-rising tone. When a tone 3 occurs before another tone 3, however, it changes into tone 2 (a rising tone), and when it occurs before any of the other tones, it is pronounced as a low falling tone with no rise at the end. An example occurs in the common greeting 你好 nǐ hǎo (with two words containing underlying tone 3), which is in practice pronounced ní hǎo. The first word is pronounced with tone 2, but the second is unaffected.

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 /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and the unstressed final vowels /ɐ/, /i, ɨ/, /u/.

Consonant sandhi As was mentioned above, the dialects of Portuguese can be divided into two groups, according to whether syllable-final sibilants are pronounced as postalveolar consonants /ʃ/, /ʒ/ or as alveolar /s/, /z/. At the end of words, the default pronunciation for a sibilant is voiceless, /ʃ, s/, 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 /s, ʃ/; bons tempos [bõʃ ˈtẽpuʃ] or [bõs ˈtẽpus] ('good times'). If the next word begins with a voiced consonant, the final sibilant becomes voiced as well /z, ʒ/; bons dias [bõʒ ˈdiɐʃ] or [bõz ˈdʒiɐs] ('good days'). If the next word begins with a vowel, the final sibilant is treated as intervocalic, and pronounced [z]; bons amigos [bõz ɐˈmiɣuʃ] or [bõz aˈmiɡus] ('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 [ʒ] 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 [zʒ], whereas the latter speakers will pronounce the first examples with [s] if they are from Brazil or [ʃs] 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 [ˈtoða (a)ˈnojtɨ] or [ˈtoda (a) ˈnojtʃi] ('all night'), nessa altura [ˈnɛs awˈtuɾɐ] or [ˈnɛs alˈtuɾɐ] ('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 [ã (ã)ˈtʃiɡɐ] or [ã (ã)ˈtiɣɐ]. The open nasalized [ã] appears only in this environment. /ii, iĩ/ → [i(ː), ĩ(ː)] (henceforth transcribed [i (i), ĩ (ĩ)]); de idade [dʒi (i)ˈdadʒi] or [di (i)ˈðaðɨ] ('aged'). /ɨɨ/ → [ɨ]; fila de espera [ˈfilɐ ðɨʃˈpɛɾɐ] ('waiting line') (EP only). /uu, uũ/ → [u(ː), ũ(ː)] (henceforth transcribed [u (u), ũ (ũ)]); todo o dia [ˈtodu (u)ˈdʒiɐ] or [ˈtoðu (u) ˈðiɐ] ('all day'). If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then /i/ and /u/ become approximants in Brazilian Portuguese (synaeresis):

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sandhi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sandhi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sandhi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sandhi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sandhi

In research: Sandhi appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sandhi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sandhi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Morphophonology, Phonaesthetics, Sanskrit words and phrases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sandhi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Sandhi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sandhi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sandhi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sandhi in simple terms?

Sandhi ( san-DEE; Sanskrit: सन्धि, lit. 'joining', pronounced [sɐnˈdʱi]) is any of a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on nearby sounds or the grammatical functi…

Why does Sandhi matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sandhi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sandhi.