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The schwa deletion or schwa syncope phenomenon occurs in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Gujarati, Maithili and several other Indo-Aryan languages, where schwas implicit in the written scripts of those languages are obligatorily deleted in pronunciation. Schwa syncope is important in these languages 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 provide indicators of where schwas should be dropped. For example, the Sanskrit word "Buddha" () is pronounced "Buddh" () in Hindi. The schwa (ə) sound at the end of the word is deleted in Hindi. The schwa is not deleted in Sanskrit or in Pāḷi unlike in modern Indo-Aryan languages. ==Schwa deletion in Hindi== Although the Devanagari script is used as a standard to write modern Hindi, the schwa ('ə') implicit in each consonant of the script is "obligatorily deleted" at the end of words and in certain other contexts, unlike in Sanskrit.〔 This phenomenon has been termed the "''schwa syncope rule''" or the "''schwa deletion rule''" of Hindi.〔〔 One formalization of this rule has been summarized as ''ə → ∅ /VC_CV''. In other words, when a schwa-succeeded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted.〔 However, this formalization is inexact and incomplete (i.e. sometimes deletes a schwa when it shouldn't or, at other times, fails to delete it when it should), and can yield errors. The rule is reported to result in correct predictions on schwa deletion 89% of the time.〔 Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to building text-to-speech software for Hindi.〔 As a result of schwa syncope, the Hindi pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal Sanskrit-style reading of Devanagari. For instance, राम is pronounced ''Rām'' (not ''Rāma'' as in Sanskrit), रचना is pronounced ''Rachnā'' (not ''Rachanā''), वेद is pronounced ''Véd'' (not ''Véda'') and नमकीन is pronounced ''Namkeen'' (not ''Namakeena'').〔〔 The name of the script itself is pronounced ''Devnāgrī'' (not ''Devanāgarī''). Correct schwa deletion is also critical because, in some cases, the same Devanagari letter-sequence is pronounced two different ways in Hindi depending on context, and failure to delete the appropriate schwas can change the sense of the word. For instance, the letter sequence 'रक' is pronounced differently in हरकत (''har.kat'', meaning ''movement'' or ''activity'') and सरकना (''sarak.na'', meaning ''to slide''). Similarly, the sequence धड़कने in दिल धड़कने लगा (''the heart started beating'') and in दिल की धड़कनें (''beats of the heart'') is identical prior to the nasalization in the second usage. Yet, it is pronounced ''dhadak.ne'' in the first and ''dhad.kane'' in the second.〔 While native speakers pronounce the sequences differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them ''"sound very unnatural"'', making it ''"extremely difficult for the listener"'' to grasp the intended meaning.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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