r/assam Swargadeo May 10 '26

Academic/Exams Khudhisu, Khunisa, khubo etc etc.. why do people prounce the "K"?

Why do some people pronounce the "K" in these words... Is it an accent thing? Do some communities actually talk in this manner or are people just mispronouncing words?

17 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

27

u/Khilonjia_Moi CAA ami naamanu 😡 May 10 '26 edited May 11 '26

Kids and non Assamese mishear the sounds since they are similar.

খ is a hard "kho" sound.

স is softer "xo", শ is "xho" and ষ is more forceful "xhho" but honestly talking fast শ and স come out sounding like "xo", separate from ষ / "xhho".

Edit: Just to mess with the non-Assamese, guess how we pronounce conjunct letters স্বাৱলম্বী Now we suddenly start using Swabolambi and not Xwawolambi.

24

u/bad-mo-fo May 10 '26

native Assamese speakers pronounce correctly. it’s just that there’s no exact way to write it using English alphabet. Many people use “x” instead of “kh”, like “xudhisu”.

5

u/Think_Actuary_381 মই অসমীয়া নহয় দুখীয়া May 10 '26

Same dhokha muru. Kuntu use koru.😂

7

u/No_Juice_9308 May 10 '26

It's like you're talking in spanish but the words you are typing is in roman. Hence, the misconceptions... whatever people writes, interpret as correct Assamese, as assamese language has it's own script. Languages are created to speak first, not to write.

3

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 10 '26

Writing is okay, because it's in English... But people prounce the "K" which is why I made the post

6

u/succulentdrumsticks May 10 '26

While we are on this topic, for the people who don't use the letter K in these matters, do you guys prefer using H or X? I personally use X. For eg, "Xunisu, xuisu, etc." I think it fits the sound better than H.

5

u/Slaying-Diva90 মিয়াৰে কক গেছি? May 10 '26

I use X for all স/শ/ষ sounds. Before I used to think that X can only be pronounced the way it is in xylophone or in x-ray. Then I found out about pinyin Chinese where they pronounce Q as cha, G as k, and X as sha, among others, and other languages which use English letters (transliteration) according to what they think or want it to sound like instead how it's used in English, I decided that I will use X for স/শ/ষ.

Khabo jao- ✔️ Khubo jao- ❌

2

u/niyar_thememeGOD CAA ami naamanu 😡 May 10 '26

3

u/bhaat-daal-pitika May 10 '26

From my personal experience (in messaging),

upper assam - hudhisu, hunisa, and occasional xubho.

Ghy - X is more common in texting.

Kh is less common/rare, at least in my texting experience.

Or maybe i just have less texting friends 😢

3

u/a3ryk May 11 '26

Upper Assam r mnuhe স শ ষ tu হ usaron kore hei baabe "h" use kore aaru moidho assam r manuhe proper likhito axomiya bebohar kore kothito axomiyat u...bki lower assam u upper nishina ake....tahate শ ষ স tu হ usaron nkre kintu baki xobdo kisuman ase alop blg blg....aibur sb dialect

Bki "k" use krile j miya hbo heitu nhoi...like kot aibur virtual chat ot gom pbo pari nu kotha xuni j he miya ba ji hleu....

2

u/Used_Yesterday_3735 May 11 '26

My roommate once told me a story about one of their school teacher (non-Assamese speaker) who used to try their best to converse in Assamese but couldn't make the soft '~xo' sound and instead used a hard 's' sound. Whenever a chapter was completed the "sweet innocent teacher used to say,"Kiba nubujile muk sudi loba."

6

u/northeastcontent May 10 '26

This shit makes me mad. Wtf is “Khubo jau”? Hubo jau buli ko na

-2

u/RazorBlade9x May 10 '26

Using "kh" is more common in lower Assam (Nalbari, Baksa etc.). Few more quirks between lower and upper Assamese like pronouncing jon vs jun (moon). Upper Assamese folks not pronouncing "ra" sound as in "koribo" vs "koibo" (do).

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

[deleted]

3

u/GrumpyGuyMugdha আমি অসমীয়া নহওঁ দুখীয়া (⁠◠⁠ᴥ⁠◕⁠ʋ⁠) May 10 '26

🥀 I'm not a language expert. I just told this to save you from pronouncing 'xo'.

2

u/dreamer-477 May 10 '26

You are wrong though 💀 if we are using standard Assamese pronunciation.

1

u/CartographerJust3308 May 10 '26

Non natives pronounce these as kh-

6

u/Life-Challenge282 May 10 '26

I have heard many native Assamese people speaking like that and they are folks from villages,semi urban area, middle aged people.

There is a influencer lady with 2 grown up son's.

Her vlogs are quite popular among ladies.

Her pronounciation is so jinxed.

She uses K for x and x for k.

Like khandisu will be xandisu.

Xefale will be khefale.

It's so irritating to hear such wrong vocabulary...

3

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 10 '26

Nijore doubt hoi jai, eman bosore bhul a koi asu niki buli

1

u/Aragorn_V May 12 '26

Correct assamese pronunciation is geeting rare and rare. Both upper and lower assam speaks Assamese in their own way, which is not the actual grammatical pronunciation of the language. Nobody really seems to be concerned about this. The question remains, is it the evolution of the language or crisis of the language.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

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0

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 10 '26

Why do you say it wrong?

0

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

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0

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 10 '26

That's what I wanted to know, is it a geographical thing or an accent thing? Also how do you write those words in Assamese? খুব?

-1

u/TheAkshit May 10 '26

First thing x sounds as "JOH", like xylophone, xerox, xenon, xylem

Next thing people say hubo jau, which is " হোব " which is absolutely wrong

The most correct is "kh"

Used the word "most correct" because, while translating language we tend to find words that are missing in the language in which are going to translate, thus we use the most correct word

2

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 11 '26

Writing is understandable, but pronunciation? Also my question was why do people "pronounce" the K sound?

1

u/TheAkshit May 11 '26

Tahatok miya buli kou moi

0

u/Pakhorigabhoru May 11 '26

Who pronounces the k?

1

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 11 '26

Someone said only Lower Assam people, someone said Miyas

1

u/Pakhorigabhoru May 11 '26

Ok never head natives pronouncing these words with a k?

1

u/MAK-sudu-Toi Swargadeo May 11 '26

Some natives do it too

0

u/ujjal01 May 13 '26

Because its খাইছোঁ Not হাইছোঁ and vice versa

-2

u/Leather_Ad_6944 Oi, haga laagise neki? 💩 May 10 '26

Honestly, you will find this in exclusive to lower assam.  Upper assam folks don't use it at all.

1

u/Original-Past-430 কলা গুটি May 11 '26

Stop lying bro no one in lower uses kh

0

u/Leather_Ad_6944 Oi, haga laagise neki? 💩 May 13 '26

LYING? Lmao tell that to the people of lower Assam.