Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. Much of its phonology is derived from Sanskrit. Vowels Sanskrit's phonemic vowel length has been lost. Vowels are long when nasalized or in a final syllable. Gujarati contrasts oral and nasal, and murmured and non-murmured vowels, except for and . In absolute word-final position the higher and lower vowels of the and sets vary. and developed in the 15th century. Old Gujarati split into Rajasthani and Middle Gujarati. English loanwords are a source of . Consonants A fourth nasal phoneme is postulated for the phones and the nasalization of a preceding vowel . Before velar and palatal stops, there is variation between these; e.g. ~ ('ask for'), ~ ('swing'). Stops occurring at first members of clusters followed by consonants other than are unreleased; they are optionally unreleased in final position. The absence of release entails deaspiration of voiceless stops. Intervocalically and with murmuring of vowels, the voiced aspirated stops have voiced spirant allophones . Spirantization of non-palatal voiceless aspirates has been reported as well, including being usually realized as in the standard dialect. The two voiced retroflex plosives /ɖʱ, ɖ/ and the retroflex nasal /ɳ/ have flapped allophones [ɽʱ, ɽ, ɽ̃]. The plosives /ɖʱ, ɖ/ are unflapped initially, geminated, and after nasal vowels; and flapped intervocalically, finally, and before or after other consonants. The nasal /ɳ/ is unflapped before retroflex plosives and intervocalically, and in final position varies freely between flapped and unflapped. has and as allophones. The distribution of sibilants varies over dialects and registers. Some dialects only have , others prefer , while another system has them non-contrasting, with occurring contiguous to palatal segments. Retroflex still appears in clusters in which it precedes another retroflex: ('clear'). Some speakers maintain as well for Persian and English borrowings. Persian's 's have by and large been transposed to and : ('life') and ('thing'). The same cannot be so easily said for English: ('cheese'). Lastly, a colloquial register has , or both and , replaced by voiceless . For educated speakers speaking this register, this replacement does not extend to Sanskrit borrowings. Phonotactical constraints include: and do not occur word-initially. Clusters occur initially, medially, and finally. Geminates occur only medially. Biconsonantal initial clusters beginning with stops have , , , and as second members. In addition to these, in loans from Sanskrit the clusters and may occur.The occurrence of as