Indian Antiquary Vol 62

SR No.: 032554
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 450
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 63

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
MARCH, 1933 ]
All the above verbs are native Dravidian, with cognates in all the dialects. The causative affix -t is also Dravidian, occurring as it does in certain contexts in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Kurukh.
(b) The plurals of Gôndi nouns, formed with -k (which apparently is an attenuated representative of -kal, -ka of other Dravidian dialects), show a secondary -ḥ- immediately before -k in two sets of instances :---
(i) Nouns with final long vowels.
Singular. talâ (head)
tûrî (girl)
pitte (bird)
dúdú (breast)
sênô (old woman)
Plural.
.. telaḥk.
. túriḥk. pittikk.
.. dûdûḥk.
.. sênôhk.
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(ii) Nouns with final -l, -n or -r immediately preceded by long vowels.
Plural.
Singular. når (village)
rôn (house) miár (daughter) sukkum (star) malol (hare)
.. nahk. .. rohk.
.. miâḥk.
.. sukkuḥk. .. malôhk.
Now let us see what processes of change may have been operative in these types.
In (a) the sound -h- appears before the surd -t which being the causative affix was syllabically associated with a certain degree of accent. A contributory factor may have been the length of the immediately preceding vowel (as in kart to learn') which presumably also involved a certain higher accent.
In (6) we have two sets of instances. In () (i) we find a long vowel (presumably accented judged by the length)+-k, resulting in hk. In (b) (ii) -l, -n or -7 (immediately preceded by long vowels usually)+ -k gives rise to -hk.
If the process of change in these instances is the generation of a glottal fricative through the intermediate stage of a mouth-fricative corresponding to the surd involved, we have here a parallel to the change that has probably resulted in the production of the Tamil 4ydam.
(a) and (b) (i) may be compared to the Tamil mut't'raydam in ehk, aḥtu, etc. While in (a) the surd concerned is -t, in (b) the surd is -k.
(b) (ii) may be compared to the aydam of Tamil combinative group kaḥt'idu where -l+t has resulted in the assimilation of the dental t to an alveolar, and in the production of -kimmediately before the alveolar.
The features of resemblance are very striking :
(1) In both Tamil and Gôndi, the aspirate occurs in connection with surds only; while in Gôndi the surds involved in the instances available for us are t and k, in Tamil all grammatical surds are concerned.
(2) In both Gôndi and Tamil, the syllable containing the surd appears to carry with it a certain degree of accent (as a result either of semantic or mechanical reasons). In Gôndî this higher accent is attested in (a) above by both the long vowel usually preceding the